Interim Kyrgyz Leader Visits South, Scene of Deadly Ethnic Clashes
VOA News 18 June 2010
Interim Kyrgyz leader Roza Otunbayeva is visiting the city of Osh for the first time since violence and unrest began to rock southern Kyrgyzstan last Thursday.
Kyrgyzstan's acting president arrived in a helicopter accompanied by a heavy security detail on Friday. She said her government was working hard to rebuild Osh "so people can return to their homes."
Earlier, she told a Russian newspaper [Kommersant] she believes the death toll from the ethnic violence in Osh and the southern city of Jalalabad is 10 times higher than the official figure of about 200.
Meanwhile, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake has called for an investigation into the violence that prompted an estimated 400,000 people to leave their homes. Blake spoke Friday while visiting camps in Uzbekistan, where an estimated 100,000 of the refugees fled. Humanitarian aid has been sent to the camps, but relief workers have encountered difficulty reaching the needy in Osh and the Kyrgyz city of Jalalabad.
The exodus began after reportedly coordinated attacks between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek groups in Osh escalated into riots on June 10. Unrest spread throughout the region and lasted for several days.
U.S. news agencies report that ethnic Uzbeks have accused Kyrgyz government troops of either helping attack ethnic Uzbeks, or failing to protect them. The Associated Press quoted the chief of the Kyrgyz military in the south, Colonel Iskander Ikramov, as denying the allegations.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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