Affrontements au Kyrgyzstan (Кыргызстан) avril 2009
Kyrgyzstan: Ethnic Troubles Again
April 27th, 2009
On 26th, April, there were mass riots in the Petrovka village, which is about 100 km. from Bishkek. Local residents suspected one of the villagers in the attempt to rape a little girl and made big scuffle and the pogroms.
As the result, more than 80 people were arrested in the village, 15 houses damaged, one jeep was burnt, but no victims.
The next day, April 27, more than three hundred villagers gathered at the rally and demanded the release of the arrested young people. The villagers refused to talk with the head of the presidential administration Daniyar Usenov who came to the village and blocked the road to Osh city. Later the road was cleared by the special forces with the dogs. By the evening of the same day, almost all detainees were released. According to the court decision almost all of them got the administrative penalty – one day seizure.
The head of Ministry of Internal Affairs Moldomusa Kongantiev told that the case will be investigated by the Department of State Committee on National Security.
Work investigation group, which now works in the village, announced possible reasons [ru] of pogroms in Petrovka.
Earlier, grandmother of the four-year girl brought a statement to the local police. She accused the local resident, ethnic Kurds of rapping of her granddaughter. After conducting all necessary procedures, experts rejected the version of rape, but the child has discovered a venereal disease. According to preliminary versions, it is possible that a child engaged in other, non-sexual act, which led to the contamination. But on April 19th, grandmother hanged.
The head of the local district Deptagy Arinov, the chief of the district police department Zhenishbek Zhorobekov and district attorney Kubanychbek Alyshbaev were dismissed after pogroms.
President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev has expressed his outrage [ru] with “unacceptably long term investigation of the case” and “inaction by local authorities. ” The President demanded until tomorrow morning to find and bring to justice the perpetrators of that investigation and officials of local authorities, who brought the situation to a critical point.
The reaction of the Internet-community at this incident was pessimistic.
UPDATE: Kyrgyzstan Arrests 100 After Anti-Kurdish Riots |
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| Monday April 27th, 2009 / 18h50 |
(Updates with higher number of arrests)
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AFP)–About 100 people were arrested in Kyrgyzstan after rioters rampaged through a village and attacked homes of ethnic Kurds, officials said Monday.
Initially the authorities said the violence was caused by local residents avenging the rape of a four-year-old girl, but they later denied the rape had taken place and blamed opposition political groups for the riots.
The unrest broke out late Sunday in Petrovka, a village some 40 kilometers from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that is home to some members of the country’s small Kurdish minority.
Officials said several hundred residents destroyed Kurdish homes and smashed about a dozen cars in the riots.
Then on Monday authorities broke up a protest of hundreds of locals who had blocked a key highway to demand that authorities release people who had been detained and that Kurds be expelled from the area.
« In total about 100 people were arrested during the disturbances, right now half of them have been released, » Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev told the country’s parliament.
Earlier reports said about 50 people had been arrested. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
Officials initially said locals were outraged by the rape of a four-year-old ethnic Russian girl by a Kurdish man. The Interior Ministry said that a man named Abdullah had raped the girl in a state of intoxication on April 7.
But Kongantiyev said that forensic experts had established that no rape had taken place and that the country’s opposition had instigated the riots after the girl’s grandmother committed suicide.
« On this basis the opposition quickly exploited and escalated the situation, inciting youth, » Kongantiyev said, singling out opposition presidential candidate Almazbek Atambayev, who addressed protesters in Petrovka on Monday.
Atambayev – a former prime minister who was confirmed on Saturday as a candidate in July 23 elections – in turn blamed authorities for the unrest.
« Our children are raped, and the police blame opponents of the government, this is what we have come to, » Atambayev told reporters.
Atambayev is expected to challenge Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in the July election, and relations between the government and the opposition have been tense in the run-up to the vote.
Police Monday dispersed a protest of around 500 people who blocked the Bishkek-Osh highway – the main road connecting the north and south of the country – who had demanded the expulsion of Kurds from the village.
« The police used force to clear traffic on the road… Special forces and police with dogs were used, » an interior ministry spokesperson told AFP.
Several thousand Kurds live in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous former Soviet republic that borders China.
Around 30,000 Kurds settled in Kyrgyzstan after they were deported from the Caucasus region by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1937 and 1944.
Kirghizstan: une cinquantaine d’arrestations après des émeutes anti-kurdes
27 avril 2009
BICHKEK – Une cinquantaine de personnes ont été placées en détention au Kirghizstan après une émeute anti-kurde dans un village du nord du pays qui visait à venger le viol d’une fillette, ont annoncé lundi les autorités kirghizes qui accusent l’opposition d’avoir fomenté ces troubles.
« Plusieurs centaines d’habitants ont détruit les maisons des Kurdes. Une vingtaine de maisons ont été endommagées et une douzaine de voitures ont été détruites », a déclaré le vice-ministre de l’Intérieur, Talantbek Issaïev, lors d’une conférence de presse.
L’émeute s’est déroulée tard dimanche soir dans le village de Petrovka, à une quarantaine de kilomètres de Bichkek, la capitale kirghize. Elle a été déclenchée par le viol d’une fillette par un Kurde, a indiqué le responsable.
