Ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan (both Uzbek and Kygryz ethnic groups are predominantly Muslim)
Mobs of armed men torched Uzbek neighborhoods in southern Kyrgyzstan on Friday in ethnic clashes that officials said left at least 37 people dead and over 500 wounded. A state of emergency was declared in the Central Asian nation that hosts U.S. and Russian military bases.
The rioting in Osh, the country’s second-largest city, is the heaviest violence since former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was toppled in a bloody uprising in April and fled the country.
The intensity of the conflict, which pits ethnic Kyrgyz against minority Uzbeks, appears to have taken authorities by surprise and has thrown the fragile interim government’s prospects for survival into doubt.
Quelling the violence will prove a decisive test of the government’s ability to control the country, hold a June 27 vote on a new constitution and go ahead with new parliamentary elections scheduled for October.
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