BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Several thousand people tried to storm a university in Kyrgyzstan today in a burst of ethnic violence that left at least 2 people dead and more than 70 wounded, prompting the interim government to call a local state of emergency.
Witnesses in the southern town of Jalal-Abad said thousands of ethnic Kyrgyz advanced on the private university that serves as the center of the minority Uzbek community. They said gunfire broke out as crowds approached the building encircled by a cordon of special security forces.
Kyrgyzstan has been struggling to maintain stability since President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted from power in April amid deadly clashes between government forces and demonstrators that claimed 89 lives.
In an apparent bid to secure its grip on power, the interim government named its head, Roza Otunbayeva, as the acting president today — a move that requires approval in a constitutional referendum, set for next month.
It was not clear who opened fire in Jalal-Abad today, but health officials said most of the 71 injured appeared to be from the crowd. At least two people were killed, the Health Ministry said.
Otunbayeva responded to the violence by ordering the state of emergency and a curfew in Jalal-Abad and the surrounding area. She dispatched the acting interior minister to the area, where support for Bakiyev still runs strong.
Tensions have long simmered between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek — both Sunni Muslim groups — in the former Soviet nation’s restive south. In 1990, hundreds were killed in a violent land dispute between the two communities across southern Kyrgyzstan, which borders Uzbekistan.
Witnesses said the crowd assembled today in front of the university threw stones at the building and shouted demands for the hand-over of Uzbek community leader Kadyrjan Batyrov, whom they accused of inciting racial tension. Batyrov, a wealthy businessman, paid for the construction of the Peoples’ Friendship University.
Batyrov alleged that the crowd was connected to criminal elements close to the Bakiyev family. He told The Associated Press that the crowd “had weapons and firebombs. When they began to attack, the police fled, and the attackers then ran into the building, smashed windows and tried to set fire to the building.”
The interim leader said every possible measure was being taken to defuse the situation.
“We have recently demonstrated that we are capable of securing the peace,” Otunbayeva said in the capital of Bishkek. She placed acting Interior Minister Baktybek Alymbekov in charge of securing Jalal-Abad, and instructed military and police to provide support.
Otunbayeva, who previously held the title of prime minister, will be ineligible to run for the presidency once she completes her term as head of the provisional government at the end of 2011.
Meanwhile, Bakiyev’s supporters have accused Batyrov of leading a mob late last week that burned down the deposed president’s family home in the nearby village of Teyit.
Bakiyev fled the country last month for Belarus, but interim authorities say his family is still financing disturbances aimed at unseating the provisional leadership.
The torching of the Bakiyev home Friday evening marked the culmination of two days of violence in Jalal-Abad, which broke out when several hundred Bakiyev supporters, some with automatic rifles, holed up in the regional government building after capturing it a day earlier.
They were driven out by backers of the interim government, many of whom were ethnic Uzbeks. This led to local perceptions that the minority community was gaining political influence in the region.
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