100,000 Uzbek refugees seek safety
Emergency workers distribute bread to ethnic Uzbek refugees from Kyrgyzstan near the Uzbek village of Jalal-Kuduk on Monday. PH
Some 100,000 minority Uzbeks fleeing a purge by mobs of Kyrgyz massed at the border on Monday, an Uzbek leader said, as the deadliest ethnic violence to hit this Central Asian nation in decades left a major city smouldering.
With fires raging in the southern city of Osh for a fourth day Monday, the official death toll of 124 killed and nearly 1,500 injured from the clashes that began on Thursday appeared way too low. An Uzbek community leader claimed at least 200 Uzbeks alone had already been buried, and the Red Cross said its delegates saw about 100 bodies being buried in just one cemetery.
The United States, Russia and the United Nations worked on humanitarian aid airlifts while neighbouring Uzbekistan hastily set up camps to handle the flood of hungry, frightened refugees.
Most were women, children and the elderly, many of whom Uzbekistan said had gunshot wounds.
The interim government, which took over after former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted by a mass revolt in April, has been unable to stop the violence and accused Mr Bakiyev’s family of instigating it to halt a June 27 vote.
Uzbeks have backed the interim government, while many Kyrgyz in the south have supported the toppled President. The government said Monday it had arrested a “well-known person” suspected of stoking the violence, but gave no further details. Suspects from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan were also detained and claimed to have been hired by supporters of Bakiyev, government spokesman Farid Niyazov said. The interim government had planned a referendum to approve a new Constitution on June 27, but it now appears unlikely the vote will take place. New parliamentary elections are scheduled for October, but the violence appears aimed at undermining the interim government before then.
From his self-imposed exile in Belarus, Mr Bakiyev has denied any role in the violence. Jallahitdin Jalilatdinov, who heads the Uzbek National Centre, said on Monday that at least 100,000 Uzbeks were awaiting entry into Uzbekistan, while another 80,000 had already crossed over the border. A reporter saw hundreds of Uzbek refugees stuck in no-man’s-land at a border crossing near Jalal-Abad, while a photographer saw hundreds of refugees in a camp on the Uzbek side.
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