Kyrgyzstan / Russia

Kyrgyzstan Begs Russia's Help to Quell Ethnic Violence
Agence France-Presse dispatch on RawStory.com, June 12, 2010
"Kyrgyzstan imposed a state of emergency in a second southern city as its interim leader warned ethnic violence is spiralling 'out of control' and asked Russia to send in troops. Interim President Roza Otunbayeva appealed to Moscow to intervene militarily after at least 75 people were killed and 977 wounded, according to the health ministry, in nearly three days of unrest. 'Since yesterday the situation has got out of control. We need outside military forces to halt the situation. For this reason we have appealed to Russia for help,' said Otunbayeva in a nationally televised address. But while Moscow said it was rushing humanitarian aid to the former Soviet Central Asian republic, a spokeswoman for President Dmitry Medvedev said it would not yet send troops.
'This is an internal conflict and Russia does not yet see the conditions for its participating in resolving it,' Natalya Timakhova was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying. A decision to dispatch peacekeepers could be taking only after consultations with the United Nations, she added. The provisional government -- which seized control in April -- is struggling to halt a descent into civil war between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the south of the country. [...]"