Troops battle to stop raging ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan with 49 dead, 650 wounded

Ethnic clashes rage in Kyrgyzstan, 49 dead

OSH, Kyrgyzstan — Police and soldiers struggled Saturday to stop deadly ethnic clashes in this Central Asian country as gangs of armed young Kyrgyz men marched on Uzbek neighborhoods where houses were already burning.

The official death toll climbed to at least 49, with more than 650 people wounded, the Health Ministry said. The real figures may be higher because doctors and human rights workers said ethnic Uzbeks were afraid to seek hospital treatment.

Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks were fleeing toward the nearby border with Uzbekistan.

The violence that broke out Friday in Osh, the country’s second-largest city, is the worst since former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was toppled in a bloody uprising in April and fled the country.

It poses a decisive test of the provisional government’s ability to control the country, where the U.S. and Russia both have military air bases. The government needs stability to hold a June 27 vote on a new constitution and go ahead with elections for a new parliament in October.

The government declared a state of emergency in and around Osh and dispatched armored vehicles, troops and helicopters to pacify the situation. Fighting quieted down overnight but resumed with new strength Saturday morning.

Fire from heavy machine guns and automatic weapons was heard as troops tried to gain control of roads into the city from the airport, where hundreds of arriving passengers were stranded.

Police and residents said groups of young Kyrgyz men were streaming into Osh by road from other parts of the country and marching toward Uzbek neighborhoods. They were armed with metal bars and some had automatic weapons.

“Crowds of 100 to 150 people are continually passing my house,” said Bakyt Omorkulov, a member of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, a non-governmental organization.

He said ethnic Uzbeks in the Cheryomushki and Besh-Kuprik neighborhoods said their houses were on fire and they were terrified. “They called us and were sobbing into the phone, but what can we do?” Omorkulov said.

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Leila Saralayeva reported from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.