Sixty-seven Kyrgyz public organizations asked the Russian authorities on Sunday to send peacekeepers to the Central Asia republic, where ethnic violence claimed the lives of more than 100 people.
"In order to prevent the further spreading of the conflict and social catastrophe over the entire Ferganskaya valley, where more than 20 million representatives of various ethnic groups and nationalities live, we desperately ask that Russian peacekeeping troops be deployed [in Kyrgyzstan]," the public organizations said in a letter to the Russian authorities.
"Russia has always lent a helping hand to our people in difficult years of our history," the letter said.
More than 100 people were killed in clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek groups that swept through Kyrgyzstan's south on Friday and Saturday. Hundreds of people were injured in the riots.
Cars have been set ablaze, stores, markets and residential houses crushed in the country's second-largest city of Osh and another southern city of Jalalabad. The looters have been rampaging through the streets during the days of rioting.
The situation in the country's south remains strained on Sunday. Groups of people armed with bludgeons and knives have been reported roaming along the streets in Osh.
A state of emergency was introduced in the entire territory of the Jalalabad region on Sunday. A curfew has been in place in the city of Osh and the neighboring Kara-Suu and Aravan districts.
The Kyrgyz interim authorities asked Russia on Saturday for military help to stop the rioters. Moscow refused to send troops to Kyrgyzstan, but pledged to provide humanitarian assistance to the violence-hit country.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has sent 5.4 metric tons of medical supplies to Bishkek. Six Kyrgyz citizens who were seriously injured during riots were moved to Moscow for treatment.
BISHKEK, June 13 (RIA Novosti)
