Fearing for their lives, ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan refuse calls to return to their homes

Ethnic Uzbeks refuse to go home in Kyrgyzstan

SURATASH, Kyrgyzstan — Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks massed on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan refused to return home Sunday, saying they feared for their lives after violent pogroms and don’t trust Kyrgyz troops to protect them.

Associated Press reporters saw some 50 Kyrgyz troops, many in armored transport carriers, enter the border village of Suratash and try to reassure refugees in this Central Asian nation that it was safe to return home.

Yet the soldiers’ very presence terrified the families — ethnic Uzbeks who fled after attacks and arson by ethnic Kyrgyz — since they blame Kyrgyz troops for abetting the violence that left hundreds of Uzbeks dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.

“Of course we were afraid. Afraid because they were the ones — the soldiers who fired shots,” said Maplyuba Akhmedova, an Uzbek who fled her home.

In Sakaldy, another village in Kyrgyzstan, ethnic Uzbek men spent the night in a meadow near a barbed-wire fence that marks the border with Uzbekistan.

Entire Uzbek neighborhoods in southern Kyrgyzstan were reduced to scorched ruins by rampaging mobs of ethnic Kyrgyz, who forced nearly half of the region’s roughly 800,000 Uzbeks to flee. Interim President Roza Otunbayeva says up to 2,000 people may have died in the clashes.

Her government said the attacks were ignited by supporters of ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was toppled in April amid accusations of corruption. The U.N. has said the unrest appeared orchestrated but has stopped short of assigning blame. Bakiyev, from exile, has denied any involvement.

The United Nations estimates that 400,000 people have fled their homes in Kyrgyzstan and about 100,000 of them have entered Uzbekistan. There was no official estimate of the number of refugees in Suratash, but Uzbeks said there was about 20,000.

Many Uzbeks in Suratash said they would not return home and were unsure where to go. Some said they would try to sell their belongings and move to Russia, while others expressed a desire to go to Uzbekistan. However, there is no official border crossing in Suratash — 10 miles (16 kilometers) away from the region’s main city of Osh — and many refugees lacked papers since they fled their homes in a rush.

Kyrgyzstan border officials said some 5,000 refugees had returned home from Uzbekistan by Sunday.

“Refugees are beginning to return home more actively, but for now fear and insecurity are hindering them,” Kurmanakun Matenov, chief of Kyrgyzstan’s border guard, said.

On Saturday, a top U.S. envoy called for an independent investigation into the violence that has devastated southern Kyrgyzstan and amateur video emerged of unarmed Uzbeks gathering to defend their town during the attacks.

Prosecutors have charged Azimzhan Askarov, the head of a prominent human rights group who shot the video, with inciting ethnic hatred. Askarov had accused the military of complicity in the bloody rampages.

The country’s rights ombudsman Tursunbek Akun insisted the charges against Askarov were fabricated, and activists in the capital of Bishkek demonstrated before U.N. offices to demand his release.

The country’s military denies the charges, but says it did not intervene or act to stop the rioting because it is not a police force.

Kyrgyzstan hosts the U.S. Manas air base, a key support center for the fight against the Taliban that used by most troops entering or leaving Afghanistan, but U.S. officials said the base was operating normally.

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Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan contributed to this report.