Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem

Answers to Questions on the Recent Events in Kyrgyzstan

The army in Kyrgyzstan have recently announced a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in the cities of Osh, Jalal-Abad and other parts of the country, on the grounds of continued disturbances and acts of violence that have killed and wounded hundreds among both the Kyrgyz majority and the Uzbek minority.

The head of the interim government, Rosa Otunbayeva, has accused supporters of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted last April, of fuelling ethnic violence in his stronghold city of Osh, in order to disrupt the national referendum on a new constitution scheduled for June 27 this month. Despite Bakiyev’s initial denial of any involvement in the wave of ethnic violence that blighted the south of the country, he went on to say after fleeing Kyrgyzstan -with a green light from Moscow- and taking refuge in Belarus: "There is no power that would make me resign from the presidential post. Kyrgyzstan will not be anyone's colony."