A CHRONICLE of VIOLENCE the Events in the South of Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 (Osh Region)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
2012 2010 • • 2 2 REPORT A CHRONICLE OF VIOLENCE The events in the south of Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 (Osh Region) MeMorial huMan rights center Freedom House Memorial Human Rights Center Norwegian Helsinki Committee Cover Photo: Dalton Bennett, AP Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................3 Methodology and sources ...............................................................................4 Reports and comments produced by the Government of Kyrgyzstan ...............6 International reports......................................................................................10 Some problems .............................................................................................11 English terminology ......................................................................................12 2. Tensions build up – April to the beginning of June 2010 ..............................14 3. Chronicle of violence 10–15 June 2010 ........................................................32 A The conflict breaks out: The events near Hotel Alai ..........................................................................34 Myths and other versions of the beginning of the conflict ............................58 B Clashes and pogroms in other districts and suburbs of Osh on the morning of 11 June .......................................................................................65 Masaliev Avenue ..........................................................................................65 Lenin Street and Kurmanjan Datka Street ......................................................68 Frunzenskiy Market ......................................................................................71 Osh District ..................................................................................................73 Furkat Village ................................................................................................77 The Western Part of Osh ...............................................................................78 Other areas ...................................................................................................81 C Mass killings and destruction 11–15 June .....................................................83 The Western part of Osh ...............................................................................84 Gapar Aytiev Street ....................................................................................................90 Alisher Navoi Street ...................................................................................................93 Cheremuski Microdistrict .........................................................................................101 “Snipers” on Suleyman-Too .....................................................................................118 Night-time panic in the Western part of Osh ............................................................119 The Eastern suburbs of Osh .........................................................................124 The Amir Temur Microdistrict (South-East) ...................................................147 The Central and Northern parts of Osh (Eastern Bank of Ak-Buura River) ....151 North-East 151 Mistreatment of hostages in Nostalzhi Café .............................................................157 Masaliev Avenue and Zaynabetdinov Street ............................................................160 Madzhirimtal Street .................................................................................................163 The Central and Northern parts of Osh (Western bank of Ak-Buura river) ....165 The area around the new bus station ........................................................................165 The Sheyit-Dobo Microdistrict ................................................................................167 The center ..............................................................................................................172 The Southern and South-Western parts of Osh ...........................................175 Nariman and Nurdar villages in Kara-Suu District .......................................179 The murders of officers from Kara-Suu ROVD .........................................................183 The disturbances in Aravan district ..............................................................185 Attacks on military bases in Osh Province ..................................................187 The events in Batken Province ....................................................................189 4. Statistics and ethnicity ...............................................................................191 Deaths ......................................................................................................191 Wounded ...................................................................................................198 1. Introduction On 7 April 2010, Kyrgyzstan went through its second revolution since independence. In the course of one dramatic day, 89 people lost their lives in the capital Bishkek. Former president Kurmanbek Bakiev fled abroad, and an Interim Government led by Roza Otunbaeva was established. While the new government began democratic reforms, violence broke out two months later in the south of the country. The clashes in Osh and Jalalabad Provinces led to the death of over 400 people and wounded more than 2000. These events have formed political discourse in Kyrgyzstan in the time since, often without any serious view to fact. Establishing the truth about the tragic events of June 2010 in the south of Kyrgyzstan is important for the country from a political point of view, but especially in terms of the rule of law and the protection of the rights of those who have been subject to unfounded criminal persecution. Due to the sheer volume of material to be considered, this report covers only the Osh region. During the past year and a half, a number of reports and publications have been produced regarding the conflict. However, many essential episodes of the June events, including the break-out of clashes near Hotel Alai in Osh, have still not been described in detail or investigated. The sheer scale of the tragedy was such that all details cannot be covered by one organization or mission alone. Still, it is important to summarize the confirmed information available to us at this time, and to highlight some of the contradictions found in available materials as well as new questions which arise when reviewing these. We do not pretend to have reconstructed a full image of what took place, but believe that the information collected can be the basis for a later, more in-depth investigation of these events. Actual facts must be separated from the many myths which have been presented in mass media as well as in official documents. Obviously, it is both unnecessary and impossible to list all the unfounded information that has been presented in hundreds of articles written immediately after the events, but existing national and international reports must be given a more serious evaluation. Our aim with this report has been a reconstruction of a chronicle of violence of May– June 2010 in the Osh Province of Kyrgyzstan which is likely to be of interest not only to experts but to a wider circle of readers inside and outside the country. Conclusions and recommendations on the events can not be viewed as thorough if they are not based in trustworthy information about the events themselves. (A CHRONICLE OF VIOLENCE The events in the south of Kyrgyzstan in June 2010) 3 This report is the result of a project which was carried out in 2010–2011 by Memorial Human Rights Center (Russia), the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (Norway) and Freedom House (USA). Partial financing also came from the National Endowment for Democracy. General coordination of the work was carried out by Vitaliy Ponomarev, Director of Memorial’s Central Asian Program. Methodology and sources The work of the mission to establish facts connected to the conflict in the south of Kyrgyzstan began on 18 June 2010. During visits to the south of Kyrgyzstan in the period June–September 2010, December 2010, and in June and December 2011, over 300 interviews were carried out, around 550 video recordings and 3000 photographs were collected, as well as a large number of documents. Apart from representatives from Memorial and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, several activists from civil society in Bishkek participated in this work. Interviews were made in the cities of Osh and Jalalabad, in Kara-Suu District of Osh Province, and in Bazar-Korgon and Suzak Districts of Jalalabad Province. Some of the interviews were made in Bishkek, Moscow and Istanbul. Given the contradictions and ethnic prejudice found in many reports and comments, attention was mainly directed at finding direct eye-witnesses to the events, rather than to the versions presented by various authorities. Other important sources of information were handwritten materials and the hundreds of online messages published during the first hours of the conflict on the internet forum diesel.elcat.kg. Some eye-witness statements and recollections were also found in comments and messages on other sites. Information given in interviews or found in online postings were considered by us only when each incident described could be relatively clearly fixed in terms of place and time, and was described by a direct eye-witness or