I have been receiving text messages and pleas for help, from both ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, as the fighting rages on and military forces are ill-equipped to quell the disturbances.
These are reports from people in Osh, in their own words (unless it is stated MP)
11.45 The clashes and combat in Osh are provoked by the Bakievs.
In Osh the death toll has reached 5000 among who there are elder people, children and women. The criminal gangs (around 300 each) roam the city and kill any civilians trying to escape. They burn houses and buildings to make the civilians out and kill them indiscriminately. They call themselves Kyrgyz nationalists and appeal to the volatile and morbid Kyrgyz youth to kill the Uzbeks. However, they kill anybody moving in the town by sniper rifles and armoured troop-carriers wrested out from Kyrgyz soldiers.
The Kyrgyz civilians, adverse to extremist and criminals, help hide and provide refuge to the Uzbeks some part of who is moving to and crossing the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. In Kyzyl-Kia, Isfana (Batken region) the Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kyrgyz organise militia to control their towns and villages. In Uzgen the situation is also calm since both Uzbeks and Kyrgyz do not confront each other.
The chaos is reigning in Osh and the Interim Government does not possess full forces to stop violence.
11.36 The Kyrgyz gangs kill civilians in the streets by armoured troop-carriers wrested out from Kyrgyz soldiers In Osh Kyrgyz help the Uzbeks to find refuge and hide them in their apartments
Uzgen, the home for Uzbeks too, is calm
why do not then the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks kill each other in the other towns and villages and just in Osh? So, you see the Osh events are planned by external forces: the Bakievs did it
11.35 MP- Reports emerge that the former president Bakiyev may be behind the violence. People are questioning the amount of weapons and seemingly planned attacks, and the fact that other areas around Osh remain calm.
11.30 around 5000 well armed bandits roam the city
the Uzbek witnesses say that the it is not the inter-communal conflict between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz it is the gangs of well armed to attack houses, cars and buildings the clashes are provoked by the Bakievs and criminal gangs
11.25 Reports from Osh that 1000 people have been killed including women, children and old men.
11.10 Mary help us please. Kyrgyz killing Uzbek. 800 Uzbek died and not stopping. Osh burnt, dont know what to say and how to explain.
10.44 young people armed with tommy-guns move in the streets and do not fear the curfew
they are sure that the soldiers won't fire at them
Osh is burning and people panically evacuate
Kyrgyzstan does not possess the internal forces to stop the violence and need international help
Osh is full of barricadeand it is unsafe to ride a car in Osh the armed throngs harass and attack civilians
08.00 I want to request you to help us. The situation is terrible in Osh. Uzbek people are being killed openly, the government is not doing anything. Pls help us to spread the information on genocide of uzbek people in kyrgyzstan.Could you pls contact the world TV channels or web-sites. It should be done very quickly. We are at a track here.
