Refugees fleeing Kyrgyzstan’s spasms of violence are accusing the central Asian nation’s security forces of carrying out some of the deadly attacks. Emerging video and witness accounts point to units of the Kyrgyz military taking part in the violence. Uprooted people on both sides of the Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan border said they are frightened by the Kyrgyz military.

Deadly gun battles raged in the Kyrgyzstan city of Osh where bodies littered the streets Monday as ethnic violence escalated and Uzbekistan raced to cope with a massive refugee influx. Amid sporadic gunfire, charred corpses lay unattended in an ethnic Uzbek shop destroyed by petrol bombs, fires burned and Osh streets were littered with shell casings under an acrid, black pall of smoke.

Kyrgyzstan is a small and poor country in Central Asia that gained independence in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union (see Figure A-1). It has developed a notable but fragile civil society. Progress in democratization has been set back by problematic elections (one of which helped precipitate a coup in 2005 that brought Kurmanbek Bakiyev to power), contention over constitutions, and corruption. The April 2010 coup appears to have been triggered by popular discontent over rising utility prices and government repression. After two days of popular unrest in the capital of Bishkek and other cities, opposition politicians ousted the Bakiyev administration on April 8 and declared an interim government pending a new presidential election in six months. Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, was declared the acting prime minister.

Supporters of Kyrgyzstan’s ousted president have stormed regional government buildings in the south of the ex-Soviet republic. Hundreds of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s supporters took over buildings in Osh and Jalalabad, but the new government said it had regained control in Batken. Reports suggested airports in Osh and Jalalabad had also been disrupted.

Kyrgyzstan’s interim government said on Tuesday it had charged the country’s ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev with “mass killing” and has formally prepared an extradition request. Belarus took in Bakiyev last week after he fled in the aftermath of a bloody revolt. Moscow made clear he was not welcome in Russia.

The ousted Kyrgyzstan leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev has said he remains the true president of the central Asian country. Mr Bakiyev was speaking from Belarus, where he has now taken refuge after being overthrown in a violent uprising earlier this month. He said he did not recognise earlier reports of his resignation and that “death alone” would stop him.

The new leader of Kyrgyzstan moved swiftly to strengthen ties with Russia yesterday as the ousted President was accused of looting the country’s banks. Roza Otunbayeva sent a team to Moscow to request aid a day after Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, offered to help to rebuild the former Soviet republic. The delegation was led by Almazbek Atambayev, her deputy in the provisional Government. Officials accused President Bakiyev of ransacking the state treasury before he fled Bishkek during the revolution, in which 75 people died and 400 were wounded. They froze the banking system, saying that it contained only $22 million (£14 million). “The state coffers are almost empty. All the funds have been transferred,” Edil Baisalov, Ms Otunbayeva’s chief of staff, said.

Задачи на пути развития. Кыргызская Республика, являющаяся горной страной без выхода к морским портам, сталкивается с труднопреодолимыми географическими барьерами в деле достижения высоких и устойчивых темпов экономического роста. Изолированность страны является серьезной преградой для развития международной торговли и перевозок, что далее усугубляется в силу неудовлетворительного состояния физической инфраструктуры и политики протекционизма, проводимой соседними государствами.