Скачать или смотреть Checkpoints set up near Jalal-Abad to protect Uzbek enclaves

(17 Jun 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Soldiers' check point, manned by ethnic Kyrgyz people, at the entrance of the mostly ethnic Uzbek town of Suzak, behind it stands the ethnic Uzbek check point
2. Armoured vehicle and Kyrgyz soldiers
3. Kyrgyz soldier checking the identity of people entering town
4. Ethnic Uzbek showing identity papers to Kyrgyz soldier
5. Low shot of truck entering the town
6. Ethnic Uzbek looking through binoculars at Kyrgyz check point
7. Ethnic Uzbek volunteers checking the cars coming in and out of the enclave
8. Various of ethnic Uzbeks listening to community leader, Usmandjan Ablazov
9. Ethnic Uzbek showing boot of car at the check point
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Usmandjan Ablazov, community leader of Suzak:
"They tried to kill people, they didn't have enough time but in order to defend our people we had to build these check points."
11. Various of people cleaning out burned house
12. Various of check point on other side of village
STORYLINE
Barriers and checkpoints have been erected in Uzbek neighbourhoods and towns in the south of Kyrgyzstan by residents fearful of a repeat of ethnic clashes which have forced tens of thousands to flee.
At the entrances to the mostly ethnic Uzbek town of Suzak, in the Jalal-Abad region, there are separate checkpoints, one manned by soldiers, who are ethnic Kyrgyz, and the other manned by civilian ethnic Uzbeks, who say that they do not feel safe leaving the task of defending them to the Kyrgyz.
Since the violence began in southern Kyrgyzstan, the people of Suzak say that many houses in the town have been burned down, and people killed.
According to Usmandjan Ablazov, Suzak community leader, no one is forbidden to enter the enclave and the check points are there only to ensure that no armed men come into the town.
Violence erupted last week between the majority Kyrgyz population and minority ethnic Uzbeks.
Kyrgyzstan's government has accused the country's deposed president of igniting long-standing ethnic tensions by sending gunmen in ski masks to shoot members of both groups.
The government, which overthrew President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April, accuses the leader of deep corruption and said that he and his supporters were attempting to shake official control of the south and reassert their control of the Afghan heroin trade in the area.
Some 400,000 people have been displaced by the violence, the United Nations announced on Thursday, dramatically increasing the official estimate of a crisis that has left throngs of desperate, fearful refugees without enough food and water in grim camps along the Uzbek border.
The deputy chief of the provisional government, Azimbek Beknazarov, said the official death toll on both sides is 223, but others said the figure could be significantly higher.
Many Kyrgyz were killed but the victims appear to have been predominantly Uzbeks, traditional farmers and traders who speak a distinct but separate Turkic language, and who have traditionally been more prosperous than the Kyrgyz, who come from a nomadic tradition.
Uzbeks have few representatives in power and have pushed for broader political and cultural rights.
While Uzbeks make up only about 15 percent of the overall population, they rival Kyrgyz in numbers in the southern cities of Osh and the nearby town of Jalal-Abad.
Both are predominantly Sunni Muslim.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...