Kirghizstan: deux morts et 62 blessés dans des violences à Djalal-Abad

AFP

19 05 2010

BICHKEK — Deux personnes ont été tuées et 45 blessées dans de nouvelles violences interethniques dans le sud du Kirghizstan, a indiqué mercredi le gouvernement provisoire, accusant les partisans du président déchu Kourmanbek Bakiev d’en être à l’origine pour tenter de reprendre le pouvoir.

Au cours d’échanges de coups de feu à Djalal-Abad, bastion de M. Bakiev, « deux personnes sont mortes et 62 ont été blessées », a indiqué à l’AFP le ministère de la Santé.

Un précédent bilan faisait état d’un mort et 17 blessés.

Des coups de feu ont été échangés dans les rues entre des fauteurs de troubles et des unités spéciales de la police. Des centaines de manifestants armés notamment de bâtons et de cailloux ont encerclé l’université locale.

Le chef du gouvernement provisoire, Rosa Otounbaïeva, a indiqué que la situation dans la ville était « tendue », mais que les autorités avaient déployé « tous les moyens et forces nécessaires » pour en garder le contrôle.

« Les manifestants essaient de s’emparer du bâtiment de l’université et de l’incendier », a-t-elle déclaré.

« Nous considérons ces événements comme des conflits interethniques qui ont pour but de répandre la haine entre les gens, en particulier entre Kirghiz et Ouzbeks », a-t-elle ajouté.

Selon des témoins, des Kirghiz de plusieurs régions envisageaient de se rendre à Djalal-Abad, tandis qu’environ 1.500 Ouzbeks tentaient de rejoindre le centre-ville.

Djalal-Abad est située au pied d’un massif montagneux proche de la frontière avec l’Ouzbékistan.

Le gouvernement provisoire estime que ces violences sont le fait d' »éléments destructeurs » liés à la mouvance « pro-Bakiev », et déjà mis en cause dans les incidents survenus les 12, 13 et 14 mai à Bichkek, la capitale, Och et Djalal-Abad, deux grandes villes du sud, bastion de M. Bakiev.

« Maintenant, ils ont atteint la limite la plus dangereuse pour tenter de revenir au pouvoir (…) en provoquant des conflits interethniques », a-t-il ajouté dans un communiqué.

Djalal-Abad a déjà été le théâtre vendredi de violences entre partisans et opposants du gouvernement intérimaire qui ont fait un mort et près de 60 blessés, plongeant dans l’incertitude ce pays d’Asie centrale, un mois après une révolution sanglante qui a fait 86 morts à Bichkek.

Le regain de tension est un test pour le nouveau régime, dont l’arrivée au pouvoir avait dès le début suscité la méfiance dans le Sud, terre natale de Kourmanbek Bakiev, désormais exilé au Bélarus.

M. Bakiev avait lui-même été porté au pouvoir par une révolution en mars 2005 qui avait débuté dans le Sud avant de remonter sur Bichkek. Au cours de sa présidence rocambolesque, il avait renoué avec les dérives du régime autoritaire et clientéliste qu’il avait renversé.

Two dead after ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan

Associated Press

Wednesday 19 May 2010

State of emergency declared after at least two people were killed and 50 wounded in violent clashes outside a university

Several thousand people tried to storm a university in an outbreak of ethnic violence this weekthat has left at least two people dead and 50 wounded in Kyrgyzstan.

Eyewitnesses in the southern town of Jalal-Abad said thousands of ethnic Kyrgyz advanced on the private university, which serves as the centre of the minority Uzbek community. They said gunfire broke out as crowds approached the building, encircled by a cordon of special security forces. Some of the Kyrgyz assailants wielded spears.

The head of the interim government, Roza Otunbayeva, responded by declaring a state of emergency and a curfew in Jalal-Abad and the surrounding area. She dispatched the acting interior minister to oversee the area, where support for the former president still runs strong.

Kyrgyzstan has been struggling to maintain stability in the weeks after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted from power amid deadly clashes between government forces and demonstrators that claimed 89 lives.

Tensions have long simmered between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek – both Sunni Muslim groups – in the former Soviet nation’s restive south. In 1990, hundreds were killed in a violent land dispute between the two communities in towns across southern Kyrgyzstan, which borders Uzbekistan.

It was not clear who opened fire in Jalal-Abad, but interior ministry spokeswoman Gulsara Alieva said that nobody in the crowd appeared to be armed.

At least two people were killed and 50 hurt, according to the Health Ministry. Some of the injured were being treated for gunshot wounds.

