Photographer Dalton Bennett was in southern Kyrgyzstan during the early days of the inter-ethnic violence that claimed hundreds of lives and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes. Here is his account of his experiences at makeshift camps of displaced Uzbeks and elsewhere.
The emergence of troubling information about the recent violence in southern Kyrgyzstan – that the violence was planned, may have been abetted by Kyrgyz security forces, and predominately targeted ethnic Uzbeks – is raising the potential for an explosive reaction in Uzbekistan.
Attempts by the interim Kyrgyz government to control media coverage of the bloodshed in Osh and Jalal-Abad and to blame its political opponents for the unrest appear to be aggravating tensions in southern Kyrgyzstan. Uzbek community representatives, in turn, charge that the interim government has imposed de-facto censorship to conceal alleged ethnic cleansing in southern Kyrgyzstan.
The inter-ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan is posing a political challenge for Uzbekistan. The Influx of tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbek refugees into Uzbekistan is straining the country’s infrastructure. Meanwhile, Tashkent so far has been unusually reticent in its diplomatic dealings with Kyrgyzstan’s provisional government.
As it strives to keep a lid on inter-ethnic tension in southern Kyrgyzstan, the country’s provisional government is confronting a lose-lose proposition.
