OSH – Kyrgyz forces began to remove barriers dividing the city of Osh yesterday as the government extended a state of emergency in some regions where up to 2,000 people have been killed in ethnic clashes.
But cars, tyres and piles of scrap metal remained in place across alleys in central Osh leading to burnt-out neighbourhoods occupied by ethnic Uzbeks, who still fear more violence.
“We have become like Palestinians. They attack us with rifles while we can use only stones,” said Mavlyuda Mamadzhanova (53), an ethnic Uzbek who fled her home when it was attacked.
The ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan have killed 2,000 people and uprooted 400,000, who are crammed into squalid camps on Kyrgyzstan’s sun-parched border with Uzbekistan. They have little access to clean water or food. The US and Russia, which both operate military air bases in the Muslim country, are concerned that the turmoil could spread to other parts of Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region north of Afghanistan.
The violence erupted on June 10th with co-ordinated attacks by individuals in balaclavas and quickly led to fierce fighting between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. Mainly Uzbek households were attacked in three days of unrest, with entire neighbourhoods burnt to the ground. The United Nations says an estimated one million people have been affected.
Yesterday the interim government extended the state of emergency in Osh and three surrounding regions until June 25th, two days before a referendum on constitutional reform that would devolve more power to a prime minister. – (Reuters)