Witnesses said the crowd assembled in front of the university threw stones at the building and shouted demands for the hand-over of Uzbek community leader Kadyrjan Batyrov, whom they charge with inciting racial tension. Batyrov, a wealthy businessman, paid for the construction of the Peoples’ Friendship University.

In the middle of the afternoon, privately owned Akipress news agency cited eyewitnesses as saying that about 1,500 ethnic Uzbeks, some of them wielding spears, were moving toward the central square, where a crowd of ethnic Kyrgyz was assembled. Soldiers barred the Uzbeks’ movement toward the square, the agency reported.

Otunbayeva said every possible measure is being taken to defuse the situation.

« We have recently demonstrated that we are capable of securing the peace, » she said at a government meeting in Bishkek, the capital. « Law enforcement agencies will do everything in their power in Jalal-Abad to make certain there are no incidents. »

Kyrgyzstan declares state of emergency in south

AFP

19 05 2010

BISHKEK — The Kyrgyz interim government declared a state of emergency Wednesday in the south of the Central Asian state following clashes between rival ethnic groups and police that left two people dead.

« To ensure the security of citizens, the quickest possible normalisation of the situation and a return to public order, the decision has been taken to establish a state of emergency from today to June 1, » it said in a statement.

The decree, signed by interim government head Roza Otunbayeva, will establish a curfew from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am local time in the southern city of Jalalabad and the neighboring Suzak district.

The announcement came even as the interim government in Bishkek voted to decree Otunbayeva president until December 31, 2011, scrapping presidential polls planned for October this year.

To come into force, the decree must still win approval in a nationwide referendum to be held on June 27, when Kyrygzstan will also vote on a draft of their new constitution.

« In October, only parliament elections will be held, » Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, a member of the commission charged with drafting the new constitution, explained in comments to AFP.

It was the latest move by the interim government to assert control over the unruly ex-Soviet state as it faces sporadic instability and violence in the south since the ousting of president Kurmanbek Bakiyev last month.

The strategic ex-Soviet state is home to a key US airbase used for the transit of supplies for the conflict in Afghanistan as well as a Russian military base.

Two people were killed and scores injured earlier Wednesday when shots rang out during clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Jalalabad, where police forces attempted to stop the hundred-strong groups from storming a local university, officials and reports said.

It was not clear who fired the shots, but the deputy head of the interior ministry in the capital Bishkek was quick to deny police had interfered.

Jalalabad is in the Ferghana valley, a region uneasily divided among Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which has been the scene of sporadic unrest since 1991 Soviet collapse.

« Two people were killed and 72 wounded, including a five-year-old girl, in gunfights in the city of Jalalabad, » the health ministry told AFP.

In Bishkek, the head of the country’s interim government Roza Otunbayeva called the situation « tense », saying Uzbek-Kyrgyz ethnic tensions were fueling the violence.

« The situation today in Jalalabad is tense » she told reporters. « We blame these actions on ethnic conflict… between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. »

The unrest followed clashes last week that left at least one dead and scores wounded when hundreds of Bakiyev’s supporters battled factions loyal to the government, briefly seizing key regional buildings.

Citing eyewitnesses, the Kyrgyz news agency Aki-Press said a crowd of about 1,500 ethnic Uzbeks brandishing sharpened sticks roamed the centre of Jalalabad, while shops and banks have shut down.

At the local university, some 500 Uzbeks clashed with a group of ethnic Kyrgyz, pelting each other and the police with stones, an employee of the regional administration, Zamir Sadirov, told AFP.

Protestors demanded the resignation of the university’s rector and of the regional interim governor, the head of a local NGO said.

« Both the demonstrators and the special forces are shooting. The wounded are being carried away, but the protestors are not backing down, » Batykan Zhaparova told AFP. « It’s mostly young people dressed in tracksuits. »

But the deputy head of the Kyrgyz interior ministry, Melis Turganbayev, denied reports that police forces had fired on protestors, saying that such reports « could escalate tensions. »

« In Jalalabad, the police and special forces did not shoot on protestors. They are observing neutrality, » Turganbayev told reporters.

30 injured, one killed in Jalalabad

english.ruvr.ru

19 05 2010

Ethnic clashes in the Kyrgyz city of Jalalabad on Wednesday have left 30 people injured and one killed. Reports by the Kyrgyz Health Ministry say doctors who are helping out to render first aid to the injured have asked the police for security guarantees. The situation in Jalalabad remains tense. Sales outlets, markets and education establishments stay shut after the protesters threw stones at the University of People’s Friendship following a rally at the city race course on Wednesday morning. The University of People’s Friendship was opened on donations from the local Uzbek community. Crowds of protesters headed for the premises of the leader of the Uzbek community but were stopped by riot police.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 20 Mai 2010.

Publié dans émeutes, бунт, riots