Kyrgyz investigators exhume ethnic violence victims amid tensions ahead of referendum

Kyrgyz prosecutors exhume ethnic violence victims

OSH, Kyrgyzstan — Investigators in southern Kyrgyzstan have begun exhuming the bodies of those killed during ethnic rampages that claimed hundreds of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Southern parts of this impoverished Central Asian nation were thrown into chaos by five days of ethnic violence, mostly Kyrgyz attacks on ethnic Uzbek neighborhoods. The violence followed a bloody uprising in April that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

A large number of victims have not been officially identified because many were buried quickly in keeping with Muslim tradition.

Acting deputy Interior Minster Bakyt Alynbayev said Saturday digging up the corpses was essential for full investigations and compensation claims.