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  1. #1
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    Kyrgyzstan government authorises deadly force to stem unrest

    Kyrgyzstan government authorises deadly force to stem unrest
    13/06/2010

    Kyrgyzstan's interim government issued a decree Saturday authorising the military and police to use deadly force in a bid to stem spiralling ethnic violence.

    Kyrgyz soldiers drive an armoured vehicle through the streets in Osh on June 11. Kyrgyzstan's interim government issued a decree Saturday authorising the military and police to use deadly force in a bid to stem spiralling ethnic violence.

    The decision was taken "in connection with the ongoing clashes of ethnic groups with the use of lethal weapons, and an increasing number of victims among the civilian population," the government said in a statement.

    Lethal force will now be authorised in order to repel attacks against police and the military, stop the destruction of government and private property and to protect civilians, the decree said.

    The clashes have left 77 dead and almost 1,000 wounded.

    Kyrgyzstan's provisional government led by Roza Otunbayeva has struggled to impose order in the Central Asian state since seizing control during riots that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier this year.

    Witnesses said clashes had broken out between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups in the main southern city of Osh, once the stronghold of Bakiyev.

    bangkokpost.com

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mid View Post


    The clashes have left 77 dead and almost 1,000 wounded.
    A sad state of affairs over there, but I don't think that deaths in Kyrgyzstan will generate much excitement from Western news services unless there is an additional zero or two in the death count. From an American's perspective, here are some guidelines:

    Newsworthiness Equivalency Chart:

    1 US teenager stranded in her boat while trying to circumnavigate her planet =
    20 Mexicans killed in a drug-related mass execution =
    100 Afghanis blown up in a wedding =
    500 Central Asians killed in rioting =
    10,000 Chinese buried in an earthquake =
    100,000 Bangladeshis drowned in a typhoon =
    1,000,000 Congolese killed in a civil war

  3. #3
    Pronce. PH said so AGAIN!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mid
    Kyrgyzstan government authorises deadly force to stem unrest VOWELS!
    FTFY.

  4. #4
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    Riots in Kyrgyzstan
    Jun 14, 2010

    Over 100 dead; Uzbeks flee Kyrgyz mobs as violence continues


    The riots are the worst violence since former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a bloody uprising in April and fled the country.

    PHOTO: AFP


    OSH (Kyrgyzstan) - KYRGYZ mobs burned Uzbek villages, slaughtered their residents and looted police stations yesterday in the worst ethnic rioting this Central Asian nation has seen in 20 years, sending more than 75,000 Uzbek refugees fleeing across the border into Uzbekistan.

    Most of the refugees were elderly people and women and children, and many had gunshot wounds, the Uzbek Emergencies Ministry said in a statement carried by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. It said refugee camps were being set up for them in several areas of Uzbekistan.

    Russia yesterday also sent a battalion of about 300 paratroopers to reinforce security at its air base in Kyrgyzstan, the Interfax news agency reported.

    Kyrgyzstan's interim government had asked Russia for military help to quell the rioting, but the Kremlin refused on Saturday.

    Uzbeks fled the country in panic after their homes were torched by roving mobs of Kyrgyz men. Some Uzbek women and children were gunned down as they tried to escape, witnesses said.

    More than 100 people have been killed and at least 1,000 wounded in the impoverished nation since the violence began on Thursday night. The government ordered troops to shoot rioters dead but even that failed to stop the spiralling violence. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

    straitstimes.com

  5. #5
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    ‘I’m appalled by deaths, looting and destruction’
    Trevor Royle, Diplomatic Editor
    20 Jun 2010


    Uzbek refugees in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh

    The extent of the humanitarian disaster in troubled Kyrgyzstan finally received international attention yesterday when the United Nations agreed to provide around £48 million in aid to help thousands of Uzbeks displaced by the recent round of ethnic violence.

    The US has also promised to do what it can to bring some stability to the country which is ruled by an interim government following the deposition of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April.

