The United Nations launched an appeal to collect $71 million in aid for violence-hit Kyrgyzstan, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters on Friday.
"At this very moment OCHA is launching a $71 million flash appeal for Kyrgyzstan," Ban said.
He said the UN will also announce a similar appeal next week to help neighboring Uzbekistan, where some 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks fled due to ethnic violence.
"Tens of thousands more are reportedly waiting to cross the border," he said.
Violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek groups in southern Kyrgyzstan broke out in the city of Osh on June 11 and then spread to the neighboring Jalalabad region, leaving nearly 200 dead and more than 2,000 injured according to official figures. Kyrgyz leaders admit that the real death toll could be 10 times higher.
He also said that humanitarian aid to injured, refugees and displaced people remained "a priority" for the Organization.
He said that he has been keeping contact with Kyrgyz interim leader Roza Otunbayeva and Uzbek President Islam Karimov to "explore options for restoring order, preventing further loss of life and coordinating humanitarian assistance."
He said that he immediately ordered to send 200 metric tons of food to Uzbbekistan after Karimov had warned him that the country was unable to provide refugees with accommodation and food for more than four days.
Earlier Kyrgyzstan's interim government asked Russia for peacekeeping assistance, but Russia said the situation did not suppose that Russia's armed forces could be used in the republic as "it is an internal conflict." Russia sent humanitarian aid and helped take out those injured.
NEW YORK, June 19 (RIA Novosti)
