BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Kyrgyzstan is slowly but surely headed along the path toward a democratic state, transitional President Roza Otunbayeva said.
Forces loyal to Otunbayeva removed former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power in an April coup, forcing the leader to flee his safe haven in the south of the country to Belarus.
Otunbayeva in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty shrugged off suggestions of a revolution in Kyrgyzstan but noted Bishkek was "cleaning things up."
"We are cleaning up (society) and we are heading toward the path of democracy," she told the news agency.
Despite political development, Kyrgyz observers note that tensions remain between ethnic Kyrgyzs and Uzbeks in the south where summer conflicts killed hundreds and displaced thousands more.
The interim president, whose authority was diminished in a referendum that ushered in a new government, said there was a "power vacuum" in the country that prevented security forces from responding to the ethnic clashes adequately.
"Bakiyev's government had left and the interim government was still coming in. In the south, the family members of Bakiyev -- his closest circles, his cronies and those who wanted to bring him back -- resisted (the new government)," she said. "The criminal elements worked hard, standing up for Bakiyev's family and their own interests."
Bishkek accuses supporters of Bakiyev of stoking the ethnic conflict in the south.
