Violence in Kyrgyzstan appears to have begun with five coordinated attacks and has taken on an inter-ethnic character that could spiral out of control, the U.N. human rights office warned today, according to Reuters. The office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has collected eyewitness accounts, including from U.N. staff, in the southern Kyrgyz cities of Osh and Jalalabad, her spokesman Rupert Colville said. "We have strong indications that this event was not a spontaneous inter-ethnic clash -- that it was to some degree orchestrated, targeted and well-planned," Colville told a news briefing in Geneva. "Several of these reports suggest that the incident began with five simultaneous attacks in Osh involving men wearing balaclavas and carrying guns. It looked like they were seeking to provoke a reaction," he said. Colville said that one of the attacks was on a gym which he said was "known to be the haunt of a criminal gang" in Osh. "Targeting that gym was likely to provoke a reaction." At least 176 people have been killed in the violence which erupted in the Central Asian state last Thursday and may soon have driven 100,000 refugees across the border to Uzbekistan. -- SPA
