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The violence in Osh and Jalal Abad seems to be waning.  Many Uzbek refugees are still in Uzbekistan, it is hard to say if they will return.  Several sources are suggesting that ousted President Bakiyev and his son were behind these events.  Eyewitnesses in Osh stated they saw Tajik masked men shooting at both the Kyrgyz and Uzbek.  Interpol arrested President Bakiyev’s son, Maksim, in the UK at the request of the Kyrgyzstan government who is alleged to have funded these Tajik “mercenaries”.

Now, Kyrgyzstan will need international help in bringing aid to Osh and Jalal Abad and to the areas in Uzbekistan where the refugees reside.  The international community still seems to be failing in helping southern Kyrgyzstan.

The video below was taken last weekend.  You can see the Uzbekistan Army helping the Uzbek refugees cross into Uzbekistan.  It is a bit chaotic.  Latest estimates suggest that over 100,000 Uzbeks crossed into Uzbekistan.  Osh itself has an official population of 300,000 (450,000 unofficially).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBFgAES2Ovk[/youtube]

Most of you probably never heard of Osh or Jalal Abad, two Central Asian cities located in southern Kyrgyzstan.  I visited both of these cities in 1999 as part of my 4 month contract work with the American Councils for International Education (ACCELS/ACTR) where I ran the Freedom Support Act’s “Future Leader’s Exchange” program for high school students.  This is how I remembered Osh with it’s famous Suleiman Too (hill or mountain):

Suleiman Too

Suleiman Too is a famous pilgrimage site for women wanting to become pregnant (from one direction Suleiman Too looks like a pregnant woman) and just as a religious pilgrimage site (The Prophet Suleiman is rumored to have died here – from another direction the hill looks like an old man).  It is famous to both the Kyrgyz and Uzbek, both ethnic groups that make up Osh.

Here is what the above site looks like now:

Suleiman Hill in Osh unrest - neweurasia.net

About 3 days ago, armed gangs in Osh started taking the streets targeting Uzbeks and their homes.  Over 100 people have been killed and roughly 80,000 Uzbeks have fled their Osh homes for the Uzbekistan border.  The media is calling this an ethnic unrest between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.  Similar riots between the two ethnic groups have occured in 1990.  There are a lot of finger pointing to who started this unrest, most goes to the ousted President Bakiyev who is currently exiled in Belarus.  Jalal Abad was his stronghold and he may be using these unrests to destabilize the current interim democratic government of President Roza Otunbayeva.

President Otunbayeva has asked the Russians to help but they have refused at this time.  It seems that the Kyrgyzstani militia cannot contain the unrest in both Osh and Jalal Abad.  There has not been an official response from both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, both countries that have sizable military forces that could be used to calm the unrest.  Turkey has been mute as well, the Turkish Army could play a crucial role in calming the region.  Uzbeks seem to distrust the Kyrgyz-majority militia.  The Turks could play a neutral role between the two ethnic groups and possibly as a leader of any peace keeping force in the region.

Overall, though, it seems that the world really does not care about what is happening in southern Kyrgyzstan.  The World Cup is taking center stage in all media outlets including Turkey and the Muslim world.  Muslims, in general, do not even seem concerned that Muslims are killing Muslims in Central Asia.  This is sad.  All Muslims threw an uproar when the Israeli forces stormed a Turkish charity ship bound for the Gaza Strip yet they are mute now.

For me, I am just doing my part to help give Kyrgyzstan some world media attention.  Click on the links below and watch the videos in regards to the Osh/Jalal Abad Unrest.  When the time comes, be prepared to give aid to these regions.  They are going to need it real soon…

Twitter Updates on the Osh/Jalal Abad Unrest

• Registan.net
• Central Asia
• NewEurasia.net

Online news stories on the Osh/Jalal Abad Unrest

• Kyrgyzstan Violence: Conspiracies Abound – Registan.net
• Osh burning again – Registan.net
• Is Osh quieting down? – neweurasia.net
• UN chief Ban Ki-moon alarmed by Kyrgyzstan clashes – BBC
• I call it a massacre – neweurasia.net
• Thousands flee Kyrgyzstan unrest – Al Jazeera
• Kyrgyz ethnic class spreads, Russia sends troops – Reuters
• Osh: Videos from the scene – neweurasia.net
• Violence Spreading in Southern Kyrgyzstan; Uzbekistan Reacts Slowly to Refugee Crisis – eurasianet.org
• Panic at the border As Uzbek Refugees flee unrest in Osh – eurasianet.org
• Osh events in photos – neweurasia.net

Osh Unrest Videos

Here are recent pictures of my Kazakh host family.  I think they are aging very well…

Orazimbetovs in 1999

Orazimbetovs in 2010 (Aizhan, my host sister, in center)

(Russian Tortoise – Image Source: Wikipedia)

The other day I was surfing online which somehow brought me to the Wikipedia article on Russian Tortoises.  It brought back memories of the 1990s in Seattle.  As a student at the UDub, I actually owned 3 Russian Tortoises.  I think I bought my first two in 1993 if I remember right.  I had a UV lamp and made a small pen for my two tortoises I named Gorby and Tatiana.  An older Russian tortoise, Katya, joined the duo later.

Russian tortoises are quite easy to take care of.  I just fed them bok choy and romaine lettuce everyday.  During long weekend trips, I could leave them in my pen with a head of romaine lettuce.  For longer trips, my gymastic’s coach and his girlfriend would take care of them.

These guys are fun.  I let them roam my room when I am home.  You will be amazed at how much water their bladder can hold.  If they are scared, they can soak an entire pant leg which has happened to me on one occasion.  Most of the day they just soak under the UV lamp.  At nights, I would turn the UV lamp off at which point my tortoises would start to burrow underneath my wood chip bedding.  Since they were in my room, it would be annoying to hear their feet scraping on the wood floor of their pen but I think I got used to it.

Sadly in 1996, I had to sell them back to the pet store owner who sold them to me 3 years earlier.  I moved into an apartment complex that did not allow pets of any kind including fish.  I lost contact of my gymnastic’s coach so I had to let Gorby, Tatiana and Katya go.  Yeah, I do miss them.

Ironically, in the summer of 1998 which I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Karatau, Kazakhstan, some Kazakh students brought a couple Russian tortoises to me.  It turns out that in the Karatau area, there are many wild Russian tortoises.

In Vietnam, though, I have not seen any.  They are not as popular as the turtle.

Watch some funny YouTube videos on Russian Tortoises.