Westerners evacuated from Kyrgyzstan battle zone

Germany has evacuated 89 westerners, including 31 Americans and 40 Europeans, from the violence-torn city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan.

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said the German consulate organised two charter planes to take the people to safety in the capital Bishkek in the north of the country. He said they arrived safely today.

The southern part of the impoverished Central Asian nation has been convulsed by days of ethnic rioting targeting minority Uzbeks, which has left the country’s second-largest city, Osh, in ruins and sent a stampede of Uzbek families fleeing toward the border.

Omurbek Suvanaliyev, regional police chief, said clashes are continuing in and around Osh.

The health ministry said the death toll has reached 171, with nearly 1,800 injured.

About 200,000 people have fled the violence, UN refugee agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in Geneva.

Rupert Collie, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said there was evidence the violence was co-ordinated.

The United Nations and European Union are urging Kyrgyzstan not to allow the unrest to derail a referendum on a constitution followed by parliamentary elections.

Kyrgyzstan’s interim government, which took over when former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in an April uprising, has accused Mr Bakiyev’s family of instigating the violence to halt a June 27 referendum on a new constitution.

Uzbeks have mostly backed the interim government, while many Kyrgyz in the south have supported Mr Bakiyev.

Mr Bakiyev, speaking from his self-imposed exile in Belarus, has denied any ties to the violence.

Interim president Roza Otunbayeva said Bakiyev supporters stoked the conflict.

“Many instigators have been detained and they are giving evidence on Bakiyev’s involvement in the events. No one has doubts that he is involved,” she said.

Rupert Collie, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva there was evidence the violence was co-ordinated and began with five simultaneous attacks in Osh by men wearing balaclavas.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also said the fighting “appears to be orchestrated, targeted and well-planned” and urged authorities to act before it spreads further.

Kyrgyz security chief Kenishbek Duishebayev said Mr Bakiyev’s younger son Maxim was arrested on Monday in Britain. Prosecutors allege that companies he owned avoided almost $80m (€65m) in taxes on aviation fuel sold to suppliers of the US air base near the capital Bishkek.

Suspects from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan were also detained and claimed to have been hired by Bakiyev supporters to start the rioting, government spokesman Farid Niyazov said.

UN representative Miroslav Jenca, visiting the capital of Bishkek today, said the June 27 referendum and parliamentary elections scheduled in October must go ahead so Kyrgyzstan moves further toward democracy.

“The referendum and the elections must be held at the announced times,” Mr Jenca said, a position backed by the EU, according to Germany’s ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Holger Green.

Yet the scale of the damage is so vast in the south it is hard to see how a legitimate vote could be held in less than two weeks. Up to 200,000 people have fled violence within Kyrgyzstan since Thursday, UN refugee agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in Geneva.