Kyrgyzstan clears barricades from ravaged southern city

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OSH, Kyrgyzstan, June 20 (AFP): Kyrgyzstan's military began clearing barricades from around Uzbek neighbourhoods in the ravaged city of Osh Sunday after extending a state of emergency in the country's volatile south.
The removals proceeded calmly despite earlier fears that the clearing of the makeshift barricades would provoke further violence in the Central Asian state, which was rocked last week by deadly ethnic clashes between the majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbek populations.
Armoured military vehicles pushed aside burnt-out cars, concrete pillars and cut-down trees that were set up outside Uzbek districts during the violence, which officials say may have killed up to 2,000 and forced 400,000 from their homes.
In some areas Uzbek residents were even assisting the military in pulling down the barricades, which authorities had said would be removed, by force if necessary, by 6:00 pm local time (1200 GMT) Sunday.
"The operation is going well," Lieutenant Colonel Zhunus Kalmatov, who was overseeing the removal of some barricades, told the news agency.
Watching as barricades were taken down in the neighbourhood of Shahid-Tepa, 64-year-old resident Salizhan Numanzhanov said she hoped life was starting to get back to normal.
"Of course we are afraid. But we will not put the barricades back if it stays calm. Life must return to normal at some point," said Numanzhanov, whose brother was among those killed in the unrest.
Kyrgyzstan's interim government said Saturday it was extending a state of emergency in Osh and nearby areas to June 25. Imposed on June 11, the state of emergency had been due to expire on Sunday.
The country's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva admitted Friday that the death toll from the clashes was probably 2,000 -- 10 times the official estimate of 192.
The riots were the worst inter-ethnic clashes to hit the impoverished ex-Soviet state since the collapse of the Soviet Union.