Article published Monday, June 14, 2010 in La Presse and La Tribune de Geneve.
Moscow - Clashes between the majority and the minority Uzbek Kyrgyz made more than 100 dead and 1,250 wounded since Friday in southern Kyrgyzstan. The Provisional Government of the unstable former Soviet republic acknowledges having lost control of the situation.
homes and buildings burned, charred bodies in the streets, shooting day and night, fleeing population. For three days, Osh and Jalal-Abad, second and third cities, are delivered to the exactions and looting of several armed gangs.
If the precise trigger of the violence remains unclear, the fuse was short and easy to turn. Tensions between the two dominant communities are constants in the south of Kyrgyzstan, located in the highly multiethnic Ferghana Valley. There was, however, no such violent clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks since 1990. According
Danil Kislov, editor of news website Ferghana.ru, one that ignited the powder, it was former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, ousted in the street on April 7. "His men have spread rumors to the effect that the Uzbeks had raped women in Kyrgyzstan, and vice versa." It was enough for the idle youth of this impoverished region to take up arms and leaves vent to his anger nationalist, believes Mr Kislov.
In exile in Belarus, Bakiyev has strongly denied any involvement in the unrest. Guilty or not, the clan of former president, from the region of Jalal-Abad, retains a strong influence in this part of the country. It is in the south that Bakiyev had fled in April, just after the invasion of the seat of the presidency by an angry mob. He was then forced to leave the country.
The curfew in force 24 hours 24 and the state of emergency decreed by the provisional government yesterday in the south are likely to remain so without any real effect. "If the government had the necessary resources, he might be able to calm the game But in the South, they do not have to send soldiers and the North. Police in the region, they remained faithful to Bakiyev, "says Kislov.
To cope with the threat of civil war, the government yesterday ordered his forces to "make fire at will" on gangs. The MoD has also called in reinforcements all army reservists aged 18 to 50 years.
attempt to destabilize
The country's interim president, Rosa Otunbayeva accuses his predecessor fallen to destabilize the already volatile situation before the referendum on a new constitution, scheduled June 27 His dress is becoming increasingly unlikely with the violence this weekend. "Bakiyev does not want the referendum because it would legitimize the provisional government," Danil Kislov analysis.
Saturday, Rosa Otunbayeva found that the situation was "unmanageable" and has asked Russia to send peacekeepers to stop the violence. Moscow has so far refused, arguing that it is a conflict "internal".
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev however, announced the allocation of humanitarian aid but not military. He also promised to discuss the issue today with his counterparts from the Organization of Collective Security Treaty (CSTO), which includes seven former Soviet republics such as Kyrgyzstan.
Meanwhile, thousands of Kyrgyz citizens of Uzbek origin were massed on the border with Uzbekistan yesterday. The Uzbek government has set up camps to house refugees on its territory. Yesterday, they were already 80 000 to cross the border, estimated the Uzbek authorities.
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