Deux personnes ont été légèrement blessées, a indiqué un communiqué du ministère de l’Intérieur.
De son côté, l’opposition a fait état d’au moins un mort parmi des Kurdes.
La police a dispersé lundi une nouvelle manifestation sur la principale autoroute du pays reliant le nord et le sud de ce pays montagneux d’Asie centrale, a indiqué à l’AFP un porte-parole de la police.
Selon l’opposition, les habitants du village se sont déclarés prêts à poursuivre la manifestation mardi, en exigeant « le relâchement de tous les manifestants arrêtés et la poursuite en justice contre les Kurdes impliqués » selon eux « au viol de la fillette ».
Plus tard dans la journée, les autorités ont affirmé qu’aucun viol n’avait en réalité eu lieu et ont accusé l’opposition d’être derrière ces troubles, l’opposant Almazbek Atambaïev étant l’un des manifestants.
« Le soi-disant viol est à l’origine des troubles. L’expertise a montré qu’aucun viol n’a eu lieu. Ils l’ont pris comme prétexte pour organiser les troubles », a déclaré le ministre de l’Intérieur Moldomous Kongantiev à la tribune du Parlement.
M. Atambaïev, candidat de l’opposition à la présidentielle kirghize du mois de juillet, a de son côté accusé les forces de l’ordre « liées avec les criminels d’être responsables des troubles ».
Le chef du district où se trouve le village Petrovka, le procureur et le chef de la police locale ont par ailleurs été limogés, a indiqué le service de presse du gouvernement.
Après la déportation des Kurdes d’Azerbaïdjan vers l’Asie centrale en 1937 et en 1944 par Staline, quelque 30.000 d’entre eux sont restés au Kirghizstan.
Investigators suspect ethnic hatred behind mass fight in Kyrgyz village
27 avril 2009
Bishkek, April 27 (Interfax) – The authorities are investigating whether or not a mass brawl in a village outside Bishkek has been caused by « ethnic, racial or inter-regional hatred ».
The local prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case based on charges of « inciting ethnic, racial or inter-regional hatred, » a Kyrgyz Interior Ministry spokesman told Interfax on Monday.
However, officials of law enforcement services have categorically denied claims that it was an ethnically motivated conflict.
Ethnic Russian and Kyrgyz people from the village were involved in the fight against persons of Kurdish origin who live in the same village, the ministry spokesman said.
The fight is believed to have erupted in response to the raping of a young Russian girl by an ethnic Kurd.
« Interior affairs departments have detained more than 50 organizers and active participants of the brawl, » the spokesman said.
The village where the fight took place is inhabited mainly by ethnic Russian, Ukrainian, Kyrgyz and Karachay people. Ethnic Kurds appeared in the village at the beginning of the 1990s. More than 100 Kurdish families live in the village today, according to the local authorities.
Russian villagers attack Kurdish homes
Mon Apr 27, 2009
BISHKEK, April 27 (Reuters) – A group of Russian and Kyrgyz villagers pillaged the homes of ethnic Kurds in Kyrgyzstan in protest again the alleged rape of a four-year-old Russian girl, police said on Monday.
Tensions flared in the village of Petrovka late on Sunday when local villagers accused a Kurdish man of rape and started burning cars, throwing stones and smashing windows.
« The situation is under control now, » said Interior Ministry spokesman Bakyt Seitov. « No one was injured or killed. Russian and Kyrgyz men were on one side, and Kurds on the other. »
He said police had detained the rape suspect and were investigating the matter. Ethnic violence is rare in Central Asia, a former Soviet region where Turkic-speaking groups live along side Persians, Russians, Chinese and others.
In the last major case, hundreds of Kazakhs clashed with Chechens near the Kazakh financial capital of Almaty in 2007. Several people were killed. (Writing by Maria Golovnina, Editing by Richard Balmforth)
50 arrested after riots
April 27, 2009
BISHKEK (Kyrgyzstan) – MORE than 50 people were arrested in Kyrgyzstan after hundreds of rioters rampaged through a village and looted homes of ethnic Kurds to avenge the rape of a four-year-old girl, officials said on Monday.
Authorities in the Central Asian nation said the situation was under control but an independent radio station reported that locals were demanding that all Kurds leave the area within 24 hours.
The riots took place late Sunday in Petrovka, a village some 40 kilometres from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that is home to some members of the country’s small Kurdish minority.
‘Several hundred residents destroyed homes of Kurds. Around 20 houses were affected on several streets and a dozen cars were smashed,’ Deputy Interior Minister Talantbek Isayev told reporters.
More than 50 people were arrested for taking part in the riots, in which locals were seeking to avenge the rape of a four-year-old ethnic Russian girl by a Kurdish man, officials said.
About 200 ethnic Russian and Kyrgyz locals gathered in Petrovka on Monday to call for the expulsion of Kurds from the village, according to Azatyk radio, the Kyrgyz-language version of US-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe.
The leaders of the mob said Kurds had 24 hours to flee or else they would face violence, according to the radio station.
It also said two people were wounded by gunfire on Sunday after Kurdish residents fired on the rioters.
Several thousand Kurds live in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous former Soviet republic that borders China. — AFP
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