GEO 436 OSH: Kyrgyzstan’’s interim government has extended a state of emergency in the southern city of Osh and nearby towns and villages following more than a week of deadly clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. The emergency, imposed on June 11 amid deadly fighting, was due to expire on Sunday, but will last until June 25, the government announced. The announcement came as residents of Osh said they were bracing for fresh violence after security forces moved to pull down Uzbek barricades set up during riots last week. Melisbek Myrzakmatov, the mayor of Osh, said authorities had set a deadline of 6:00pm local time [1200 GMT] on Sunday for the barricades to be removed. “We gave them two days to remove the barricades. If they do not remove them, we will resort to force,” he said. “We don”t want to touch [the Uzbeks] but you know they have a lot of weapons and Kyrgyz hostages.” While the official death toll from the clashes is around 200 people, Roza Otunbayeva, the Kyrgyz interim leader, said on Friday that it could be 10-times more than that. Victims of the unrest say the violence was a brutal and orchestrated campaign by armed groups of ethnic Kyrgyz targeting Uzbeks, who make up 14 per cent of Kyrgyzstan’’s population of 5.3 million. The UN has said the unrest appeared to have been orchestrated, but has stopped short of assigning blame.
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