Kyrgyz authorities plan to allocate $100 million from a Russian loan received in 2009 to restore the violent-hit southern regions back to normal, a deputy prime minister from the country's interim government said on Thursday.
"The interim government plans to allocate $100 million from the $300 million Russian loan... to restore the devastated southern part of the country," Temir Sariyev said at a press conference.
Some $450-500 million will be steered into restoring housing in the violence-hit Osh and Jalalabad regions within the next 18 months, he said.
Interethnic clashes in the south of the Central Asian state broke out on June 11 and claimed the lives of more than 280 people, according to government figures, and made thousand homeless. However, Kyrgyz officials acknowledge that the real death toll may be 10 times higher.
According to latest figures, 2,500 buildings, including 1,900 residential buildings, were destroyed during the clashes, Zhantoro Satybaldiyev, who heads the state board for restoring the Osh and Jalalabad regions.
BISHKEK, July 8 (RIA Novosti)
