Kyrgyzstan investigates opposition "coup plot"

BISHKEK, Nov 4 (Reuters) Kyrgyz authorities opened a criminal case against several opposition leaders suspected of trying to stage a coup, an official said today, but one of their leaders said compromise could still defuse tensions.

Protesters have camped out in a central square demanding President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's resignation. Although their numbers have dwindled, the country's record of instability has raised fears of unrest.

Germany's foreign minister, visiting the impoverished Central Asian nation, called for calm and praised the government for allowing the protests to go ahead.

The demonstrators, who numbered about 1,000 today, accuse Bakiyev of failing to alleviate grinding poverty in the former Soviet state, ditching democratic reforms and reneging on a promise to share power with parliament.

The government yesterday published a transcript of what it said was opposition leaders plotting a coup, though Bakiyev said he did not think they had the means to carry one out.

''As far as I know a criminal case has been opened by the general prosecutor against those on the recording,'' Oi-Talbek Osmonov, chief of the SNB security service in Bishkek, told reporters. ''It refers to an attempted violent seizure of power.'' The SNB will investigate the recordings before any formal charges are brought, he said.

Omurbek Tekebayev, a former parliament speaker and one of the opposition movement's leaders, said: ''Our plans are open and transparent. We have no criminal intent ...

''There were words on the transcript that were never said, words like coup and revolution.'' COMPROMISE But, he added, the opposition was still willing to compromise with Bakiyev if constitutional changes that he is due to bring before parliament on Monday offer the elected chamber more power, as it has been demanding.

''We are impatient to see his bill. If it is consensual, that could make a big difference to the situation in the country and opens a new possibility for negotiations.'' However, another leader of the For Reform opposition movement struck a more sceptical note.

''The president has a sea of MPs in his pocket who could block the bill (in parliament),'' Almazbek Atambayev told Reuters. ''I don't believe him.'' Bakiyev came to power in March 2005 after violent protests against a rigged parliamentary election swept the country and former President Askar Akayev fled to Russia.

Elected in the wake of the coup by a landslide, Bakiyev's critics say he has failed to check rampant corruption or tackle the economic problems of the mountainous country on China's border that hosts both a Russian and US military airbase.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met Bakiyev and later told a news conference: ''I am glad about the reaction to the demonstrations so far and I assume that the course of moderation will continue.'' Although the main opposition leaders were invited to meet Steinmeier they failed to show up at a reception. Atambayev told Reuters he had only received the invitation very late while another on the invite list, Edil Baisalov, cited the need for meetings about the criminal case as the reason for not going.

The protests in the capital Bishkek, the latest in a months-long row between the opposition and Bakiyev, started on Thursday and attracted about 15,000 people. Despite the political tensions, daily life in Bishkek has returned to normal with shops that closed on Thursday re-opening for business.

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