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Lukashenka reveals that Bakiyev is staying in Minsk

Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on Tuesday that the ousted president of Kygyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, had been staying in Minsk since early Monday morning, BelaPAN reports.

According to the Belarusian leader, on the night between Sunday and Monday, he directed the appropriate agencies to arrange for Mr. Bakiyev to be transported to Minsk. “He asked for that more than once,” Mr. Lukashenka told the Belarusian parliament, noting that Mr. Bakiyev arrived in Minsk in the early hours of Monday.

Mr. Lukashenka said that the ousted Kyrgyz president was in Minsk with his family. “We’ve managed to receive only four people [Bakiyev and his family members],” he said. “They are currently under the protection of our state and the personal protection of your president.”

According to Mr. Lukashenka, a medical commission has been appointed to examine the health of Mr. Bakiyev and his family and has already made a preliminary examination.

“You should know that the family is in a broken state,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “His poor children. Pediatricians are working there. Everyone who should is working there. We are conducting an [health] examination of the president and all his family. The picture isn’t optimistic.”

“If he [Bakiyev] is in need of not only rehabilitation but also medical help, we’ll certainly provide it,” Mr. Lukashenka said.

Mr. Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan last week after an uprising against his five-year rule left 83 people dead. He took refuge in neighboring Kazakhstan and then left Kazakhstan for a destination that had not been clear, after the Belarusian leader had said that Mr. Bakiyev would be welcome in his country.

Kyrgyzstan’s interim government expects Belarus to ensure that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is “safe and secure until his trial,” Russia’s RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday. The interim government views Belarus as a “deeply friendly state,” Edil Baisalov, chief of staff to former Foreign Minister Rosa Otunbayeva who leads the government, told the news agency.

“It is the personal business of Alyaksandr Ryhoravich and his right,” Mr. Baisalov commented on the Belarusian leader’s move to invite Mr. Bakiyev to Belarus.

“We know Belarus as a European and deeply friendly state toward us,” he said. “We ask the Belarusian people and the leadership of the country to ensure that Bakiyev is safe and secure until his trial for numerous crimes against the Kyrgyz people.”