Kyrgyzstan – Violence and Riots (video)
The Kyrgyz interim government has issued a decree allowing the Defense Ministry to call up reservists aged under 50 to stabilize the situation in southern Kyrgyzstan hit by recent riots, the ministry’s press office said on Sunday.
The mobilization is aimed at ensuring the security of citizens and protecting the constitutional order in the south of Kyrgyzstan to normalize the situation as quickly as possible and restore law and order, the press office said.
Ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan has claimed the lives of at least 82 people, leaving over 1,076 injured, the Kyrgyz news agency AKIpress cited the latest report by the country’s health ministry on Sunday.
Deadly ethnic riots swept through the country’s second-largest city of Osh and another southern city of Jalalabad on Friday and Saturday.
Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups set ablaze cars, crushed the stores and markets as well as the residential houses. The looters have been rampaging through the streets during the days of rioting.
At least 614 people have been hospitalized and another 383 received ambulatory treatment. Six severely injured Kyrgyz citizens have been transported to hospitals in Moscow by a Russian emergencies ministry’s cargo plane.
Kyrgyz interim government allowed police and the troops to shoot to kill in order to quench the riots and stop marauders.
The humanitarian situation in southern Kyrgyzstan remains complicated as most of the businesses have been closed down and the residents started to feel shortages of food and medical supplies.
Officials from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) are set to gather on Monday to discuss the ways to resolve the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, including possible deployment of a peacekeeping contingent to the violence-hit Kyrgyzstan.
CSTO, a post-Soviet security bloc, comprises Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
At video Uzbek comments :
Kyrgyz gang attacks civilian Uzbeks in Osh. The Kyrgyz Police and Military barricade the city areas predominately inhabitated by Uzbeks, only letting armed Kyrgyz gangs enter and not allowing Uzbeks to leave. Uzbeks trying to leave the areas are shot by the Police and the Military, in what they claim to be self defense. The Kyrgyz gangs kills all Uzbeks, men, women and children. The Kyrgyz gangs rapes the women and then kills them.
Official statements have put the number of Uzbeks killed at 70, but Uzbeks in the area have reported there have buried 200 people in just one of the barricaded areas thus far. In four of the barricaded areas in Osh every Uzbek have been killed. In total there are seven areas barricaded by the Kyrgyz Police and Military in Osh, and the Kyrgyz gangs are still murdering and raping people in these areas.
This massacre has been going on for two days, as the majority Uzbeks are being killed off or are fleeing from Osh the Kyrgyz gangs have split up in to smaller groups now entering Jalalabat and Uzgen. Jalalabat and Uzgen are predominately Uzbek cities, that historically belonged to Uzbekistan, but with the usurpation of the area into the Soviet union the cities where designated to belong to Kyrgyzistan.
TODAY 13.06.2010
The Kyrgyz interim government made a decision on Sunday to introduce a state of emergency in the entire territory of the Jalalabad Region in south Kyrgyzstan following recent riots and impose a curfew in the area.
“Due to the incessant clashes, the government decrees for the purposes of citizens’ security to introduce a state of emergency in the entire territory of the Jalalabad Region and impose a curfew there from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.,” the decree said.
The state of emergency will be in effect until June 22, 2010, the decree said.
TODAY 14.06.2010
The leader of the Uzbek community in Kyrgyzstan says more than 200 Uzbeks have been killed in ethnic rioting in the Central Asian nation and 100,000 Uzbeks have fled to the border.
Jallahitdin Jalilatdinov, who heads the Uzbek National Center, told The Associated Press on Monday that 200 Uzbeks have been buried so far. His figure is much higher than the interim government’s estimate of an overall death toll of 117.
An Associated Press reporter saw at least hundreds of Uzbek refugees fleeing the ethnic violence stuck at a border crossing near Jalal-Abad in no-man’s-land between the boundaries. Border guards allowed Uzbek aid agencies to give the refugees food, water and diapers.
Another AP reporter saw hundreds of Uzbeks who had already crossed the border.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The leader of the Uzbek community in Kyrgyzstan says more than 200 Uzbeks have been killed in ethnic rioting in the Central Asian nation and 100,000 Uzbeks have fled to the border.
