YURAS KARMANAU
Assocaited Press Writer
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – The United Nations and the European Union urged Kyrgyzstan not to let ethnic riots derail a key constitutional referendum and parliamentary elections, as reports emerged Tuesday that suggested the rioting was deliberately started.
The southern part of the impoverished Central Asian nation has been convulsed by days of rioting targeting minority Uzbeks, which has left the country’s second-largest city, Osh, in smoldering ruins and prompted tens of thousand of Uzbeks to flee for their lives to neighboring Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan’s interim government, which took over when former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in an April uprising, has accused Bakiyev’s family of instigating the violence to halt a June 27 referendum on a new constitution. Uzbeks have mostly backed the interim government, while many Kyrgyz in the south have supported Bakiyev. From self-imposed exile in Belarus, Bakiyev has denied any ties to the violence.