'Up to 2,000' dead in Kyrgyzstan violence, says president

The interim president of Kyrgyzstan today suggested the death toll from the country's ethnic violence could be as high as 2,000.

Roza Otunbayeva was visiting the southern city of Osh for the first time since ethnic violence left hundreds, mainly Uzbeks, dead and forced 400,000 people to flee.

Kyrgyz health ministry figures place the number killed at 191, but Ms Otunbayeva told a Russian newspaper: "I would multiply the official data by 10."

Observers have suggested that official figures are too low, because they have not taken into account those buried on the day of death in keeping with Muslim tradition.

Ethnic Kyrgyz started the killings a week ago, but Ms Otunbayeva insisted good will between the two ethnic groups would end hostilities.

"We have to give hope that we shall restore the city, return all the refugees and create all the conditions for that," she said.

Up to 100,000 people have crossed the nearby border to refugee camps in neighbouring Uzbekistan. Thousands more remain in squalid conditions on the Kyrgyz side of the border, unable to cross because of Uzbek restrictions.