KYRGYZSTAN: Fatal ethnic fighting erupts at university

A deadly ethnic riot broke out on Wednesday at a university in a major southern city in Kyrgyzstan, where the country's interim government has only tenuous control and where the police have largely stopped working rather than take sides in a political conflict, writes Andrew E Kramer for The New York Times.

Since the overthrow last month of the former president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, people in the turbulent and ethnically divided south have been arming themselves with everything from sharpened sticks to military rifles. Late the week before last, two people died and scores were wounded in street fighting.

In the violence on Wednesday, ethnic Kyrgyz in the city of Jalalabad tried to seize a building of a university affiliated with and defended by members of the region's Uzbek minority. Two people were killed and 62 were wounded in street fighting around the university, called the People's Friendship University, according to the Kyrgyz Health Ministry.
Full report on The New York Times site

Aljazeera reported that ethnic Kyrgyz had tried to storm the private university, which serves as a focus centre for the country's Uzbek minority. Roza Otunbayeva, head of the country's interim government, called the situation "tense" and sent special forces to the region in response to the developments. "The protesters are trying to take over the university building and burn it," Otunbayeva said in the capital, Bishkek.
Full report on the Aljazeera site