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Russia drops paratroopers into Kyrgyzstan
(Reuters) - Russia sent at least 150 paratroopers to Kyrgyzstan on Sunday to protect its military facilities as ethnic clashes spread in the Central Asian state, bringing the death toll from days of fighting to 113.Several units of paratroopers arrived on Sunday to protect servicemen and families at Russia's Kant airbase in the north of the country, a Kremlin spokesman said. A Defence Ministry spokesman said 150 armed paratroopers had been sent, while ITAR-TASS news agency, citing ministry sources, said at least 300 were dispatched. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he believed 15 Pakistani citizens were taken hostage and one killed in Osh. The Kyrgyz government said it was checking the reports. Ethnic Uzbeks in a besieged neighbourhood of Kyrgyzstan's second city Osh said gangs were carrying out "genocide," burning residents out of their homes and shooting them as they fled. Witnesses saw bodies lying on the streets. Rights activists said the authorities were failing to stop the violence, and occasionally joining in. "Residents are calling us and saying soldiers are firing at them. There's an order to shoot the marauders, but they aren't shooting them," said ex-parliamentary deputy Alisher Sabirov, a peacekeeping volunteer in Osh. Russia's RIA news agency quoted an unnamed official in the Uzbek emergency ministry official as saying that 75,000 refugees may have crossed the border. A Red Cross official in Uzbekistan said the figure was far lower, but likely in the thousands. Berg of Human Rights Watch said she understood thousands had fled. Some had crossed the border and others were massed on the Kyrgyz side, mainly women and children. "The men stayed. They are either dead or in Osh, trying to protect the houses that haven't yet been set on fire." The upsurge in violence has killed more people than the riots that accompanied the overthrow of Bakiyev. Otunbayeva, whose government has only limited control over the south, has accused supporters of Bakiyev of stoking ethnic conflict. Bakiyev issued a statement from exile in Belarus, describing claims he was behind the clashes as "shameless lies." Renewed turmoil in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, has fuelled concern in Russia, the United States and neighbour China. Washington uses an air base at Manas in the north of the country, about 300 km (190 miles) from Osh, to supply its forces in Afghanistan.
Posted by: 2010-06-14 |
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