Sunday, June 13, 2010

Kyrgyzstan

Fear and Shock as Ethnic Uzbeks Flee Kyrgyz Clashes
BBC Online, June 13, 2010
"Hundreds of ethnic Uzbeks are trying to cross the border into Uzbekistan after ethnic clashes in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. The BBC's Rayhan Demytrie reports on chaos and panic at the border nearby. Anwar Artykov needs medical help. He is in a state of deep shock after his house on the outskirts of Osh was burnt down on Saturday. Anwar doesn't know where his wife and children are and saw his neighbours being shot dead. Now he is hiding in a house in the area with dozens of other ethnic Uzbeks, many of them women, children or elderly. 'I am not afraid of death,' he says. 'We are asking for the United Nations to help us. We do not trust the government,' said one Uzbek teacher on the border on Sunday.
She was one of a crowd of several hundred people, all of them very emotional. Everybody there had a story to tell. One man stood up, claiming to have witnessed horrific murders. 'Women and children were dragged out of homes and chopped to death,' he said. The crowd collectively gasped in disbelief. Women started crying. Daniyar, a local businessman, called for an international investigation into events in Osh. 'Uzbeks have no weapons. They are armed with sticks. We need international peacekeeping troops to come and restore order,' he said. [...]"

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