The Kyrgyz Ministry of Health has revised upward to 355 the officially-registered death toll for the conflict in southern Kyrgyzstan in June, noting that at least 2,326 were wounded. Yet NGOs continue to collect testimony that many more deaths have occurred, and that at least 60 people are still missing. At least 400,000 were displaced, and while many have returned from Uzbekistan, at least 40,000 are homeless, living in tents outside their burned neighborhoods. International health and rights groups say ethnic Uzbeks are being deprived of medical treatment and opportunities to seek refuge in neighboring Uzbekistan. Doctors Without Borders reports that they are seeing a growing number of patients with cuts and signs of torture.
Aside from those displaced and homeless, an estimated 20,000 Uzbeks have left for Russia and other neighboring countries, feeling insecure in the Osh region as Kyrgyz police continue to organize sweeps of ethnic Uzbek neighborhoods. About 700 refugees remain in hiding in Uzbekistan without legal status and with no recourse to assistance. Uzbek authorities forced all but the most severely wounded to return to Kyrgyzstan in time for the June 27 referendum, using a variety of coercive methods.
Human rights activists are concerned that Jakhangir Jalaliddin Salakhuddinov, an ethnic Uzbek leader from Osh, may have been detained and is still being held. His driver reports that he was arrested by unknown forces in Bishkek and taken back to Osh. Salakhuddinov is the head of the Uzbek National Center in Osh and has been reported as still missing after more than a day by NGO local activists. EurasiaNet has not yet been able to confirm the report.
At a donors' conference this week, Kyrgyzstan said it needed $1.2 billion to recover from the recent conflict in the south, more than 25 percent of the national budget, EurasiaNet reported. Analysts wondered how such a huge cash infusion would be absorbed, as Kyrgyzstan ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world. Pointed questions were also asked about the enormous contribution expected from the international community, while Bishkek has been unable to ensure cooperation with the OSCE's unarmed police observers' mission, under fire from some Kyrgyz power ministry officials who say they cannot guarantee its protection, and Melisbek Myrzakmatov, Mayor of Osh, who seems to have organized some "rent-a-crowd" protests to make the foreigners feel unwelcome.
At a hearing on the conflict in Kyrgyzstan at the U.S. Helsinki Commission (the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe), Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake testified, based on his recent trip to Bishkek and Osh, that fear and tension remain among ethnic Uzbeks in the south and that the national interim government could do more for reconciliation. "Reports that the Kyrgyz government intends to expropriate property in destroyed Uzbek neighborhoods, as part of an urban renewal effort, replacing traditional houses organized into ethnic neighborhoods with modern apartments for ethnically mixed communities, are feeding fears of disenfranchisement and possible renewed violence,” he said.
Many international leaders have called for an impartial investigation of the atrocities in Kyrgyzstan, but it has taken weeks to get started, as various multilateral bodies decide whether they can be institutionally engaged. Petros Efthymiou, the newly-elected president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), said on July 28 that his organization supports the efforts of Finnish parliamentarian Kimmo Kiljunen, who was requested by Interim President Roza Otunbayeva to help coordinate an international commission earlier this month. Interim President Otunbayeva has now sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon requesting assistance and is still awaiting response.
Kyung-wha Kang , the deputy UN high commissioner for human rights, made an unexpected visit to Osh to study the situation regarding protection of the rights of national minorities. "It is premature to speak about stabilization unless the victims feel secure," she said at a meeting with local authorities.
Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi expressed optimism that meetings with other members of the OSCE would help free the movement of people and goods across Central Asia, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. Uzbekistan has been holding up more than 1,000 freight cars with construction materials bound for Tajikistan as protest against Dushanbe’s plans to build the Roghun hydropower plant, a project that Tashkent says will harm its water supply.
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick compiles the Uzbekistan weekly roundup for EurasiaNet. She is also editor of EurasiaNet's Choihona blog. To subscribe to Uzbekistan News Briefs, write [email protected]
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