Kyrgistan is plagued with ethnic violence

Kyrgistan is plagued with ethnic violence

Kyrgistan ,the former Soviet republic , has been plagued with ethnic violence for the last several days. Already one hundred and twenty four people have been killed and about twelve hundred injured. The city of Osh has seen street violence in the worst form. Thousands of people have fled the city and hundreds have crossed the border. ‘ curfew has been imposed and the order to’ shoot at sight’ has been declared, still situation is not under the control of the interim government. It has requested Russsia to send armed forces but Russia declined the request on the plea that the present crisis is the internal matter of Kyrgistan. They are not interested in poking their nose in their internal affairs. Of course, they are ready to offer humanitarian aids to the affected people. OIC and the Amnesty International have urged the government to ensure security for minority Uzbeks. Osh homes an air base that forms an important link in the supply line for US and NATO forces in nearby Afghanistan. In Washington, a senior Pentagon official said that ht turmoil has interrupted flights into and out of that facility, and it was unclear when those flights would resume. But the US military has contingency plans to deal with the situation, the official said.
“ We must restore a lot o things that have been wrongly ruled”-said Roza Otunbayeva, who called herself the country’s interim leader. Outunbayva is the head of Kygyztan’s Social Democratic Party and a member of its parliament. She was a leader of the protests that brought Bakiev to power in 2005 and she served as his foreign minister for about two years before quitting protesting his appointment of one of the president’s brothers to an ambassadorship. Opposition leaders have accused Bakiev of consolidating power by keeping key economic and security posts in the hands of relatives or close associates. Protests actually began on June 7in the northern city of Talas, over the increase in electric and fuel rates, which had been jacked up a the first of the year as Bakiev’s government sold the country’s pubic utilities to companies controlled by his friends. These incidents originated early in February when a fight broke out between Kyrgyz and Dungan youth. The Dungans are Muslim of Chinese origin, who moved to Central Asia in the 1870s to escape persecution at home. Many found refuge in Kyrgystan, then part of the Russian empire and there are about 40000 in the country today.Two Dungan youths are alleged to have attacked the pupils. Dungans accounts for 90 percent of the village’s 3000 residents. In the aftermath of the original incident, about 150 Iskra residents gathered to demand that some Dungan families be resettled which then escalated into protesters throwing stones and setting fires to some Dungan houses.
Dungan families have always been better off. Their children, w hen fighting or arguing with their Kyrgyz peers used to tease them that they are mainly poor. Many Kyrgyz work in the fields belonging to Dungan people who are sometimes viewed as outsiders, so this resentment is growing further. Dugans have the new administration is doing to check a growing nationalism In the country that is affecting minorities.After the wave of land grabs that followed the change in power in Kyrgystan in March 2005 local ethnic Turks in Novopavlovka village, found leaflets on their doors that said, “ Down with Turks, go away from our land. We will burn you if you hesitate.” During the power vacuum that followed the ouster of Akayes’v regime many ethnic Russian businesses were targeted by looters. Dungans feel they are under pressure and could face an uncertain future if the new government choose to play the ethnic card to boost support. ‘We have never felt persecuted in Kyrgystan, but that could change and there’s plenty of concern.’-said one Dungan.
The demonstrators spread to the capital on June 7 after the government responded by arresting opposition leaders in Talas. Ethnic clashes in Kyrgystan hijacked the agenda of the annual summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with the SCO leaders vowing to intervene to help stabilize the fellow member-state.Russian president Dmitry Mededev voiced ‘ extreme concern’ over renewed violence in Kyrgystan which is a founding member of the Shanghi group. The interim government of Kyrgystan declared a state of emergency and deployed armored vehicles in the city, but reports form Osh said inter-ethnic clashes resumed in the outskirts of the city with Kyrgyz youths burning Uzbek houses.
Between 1991 and 2002 more than 600000 people emigrated from Kyrgystan and the ethnic minority population declined from 47 to 33 percent. Ethnic clashes have been infrequent but sometimes serious. Fights between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern cities of Osh and Uzgen on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 claimed more than 300 lives. It again starts responding to some irritable points. Let it be cool by the hands of the neighboring and powerful states. The people of Osh and the whole Kyrgistan must restrain themselves and accept the reality that the existence of different caste, creed and religion should live in one territory. Temporary violence, excitement and threatening situation never brings any better results rather it becomes boomerang for all involved.

Md. Masum Billah
Senior Manager: BRAC Education Programme, PACE
Cell: 01714-091431
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com