Police in southern Kyrgyzstan detained late on Wednesday Ahmad Bakiyev, the brother of the ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, an interim government spokesperson told RIA Novosti.
"Police arrested Ahmad Bakiyev late on Wednesday in Jalalabad. He was under arrest warrant on suspicion of instigating the recent interethnic clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in the south of Kyrgyzstan," the official said.
Violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan broke out in the city of Osh on June 11 and then spread to the neighboring Jalalabad region. Unofficial estimates put the death toll at about 2,000 people, while half a million may have been made homeless by the violent pogroms, which saw thousands of homes burned.
RIA Novosti
