OSH, Kyrgyzstan, June 22 (Reuters) – Ethnic Uzbeks blockaded themselves into parts of Osh on Tuesday, afraid of renewed raids by Kyrgyz security forces after the violent clashes that have killed up to 2,000 in the south of the former Soviet republic.
Osh, epicentre of the bloodletting this month, was tense a day after security forces stormed ethnic Uzbek neighbourhoods to search for weapons ahead of a referendum on June 27 that the interim government hopes will secure its rule of Kyrgyzstan.
The United States and Russia, which both operate military air bases in Kyrgyzstan, are concerned that unrest could spread into other parts of Central Asia, a former Soviet region lying on a major drug-trafficking route out of nearby Afghanistan.
Interim government leader Roza Otunbayeva, who assumed power after an April 7 revolt toppled the president, remained in the south for a second day. She rejected calls on Monday for the referendum on constitutional reform to be postponed.
This month’s bloodshed destroyed entire neighbourhoods and sent 400,000 people fleeing for the Uzbek border, where they are living with little food in squalid camps.
Mainly Uzbek households were attacked during several days of killing that began on June 10. Locals said state troops, comprising mainly ethnic Kyrgyz soldiers, did little to protect them and in some cases took part in attacks.
In Dekhkan Kishlak, a mainly Uzbek suburb of Osh, locals said they had been beaten by Kyrgyz security forces and their jewellery and money stolen during a two-hour raid on Monday.
Several women said armed men identifying themselves as security forces burst into the district, beat them with rifle butts and stole sacks of flour delivered as humanitarian aid.
“They told us that, if we are still here in 10 days, we will be hanged from the lampposts,” said Karima, 34, a mother of three who declined to give her full name for fear of reprisals.
“Where should I go now? Who will help me?”
Only several hundred Uzbeks remain in the suburb, where two days earlier more than 1,500 people had sought refuge in concrete stables and dog kennels. Many have returned to their burned-out homes or are living in Uzbek houses elsewhere in Osh.
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Rights groups said more than 20 people were wounded on Monday when Kyrgyz forces raided another Uzbek settlement on the edge of Osh, Nariman.
A Reuters reporter saw men in embroidered skullcaps mourning the death of two civilians on Tuesday. A third man later died of a heart attack after being beaten with rifle butts, they said.
Large boulders had been rolled across the road into the troubled neighbourhood in an attempt to keep out Kyrgyz forces.
Kyrgyz authorities said law enforcement forces had run into “armed resistance” during the security checks.
“Everything is quiet and stable as of today. Police are in a state of heightened alert,” Bakyt Seitov, an Interior Ministry spokesman, told Kyrgyz television.
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While the official death toll is 214, Otunbayeva has said 10 times as many people may have been killed in the violence.
Her tiny, under-equipped army has struggled to bring order to the south and security worries have prevented relief organisations reaching the worst-affected areas.
Otunbayeva, who needs the referendum as a stepping stone towards presidential and parliamentary elections, has suggested security personnel loyal to ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev could have participated in the violence.
Bakiyev, who is in exile in Belarus, has denied any role in fomenting the clashes. The United States has called for an international investigation.
Otunbayeva says her government is capable of holding the referendum but some in Kyrgyzstan have called on her to put it off. Some fear holding the vote could trigger more unrest.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said it would not send short-term observers to Kyrgyzstan for the referendum for security reasons. (Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina in Bishkek, writing by Robin Paxton; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Ukraine’s Yanukovich fails in move to strengthen powers
(Reuters) – Allies of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich failed on Saturday in a first attempt to push through changes to the constitution that could significantly boost his political powers in the ex-Soviet republic.
Parliament launched a debate on Friday on a proposal by Yanukovich’s Regions Party that would allow for a referendum to decide whether curbs on presidential powers, agreed in 2004, should be lifted.
Political commentators said allies of Yanukovich, who was elected last February after a bitter political campaign against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, sought particularly to boost presidential authority over the government.
At the moment, the president can propose candidates only for foreign and defense ministers — and even they have to be accepted by parliament.
If the curbs were lifted, commentators said Yanukovich would effectively rule in a presidential system similar to that of many other former Soviet states, including Russia, with the right to name government ministers.
But when parliament met on Saturday in exceptional session several parties voiced opposition to agreeing on a referendum now. They included the Communists and the Lytvyn bloc which are part of the majority underpinning Yanukovich’s government.
Further debate on proposal was put off until September.
The present limits on presidential powers were imposed in 2004 when the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko came to power after the “Orange Revolution” street demonstrations, and partly contributed to his downfall.
Yushchenko’s five years in power were marked by constant confrontation with parliament and with Tymoshenko, his prime minister, and he crashed to a humiliating first-round defeat when he sought re-election this year.
Since he came to power with the financial backing of key business figures, Yanukovich has gradually tightened his grip in the country, appointed close allies to key positions in the power structure and tilted foreign policy back toward Ukraine’s old Soviet master, Russia.
But he said last month that the limits on the power of the presidency had produced a crisis of authority and he urged a change in the constitution.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Maria Golovnina)