Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 May 2023, 15:20 GMT

Kazakh officials deny mass clashes in south were ethnic

Publisher Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Publication Date 29 August 2014
Cite as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Kazakh officials deny mass clashes in south were ethnic, 29 August 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/542ac6c526.html [accessed 19 May 2023]
DisclaimerThis is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

August 29, 2014

By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service

Kazakhstan's interior minister says two people have been hospitalized and four others detained by police after clashes in a southern village where most residents are ethnic Uzbeks.

Regional police department spokeswoman Saltanat Qarakozova told RFE/RL that dozens of ethnic Kazakhs from the village of Madani came to mostly ethnic-Uzbek Qaramurat on August 27 and attacked local residents, broke into shops, and damaged several cars.

Interior Minister Qamukhanbet Qasymov said on August 29 that the clashes in the Central Asian country had nothing to do with the ethnicity of those involved.

But there were also scuffles between residents of the two villages three days earlier.

Most members of Kazakhstan's 500,000-strong ethnic Uzbek minority live in the South Kazakhstan region, which borders Uzbekistan.

Link to original story on RFE/RL website

Copyright notice: Copyright (c) 2007-2009. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036

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