President puts Kyrgyzstan death toll at close to 2,000

Kyrgyzstan's interim President has warned that as many as 2,000 people may have died in ethnic clashes.

President Roza Otunbayeva said she would increase official estimates of the death toll by 10 times yesterday as she made her first visit to a riot-hit town since the violence broke out.

Government figures put the number of killed in rampages, led mainly by ethnic Kyrgyz, at 191.

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The President said that total does not take into account those buried before sundown on the day of death, in keeping with Muslim tradition.

In addition, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have fled the area.

Ms Otunbayeva arrived by helicopter in the central square of Osh, a city of 250,000.

Parts of it have been reduced to rubble by roving mobs of Kyrgyz men who burned down Uzbek homes and attacked Uzbek-owned businesses in violence that began late last week.

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"We have to give hope that we shall restore the city, return all the refugees and create all the conditions for that," she said.

She insisted good will between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks would end hostilities.

The UN estimates that 400,000 people fled the country's south after ethnic Kyrgyz killed hundreds – chiefly Uzbeks.

As many as 100,000 people have crossed the nearby border into neighbouring Uzbekistan where they are getting food and water in specially created camps.

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Thousands more remain camped out in squalid conditions on the Kyrgyz side of the border, unable to cross due to Uzbek restrictions.

Kyrgyz authorities have said the violence was sparked deliberately by associates of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the president who was toppled in April in a bloody uprising. The UN has said the unrest appeared orchestrated but has stopped short of apportioning blame.

Ethnic Uzbeks this week accused security forces of standing by or even helping ethnic-majority Kyrgyz mobs as they slaughtered people and burned down neighbourhoods.

The military and police began patrols this week after the worst violence was over.