OSH, Kyrgyzstan — Some 100,000 minority Uzbeks fleeing a purge by mobs of Kyrgyz massed at the border Monday, an Uzbek leader said, as the deadliest ethnic violence to hit this Central Asian nation in decades left a major city smoldering.
With fires raging in the southern city of Osh for a fourth day Monday, the official death toll of 124 killed and nearly 1,500 injured from the clashes that began Thursday appeared way too low.
An Uzbek community leader claimed at least 200 Uzbeks alone had already been buried, and the International Committee of the Red Cross said its delegates saw about 100 bodies being buried in just one cemetery.
The United States, Russia and the United Nations worked on humanitarian aid airlifts while neighboring Uzbekistan hastily set up refugee camps to handle the flood of hungry, frightened refugees. Most were women, children and the elderly, many of whom Uzbekistan said had gunshot wounds.
Jallahitdin Jalilatdinov, who heads the Uzbek National Center, told The Associated Press on Monday that at least 100,000 Uzbeks had fled to the border and were awaiting entry into Uzbekistan, while another 80,000 had already crossed.
An Associated Press reporter saw hundreds of Uzbek refugees stuck in no-man's-land between the two nations at a border crossing near Jalal-Abad, while an AP photographer saw hundreds of refugees in a camp on the Uzbek side.
Kyrgyzstan's interim government, which took over after former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted by a mass revolt in April, has been unable to stop the violence and accused Bakiyev's family of instigating it to stop a June 27 vote. Uzbeks have backed the interim government, while many Kyrgyz in the south have supported the toppled president.
The government said Monday it had arrested a well-known politician suspected of stoking the violence, but gave no further details.
Interim President Roza Otunbayeva's government had hoped to hold a referendum to approve a new constitution on June 27, but the likelihood of that vote taking place now looks slim.
From his self-imposed exile in Belarus, Bakiyev on Sunday denied any role in the violence.
