More than 62 people are reported to have died and some 800 injured during clashes with members of Kyrgyzstan’s Uzbek minority, which some eyewitnesses described as attempted pogroms. Uzbeks trapped in the southern city of Osh, where shops and homes have been set ablaze, said they were under seige from armed gangs of Kyrgyz men.
Roza Otunbayeva, who replaced Kurmanbek Bakiyev as president of Kyrgyzstan after a street uprising in April, said: "We need the entry of outside armed forces to calm the situation down. We have appealed to Russia for help and I have already signed such a letter for President Dmitry Medvedev."
People fight during a rally in Kyrgyz's town Jalalabad
Roza Otunbayeva, who replaced Kurmanbek Bakiyev as president of Kyrgyzstan after a street uprising in April, said: "We need the entry of outside armed forces to calm the situation down. We have appealed to Russia for help and I have already signed such a letter for President Dmitry Medvedev."
The call is an acknowledgement that the government is now powerless to end the bloodshed sweeping the south of the tiny nation, which hosts a crucial US supply base for Afghanistan.
"It's like a genocide, they're killing us all. We've got nowhere to run," said Muzzafar Saipov, an ethnic Uzbek local government official based in the centre of Osh. "All the fatalities are on our side, because we don't have any weapons. All we have in our hands are hammers and spades."
Such was the panic that at least four people were killed in a crush on the border with Uzbekistan on Saturday afternoon, as thousands of ethnic Uzbeks, mainly women and children, fled to safety.
Paul Quinn-Judge, Central Asia Director for International Conflict Group, based in Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, said it was unclear whether Russia would be in a position to send troops.
"It's a complicated mission for any country, and Russia may not have a large contingent of trained people. The most frightening thing about Rosa Otunbayeva's appeal was her admission that the situation in Osh was out of control."
Russia's last military intervention in the region came during the civil war in neighbouring Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The Kyrgyz president blamed the family of her ousted predecessor, Mr Bakiyev, for instigating the unrest in Osh.
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Mr Saipov said he and his neighbours had managed to evacuate women and children from their Uzbek-dominated neighbourhood close to Osh's town centre this morning after a tense night in which fighting raged around them.
He said that around 100 men from the neighbourhood had gathered to build barricades which they were manning in an attempt to safeguard their houses from the Kyrgyz gangs who had set fire to entire streets elsewhere in the city.
"There is serious shooting happening in the nearby neighbourhoods, it didn't yet come towards us but we're waiting," he said.
Uzbekistan's border guards were allowing thousands of refugees across the border yesterday.
"I've never seen that many people, it's like a sea of people, its absolutely horrible" said an eyewitness. "There's a deep canal, so people are making makeshift bridges, and Uzbek security services are helping them across, holding babies."
Across Osh and surrounding villages, Uzbek families have painted the letters 'SOS' on their houses.
Roughly half of Osh's population is Uzbek and tensions have been high for the last two decades, after hundreds of people were killed in ethnic clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in 1990.
The latest violence broke out just before midnight on Thursday when buildings and cars were set alight and shop windows smashed across the city, as groups battled in the streets with guns and iron bars.
This afternoon, there were reports that groups of Kyrgyz men, armed with iron bars and automatic weapons were marching towards Uzbek neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city, while fighting raged on close to Osh's airport, where hundreds of passengers were stranded.
Omurbek Suvanaliyev, a leader of the Ata-Zhurt political party that tried to organize local militia, said that the warring parties even used armored vehicles in fighting. "It's a real war," he said. "Everything is burning, and bodies are lying on the streets."
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Mr Saipov said that the official government death toll from the Health Ministry was underestimating the casualties, as many Uzbeks were unable or afraid to bring casualties to local hospitals.
He said eight of the men in his neighbourhood had been shot, and many others had been wounded since the violence broke out on Thursday night.
"There are snipers and there's no way to get the injured people to hospital," he said. "All the injured are trapped at home, no medical help can be given to them because there're no ambulances. We're trying to call the police and the local administration but nobody is helping us."
