Calm Returns To Cities Across Kyrgyzstan

Supporters of the interim government assault the administration headquarters in Osh after it was seized by backers of ousted president on May 14.

Cities across Kyrgyzstan are calm after backers of the interim government recovered buildings occupied by supporters of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiev in the south of the country.

The clashes in at least three southern cities, Jalal-Abad, Osh, and Batken, where pro-Bakiev supporters took over local government buildings on May 14, left one dead and at least 60 wounded.

The United Nations, European Union, United States, and Russia have appealed for calm in the wake of Friday's violence.

The head of Kyrgyzstan's interim government, Roza Otunbaeva, said those responsible for the violence would be punished.

"Our tactics will be the following: to capture them alive, all of them who are there," she said. "In that building, all those who decide to turn against the people, who shoot at people, these people will definitely be brought to justice."

RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports that Bakiev's former chief of staff, Usen Sydykov, and the leader of the country's Communist Party, Iskhak Masaliev, have been arrested in Bishkek on suspicion of organizing uprisings in the south of the country.

RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, with agency reports