New Kyrgyz president takes oath of office

Former prime minister Almazbek Atambayev on Thursday was inaugurated as president of Kyrgyzstan, the first peaceful transfer of presidential power in unrest-scarred nation's post-Soviet history. Atambayev won a landslide victory in presidential elections on October and has the task of restoring long-term stability to the Central Asian state after two of his three predecessors in the post were ousted in bloody revolutions. "I swear before God and the people to fairly carry out the duties of the head of state, guard the rights of citizens, strictly follow the Kyrgyz constitution, defend the unity of the people, and protect the integrity and security of the state," he said in his oath. Guests at the inaugural ceremony included Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov, and US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, the top US diplomat for South and Central Asia, an AFP correspondent reported. Russia, which competes with the United States for influence in the strategically-located country, sent Valery Zorkin, chairman of the Constitutional Court and head of the Federal Customs Service Andrei Belyaninov. Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the world to host Russian and US military bases. Atambayev secured a decisive election victory against two more nationalist candidates in October, part of the plan to create the only parliamentary democracy in Central Asia. A moderate who is a close ally of outgoing president Roza Otunbayeva, Atambayev, 55, must heal the wounds of a divided nation that within the space of a year in 2010 endured the bloody revolution that ousted Kurmanbek Bakiyev and horrific intercommunal violence that killed hundreds of people. After delivering an inaugural address, Atambayev, who is set to stay in power for six years, was to inspect troops in front of parliament. International monitors said there were serious shortcomings in the vote count in the presidential elections, and Atambayev's opponents have refused to recognise the outcome. But the mere holding of a peaceful and competitive election is an achievement in a region notorious for strongman leaders who stepped into their posts straight from the Soviet nomenklatura.