Saturday 12 June 2010


KYRGYZSTAN ASKS RUSSIA TO HELP QUELL ETHNIC RIOTS

Philip P. Pan

The Washington Post, June 12, 2010

MOSCOW -- The leader of Kyrgyzstan's fragile interim government urged Russia to send peace-keeping troops Saturday to quell ethnic violence that has left scores dead and prompted a panicked exodus from the former Soviet republic, which hosts a key U.S. air base.

But the Kremlin said the situation did not yet call for military intervention and pledged instead to send humanitarian aid and help evacuate the wounded.

Thousands of frightened ethnic Uzbeks in the nation's south were fleeing toward the Uzbekistan border as President Roza Otunbayeva acknowledged her government had lost control of Osh, the country's second-largest city.

Witnesses said gangs of young Kyrgyz men armed with guns and metal bars set fire to Uzbek neighborhoods on the second day of clashes that have killed at least 65 people and injured nearly 900 others, many suffering from gunshot wounds.

Local media broadcasted images of Uzbek families streaming from burning villages and gathering near the border, which Kyrgyz authorities said Uzbekistan was attempting to seal off. The Associated Press reported that children had been killed in stampedes.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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