Kyrgyzstan / Uzbekistan

Uzbeks Run for Cover as Rioting Youths Seize Army Equipment
By Rayhan Demytrie
The Independent, June 15, 2010
[Photo: "An Uzbek man lies injured after ethnic violence in Osh yesterday" (Victor Drachev/AFP/Getty]
"The sound of crying fills the air at this makeshift refugee centre just inside Uzbekistan where hundreds of Uzbeks fleeing mob violence in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan have found shelter. There are no young men, just women, children and the elderly. Most of the working-age men were not allowed across the border, and many stayed behind to defend their property after marauding Kyrgyz gangs embarked on three days of killing in the worst ethnic violence in the country for two decades. As mobile phone networks crashed, none of the women here are able to contact their male relatives back in Kyrgyzstan where at least 124 people have died during days of unrest. None of them know if their husbands and sons are still alive. This is one of several camps that the Uzbek authorities say they have set up for refugees who surged across the border over the weekend. The border has now been closed to further traffic, leaving thousands stuck.
A Moscow-dominated security group yesterday stopped short of pledging troops to restore order, despite requests from the interim Kyrgyz government and the ousted president it replaced in April, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. However, the regional alliance, the CSTO, said that it may send helicopters, trucks and other equipment, according to Russian agency reports, to help the government quell the unrest. Rioting and attacks on Uzbeks, who make up about 15 per cent of the population, appeared to be fewer than in previous days but there were still reports of violence across the south, particularly in the town of Jalal-Abad. ... At the hospital in the city of Andijan, on the Uzbek side of the border, doctors told Russian news agencies that more than 7,000 people had presented themselves for treatment, including 80 with gunshot wounds. They also said 80 pregnant women in danger of suffering miscarriages had been admitted to the hospital. Aid agencies spoke of a 'humanitarian catastrophe' ...The full scale of the violence is unclear, but it seems that the current official death toll is likely to rise dramatically. Uzbek community leaders in Jalal-Abad claimed that 700 people had been killed there alone."
[n.b. Note the statement: "There are no young men, just women, children and the elderly. Most of the working-age men were not allowed across the border, and many stayed behind to defend their property." Not allowed to reach refuge on gender grounds? Where is the international outcry about this?]