Crisis

Kyrgyzstan Ethnic Violence: What's Happening?

Ethnic violence has killed at least 120.

Ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan has killed at least 120 people and forced as many as 75,000 refugees to the Uzbekistan border. What’s going on? The New York Times says the ethnic violence is rooted in class issues: Uzbeks are traditionally farmers and are better off than the nomadic Kyrgyz. Still, Uzbeks are largely excluded from the country’s politics, even in the south, where they make up a majority of the population of some cities. Foreign Policy writes, “The interim government seems to have given up on solving the problem on its own and at this point, third-party mediated negotiations seem the only viable solution to bridge the trust gap between Kyrgyzstan's Uzbek and Kyrgyz population.”