Kyrgyzstan clears barricades from ravaged southern city

Kyrgyzstan's military on Sunday cleared makeshift barricades from around Uzbek areas in the ravaged city of Osh, facing no resistance despite earlier fears the move would spark fresh bloodshed.

After a 6:00 pm (1200 GMT) deadline for the barriers to be removed had expired, police said most of the barricades had been taken down without incident.

"All of the barricades have been lifted in the centre of the city. Main roads and streets are open to traffic," a police spokesman told AFP. "Only a few barricades on small streets, dead ends and on the outskirts of the city remain."

The spokesman said police would not use force to remove the remaining barricades because "that would do nothing but inflame the situation".

The warning by authorities that the barriers would be removed Sunday, by force if necessary, had raised concerns of a fresh outbreak of violence after the Central Asian state was rocked last week by deadly ethnic clashes between the majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbek populations.

But the removals proceeded calmly, with Uzbek residents in some areas even assisting the military in pulling down the roadblocks.

Armoured military vehicles pushed aside burnt-out cars, concrete pillars and felled trees that were set up outside Uzbek districts during the violence, which officials say may have killed up to 2,000 and forced 400,000 from their homes.

Watching as roadblocks were taken down in the neighbourhood of Shahid-Tepa, 64-year-old resident Salizhan Numanzhanov said he hoped life was starting to get back to normal.

"Of course we are afraid. But we will not put the barricades back if it stays calm. Life must return to normal at some point," said Numanzhanov, whose brother was among those killed in the unrest.

Tensions had not evaporated however, and some residents said they feared the unrest would return.

"I don't trust them. They are lifting the barricades but how do I know that everything won't start again?" said 22-year-old Sanzhan Alimov, who lives near a mosque riddled with bullet holes.

Kyrgyzstan's interim government said Saturday it was extending a state of emergency in Osh and nearby areas to June 25. Imposed on June 11, the state of emergency had been due to expire on Sunday.

Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has acknowledged that the death toll from the clashes was probably 2,000 -- 10 times the official estimate.

The riots were the worst inter-ethnic clashes to hit the impoverished ex-Soviet state since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Victims of the unrest have told AFP that the violence was a brutal and orchestrated campaign by armed Kyrgyz militias targeting Uzbeks, who make up 14 percent of Kyrgyzstan's population of 5.3 million.

Aid agencies have said up to a million people may have been affected by the violence, including 100,000 who fled to neighbouring Uzbekistan and 300,000 displaced internally.

The United Nations has stepped up aid to the region after issuing an urgent appeal for humanitarian assistance.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that its first flight since the crisis erupted had landed in Osh on Sunday and that a second was due within a day.

The flights are providing 80 tonnes of initial assistance for about 15,000 people, it said. About 240 tonnes of aid for refugees had already been flown into Uzbekistan, it said.

The statement said a team would be arriving in Osh on Monday to set up a UN logistics base at the airport there.

Kyrgyzstan's authorities have accused former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in violent street protests in April, of hiring "provocateurs" to instigate the deadly riots. Bakiyev has denied any involvement.

The interim government has promised to investigate the causes of the violence, but the United States has called for an independent international probe into the clashes.

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged all ethnic communities in Kyrgyzstan "to renounce provocation and violence" as he called for peace and security to be rapidly restored in the country.