[lg policy] 400, 000 Displaced by Kyrgyz Unrest, U.N. Says

[Harold Schiffman]

June 17, 2010
400, 000 Displaced by Kyrgyz Unrest, U.N. Says
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:45 a.m. ET

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (AP) -- Some 400,000 people have been displaced by
ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, the United Nations announced
Thursday, dramatically increasing the official estimate of a crisis
that has left throngs of desperate, fearful refugees without enough
food and water in grim camps along the Uzbek border. U.N. Humanitarian
Office spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said an estimated 300,000 people
have been driven from their homes but remain inside the nation of 5.3
million people. She said there are now also about 100,000 refugees in
neighboring Uzbekistan. The last official estimate of refugees who
fled the country was 75,000. No number of internally displaced has
been available.

Violence erupted last week between the majority Kyrgyz population and
minority ethnic Uzbeks. Kyrgyzstan's government has accused the
country's deposed president of igniting long-standing ethnic tensions
by sending gunmen in ski masks to shoot members of both groups. The
government, which overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April,
accuses the leader of deep corruption and says that he and his
supporters were attempting to shake official control of the south and
reassert their control of the Afghan heroin trade in the area.

The deputy chief of the provisional government, Azimbek Beknazarov,
said Thursday that authorities had strengthened roadblocks on all
entrances into the capital, Bishkek, and tightened security in prisons
to prevent Bakiyev's clan from provoking turmoil in the north.
Beknazarov put the official death toll on both sides is 223, but
others said the figure could be significantly higher. Many Kyrgyz were
killed but the victims appear to have been predominantly Uzbeks,
traditional farmers and traders who speak a distinct but separate
Turkic language and have traditionally been more prosperous than the
Kyrgyz, who come from a nomadic tradition.

Ethnic Uzbeks in camps along the Uzbekistan side of the border told
Associated Press reporters Thursday that they were fearful of
returning to their homes. Many on the Kyrgyzstan side said they had
been prevented from doing so by the authorities, and were awaiting
their chance to leave the country for the camps. A few parts of the
south have been all but purged of the ethnic Uzbeks. In other areas,
hundreds who hadn't fled have piled up old cars on the streets,
barricading themselves into their neighborhoods.

Many of the thousands of refugees to have crossed into Uzbekistan say
they are afraid to return to the main regional city of Osh and would
have nowhere to live if they did go back. ''My house is not there
anymore, it is burnt down, said Khafiza Eiganberdiyeva, 87, who is
among 20,000 refugees in a camp set up near Yor Kishlok, three miles
(five kilometers) from the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. In an Uzbek
neighborhood of Osh, a baker who had fled to the border with his wife
and five children said his family had lost hope after supplies on the
border ran out, and returned out of desperation.

''Is there any difference where to die? There is no food, no water, no
humanitarian aid,'' Melis Kamilov, 36, said against the backdrop of
his ruined home. The Kamilovs fled to the border on Sunday, three days
after the rioting began in earnest. ''I am an Uzbek, is that a crime?
This is not a Kyrgyz house, this house is mine.'' Uzbeks have few
representatives in power and have pushed for broader political and
cultural rights. While Uzbeks make up only about 15 percent of the
overall population, they rival Kyrgyz in numbers in the southern
cities of Osh and the nearby town of Jalal-Abad. Both are
predominantly Sunni Muslim.

Kyrgyzstan's weak military has been gradually regaining control of
Osh, a major transit point for Afghan heroin and the epicenter of the
recent violence. Some refugees who deserted Jalal-Abad, which also
suffered heavy damage in the rioting, have been stopped from returning
there by authorities who set up a checkpoint on the road back into the
city. In Britain, media reports said one of Bakiyev's sons had sought
political asylum. Maxim Bakiyev fled to Britain after Kyrgyz
prosecutors put him on a wanted listed for allegedly avoiding almost
$80 million in taxes.  The Home Office says the 32-year-old was
questioned by officials when he flew into Farnborough Airport near
London on a private plane Sunday without the necessary documents to
enter the U.K.  Britain's domestic news agency Press Association
reports that Bakiyev is seeking asylum. The Home Office said it cannot
comment on an ongoing asylum application.


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/17/world/asia/AP-AS-Kyrgyzstan.html?_r=1

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