BISHKEK, April 2 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyz police detained the editor in chief of the country’s largest Uzbek-language newspaper on suspicion of his involvement in the deadly ethnic clashes in the country’s south in 2010, a spokesman for the republic’s Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
Following the 2010 coup and toppling of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev southern Kyrgyz regions became the scene of deadly interethnic clashes between Kyrgyz people and the country's Uzbek minority. The violence left about 500 people dead, injured thousands and forced about 500,000 people from their homes.
A state commission to investigate the causes ruled that the ethnic conflict was triggered, among other things, by statements and speeches made by certain leaders from the Uzbek diaspora.
Makhamadsoli Ismailov, the editor in chief of the influential Ush Sadosi (Echo of Osh) Uzbek-language newspaper printed in the Kyrgyz city of Osh, was detained on suspicion of abducting a person during the violence outbreak.
"Ten people are listed as suspects in the case. Three of them, including Ismailov, have already been detained, while seven have been put on a wanted list,” an Interior Ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti.
A court in Kyrgyzstan earlier sentenced a prominent ethnic Uzbek human rights activist, Azimzhan Askarov, to life in prison for instigating interethnic violence and killing a police officer.
