Kyrgyzstan declares state of emergency in south

The Kyrgyz interim government on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the southern city of Jalalabad following clashes between rival ethnic groups and police that left two people dead. "To ensure the security of citizens, the quickest possible normalisation of the situation and a return to public order, the decision has been taken to establish a state of emergency from today to June 1," it said in a statement.
The decree, signed by interim government head Roza Otunbayeva, will establish a curfew from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am local time in Jalalabad and the neighbouring Suzak district. Two people were killed and scores injured in the clashes earlier Wednesday, as the interim government struggled to impose order after a bloody April revolt that ousted the former president of the Central Asian state Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Shots rang out during street battles between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Jalalabad, where police forces attempted to stop the hundred-strong groups from storming the local university, officials and reports said. It was not clear who fired the shots, but the deputy head of the interior ministry in the capital Bishkek was quick to deny police had broken their position of "neutrality". Jalalabad is in the Ferghana valley, a fertile region uneasily divided among Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which has been the scene of sporadic violence and unrest since 1991 Soviet collapse.
"Two people were killed and 72 wounded, including a five-year-old girl, in gunfights in the city of Jalalabad," the health ministry told AFP. In Bishkek, the head of the country's interim government Roza Otunbayeva called the situation "tense", saying Uzbek-Kyrgyz ethnic tensions were fuelling the violence.
"The situation today in Jalalabad is tense" she told reporters. "We blame these actions on ethnic conflict between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz." The unrest followed clashes last week that left at least one dead and scores wounded when hundreds of Bakiyev's supporters battled factions loyal to the government, briefly seizing key regional buildings. Citing eyewitnesses, the Kyrgyz news agency Aki-Press said a crowd of about 1,500 ethnic Uzbeks brandishing sharpened sticks roamed the centre of Jalalabad, while shops and banks have shut down.