US envoy in riot-hit Kyrgyzstan, meets interim leader about getting refugees safely back home

US envoy in riot-hit Kyrgyzstan for talks

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — A top U.S. envoy has arrived in Kyrgyzstan to meet officials a day after the interim leader said up to 2,000 people may have died in the ethnic clashes that have rocked the country’s south.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake is holding meetings with Interim President Roza Otunbayeva and other members of her government, which was established after a bloody uprising in April toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Blake arrived from neighboring Uzbekistan, where he toured several refugee camps set up for tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks who fled for their lives during rampages led mainly by ethnic Kyrgyz.

Blake said the U.S. was working with the Kyrgyz government to make the refugees would be able to return safely and called for an investigation into the violence.