Kyrgyzstan's ousted interior minister, warning of a risk of civil war, said today he was leading thousands of demonstrators towards the capital Bishkek to protest against the coup that overthrew President Askar Akayev. But the new leadership, which seized power on Thursday after mass protests, said the action had fizzled out and declared it was in control of the mountainous ex-Soviet state.
The capital was jumpy after widespread looting following the lightning coup. Tensions increased when acting President Kurmanbek Bakiev switched the venue of a news conference because officials got word of a possible plot to kill him.
Ignoring the exiled Mr Akayev's refusal to resign, parliament set June 26th for a new presidential election in the central Asian nation. Mr Bakiev said he would run in the election. The new leader, who has criticised Mr Akayev for fleeing the country when it was in crisis, said he had been as surprised as anybody by the speed of events.
Mr Bakiev said the protest march towards Bishkek from Mr Akayev's home region of Chym Korgon in Kemen province to the east was a provocative action. His security chief, Felix Kulov, later said it had been called off for lack of support.
Bishkek was quiet today with little sign of the violence, looting and destruction that swept the city after Thursday's protests brought a sudden end to Mr Akayev's 14-year rule of the mainly Muslim country.
The overthrow of Mr Akayev, a relative liberal in a region of mainly autocratic leaders, followed weeks of protest throughout the country, especially in the poorer south. The new leadership is made up of a loosely united opposition that includes many former government officials who have been at odds with one another in the past.
One of the immediate challenges is how to operate in a country with two sets of members of parliament - from an outgoing assembly, which says it is still in charge, and a second, more strongly pro-Akayev group elected in polls in February and March which the opposition said were fraudulent.