Gunfire rang out across the stricken Kyrgyz city of Osh and bodies littered the streets yesterday after three days of communal clashes that left scores dead and sparked a refugee exodus of tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks.
Amid growing international concern over the unrest, which has left at least 117 dead and 1,000 wounded, according to an official toll, ethnic Uzbeks said many more had been killed and accused government forces of helping Kyrgyz mobs in their deadly rampage.
Some estimates said that 100,000 people had fled across the border into Uzbekistan, leaving explosive tensions in Osh and other towns in southern Kyrgyzstan.
PHOTO: AFP
Charred corpses lay unattended in a burned out ethnic Uzbek shop in Osh and the streets were strewn with shell cases and wrecked cars.
Intermittent gunfire was heard, while further north in the city of Jalalabad the violence was reportedly still in full swing.
“The situation got worse in Jalalabad,” Temir Sariyev, the deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan's interim government, told reporters in Bishkek.
“There are local clashes and it is not yet possible fully to contain the situation. Armed groups are breaking through here and there and this is linked to the fact that our forces are insufficient to control the situation,” he said.
The Kyrgyz news agency AKIPress said that 2,000 people had gathered in the main square in Jalalabad near the regional government building and that cafes and stores were ablaze on main streets.
It said between 150 and 200 youths were marching around threatening to shoot Uzbeks.
In Osh, Uzbek men, armed with makeshift weapons, stood on guard outside their homes while women and children cowered in basements. An Agence-France Presse journalist was shown video footage of the burials of dozens of bullet-ridden bodies that residents said they had filmed since Friday.
“There are at least 1,000 dead here in Osh. We have not been able to register them because they turn us away at the hospital and say it is only for Kyrgyz,” Isamidin Kudbidunov, 27, said.
Shocked residents said the violence would have repercussions for generations to come. Some accused Kyrgyz government forces of taking part in the brutal mob violence.
Dildor Dzhumabayev, a 38-year-old ethnic Uzbek, said people were gunned down by armed personnel carriers that were used to clear the way for mobs on the streets.
Kyrgyzstan is of key importance to the major powers as both the US and Russia have military bases near the capital of the central Asian country. There is growing international alarm over the unrest.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said yesterday she was “very concerned” and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed his worry at the extent of the violence on Sunday.
Kyrgyzstan’s interim president, Roza Otunbayeva, on Saturday appealed to Russia to help quell the violence. The Kremlin has so far sent paratroopers to reinforce its base and agreed to send humanitarian aid.
The violence exploded on Friday in Osh when ethnic Kyrgyz gangs began attacking shops and homes of ethnic Uzbeks, igniting tensions between the two dominant groups in the region that have simmered for a generation.
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