Russia was the first country to recognize Otunbayeva’s government in April, and, although Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has denied it, many analysts suspect it may a hand in the unrest that unseated Bakiyev.
Bakiyev reversed a decision to close the US’s Manas airbase last year, after the US tripled the yearly rental to $60 million. Russia, which is uncomfortable with a US base in its near-abroad, had previously given Bakiyev $2bn loan and a $150m in aid.
"It's like a genocide, they're killing us all. We've got nowhere to run," said Muzzafar Saipov, an ethnic Uzbek local government official based in the centre of Osh. "All the fatalities are on our side, because we don't have any weapons. All we have in our hands are hammers and spades."
Ethnic Uzbek gather near the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border in southern Kyrgyzstan trying to seek refuge in Uzbekistan from mobs of Kyrgyz men attacking the minority Uzbek community
Such was the panic that at least four people were killed in a crush on the border with Uzbekistan on Saturday afternoon, as thousands of ethnic Uzbeks, mainly women and children, fled to safety.
Paul Quinn-Judge, Central Asia Director for International Conflict Group, based in Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, said it was unclear whether Russia would be in a position to send troops.
"It's a complicated mission for any country, and Russia may not have a large contingent of trained people. The most frightening thing about Rosa Otunbayeva's appeal was her admission that the situation in Osh was out of control."
Russia's last military intervention in the region came during the civil war in neighbouring Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The Kyrgyz president blamed the family of her ousted predecessor, Mr Bakiyev, for instigating the unrest in Osh.
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Mr Saipov said he and his neighbours had managed to evacuate women and children from their Uzbek-dominated neighbourhood close to Osh's town centre this morning after a tense night in which fighting raged around them.
He said that around 100 men from the neighbourhood had gathered to build barricades which they were manning in an attempt to safeguard their houses from the Kyrgyz gangs who had set fire to entire streets elsewhere in the city.
"There is serious shooting happening in the nearby neighbourhoods, it didn't yet come towards us but we're waiting," he said.
Uzbekistan's border guards were allowing thousands of refugees across the border yesterday.
"I've never seen that many people, it's like a sea of people, its absolutely horrible" said an eyewitness. "There's a deep canal, so people are making makeshift bridges, and Uzbek security services are helping them across, holding babies."
Across Osh and surrounding villages, Uzbek families have painted the letters 'SOS' on their houses.
Roughly half of Osh's population is Uzbek and tensions have been high for the last two decades, after hundreds of people were killed in ethnic clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in 1990.
The latest violence broke out just before midnight on Thursday when buildings and cars were set alight and shop windows smashed across the city, as groups battled in the streets with guns and iron bars.
This afternoon, there were reports that groups of Kyrgyz men, armed with iron bars and automatic weapons were marching towards Uzbek neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city, while fighting raged on close to Osh's airport, where hundreds of passengers were stranded.
Omurbek Suvanaliyev, a leader of the Ata-Zhurt political party that tried to organize local militia, said that the warring parties even used armored vehicles in fighting. "It's a real war," he said. "Everything is burning, and bodies are lying on the streets."
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Mr Saipov said that the official government death toll from the Health Ministry was underestimating the casualties, as many Uzbeks were unable or afraid to bring casualties to local hospitals.
He said eight of the men in his neighbourhood had been shot, and many others had been wounded since the violence broke out on Thursday night.
"There are snipers and there's no way to get the injured people to hospital," he said. "All the injured are trapped at home, no medical help can be given to them because there're no ambulances. We're trying to call the police and the local administration but nobody is helping us."
Russia was the first country to recognize Otunbayeva’s government in April, and, although Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has denied it, many analysts suspect it may a hand in the unrest that unseated Bakiyev.
Bakiyev reversed a decision to close the US’s Manas airbase last year, after the US tripled the yearly rental to $60 million. Russia, which is uncomfortable with a US base in its near-abroad, had previously given Bakiyev $2bn loan and a $150m in aid.
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