Kyrgyz Human Rights Activists Gather Testimonies from Hospitals
Both Kyrgyz and Uzbek local human rights groups in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have been attempting to document the stories of internally displaced and refugees to attempt to record atrocities and shed light on the events in southern Kyrgyzstan since the outbreak of conflict on June 10.
As tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbek refugees are now making their way back to devastated neighborhoods in Osh, Jalal-Abad and environs, with many thousands remaining, violence seems to have abated. Yet the fear of fresh outbreaks is palpable and rumors of revenge abound. Questions continued to be asked about the origin of the events, with the hope that if the perpetrators can be found and prosecuted, further distrust and violence can be deterred.
Human Rights First, a U.S.-based international organization with a lot of experience covering conflicts and helping asylum-seekers in the U.S. fleeing from the world's war zones, has issued a statement that Kyrgyzstan's conflict has all the red flags of mass crimes against humanity seen in other troubled regions of the world:
The violence that started in southern Kyrgyzstan last week demands attention not only because of the deaths and displacement of civilians and a growing humanitarian crisis. Perhaps more worrying is the greater violence these recent events could portend. Reports indicate that the outbreak of killing in Kyrgyzstan not only is occurring along ethnic lines, but is also organized. These two characteristics are common harbingers of mass atrocities and have been seen in countries such as Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sudan.
Human Rights First says the international community must take seriously these warning signs of mass atrocities and immediately seek answers to the following questions, which they say have similar patterns in various situations around the world:
Who are the organizers of the violence?
Who is supplying the perpetrators?
What can be done to disrupt the identified supply chains?
Are U.S. (or other countries') trade and assistance indirectly benefitting the perpetrators of mass atrocities?
Local groups have been on the frontlines trying to answer these questions themselves. Tolekan Ismailova and Aziz Abdirasulova, two well-known Kyrgyz human rights activists, visited Uzbek mahallas (communities) in Osh. Their report issued June 18 was distributed by email by Citizens Against Corruption, a Kyrgyz NGO in Bishek. The following is an edited and condensed translation.
The two women interviewed wounded people in hospitals in southern Kyrgyzstan, asking them about the onset of the conflict June 10. Their account, based on eyewitness testimonies from injured Uzbek and Kyrgyz citizens they interviewed in hospitals, paints a picture of ethnic Uzbeks from out of town who instigated local ethnic Uzbek youths who then clashed with Kyrgyz youth.
Eyewitnesses report that on the evening of June 10, young Uzbeks gathered at the Hotel Alay in Osh. The crowd included local Uzbeks as well as other Uzbeks from out of town, and they seemed to be in an aggressive mood. The Uzbeks from outside wore black t-shirts. Some elders from the mahallas came and tried to calm and disperse the crowds. Some local young people were prepared to leave, but the Uzbeks from out of town began to scream that they couldn't take it any more. Despite efforts lasting until 3:00 a.m. the elders were unable to dissuade the youths from starting a fight. At the same time, some young Kyrgyz men were near the Hotel Alay.
A senior staff member of the Interior Ministry of Kyrgyzstan gave testimony that he saw young Uzbek people who were not from the area, and were instigating trouble. He arrived at the scene without a weapon and tried to disperse the crowd. Some of the people in the crowd threw a stone at him and smashed his head. Another witness was surprised that this crowd did not seem to be making any demands. APCs arrived, and police managed to push the crowd back. Police then began to drag students from the hostel of Osh State University, which is near the Hotel Alay. Reports were received that at the Jedilik mahallah another crowd was gathering. Another witness said he saw two large crowds gathered elsewhere. He said he tried to disperse the crowd but was shot by small arms. Throughout the day there were reports that provocations were being made by ethnic Uzbeks.
A patient at the Kurmanjan Dutka hospital in Kyzylchek recounted that the first skirmish took place on June 11 in the moring at the Furhat mahalla and Uzbeks attacked the Kyzylchek village where Kyrgyz lived. At least 98 people were injured, 2 from stab wounds, and were taken to the hospital; at least 34 of them were seriously wounded, and some others killed. Victims and burned corpses continued to be brought to the hospital on June 12, many with their throats slashed, all of them from the Kyrgyz neighborhoods of Furhat and the villages of Kyzylchek and Medy. The victims reported that they were fired at from improvised weapons, slashed with knives, and wounded and dead were drenched with gasoline and set on fire. Uzbeks placed the Kyrgyz kalpak (national hat) under the arms of the dead bodies.
Kyrgyz then captured some APCs, and began the pogroms against the Uzbek mahallas, riding into the neighborhoods followed by crowds of young Kyrgyz. About 3,000 people gathered in Furhat on June 12, and Azimbek Beknazarov, deputy head of the provisional government, and I. Isakas arrived by helicopter, but they failed to calm the crowd. Police fired into the air, which angered the crowd, and people began to throw stones at the officials.
In the initial days of the conflict (June 10-11), Kyrgyz victims were brought to the hospitals; by June 12-13 the victims were Uzbeks. The two human rights activists attempted to record the dates of delivery of the wounded to different hospitals and say there are many questions left open. Authorities are refusing to give out information about the dead and injured.
Based on the hospital testimonies, Abdirasulova believes there are many more persons killed than the government has officially stated. During her visit to the Uzbek mahallas, residents reported a mass grave in which 200 people had been buried, and in the village of Shaytobe, another mass grave of 45 people. They also said that the dead had been buried in gardens and back yards and that many had died in Chon-Alai and Alai regions.
Abdirasulova is calling for a full independent investigation and warns of a dangerous situation where both sides in the conflict have begun to take hostages, continue to talk about revenge, and rumors have circulated that elders in the mahallas have given young people the blessing for jihad. The interrim government is widely perceived as having displayed its incompetence, corruption and disinterest in resolving the conflict.
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