Thousands flee as ethnic violence erupts in central Asia

About 100,000 minority Uzbeks fleeing mobs of Kyrgyz massed at the border on Monday, an Uzbek leader said, as the deadliest ethnic violence to hit this Central Asian nation in 20 years left a major city smouldering. Fires raged for a fourth day in the southern city of Osh, three miles (five kilometres) from the border with Uzbekistan. The official count was 138 dead and nearly 1,800 injured since the violence began last week, but an Uzbek community leader said at least 200 Uzbeks had already been buried and the Red Cross said its delegates saw about 100 bodies being buried in just one cemetery. The United States and Russia, which both have military bases in Kyrgyzstan, away from the violence, worked on humanitarian aid airlifts, as did the United Nations. Neighbouring Uzbekistan hastily set up camps to handle the flood of hungry, frightened refugees.
Most were women, children and the elderly, many of whom Uzbekistan said had gunshot wounds.
Jallahitdin Jalilatdinov, who heads the Uzbek National Centre, told The Associated Press on Monday that at least 100,000 Uzbeks were awaiting entry into Uzbekistan, while another 80,000 had crossed the border.The Uzbek government said 45,000 had already been registered. An AP reporter saw hundreds of Uzbek refugees stuck in a no-man's-land at a border crossing near Jalal-Abad. An AP photographer saw hundreds of refugees in a camp on the Uzbek side. Shaken refugees claimed that many Uzbek girls had been raped and that Kyrgyz snipers had shot at them from the hills as they rushed toward the border. Hundreds gathered at Osh's central square to get on buses for the airport. Gunmen have made the road from the city to the airport too dangerous to tackle alone. Osh Police Chief Kursan Asanov said that 950 foreigners - mostly Russians, Pakistanis, Indians and Africans - have been evacuated since disturbances began, as well as Uzbek and Kyrgyz residents.
"The entire city is in the state of panic - you see for yourselves - because all people have children," said resident Galina Nikolayevna. Volunteers of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry Academy were patrolling the Anoshin neighbourhood on Monday, where the population is mixed - ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek. Representatives from each community said the situation was tense, but under control. "I'm telling all the Uzbeks: there is nothing to fear. Let them live normally, nobody is going to harass anyone and nobody is going to say bad words about others," said Orunbai Suleimanov a member of the Kyrgyz community in the Anoshin neighbourhood. But the gunshots ringing out across the city told a different story. Food and water were scarce after armed looters smashed stores, stealing everything from TVs to food. Cars stolen from ethnic Uzbeks raced around the city, most crowded with young Kyrgyz wielding sharpened sticks, axes and metal rods. In the mainly Uzbek district of Aravanskoe, an area formerly brimming with shops and restaurants, whole streets were burned to the ground. In one still-smouldering building, an AP photographer saw three charred bodies. As the clashes continued, desperately needed aid began trickling into the south. Several planes arrived at Osh's airport with tons of medical supplies from the World Health Organisation. Trucks carried supplies into the city with an armed escort. In the capital Bishkek, volunteer paramilitaries prepared to depart for Osh as part of a peace-keeping effort. The interim government, which took over when former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in an April uprising, has been unable to stop the violence and accused Bakiyev's family of instigating it to halt a 27 June referendum on a new constitution. Uzbeks, who are a minority in Kyrgyzstan as a whole but whose numbers rival the Kyrgyz in the south of the country, have backed the interim government. Many Kyrgyz in the south have supported Bakiyev. From his self-imposed exile in Belarus, Bakiyev has denied any role in the violence. Speaking to reporters Monday, he again blamed the interim government for not preventing the rioting and called on the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organisation to send in troops. The new Kyrgyz government asked Russia to send troops, but the Kremlin turned down the request. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev condemned the violence and said he had spoken with Kyrgyzstan's Interim President Roza Otunbayeva.
He said "tough" action must be taken to prevent further unrest and bloodshed.