Deadly clashes in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan's interim government declared a state of emergency and slapped a curfew on southern parts of the country today after ethnic clashes left at least 17 people dead and about 250 injured. The provisional government, which has struggled to assert order over the ex-Soviet state since taking power amid unrest earlier this year, insisted that while the situation remained volatile, government forces were in control.

"Shooting has stopped across the whole city and the situation is under the control of law enforcement agencies," interior ministry spokesman Rakhmatillo Akhmedov said in an interview on national radio. But witnesses reached in Kyrgyzstan's southern capital Osh by telephone described a chaotic scene, with gunfire ringing out well into the morning and heavily armed helicopters swooping low over the centre of the city.

Andrea Berg, Central Asia researcher at New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch, said she had been trapped inside her guesthouse since the fighting erupted. "I can't leave the city. There are no flights, no cars, and no public transport whatsoever. There is still shooting going on. While I'm talking to you I hear shooting and it's really not far away," she said. Witnesses said brawls had broken out overnight between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups in the southern city, once the stronghold of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was overthrown in April.

Buildings and cars were set alight and shop windows smashed across Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second largest city, as groups of armed men battled in the streets with guns and improvised weapons. "About a thousand youths armed with batons and stones gathered Thursday evening in the centre of Osh," Azamat Ussmanov, a local resident said. "They broke shop windows and the windows of residential buildings, burned cars. Several fires broke out in the town."

The violence had clearly been inter-ethnic and well-organised, interim government spokesman Azimbek Beknazarov told national radio after having visited the city. The authorities sent armoured vehicles to Osh in a bid to restore order, government spokesman Farid Niyazov said. "A state of emergency has been declared in Osh and these districts from June 11 (Friday) until June 20," said Mr Niyazov. Interior minister Bolot Cher and defence minister Ismail Issakov had both travelled to Osh, he added, and a local police spokesman said they had sent several units out to try to restore order.

Since last April's uprising, which ousted Bakiyev and left 87 people dead, foreign and international leaders have warned of the danger of civil war in this strategically important country. The latest clashes came just days after the government lifted a state of emergency in the neighbouring district of Suzak. The interim authorities had imposed restrictions there from May 19 to June 1 following violent demonstrations. They also cancelled presidential elections, which had been scheduled for this autumn.

In a measure of Kyrgyzstan's strategic importance, both Russia and the United States have military bases there. The US base at Manas, outside Bishkek in the north, is a key hub for US air refuelling tanker planes and the giant transport planes that ferry US troops and supplies to and from Afghanistan. Nato has increasingly relied on the base as 30,000 additional US forces deploy to Afghanistan. But the US military presence has irritated Russia, placing Kyrgyzstan at the centre of big power rivalry for regional influence.

Kyrgyzstan is set to hold parliamentary elections in October as well as a referendum on a new constitution. * AFP and AP