Barriers removed but Kyrgyzstan still stays on edge
Source: Agencies |
June 21, 2010, Monday
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KYRGYZ forces started removing barriers dividing the burnt-out 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.
Cars, tires and piles of scrap metal remained in place across alleys in central Osh leading to neighborhoods occupied by ethnic Uzbeks, still fearful of 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.
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 with little access to clean water or food.
The United States and Russia, which both operate military air bases in the strategic Muslim country, are concerned that turmoil in Kyrgyzstan could spread to other parts of Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region north of Afghanistan.
The violence erupted on June 10 with coordinated attacks by unidentified 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 neighborhoods burned to the ground. The United Nations says an estimated 1 million people were affected.
Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva, whose government assumed power after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown on April 7, has struggled to assert control in the south.
Yesterday, the interim government extended the state of emergency in Osh and three surrounding regions until Friday, two days before it plans to hold a referendum on constitutional reform that would devolve more power to a prime minister.
Cars, tires and piles of scrap metal remained in place across alleys in central Osh leading to neighborhoods occupied by ethnic Uzbeks, still fearful of 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.
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 with little access to clean water or food.
The United States and Russia, which both operate military air bases in the strategic Muslim country, are concerned that turmoil in Kyrgyzstan could spread to other parts of Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region north of Afghanistan.
The violence erupted on June 10 with coordinated attacks by unidentified 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 neighborhoods burned to the ground. The United Nations says an estimated 1 million people were affected.
Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva, whose government assumed power after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown on April 7, has struggled to assert control in the south.
Yesterday, the interim government extended the state of emergency in Osh and three surrounding regions until Friday, two days before it plans to hold a referendum on constitutional reform that would devolve more power to a prime minister.
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