No outside force was behind last weeks violent clashes in the south of Kyrgyzstan, in which up to 2000 people are thought to have been killed, the officer who led police during the unrest said.
Violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek groups broke out in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh on June 11, lasting several days and spreading to neighboring Jalalabad region. Official figures say 214 were killed in the clashes and more than 2,000 were injured, however Kyrgyz leaders admit that the real death toll could be 10 times higher.
"There was no third party...if mercenaries had been involved, the fighting tactics would have been quite different. They would have plotted targeted strikes and used explosives to attack strategic sites and administrative buildings," Major General Omurbek Suvanaliyev said in an interview with Kommersant daily on Tuesday.
The Kyrgyz interim authorities suspect people from former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's retinue to have been behind the riots.
Bakiyev, who was ousted as president opposition protests in April and has taken refuge in Belarus, strongly denies any connection to the clashes.
Suvanaliyev said there had been "tensions in the air" over a month before the clashes.
"Both sides were prepared: they set up mobile units, appointed commanders, decided which objects to attack...why the interim government didn't take any measures to prevent the situation is a mystery to everyone," he said.
Jalalabad region commandant Kubat Baibolov said on Monday several of Bakiyev's relatives had been detained on charges of organizing the riots.
He said wiretapped telephone conversations between Bakiyev's brother Dzhanyshbek and the ousted president's son Maksim was proof of their involvement.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov said he also believes a "third force" was behind the unrest.
MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti)
