Kyrgyzstan’s third straight day of rioting also engulfed another major southern city, Jalal-Abad, where a rampaging mob burned a university, besieged a police station, and seized an armored vehicle and other weapons from a local military unit.
“It’s a real war,’’ said local political leader Omurbek Suvanaliyev. “Everything is burning, and bodies are lying on the streets.’’
Those driven from their homes rushed toward the border with Uzbekistan, and children were trampled to death in the panicky stampede.
Crowds of frightened women and children made flimsy bridges out of planks and ladders to cross the ditches marking the border.
Interim President Roza Otunbayeva acknowledged that her government has lost control over Osh, a city of 250,000, even though it sent troops, armor and helicopters to quell the riots. Violence spread to the nearby city of Jalal-Abad later yesterday.
“The situation in the Osh region has spun out of control,’’ Otunbayeva told reporters. “Attempts to establish a dialogue have failed, and fighting and rampages are continuing. We need outside forces to quell confrontation.’’
Otunbayeva asked Russia early yesterday to send in troops, but the Kremlin said it would not meddle into what it described as Kyrgyzstan’s internal conflict.
“It’s a domestic conflict, and Russia now doesn’t see conditions for taking part in its settlement,’’ Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said in Moscow.
She added that Russia will discuss with other members of a security pact of ex-Soviet nations about the possibility of sending a joint peacekeeping force to Kyrgyzstan.
Timakova said Russia would send a plane to Kyrgyzstan to deliver humanitarian supplies and help evacuate victims of the violence.
Russia has about 500 troops at a base in Kyrgyzstan, mostly air force personnel. The United States has the Manas air base in the capital, Bishkek, a crucial supply hub for the coalition fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
