Corpses in Osh streets as Kyrgyzstan fighting rages
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
OSH, Kyrgyzstan, June 14 (AFP): Deadly gun battles raged in the Kyrgyzstan city of Osh where bodies littered the streets and tens of thousands fled escalating clashes between rival ethnic groups.
Charred corpses lay unattended in an ethnic Uzbek shop destroyed by petrol bombs and fires burned in the streets of the southern city which were strewn with shell cases and wrecked cars after more than three days of fighting.
At least 117 people have been killed and 1,000 wounded since Friday, according to an official toll, but many people fear the number of dead is higher. Some estimates say 100,000 people have crossed the border into Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan is of key importance to the major powers as both the United States and Russia have military bases in the Central Asian country. There is growing international concern over the unrest. Bodies lay on streets across Osh where buildings smouldered.
An AFP journalist was shown video footage of the burials of dozens of bullet ridden bodies that residents said they had filmed in the four days of violence.
"There are at least 1,000 dead here in Osh. We have not been able to register them because they turn us away at the hospital and say it is only for Kyrgyz," Isamidin Kudbidunov, 27, told AFP.
Shocked residents said the violence would have repercussions for generations to come. "We will never live together again," said Akbar, a local ethnic Uzbek man wandering the streets in Osh carrying a hatchet.
Intermittent gunfire was heard in Osh Monday while further to the north in the city of Jalalabad the violence was reportedly still in full swing.
The violence exploded Friday in Osh when ethnic Kyrgyz gangs began attacking shops and homes of ethnic Uzbeks, igniting tensions between the two dominant ethnic groups in the region that have simmered for a generation.
Charred corpses lay unattended in an ethnic Uzbek shop destroyed by petrol bombs and fires burned in the streets of the southern city which were strewn with shell cases and wrecked cars after more than three days of fighting.
At least 117 people have been killed and 1,000 wounded since Friday, according to an official toll, but many people fear the number of dead is higher. Some estimates say 100,000 people have crossed the border into Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan is of key importance to the major powers as both the United States and Russia have military bases in the Central Asian country. There is growing international concern over the unrest. Bodies lay on streets across Osh where buildings smouldered.
An AFP journalist was shown video footage of the burials of dozens of bullet ridden bodies that residents said they had filmed in the four days of violence.
"There are at least 1,000 dead here in Osh. We have not been able to register them because they turn us away at the hospital and say it is only for Kyrgyz," Isamidin Kudbidunov, 27, told AFP.
Shocked residents said the violence would have repercussions for generations to come. "We will never live together again," said Akbar, a local ethnic Uzbek man wandering the streets in Osh carrying a hatchet.
Intermittent gunfire was heard in Osh Monday while further to the north in the city of Jalalabad the violence was reportedly still in full swing.
The violence exploded Friday in Osh when ethnic Kyrgyz gangs began attacking shops and homes of ethnic Uzbeks, igniting tensions between the two dominant ethnic groups in the region that have simmered for a generation.