Death toll of Kyrgyz riots '10 times higher'
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Kyrgyz interim leader Roza Otunbayeva arrived in the southern city of Osh Friday after a state of emergency was declared there following deadly ethnic clashes.
Authorities put the death toll from the riots at 191, but Otunbayeva said the real figure could be 10 times more than the official figure.
Earlier reports said at least 191 people died and 1,971 were wounded in the worst ethnic clashes to hit the impoverished Central Asian nation since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"I would multiply by 10 times the official figures," Otunbayeva told the Russian daily Kommersant on Friday, saying there was likely to be many unrecorded deaths in the countryside.
Inciting ethnic clashes was a new form of terrorism that drove many people to bloodshed. Once the regional situation was out of control, the clashes would become a serious issue for the world, she warned.
The interim government was taking measures to prevent rioters creating unrest in northern Kyrgyzstan and had tightened security at strategic facilities, including hydro-power stations, to prevent threats to the country and its neighbors, she said, adding Russia had actively responded to an appeal for assistance to safeguard strategic facilities.
Otunbayeva said she had talked with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who said his country would accept all the ethnic Uzbeks fleeing the violence but he would not allow troops to enter Kyrgyzstan to protect the Uzbeks.
