By Maria Golovnina
BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's interim rulers sent troops on Tuesday to quell ethnic violence that has threatened their fragile grip on the Central Asian state after the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Defiant Bakiyev loyalists in the south and lawlessness on the fringes of the capital Bishkek are challenging efforts to restore order after an April 7 uprising that ousted the president and left at least 85 people dead.
Belarus said on Tuesday that Bakiyev was now in Minsk, having fled to Kazakhstan last week. Russia said Kyrgyzstan, host to Russian and U.S. military bases, faced anarchy and warned of regional consequences.
In a show of strength, the government deployed 300 troops and police to intercept a crowd of several hundred men looting and trying to seize land belonging to Meskhetian Turks and Russians on the outskirts of Bishkek.
The clashes, in which five people died overnight, have raised the specter of ethnic violence in the Muslim nation where ethnic confrontation has otherwise been traditionally rare.
One villager in Mayevka, scene of the worst attacks, pointed to blood stains on the ground where a Turk was killed trying to defend his property against 100 Kyrgyz attackers.
"Everyone ran away but he put up resistance. So they stabbed him to death with knives and hayforks," said Alik Aliyev, a neighbor and also an ethnic Turk.
Kyrgyzstan's Meskhetian Turks are originally from Georgia, but were deported to Central Asia by Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
Continued instability in Kyrgyzstan is a worry for Russia and the United States, which earlier curtailed operations at its Kyrgyz military air base supplying operations in Afghanistan.
"The government is currently non-existent, it's not there," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday in Moscow.
"We count on the interim government to take necessary and sufficient steps (to restore it). Because in this case anarchy will gravely hit the people of Kyrgyzstan and its neighbors".
ETHNIC ATTACKS
In the lush, hilly outskirts of Bishkek, a military helicopter roared low overhead as troops confronted the rioters, who dispersed into nearby villages after an hour-long standoff.
Scenes of lawlessness persisted in the capital Bishkek, with hundreds of vigilantes gathering on the main city square to organize a resistance movement against looters.
Witnesses said marauding crowds were spotted in various parts of Bishkek, a Soviet-style city surrounded by mountains.
Many villagers had fled their homes overnight to escape the violence. Locals said attackers were targeting Turkish and Russian homes because they are seen as more wealthy.
In the morning, smoldering rubble and smoke-blackened huts lined the potholed streets of the Mayevka suburbs, as villagers trickled back to pick through the rubble of their ruined homes.
The new authorities have pledged to quickly restore order and initiate democratic reforms and hold free parliamentary and presidential elections in September or October.
But they face tough resistance in Jalalabad, a southern city in Bakiyev's tribal heartland, where Bakiyev loyalists have effectively seized power and installed a pro-Bakiyev governor.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which helped mediate Bakiyev's departure to Kazakhstan last week, urged Kyrgyzstan's interim leaders to act fast to enforce the rule of law and address urgent social and economic problems.
Uzbek strongman Islam Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan with an iron fist since 1989, said such events create "the illusion that it is very simple to overthrow any legal form of leadership or government".
"Take it from me," he said after meeting Medvedev in Moscow, "in Uzbekistan, no one is delightedly following the actions of the 'freedom-loving' Kyrgyz people. You can take my word for that".
Writing by Matt Robinson and Maria Golovnina; additional reporting by Olga Dzyubenko and Raushan Nurshayeva; Editing by Charles Dick
Reuters Canada
