BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's interim leader says the provisional government is considering arresting the country's president to put him on trial for the deaths of dozens of people in bloody clashes between antigovernment protesters and security forces earlier this week.
Roza Otunbaeva told Reuters that the arrest warrant for President Kurmanbek Bakiev's "relatives and accomplices" has already been issued."
Otunbaeva said her government would not use force against Bakiev, but that she could not guarantee his safety from those seeking revenge.
Meanwhile in the southern region of Jalalabad, a defiant Bakiev said he did not order the shootings.
He said he would not resign and that any attempt to kill him would "drown Kyrgyzstan in blood."
The president, who fled the capital after his government was overthrown on April 7-8, said United Nations peacekeeping forces were necessary to prevent "continuing chaos" in the country.
compiled from agency reports