100,000 Kyrgyzstan refugees may flee to Uzbekistan
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A UN special envoy warned here on Tuesday that the number of Kyrgyzstan refugees fleeing to Uzbekistan could reach 100,000 or more.
Miroslav Jenca told a news conference in Bishkek that information from the Uzbek authorities showed the number of refugees who fled to the Uzbek side of the border currently stood at 75,000, but the number is still growing.
The death toll has risen to 170 from ethnic riots in southern Kyrgyzstan which began on June 10, with 1,762 people injured, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Jenca called on the Kyrgyz interim government to hold as scheduled the June 27 referendum on a new constitution, and parliamentary elections in October despite the current violent situation.
The violence in the southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad began last Thursday and escalated over the weekend, forcing thousands of refugees to flee to neighboring Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has closed its borders to additional asylum seekers and asked for international assistance to those who are already taken in.
The Russian government declined a request by the Kyrgyzstan interim regime to quell the unrest, but it sent a battalion of paratroopers Sunday to protect the facilities at its military base in northern Kyrgyzstan.
Meanwhile, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a regional security group which includes former Soviet republics, said in its Monday meeting that it would exclude no measures to normalize the situation in Kyrgyzstan.
Those measures may include using the entire range of the CSTO forces to stabilize the Kyrgyz situation if necessary.
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