BISHKEK – Ethnic violence broke out on the outskirts of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek yesterday, leaving at least one person dead and challenging efforts to restore stability after an uprising overthrew the president.
An interim government is struggling to exert control over the Central Asian state after an uprising on April 7th that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and disrupted US military flights to Afghanistan through a Kyrgyz air base.
The interim authorities said they were sending in troops and armoured vehicles to stem the violence, in which witnesses said ethnic Kyrgyz were looting ethnic Russian and Meskhetian Turkish homes in Mayevka village.
One resident said villagers were abandoning their homes and fleeing. Another said gunfire had erupted after nightfall as groups of men tried to break into houses.
Kyrgyzstan’s new rulers pledged fresh elections and reforms yesterday in a bid to restore order, but were confronted by resistance from Bakiyev loyalists and a general state of lawlessness after an uprising in which at least 85 people died. Bakiyev loyalists said they had installed a pro-Bakiyev governor in the restive southern region of Jalalabad, widening a stand-off with the self-proclaimed government in the capital.
The latest riots in Bishkek erupted after angry men tried to take advantage of the power vacuum following the April 7th revolt to grab land belonging to residents of villages dominated by ethnic Russians and Meskhetian Turks.
The crowd, armed with sticks, torched three police vans and a police station. – (Reuters)