OSH, Kyrgyzstan — About 100,000 minority Uzbeks fleeing mobs of Kyrgyz massed at the border Monday, an Uzbek leader said, as the deadliest ethnic violence to hit this Central Asian nation in 20 years left a major city smoldering.
Fires raged for a fourth day in the southern city of Osh, five kilometers from the border with Uzbekistan.
The United States and Russia, which both have military bases in Kyrgyzstan away from the violence, worked on humanitarian aid airlifts, as did the United Nations. Neighboring Uzbekistan hastily set up camps to handle the flood of hungry, frightened refugees. Most were women, children and the elderly, many of whom Uzbekistan said had gunshot wounds.
The official count was 124 dead and nearly 1,500 injured since the violence began last week, but an Uzbek community leader said at least 200 Uzbeks already had been buried, and the Red Cross said its delegates saw about 100 bodies being buried in just one cemetery.
The interim government, which took over when President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in April, has been unable to stop the violence and accused Bakiyev's family of instigating the turbulence to halt a June 27 referendum on a new constitution. Uzbeks, who are a minority in Kyrgyzstan overall but whose numbers rival the Kyrgyz in the south of the country, have backed the interim government. Many Kyrgyz in the south have supported Bakiyev.
The government said Monday it had arrested a “well-known person” suspected of stoking the violence but gave no other details. Suspects from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan were detained, government spokesman Farid Niyazov said.
It now appears unlikely this month's referendum will take place. New parliamentary elections are scheduled for October, but the violence appears aimed at undermining the interim government before then.
From his self-imposed exile in Belarus, Bakiyev has denied any role in the violence. Speaking to reporters Monday, he again blamed the interim government for not preventing the rioting and called on the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization to send in troops. The new Kyrgyz government asked Russia to send troops, but the Kremlin turned down the request.
Jallahitdin Jalilatdinov, who heads the Uzbek National Center, said Monday that at least 100,000 Uzbeks were awaiting entry into Uzbekistan, while another 80,000 had crossed the border. The Uzbek government said 45,000 had already been registered.
An Associated Press reporter saw hundreds of Uzbek refugees stuck in a no-man's-land at a border crossing near Jalal-Abad, and an Associated Press photographer saw hundreds of refugees in a camp on the Uzbek side.
Shaken refugees claimed that many Uzbek girls had been raped and that Kyrgyz snipers had shot at them from the hills as they rushed toward the border.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed alarm at the violence and urged the authorities to protect all citizens irrespective of their ethnicity.
“It seems indiscriminate killings, including of children, and rapes have been taking place on the basis of ethnicity,” Pillay said in a statement.
"It has been known for many years that this region is a potential tinder box, and for that reason it is essential that the authorities act firmly to halt the fighting — which appears to be orchestrated, targeted and well-planned — before it spreads further inside Kyrgyzstan or even across the border into neighboring countries,” Pillay said.
Uzbeks make up 15 percent of Kyrgyzstan's roughly 5 million people and are generally better off economically, but they have few representatives in power and have pushed for broader political and cultural rights. Both ethnic groups are predominantly Sunni Muslim.Few police or troops were seen on the streets of Osh, a city of 250,000. Food and water were scarce after armed looters smashed stores, stealing everything from TVs to food. Cars stolen from ethnic Uzbeks raced around the city, most crowded with young Kyrgyz wielding sharpened sticks, axes and metal rods.
In the mainly Uzbek district of Aravanskoe, an area formerly brimming with shops and restaurants, whole streets were burned to the ground.
Hundreds gathered at Osh's central square to get on buses for the airport. Gunmen have made the road from the city to the airport too dangerous to tackle alone.
Osh Police Chief Kursan Asanov told AP that 950 foreigners — mostly Russians, Pakistanis, Indians and Africans — have been evacuated since disturbances began, as well as Uzbek and Kyrgyz residents.
In another city beset by violence, Jalal-Abad, 40 kilometers from Osh, armed Kyrgyz massed at the central square to hunt down an Uzbek community leader whom they blame for starting the trouble.
In the village of Sura-Tash, ethnic Uzbeks converted a mosque into a makeshift hospital. Some sought shade in the mosque, but hundreds were forced to wait outside in the sun.
Vodka was used to sterilize medical equipment and powdered plaster was melted down to turn into casts for broken limbs.
One doctor said those who attacked the Uzbeks seemed to have the support of the Kyrgyz military.
"Many people have died, snipers fired from more than one kilometer away, and organized gangs followed the military as they drove in with armored personnel carriers," said Dr. Lutsalla Khakimov, who was working at the mosque. "This was organized, they wanted to start a war."
As the clashes continued, desperately needed aid began trickling into the south. Several planes arrived at Osh's airport with tons of medical supplies from the World Health Organization. Trucks carried supplies into the city with an armed escort.
The United States had a shipment of tents, cots and medical supplies ready to fly to Osh from its Manas air base in Bishkek, the U.S. Embassy said.
Both the U.S. and Russian military bases are in northern Kyrgyzstan, away from the rioting. Russia sent in an extra battalion to protect its air base.