Photo Gallery Violent Clashes in Kyrgyzstan
The Uzbek minority was the target of the violence. Officially 170 have died, though unofficial figures top 700. Many Uzbeks fled the violence to camps like this one, in neighboring Uzbekistan.
Refugees on the Uzbekistan border. The unrest started Friday, June 11, when gangs of young Kyrgyz men armed with firearms and metal rods marched on Uzbek neighborhoods and set their homes on fire.
Men walk past a burning building in the city of Osh on Friday, June 11.
Kyrgyzstan now has a transitional government, and supporters of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev are suspected of fomenting the unrest.
"I do not think that Bakiyev, from the distance of his exile in Minsk, is in a position to pull the strings," Central Asia expert Andrea Schmitz told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "But I am firmly of the belief that parts of his network and his followers -- possibly in conjunction with protagonists from organized-crime circles -- may have instigated the violence."
Ex-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, whose regime was toppled in April. "It has become clear that supporters of the former president are not prepared to let anyone take either power or resources," said Andrea Schmitz.
The transitional government sent troops and tanks into downtown Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan, to quell the recent violence. Osh is the country's second-largest city, where Bakiyev has a base of support.
The army mobilized all reserve members aged between 18 and 50. So far none of Kyrgyzstan's neighbors -- particularly Russia -- have offered to help stabilize the country.
"Russia plays a very sorry part in this conflict," Andrea Schmitz told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Right now one has the impression that Russian crisis-management exists as a pretense, not as reality."
Kyrgyz opposition supporters ousted President Bakiyev's government in April. During protests in the capital Bishkek (shown), rebels killed Kyrgyzstan's interior minister, took the deputy prime minister hostage and captured state television.
Security forces fired at protesters during April's Bishkek riots.
A total of 87 people died during the uprising. Many more were injured. "You can call this revolution," opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister, told the BBC at the time. "You can call this a people's revolt."
