Kyrgyzstan vows probe into ethnic violence
BISHKEK (AFP) – Kyrgyzstan's interim government promised a top US envoy Saturday that it will investigate deadly ethnic clashes as fears grew of fresh violence in the volatile south.
Officials and aid agencies say the clashes between Kyrgyz andUzbeks have killed up to 2,000 people and affected up to one million, including 300,000 people displaced in Kyrgyzstan and 100,000 who have fled to neighbouring Uzbekistan.
The United Nations said Saturday it was stepping up aid to the region after issuing an urgent appeal for humanitarian assistance.
After meeting with Kyrgyzstan's acting government, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said investigations into the violence would be essential to create conditions for the safe return of refugees and the internally displaced.
"Members of the provisional government assured me of their intention to launch an investigation into the causes of the violence.... Such an investigation should be complemented by an international investigation by a credible international body," Blake told journalists in Bishkek.
"Is it important for the provisional government to establish an atmosphere of trust and security so the refugees in Uzbekistan and the internally displaced persons in Kyrgyzstan can feel confident that they can return to their homes," he said.
Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva admitted Friday that the death toll from the clashes was probably 2,000 -- 10 times the official estimate of 192.
The World Food Programme said Saturday it would step up its aid to the region and from Sunday will airlift 110 tons of high energy biscuits from its warehouse in Dubai to Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan and Andijan, Uzbekistan.
"With a huge number of people displaced by the conflict, and thousands more trapped without food, water or supplies, there?s not a moment to lose," the UN agency's executive director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday the UN was launching a 71-million-dollar humanitarian appeal for Kyrgyzstan and that a separate appeal for Uzbekistan would be instigated next week.
Ban cited "shortages of food, water and electricity in the affected areas, due to looting, lack of supply, and restrictions on movement" and said hospitals were running low on medical supplies.
In Osh, the southern city at the centre of the unrest, residents said they were bracing for new violence after Otunbayeva promised that makeshift barricades around Uzbek neighbourhoods would be removed.
Roads leading to most of the city's Uzbek districts remained closed off with cut-down trees, burnt-out cars and storage containers.
"If they come to open the access roads they will shoot at us again. The army is against us, the state is fighting against us," said 63-year-old Pulat Shikhanov.
"We are not expecting anything good from this. This will restart until they've chased out all the Uzbeks," said the head of the local district, Purdubai Barubayev.
The mayor of Osh, Melisbek Myrzakmatov, told journalists that authorities had set a deadline of 6:00 pm local time (1200 GMT) Sunday for the barricades to be removed.
"We gave them two days to remove the barricades. If they do not remove them, we will resort to force," he said.
"We don't want to touch (the Uzbeks) but you know they have a lot of weapons and Kyrgyz hostages," he added.
The riots were the worst inter-ethnic clashes to hit the impoverished Central Asian state since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Victims of the unrest have told AFP that the violence was a brutal and orchestrated campaign by armed militias of ethnic Kyrgyz targeting Uzbeks, who make up 14 percent of Kyrgyzstan's population of 5.3 million.
Kyrgyzstan's interim government has accused former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted inviolent street protests in April, of hiring "provocateurs" to instigate the deadly riots. Bakiyev has denied any involvement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100619/wl_afp/kyrgyzstanuzbekistanunrestpolitics_20100619154250
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