At least 37 killed and 500 injured during ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan

ETHNIC RIOTS have killed at least 37 people and injured more than 500 in Kyrgyzstan, despite calls for calm from major world powers that are vying for influence in the Central Asian state.

Security forces in the city of Osh were struggling to prevent ethnic Kyrgyz gangs from attacking members of the minority Uzbek community, in the worst bout of violence to grip the country since President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a bloody uprising in April.

Osh was a centre of support for Mr Bakiyev and of resistance to interim president Roza Otunbayeva, who declared a state of emergency in southern Kyrgyzstan after gangs armed with guns, knives and sticks ran amok in Osh on Thursday night, smashing up and burning shops and cafes.

The violence intensified yesterday, despite the deployment of soldiers, armoured vehicles and military helicopters to Osh.

“I can’t leave the city. There are no flights, no cars, no public transport whatsoever,” said Andrea Berg, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“There is still shooting going on . . . I hear shooting and it’s really not far away.”

Other eyewitnesses in Osh said swathes of an Uzbek district had been set on fire and that people were building makeshift barricades in the streets.

“I have just driven through the city and the streets are filled with young men brandishing sticks, armour and weapons,” said NGO worker Bakyt Omorkulov. “It’s like being in Chechnya.”

Local police said people from the region surrounding Osh were converging on Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, which has some 200,000 residents.

“Regrettably for us, we’re clearly talking about a stand-off between two ethnicities. We need forces and means to stop and calm these people down, and this is what we are doing right now,” Ms Otunbayeva said in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishek.

The uprising that toppled Mr Bakiyev has fuelled fears of civil war in Kyrgyzstan, where rivalries between clans, regions and ethnic groups are strong.

Hundreds of people died in 1990 when members of the Kyrgyz majority fought with ethnic Uzbeks, who comprise about 15 per cent of the country’s population of 5.2 million people. Osh is in the Fergana Valley, a densely populated and traditionally volatile area where Kyrgyzstan, Uzbek- istan and Tajikistan converge.

Tension in the region is exacerbated by poverty, frustration with autocratic and corrupt rulers and occasional attacks by Islamist militants, many of whom have fought in nearby Afghanistan.

Both Russia and the US have military bases in Kyrgyzstan, and the Pentagon uses its facility there as a major hub for operations in Afghanistan.

The US embassy in Bishkek urged “everyone to resolve differences peacefully and with respect for rule of law”.

At a meeting in Uzbekistan, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said “we sincerely hope that this phase of internal turmoil is overcome as soon as possible”.

Chinese leader Hu Jintao called for “a swift stabilisation of the situation” and said “China and other neighbours will continue to offer Kyrgyzstan all possible help”.

Uzbek president Islam Karimov, said events across the border were “an internal matter for Kyrgyzstan” but that Uzbekistan was prepared to offer help in stabilising the situation.