Thousands of Uzbeks fleeing southern Kyrgyzstan amassed at the border Monday, as the deadliest ethnic violence in decades left entire city blocks burned to the ground and scores of people dead.
The official death toll from the clashes that began last week reached 117, with 1,500 injured, the Health Ministry of the beleaguered former Soviet country, which hosts U.S. and Russian military bases, announced early Monday.
But an Uzbek leader claimed that 200 Uzbeks have already been buried, and the International Committee of the Red Cross has said its delegates witnessed about 100 bodies being buried in just one cemetery.
Jallahitdin Jalilatdinov, who heads the Uzbek National Center, also told The Associated Press on Monday that at least 100,000 had fled for the border and were awaiting entry into Uzbekistan. An Associated Press reporter saw at least hundreds of Uzbek refugees stuck at a border crossing near Jalal-Abad in no-man's-land between the boundaries.
By: Brant
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