Jallahitdin Jalilatdinov, who heads the Uzbek National Center, told The Associated Press on Monday that 200 Uzbeks have been buried so far. His figure is much higher than the interim government’s estimate of an overall death toll of 117.
An Associated Press reporter saw at least hundreds of Uzbek refugees fleeing the ethnic violence stuck at a border crossing near Jalal-Abad in no-man’s-land between the boundaries. Border guards allowed Uzbek aid agencies to give the refugees food, water and diapers.
Another AP reporter saw hundreds of Uzbeks who had already crossed the border.
TODAY 18.06.2010
The interim government of the country is unable to take the situation under control yet.
The reason of such violent clashes, which continue for five days in a row, is still unknown. It apparently started after a massive fight in Osh between Kyrgyz and Uzbek men. The fight then developed into an ethnic conflict. The interim government believes, though, that the riots in the south of the republic have been provoked from the outside, although the conflict does have ethnic roots.
Uzbeks make nearly 15% of Kyrgyzstan’s population. The Uzbek population prevails over the natives in several districts of the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions. The relations between the two communities have always left much to be desired. The bloody clashes between them started 20 years ago. Nowadays, it seems that the current pogroms in Kyrgyzstan take place with the participation of foreign hirelings. It transpired, albeit unofficially, that Afghans, residents of the Northern Caucasus and even citizens of the Baltic States take an active participation in the current events in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyz Uzbeks say, though, that Osh and Jalal-Abad have become the center of ethnic cleansing procedures. They claim that the troops took the side of Kyrgyz rioters and even provided them with weapons.
The situation in Kyrgyzstan may develop into the humanitarian catastrophe. Uzbekistan decided to open its border with Kyrgyzstan over the weekend to give Uzbek nationals an opportunity to flee the troubled nation. On Monday, Uzbekistan closed the border again having said that the nation would not be able to cope with 100,000 refugees from Kyrgyzstan. The Uzbek government called international organizations to interfere.
The head of the interim government in Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbayeva, has acknowledged that the country would not be able to establish law and order alone. On June 12, she asked Russia to deploy peacemaking contingent in Kyrgyzstan.
Russian officials responded that they were not going to deploy peacemakers in the Asian nation.
“The interim government of Kyrgyzstan is quite capable of handling the situation, but it lacks helicopters, ground transportation, technical means and even fuel. Once these things are provided, this plan will work as a first measure to establish law and order in the country. We offer Kyrgyzstan a complex of measures for the time being, officials said.
The UN Security Council is currently looking into the situation in Kyrgyzstan too. The UN promised to guarantee the delivery of food and medical help to Kyrgyz nationals through specially formed humanitarian corridors.
In the meantime, Kyrgyz media have reported about the arrest of the suspected organizer of current riots. It goes about a former top official of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s administration, Paizullabek Rakhmanov. This information has not been officially confirmed. Vice Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev believes that the riots have been masterminded by the younger son of the toppled president, Maksim Bakiyev.
Maksim Bakiyev is involved in the funding of the actions to undermine the new constitution referendum which is slated to take place in the country at the end of June. The vice prime minister said that the Bakiyevs had spent nearly $10 million to fund the unrest in the nation.
On June 13 it was said that Maksim Bakiyev, whom the interim Kyrgyz government accuses of a number of economic crimes, had been arrested in Britain. He stated that he had arrived in England seeking political shelter. British authorities have not released any official statement to explain Bakiyev’s arrest.
Sergey Demidenko, an expert with the Institute of Strategic Estimations and Analysis, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru that the reasons for chaos in Kyrgyzstan are hidden inside the country.
“The conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbek nationals started after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Neither previous nor sitting leaders of the country have done anything to solve the problem. Someone from the outside could of course use the situation in their interests. However, I repeat, the prerequisites for the current conflict have been created inside the country.
“This conflict is mostly of economic character. Russians and Uzbeks are two most economically active categories of Kyrgyzstan’s population. An average Russian or Uzbek person living in Kyrgyzstan is richer than a native Kyrgyz. Maksim Bakiyev’s implication in the riots is nothing but a speculation, it’s a conspiracy theory. His father used to accuse the first president of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, of all the trouble. Now Otunbayeva and her followers shift the blame on the Bakiyevs. This way or other, but no one in the nation has done anything to solve economic and ethnic problems.