BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Angry Kyrgyz protesters severely beat the governor of the southern Jalal-Abad region as he tried to address them on Thursday to calm high tensions with minority Uzbeks, witnesses said.
Thousands of Kyrgyz had gathered at a horseracing track on the outskirts of the city of Jalal-Abad to demand the arrest and punishment of those who killed two people in violence between Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks on Wednesday. They blamed Uzbeks for the deaths.
When Governor Bektur Asanov addressed the crowd, protesters attacked him and smashed up an ambulance that came to take him to the hospital, witnesses said by telephone. The governor’s fate was unclear. Protesters later tried to set his car on fire.
Defense Minister Ismail Isakov, sent to the region by Kyrgyzstan’s interim government, later Thursday tried to calm the crowd of up to 7,000 people, but it paid little heed. Some started throwing stones at passing cars.
Protesters, many of whom had traveled from distant villages, gave Isakov 24 hours to find those they said shot at ethnic Kyrgyz on Wednesday. They did not say what steps they would take if their demands were not met.
On Wednesday, a witness heard shots fired from inside Jalal-Abad's People's Friendship University, sponsored by local Uzbek leader Kadyrzhan Batyrov, after a huge crowd of ethnic Kyrgyz pelted the building with stones.
One of those killed was shot dead, while another died of brain trauma, the Health Ministry said, adding that 74 were injured. Officials did not disclose the ethnic identity of the victims.
The interethnic clashes flared up after thousands of angry Kyrgyz demanded the arrest of Batyrov, who they said had called for the creation of an autonomous Uzbek region in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan's turmoil was ignited by the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in a bloody revolt last month, when more than 80 people were killed.
Russia and the United States, which both have military air bases in the impoverished nation, are alarmed by the unrest in the ethnically divided corner of largely Muslim Central Asia. China is also watching with unease.
The interim government has imposed a state of emergency and a curfew in Jalal-Abad and a neighboring rural district. The authorities blame Bakiyev supporters for fomenting interethnic hatred to throw the country into chaos.
Bakiyev, an ethnic Kyrgyz still supported by many in his native Jalal-Abad region, fled to Belarus after he was ousted.
Meanwhile, the interim government said Thursday the country would hold a presidential election in October 2011, canceling plans to hold a vote this year amid the surge in interethnic violence.
Interim President Roza Otunbayeva will not be eligible to stand in the elections, it said.