Ukraine, Georgia Urge Kyrgyzstan to Avoid Violence

KIEV, Ukraine -- The presidents of Ukraine and Georgia, both catapulted to power by peaceful revolutions, urged Kyrgyzstan's new leaders on Saturday to shun violence after this week's revolt in the fellow ex-Soviet state.

Viktor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili won office in 2004 after "Orange" and "Rose" revolutions sent thousands onto the streets in their capitals to protest at fraudulent elections.


Viktor Yushchenko (l) and Mikhail Saakashvili (r)
Both came to power without violence, in contrast to the ouster of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev which was marked by clashes between police and protesters and an orgy of looting.

"We are very preoccupied by the situation in Kyrgyzstan .... Democracy can only be established through non-violence," Saakashvili told reporters at the close of a three-day visit to Ukraine.

"People everywhere -- in Kiev, Tbilisi, Bishkek, Minsk, everywhere -- deserve to live in a democracy, but only achieved through peaceful means."

Those cities are the capitals of Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus -- a fourth ex-Soviet republic where police broke up a rally on Friday by demonstrators demanding long-time President Alexander Lukashenko resign.

Both Ukraine and Georgia have offered to mediate in the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, where demonstrators stormed government buildings in rallies denouncing a parliamentary election as rigged.

Yushchenko expressed alarm that no talks were taking place.

"We offered again our services and ask the authorities to respect their nation -- that means a guarantee not to use arms and to sit down at the negotiating table," he said.

The presidents had issued a statement overnight expressing concern over possible violent confrontation but praised Akayev's "courageous step in giving no order to use force against his own people in the first days of the people's uprising".

Akayev fled his Central Asian homeland and media reports say he is now in Russia.

Saakashvili had sharply criticised Akayev on Friday, saying he had dismissed opposition leaders as criminals and rebuffed his own offer to help mediate in a "coarse and impolite" manner.