Moscow: Russia-led CSTO, a group of seven former-Soviet republics today said the interim authorities in Kyrgyzstan are not taking sufficient action to check inter-ethnic violence in south of the country which has claimed over 124 lives.
"The efforts by the provisional government of
Kyrgyzstan to stabilise the situation in the country are still
insufficient," the Collective Security Treaty Organisation
(CSTO) said in a statement after a meeting here of member
states' national security advisors.
CSTO asked the interim government of Kyrgyzstan to
take all additional steps required to quickly restore order.
The security bloc also comprises Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia's national security advisor Nikolai Patrushev
said CSTO is considering to use 'whole gamut' of the
possibilities available with it.
The possible deployment of peacekeepers was discussed
at the CSTO meeting and Russian Security Council Secretary
Nikolai Patrushev said the members hoped measures would be
"coordinated soon."
"We are sending our recommendations and concrete
proposals to the heads of state, who will take proper
decisions," Patrushev was quoted as saying by Vesti FM radio.
Kyrgyzstan has asked Russia to send troops to help
deal with the violence in the south of the country, where the
government says 124 people have died.
So far, Russia has only sent humanitarian aid and 150
paratroopers to ensure security at its Kant airbase near the
capital, Bishkek, RIA Novosti reported.
He added that the meeting participants "did not rule
out the use of any means on the CSTO agenda."
Kyrgyz interim authorities said today a well-known
politician suspected of organising mass riots in Kyrgyzstan
has been detained.
Former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the
country in April when the opposition took power following
violent protests, denied from Belarus that he had any
involvement in the rioting.
More than 75,000 ethnic Uzbeks have reportedly fled
Kyrgyzstan to take refuge in Uzbekistan following the unrest.
The clashes appeared to pit ethnic Kyrgyz against
Uzbeks. Officials in neighbouring Uzbekistan said tens of
thousands of Uzbek refugees from Kyrgyzstan had fled across
the border into the country to escape the violence.
Some officials put the number at over 100,000.
The interim Kyrgyz government, which seized power in
April riots, has so far failed to quell the violence.
It has given shoot-to-kill orders to police and
military and called up all reservists in its efforts to stem
bloodshed. The government has also asked for military help
from Russia amid the spiralling violence.
PTI
First Published: Monday, June 14, 2010, 21:35