Minsk not to disclose Bakiyev's status

The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs would not disclose the status of Kyrgyzstan`s fugitive ex-leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev who is staying in Belarus./b]

The country’s regulations governing the status of refugees, citizenship matters and the protection of information "unfortunately do not provide for the possibility of disclosing to the public the status of a person staying on the territory of the state without the person’s personal consent", Aliaksiej Biahun, the chief of the Ministry’s citizenship and migration department, told reporters in Minsk on Tuesday.

"I have no right to comment on the status of Bakiyev on the territory of Belarus", said Mr. Biahun.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan after being overthrown as a result of violent anti-government protests in his country and resurfaced in Minsk in late April 2010. He was offered refuge by Aliaksandr Lukashenka, who said later that he had received Mr. Bakiyev as a head of state, not as an outlaw.

The Kyrgyz authorities want Mr. Bakiyev to stand trial for allegedly sanctioning gunfire on a crowd of protesters that left more than 80 people dead. At the end of 2010, it was announced that Mr. Bakiyev would be tried in absentia.

In the interview with Reuters in May 2010, Aliaksandr Lukashenka made it clear that he would reject an extradition request for Mr. Bakiyev.

"Such a request would be hopeless and humiliating for the interim government [in Kyrgyzstan]", he said. "The president of Kyrgyzstan is under the protection of the Belarusian state and its president".

According to unconfirmed data, Mr. Bakiyev obtained Belarusian citizenship and bought a house in Minsk in August 2010.

The man is known to have lived in a villa inside a nature reserve more than 100 kilometers north of Minsk after his arrival in Belarus.