    John Holmes, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: “I have been shocked by the extent of the violence and appalled by the deaths and injuries, widespread arson, sexual violence, looting of state, commercial and private property, and destruction of infrastructure.”

    However, no-one really knows how many people have lost their lives in the turmoil that has enveloped Kyrgyzstan in the past few weeks. When interim President Roza Otunbayeva visited the ravaged town of Osh at the end of last week she dismissed official reports of just 191 casualties.

    “I would increase by 10 times the official data on the number of people killed,” she said, pointing out that current figures fail to take into account those buried before sundown on the day of death, in keeping with Muslim tradition. “I came here to see, to speak with the people and hear first hand what happened here,” she added. “We will do everything to rebuild this city.”

    This is not the customary rhetoric of despair which is usually heard in disaster areas; it’s the opinion of a local leader who should know what she is talking about.

    She is not alone in thinking that the death toll might be higher and could exceed her own estimate of 2000. The UN estimates that 400,000 people have fled from the south of the country after ethnic Kyrgyz started killing hundreds of people, mainly Uzbeks. Most have tried to flee into neighbouring Uzbekistan where there are specially created camps supplying food and water but thousands more remain camped out in squalid conditions on the Kyrgyzstan side of the border, unable to cross due to Uzbek restrictions.

    While the interim President was visiting Osh, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake visited one of the camps in Uzbekistan where he was almost overcome by crowds of desperate refugees. They wanted humanitarian aid but more than anything else they told him that they were desperate to return home, but were too frightened to.

    In reply Blake promised that he would instigate an investigation through the UN and was “working with the government of Kyrgyzstan to provide security so you can return home safely”. But his words largely fell on deaf ears because amongst the main complaints were claims that not only did Kyrgyz security forces do nothing to stem the violence but in some instances took part in it.

    There have also been allegations in the prosperous Fergana Valley of the mass rape of Uzbek women. However, despite the violence Otunbayeva does not believe that there should be any outside intervention and has rejected proposals that a Russian peacekeeping force should be deployed in the region.

    Instead, she is putting her faith in so-called “citizen diplomats” who would broker an agreement between the rival factions before rebuilding the shattered infrastructure. She also promised that a referendum on the new constitution would go ahead as planned next weekend, despite the violence and the continuing uncertainty.

    In that respect her optimism might represent the triumph of hope over experience because the present violence has been simmering for several months. Tensions have been high in the region since the beginning of April, when former president Bakiyev was ousted from office after an uprising. By way of response his Kyrgyz supporters retaliated by organising resistance to the interim government in Bishkek led by Otunbayeva.

    Amongst their targets were members of the Uzbek community, and the south of the country, Bakiyev’s heartland, quickly became a battleground. Criminal elements and drug dealers took advantage of the power vacuum and rival Kyrgyz and Uzbek gangs clashed in the streets, forcing large numbers of ethnic Uzbeks to escape the violence. There is now a real danger that the refugee crisis could spark further violence which could spill over into Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

    The problem is made worse by Kyrgyzstan’s strategic position. The country is home to a US air force base which is an important transit point for forces bound for Afghanistan. As Washington cultivated its links with the deposed former president there is concern in Bishkek that the US might be tempted to lend support to Bakiyev if he decides to attempt to regain power.
    There is also considerable anger amongst the interim government’s supporters because the previous regime was a byword for corruption and criminality.

    In that respect drugs also come into the equation and help to explain the recent violence. Kyrgyzstan is on the main route for the export of Afghan opium to Europe and the epicentre is the Fergana Valley which is home to the rival Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities. In an interview given at the end of last week, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev warned that unless the violence is settled soon there are growing fears that Islamic extremists will take advantage of the situation and take over power in Kyrgyzstan.

