Kyrgyzstan’s interim government declared a state of emergency and slapped a curfew on southern parts of the country yesterday after ethnic clashes left at least 17 people dead and around 200 wounded.
The provisional government, which has struggled to assert order over the ex-Soviet state since taking power amid unrest earlier this year, insisted that while the situation remained volatile, government forces were in control.
“Shooting has stopped across the whole city and the situation is under the control of law enforcement agencies,” interior ministry spokesman Rakhmatillo Akhmedov said in an interview on national radio.
But witnesses reached in Kyrgyzstan’s southern capital, Osh, by telephone described a chaotic scene, with gunfire ringing out well into the morning and heavily armed helicopters swooping low over the centre of the city.
Andrea Berg, Central Asia researcher at New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch, said by phone from the city that she had been trapped inside her guest house since the fighting erupted.
“I can’t leave the city. There are no flights, no cars, no public transport whatsoever. There is still shooting going on. While I’m talking to you I hear shooting and it’s really not far away,” she said.
Witnesses said brawls had broken out overnight between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups in the southern city, once the stronghold of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was overthrown in April.
Buildings and cars were set alight and shop windows smashed across Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, as groups of armed men battled in the streets with guns and improvised weapons.
“About a thousand youths armed with batons and stones gathered Thursday evening in the center of Osh,” said Azamat Ussmanov, a local resident. “They broke shop windows and the windows of residential buildings, burned cars. Several fires broke out in the town.”
The leaders of Russia and China called for calm in Kyrgyzstan as growing unrest there topped talks at a regional security summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in neighboring Uzbekistan.
“We sincerely hope that this phase of internal turmoil is overcome as soon as possible,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the meeting of the China and Russia-led group.
“China and other neighbors will continue to offer Kyrgyzstan all possible help,” Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) said through a Russian translator. “We sincerely hope that there will be a swift stabilization of the situation.”
The violence had clearly been inter-ethnic and well organized, interim government spokesman Azimbek Beknazarov told national radio after having visited the city.
The authorities sent armored vehicles to Osh in a bid to restore order, government spokesman Farid Niyazov said.
“A state of emergency has been declared in Osh and these districts from June 11 until June 20,” Niyazov said.
Since last April’s uprising, which ousted Bakiyev and left 87 people dead, foreign and international leaders have warned of the danger of civil war in this strategically important country.
The latest clashes came just days after the government lifted a state of emergency in the neighboring district of Suzak.
The interim authorities had imposed restrictions there from May 19 to June 1 following violent demonstrations. They also canceled presidential elections, which had been scheduled for this autumn.
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