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Government sources neither confirm nor deny reports that Bakiyev’s brothers may be staying in Belarus

Government sources in Minsk neither confirm nor deny reports that some of the brothers of ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev may be staying in Belarus.

Azimbek Beknazarov, deputy prime minister in the interim government, told reporters in Bishkek on Wednesday that he had asked Interpol to find out whether Mr. Bakiyev’s brothers were staying in Belarus.

“Zhanysh Bakiyev is said to have been seen at a news conference held by Kurmanbek Bakiyev [in Minsk]”, Mr. Beknazarov said.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan in April after an uprising against his five-year rule left 83 people dead. Alyaksandr Lukashenka revealed on April 20 that Mr. Bakiyev and his three family members (his unofficial wife and two little children) were staying in Minsk.

“They are currently under the protection of our state and the personal protection of your president,” the Belarusian leader said, speaking in the National Assembly.

The ousted Kyrgyz president has held three news conferences since his arrival in Belarus. At the most recent one, held on June 23, Mr. Bakiyev said that all of his brothers except one were staying outside Kyrgyzstan. “I won’t yet say where,” he added.

“The foreign ministry does not have information as to whether Bakiyev’s brothers are staying in Belarus,” the ministry’s spokesman, Andrey Savinykh, told BelaPAN on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the interior ministry said that the ministry could neither confirm nor deny that Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s brothers were staying in Belarus. “This matter is beyond the competence of the ministry,” he noted.

The former Kyrgyz president has five brothers: Zhanysh, Kanybek, Marat, Akmat and Adyl. One more brother, Zhusup, died in 2006.

Some of the brothers are wanted in Kyrgyzstan on criminal charges. For instance, Zhanysh (Zhanybek) Bakiyev, 52, formerly chief of the presidential guard, is accused of ordering that shots be fired into a crowd of protesters in Bishkek on April 7.