Kyrgyzstan: Days of violence

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Ethnic Uzbeks jailed for life over Kyrgyzstan violence

November 24, 2010 -- A court in southern Kyrgyzstan has sentenced 17 people to life imprisonment for mass killings and rioting during ethnic violence in the region last June. All the defendants were from the Uzbek ethnic minority. The convictions are likely to arouse fresh fears that Uzbeks are being singled out for prosecution over the violence that left at least 370 people dead. Fighting broke out on 10 June between mobs of ethnic Uzbek and Kyrgyz in the city of Osh and quickly spread to the nearby Jalal-Abad region. Judge Damirbek Nazarov said the men sentenced yesterday killed 16 people in fighting near a cotton factory on the highway linking Osh with the capital, Bishkek. Two others were sentenced to 25 years. "Although the defendants did not plead guilty, the copious testimonies and evidence gathered during the investigation was ample proof of their guilt," Nazarov said.

No definitive independent investigation into the unrest has been carried out, but international rights activists and observers largely agree that the Uzbek minority sustained the bulk of the violence. Nonetheless, few ethnic Kyrgyz have been tried for murder in connection with the violence. Rights groups have complained that trials against Uzbeks have been marred by the intimidation of defendants and their lawyers by the relatives of alleged victims. In a bid to ensure security, hearings at the latest trial were held in the Nooken district, several hours by road from Jalal-Abad.

About 400,000 people, mainly Uzbeks, were displaced at the height of the unrest and many are still trying to rebuild their homes as winter closes in. Communities in southern Kyrgyzstan remain sharply divided and tensions have been heightened in recent weeks by attempts by Kyrgyz communities to claim fertile agricultural land belonging to ethnic Uzbeks.

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