Kyrgyzstan Sends In More Troops As Death Toll Rises

Kyrgyzstan Sends In More Troops As Death Toll Rises

Last updated (GMT/UTC): 13.06.2010 16:08

By RFE/RL

Residents in the Kyrgyz city of Osh woke up to scenes of death and destruction following a third night of gun battles between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.

At least 97 people have been killed and more than 1,200 wounded since ethnic riots began on the night of June 10 in the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad.

In Osh, which saw the deadliest clashes, witnesses spoke of streets strewn with bodies and said fires had destroyed much of the city, Kyrgyzstan's second-largest with some 250,000 inhabitants.

"Fires continue in some areas of the city and several government buildings have burned," RFE/RL correspondent Alisher Toksonbaev said by telephone from Osh.

"We can't drive or walk in the city because young men drive around in cars without number plates, they carry weapons and shout. In some streets, resident have put up barricades."

Tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks are reportedly trying to reach the nearby border with Uzbekistan to flee the violence, the worst since former President Kurmanbek Bakiev was toppled in a bloody uprising in April.

Russia, meanwhile, has deployed a "reinforced battalion" of as many as 650 troops to protect its military instalations in the country.

Interim President Roza Otunbayeva has acknowledged that her government lost control over Osh despite sending troops, armor, and helicopters. The government has also given police and soldiers shoot-to-kill power.

'Homes Are Burning'

Ethnic Uzbeks make up some 14 percent of the total Kyrgyz population. But they make up roughly a third of inhabitants in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions. While the Uzbeks largely back the interim government, many Kyrgyz in the south support the ousted president and his clan.

Witnesses say armed gangs are setting homes alight and shooting at people in Uzbek neighborhoods.

"Right now, homes are burning in our Furqakt district," Komiljon Ermatov, an ethnic Uzbek living in Osh, told RFE/RL.

"Armed people wearing military uniforms fire at people and prevent them from fleeing to Uzbekistan. They are provocateurs. In hospital, we saw Uzbeks with gunshot wounds. We are just peaceful people protecting our homes, fathers, and mothers."

Late on June 12, authorities declared a partial mobilization of the army. Government spokesman Azimbek Beknazarov called on all able-bodied men to "come forward and carry out their duty."

The interim government has appealed for Russian help in quelling the ethnic riots, but Moscow has said it will not send in peacekeepers alone. It has pledged to discuss the situation on June 14 within the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a bloc of former Soviet republics.

Russian and Kyrgyz media are reporting, however, that Moscow has deployed a reinforced battalion of paratroopers to Kyrgyzstan. An unidentified Russian defense ministry official told Interfax that the battalion would "reinforce the defense of of Russian military facilities and ensure the security of Russian military servicemen and their families."

The Kyrgyz news website www.24.kg reports, citing a Kyrgyz defense ministry official, that the Russian troops landed at the Kant air base aboard three Russian IL-76 aircraft.

Russia has about 500 troops at a base in Kyrgyzstan. The United States uses an air base in Manas, close to the capital of Bishkek, to supply its forces in Afghanistan.

Russia has also sent in a plane to deliver humanitarian supplies and evacuate some of the victims.

'We Are Afraid To Go Out'

Residents in Osh are without gas and some neighborhoods are without electivity. Food supplies in the Osh and Jalal-Abad areas are also running out, and stores have been looted.

But ongoing street violence means the little humanitarian aid that has been sent to the region is not reaching those in need.

The Kyrgyz Health Ministry says at least 97 people have been killed so far, 83 in Osh and 14 in Jalal-Abad. At least 1,243 have been wounded, the ministry said.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmoot Qureshi says he believes that 15 Pakistani citizens have been taken hostage and one killed.

A young Kyrgyz women, who hid in a basement in Osh with her two-month baby, told RFE/RL that she is too scared to leave her shelter. She declined to give her name for safety reasons.

"We don't know how to receive humanitarian aid," the woman said.

"Even if we knew where to collect the aid, we couldn't go there. We are afraid to go out because we can still hear gunfire and screams."

The killing have caused outrage in Uzbekistan and among ethnic Uzbeks living outside the region.

In Moscow, some 200 ethnic Uzbeks gathered outside the Kyrgyz embassy on June 12 to urge Russia to help end the violence.

Zakir Eminov, an ethnic Uzbek living in Russia, says he sent his children to his parents in Osh for holidays two weeks ago. He hasn't heard from them and says he fears for their lives.

"This Kyrgyz government does not control the situation at all, they don't even have correct information," Eminov said.

"This Otunbayeva and her government they don't control anything. If they were in control, then they wouldn't have allowed hundreds of cars with young people to drive there from Bishkek."

Otunbayeva has accused Bakiev and his relatives of instigating the unrest in Osh and of seeking to derail a constitutional referendum to be held June 27.

Speaking today from his exile in Belarus, Bakiev rejected the accusations as "shameless lies" and blamed the interim government for failing to quell the unrest.

Written in by Claire Bigg in Prague with agency material and reporting from Osh by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. RFE/RL's Uzbek Service also contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyzstan_Sends_In_More_Troops_As_Death_Toll_Rises/2070173.html

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Kyrgyzstan Sends In More Troops As Death Toll Rises