ANDIZHAN, UZBEKISTAN—The United States called Friday for an international investigation into ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan, as the country’s leader said the death toll could be 10 times higher than the official tally of 190.
Russia, which rejected a Kyrgyz plea for peacekeeping forces after the violence erupted last week, said it was now considering sending troops to guard key facilities in the Central Asian nation, Russian media reported.
Roza Otunbayeva’s interim administration and the United Nations say the bloodshed in clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, which has driven hundreds of thousands to flee their burned-out homes, began with planned and orchestrated attacks.
“I would increase by 10 times the official data on the number of people killed,” Interim President Roza Otunbayeva said, according to her spokesman, Farid Niyazov.
She said current figures don’t take into account those buried before sundown on the day of death in keeping with Muslim tradition, according to the spokesman.
There was no indication of whether a comprehensive body count was conducted, but Otunbayeva’s estimate appeared credible. Official counts have been solely on deaths registered at major hospitals, but accounts from ethnic Uzbeks say several hundred people have died.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake described the situation as a humanitarian crisis and urged the interim government of the Central Asian state, which hosts U.S. and Russian military bases, to act immediately to stop the killing.
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