Unhealed Wounds of Osh

A look at continuing discrimination and failure of justice three years after deadly ethnic clashes in south Kyrgyzstan.

On June 11, 2010, conflict erupted between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz communities of southern Kyrgyzstan, with most of the violence concentrated in Osh and the neighbouring town of Jalalabad. The ousting of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the country's then-president, earlier that year had led to violent protests and a power struggle. Long-standing inter-ethnic tensions were exploited, and under lawless conditions, mobs of ethnic Kyrgyz were able to take part in organised assaults on Uzbek neighbourhoods. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands wounded, homes and businesses were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. Al Jazeera's Robin Forestier-Walker was one of the first journalists inside Osh in June 2010 when the violence started. When he returns to the city three years later, he finds many still living in fear of the authorities. Their accounts allege the involvement of the military in the attacks on the Uzbek community which resulted in summary