    “When people lose faith in the ability of the civil authorities to bring law and order and decide there is only one force that can do it, then we can end up with a Kyrgyzstan that would develop along the Afghan scenario, the Afghan scenario of the Taliban period. And that, I think, would be very sad indeed, and highly dangerous for our country and for other countries in central Asia.”

    heraldscotland.com

  6. #6
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    Any Government on the planet would eventually order deadly force to end violent riots, therefore I cannot understand the continued whining about what happened in Bangkok.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobR
    Any Government on the planet would eventually order deadly force to end violent riots
    in your opinion , NOT something you have proof of .

  8. #8
    loob lor geezer
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    It is arguable that the wave of ethnic killings in southern Kyrgyzstan that started last Saturday – which has left hundreds of Uzbeks dead and tens of thousands homeless – is, at root, the fault of Joseph Stalin. The Soviet Union was in theory just that – a union of Soviet socialist republics. Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were three of them. But whatever the theory, Stalin had no intention of allowing the republics to become viable entities or potential power bases for rivals. So he intervened personally and the republics were deliberately messed up with boundaries that cut across natural economic units and severed cultural and ethnic links.

    The names Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan might give the impression that these Central Asian states are the ethnic home of the Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Uzbeks. They are quite deliberately not that. For example, the major Uzbek town of Osh, in the Ferghana Valley, which is at the centre of this week's violence, is over the border in Kyrgyzstan. The great centres of Tajik culture, Samarkand and Bokhara, are not in Tajikistan but in Uzbekistan, even though 90 per cent of the population of those cities remain Tajik- speaking – and are now subject to Uzbek government attempts to choke the language.


    Kyrgyzstan: Death, dictators and the Soviet legacy - Telegraph

    Yes, its a shame the Stans can't all get together and negotiate new borders that reflect the situation on the ground. As it is, the problems now seem insurmountable. The Telegraph is giving Kyrgyzstan a lot of coverage and for anyone interested a lot of news is collated here :

    Kyrgyzstan news, all the latest and breaking Kyrgyzstan news - Telegraph


  9. #9
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    Kyrgyzstan's referendum held in calm atmosphere - official
    27/06/2010



    Kyrgyzstan is holding its referendum on changes to the constitution and public confidence in the interim government in a calm atmosphere, a government official said on Sunday.

    A total of 2.7 million Kyrgyz citizens eligible for voting have an opportunity to vote to curtail the president's powers and convert Kyrgyzstan into a parliamentary republic.

    "The night [before the referendum] was calm in all of the country's districts and regions and the referendum is being held in a calm atmosphere,"

    Almazbek Atambayev, first deputy prime minister of the interim government, said, after voting at a polling station in the capital Bishkek.

    The polls are taking place despite recent inter-ethnic clashes in the republic. The riots, which began in the country's southern city of Osh on June 11 and spread to nearby Jalalabad region, have claimed the lives of more than 270 people, according to official estimates. Kyrgyz officials acknowledge that the real death toll may be ten times higher.

    Voters at the referendum will also be asked to endorse interim Prime Minister Roza Otunbayeva as president until December 31, 2011. She will not be entitled to run for president in the October 2011 elections.

    The Kyrgyz authorities allowed citizens to vote from wherever they were on the day of the referendum, taking into consideration the huge number of displaced people in the country following the unrest.

    Otunbayeva arrived on Saturday in Osh, where several thousand buildings were damaged or destroyed during the riots, to take part in the referendum. The interim government, which has been criticized for insufficient efforts taken to quench the unrest, is now struggling to improve its authority.

    A total of 189 observers from 18 international organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, will monitor the polls, the Central Election Commission's spokeswoman said.

    Kyrgyzstan will become a parliamentary republic if half of the voters plus one support the government's proposal.

    The interim government came to power in Kyrgyzstan amid April's large-scale opposition protests, which overthrew president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The ousted Kyrgyz leader has fled the country and taken refuge in Belarus.

    A total of 2,281 polling stations will be open across Kyrgyzstan on Sunday, and 38 more will wait for for Kyrgyz citizens abroad. Around 7.5 thousand police officers and the same number of voluntary helpers are deployed to ensure security during the vote.

    en.rian.ru

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