Up to 2,000 now feared dead in Kyrgyzstan

SOME 2,000 people may have been killed in Kyrgyzstan’s ethnic riots, interim president Roza Otunbayeva has admitted, as pressure mounts on her to allow an independent investigation into violence that aid groups say has affected one million people.

Ahead of her first visit yesterday to the city of Osh since it became the epicentre of attacks by Kyrgyz mobs on ethnic Uzbeks last week, Ms Otunbayeva said official claims that about 200 people had been killed in the fighting severely underestimated the real death toll.

“I would multiply by 10 times the official figures,” she told a Russian newspaper. “There were very many deaths in the countryside, and our customs dictate that we bury our dead right away, before sunset,” she said, meaning many were buried before their deaths could be registered.

Ms Otunbayeva was accompanied by heavy security in Osh, where Uzbek districts surrounded by makeshift barricades lie in ruins and are still smouldering after five days of attacks by Kyrgyz gangs. “I came here to see, to speak with the people and hear first-hand what happened here. We will do everything to rebuild this city,” Ms Otunbayeva said.

Russia said yesterday it was considering a request from Ms Otunbayeva’s government to send troops to guard vital facilities.

About 100,000 people fled into neighbouring Uzbekistan to escape the violence, while 300,000 more are believed to have been displaced within Kyrgyzstan. “For the moment, we estimate that we will probably need to respond to the needs of more than one million people, displaced people, refugees and people in host families who have been affected by the conflict,” said Christiane Berthiaume, a spokeswoman for the UN Children’s Fund. The World Health Organisation is working with the same estimate.

Ms Otunbayeva and her government say the attacks were started by allies of ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in a bloody uprising in April. Uzbeks say they were shot at by men in armoured vehicles wearing uniforms as well as by roaming mobs, but military officials deny any involvement.

“I think it’s important that there be an investigation,” US assistant secretary of state Robert Blake said on a visit to Uzbekistan. “But given the large number of ethnic Uzbek refugees here in Uzbekistan whose stories need to be heard, the Kyrgyz investigation needs to be accompanied by an investigation by an independent body.”