ISKRA (Kyrgyzstan), February 6 (RIA Novosti) - Police in Kyrgyzstan had to resort to using tear gas Monday to end disorder in a village near the country's capital, Bishkek, after a children's dispute over a computer erupted into an inter-ethnic riot.
Trouble in the Central Asian republic first flared on Sunday when two children from the minority Kyrgyzstani group in the village of Iskra were hospitalized after a fight over computer time at a local school.
Two children from the Dungan ethnic group, which is of Chinese origin and accounts for 90% of the village's 3,000 residents, are alleged to have attacked the pupils.
In the aftermath of the original incident about 150 Iskra residents gathered to demand that some Dungan families be resettled, which then escalated into protesters throwing stones and setting fire to some Dungan houses.
A local police officer said the situation had been brought control and the protesters had been warned that they would be held liable if the disorder continued, but some Iskra residents had nevertheless been forced to leave the village.
