UN: Uzbeks face torture, abuses in Kyrgyzstan

[July 20, 2010]  GENEVA (AP) -- The United Nations says it has received reports of continued torture and other atrocities by Kyrgyzstan forces against ethnic Uzbeks.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay says hundreds of Uzbeks are being imprisoned because of their ethnicity, and there are reports of forced confessions, beatings, police intimidation of families and extortion in the Central Asian nation.

Hundreds of minority Uzbeks were killed in rampages last month by mobs of ethnic Kyrgyz and hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks fled their homes.

Pillay said Tuesday that local authorities are "routinely turning a blind eye" to abuses, including doctors refusing to provide medical care.

The Kyrgyzstan Foreign Ministry would not comment on the allegations.

[Associated Press]

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