TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2010


KLMNO


Bloc preparing aid for Kyrgyzstan Group led by Russia to


offer copters, trucks as thousands flee violence


by Philip P. Pan


bishkek, kyrgyzstan —A re- gional security bloc led by Russia on Monday weighed appeals to send peacekeeping troops to stop ethnic clashes in southern Kyr- gyzstan and prepared a plan to provide helicopters and other equipment as refugees fleeing the violence flocked to the border. New reports suggested hun- dreds had been killed as Kyrgyz mobs attacked ethnic Uzbek vil- lages, and aid groups warned of a growing humanitarian crisis with as many as 150,000 people over- whelming camps in neighboring Uzbekistan that were short on supplies. This latest crisis in the impov- erished Central Asian country posed a political dilemma for the United States and Russia, which both operate military bases in northern Kyrgyzstan but have been reluctant to send troops to stop the bloodshed. Kyrgyzstan’s provisional gov-


ernment came to power in a bloody revolt on April 7. Its lead- ers have accused supporters of the deposed president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, of provoking long-stand- ing tensions between the Kyrgyz and the minority Uzbeks and in- citing violence to undermine the government’s authority and re- turn Bakiyev to power. Bakiyev, in exile in Belarus, has denied any role in the unrest. The Collective Security Treaty Organization, an alliance of for- mer Soviet republics, ended an emergency meeting in Moscow without a decision to deploy its rapid-reaction forces. Nikolai Bordyuzha, the group’s secretary general, cautioned that “these measures need to be employed af- ter careful consideration and, most importantly, in an integrat- ed manner.”


Another senior Russian official,


Nikolai Patrushev, said the meet- ing “did not rule out the use of any means that the CSTO has in its po- tential, depending on how the sit- uation evolves in Kyrgyzstan.” He said a plan had been drafted for approval by the presidents of the member nations, but he offered no details. Russian news agencies report- ed that the organization may send


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helicopters, trucks and other equipment to Kyrgyzstan to help the provisional government. “They have enough forces today, but they do not have enough equipment, helicopters, ground transport . . . even fuel,” Bordyuz- ha said, according to the agencies. The U.N. Security Council was scheduled to receive a briefing on the crisis late Monday. Meanwhile, witnesses and aid


workers reported intermittent shooting and fresh fires in south- ern Kyrgyzstan. The situation ap- peared to have improved in Osh, the country’s second-largest city, but remained volatile, with al- most no sign of police or the mili- tary and with Uzbek men barri- cading themselves in their neigh- borhoods as women, children and the infirm fled.


Conditions appeared worse in other areas. Pierre-Emmanuel Ducruet, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross who arrived in the re- gion Monday, said his team was turned back from the city of Jalal- Abad by the military. “The commander just told us it was not under control and recom- mended that we not distribute medical aid,” he said, adding that smoke was rising from the city.


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VICTOR DRACHEV/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES


An ethnic Uzbek man surveys the wreckage of his home in Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city. The Kyrgyz government said


the death toll climbed to 124 on Monday, with more than 1,600 people wounded. But Ducruet said the official figures “are not very realistic” because many fami- lies are too afraid to go to hospi- tals and have buried their loved ones on their own. Uzbek community leaders told local news agencies that as many as 700 ethnic Uzbeks had been killed in Jalal-Abad. The Red


Cross said its workers saw about 100 bodies being buried in one cemetery in Osh. “More than humanitarian aid is needed to stabilize the situation,” said Yves Giovannoni, head of the Red Cross regional delegation in Uzbekistan. Kubat Baibolov, the military commander in Jalal-Abad, said his forces had detained several gunmen who were shooting from cars at residents regardless of eth-


nicity. The men said they were be- ing paid by people close to the Ba- kiyev family, Baibolov said in tele- vised remarks. “I am saying with all responsibility that this is ideo- logical sabotage and provocation,” he said. He said Monday night that the situation in Jalal-Abad was under control. Bakiyev issued a new statement urging military intervention by the CSTO to stop the violence. panp@washpost.com


Pakistan denounces report saying its intelligence agency assists Afghan Taliban by Karin Brulliard


islamabad, pakistan — Paki- stani officials on Monday angrily dismissed a report published this weekend alleging that the nation’s primary intelligence agency fi- nances, trains and at least partial- ly controls the Afghan Taliban in- surgency. The report, issued by the Lon- don School of Economics and based on interviews with Taliban commanders and former Taliban officials, concludes that it is offi- cial Pakistani policy to support the rebellion as a bulwark against Indian influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan is an ally of the United States, which leads coalition forces fighting the Taliban. Pakistan has long-standing ties to the Taliban, and some Western officials and Pakistani terrorism analysts allege that elements of


the country’s Inter-Services Intel- ligence agency continue to fo- ment the movement. The new re- port asserts that links remain so deep that ISI representatives are “participants or observers” on the Taliban’s leadership council, the Quetta Shura. The ISI’s role in the Afghan in-


surgency remains one of the big- gest sources of mistrust between the United States and Pakistan, and the report could heighten those tensions. Although Paki- stan’s army has gone after mil- itants who attack inside Pakistan, it has resisted U.S. pressure to at- tack Afghan Taliban havens on its soil, saying it is overstretched. Pakistan has long denied that it provides support to the Afghan Taliban, although ISI officials say they still have lines of communi- cation to some of the movement’s leaders. On Monday, a military spokesman dismissed the report


as a “malicious” account with lit- tle solid evidence. “If there is great turbulence on the other side, it directly affects this side of the border,” said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army spokesman. “No- body would be more interested in seeing a more peaceful, more sta- ble, more friendly Afghanistan than Pakistan itself.” According to the report, writ- ten by Harvard University fellow Matt Waldman, the ISI provides Taliban leaders with sanctuary in Pakistan’s border region but maintains control over them with threats of arrest. Taliban com- manders interviewed said the ISI provides ammunition and fund- ing and supports training camps where militants learn to lay road- side bombs, among other skills. “Pakistan appears to be playing


a double-game of astonishing magnitude,” the report says. Some U.S. officials and analysts


suspect Pakistan is interested in maintaining good relations with the Afghan Taliban in the belief that the group will eventually hold power in Kabul. On Monday, a senior Pakistani official suggest- ed that supposition is true but strongly denied that the ISI sup- ports or controls the Taliban. “If [the Americans] decide to pack up and go, what is going to happen to Pakistan? We are going to be alone to face these people?” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We’ve got enough problems on our homestead. Why should we go for people who are not our enemies?” Many Afghan and some U.S. of-


ficials suspect the ISI has played a part in some of the deadliest at- tacks in Afghanistan. Last week, after resigning, Afghanistan’s for- mer intelligence chief told the Reuters news agency that the ISI is “part of the landscape of de-


struction in this country.” But U.S. officials rarely publicly


state their suspicions about the ISI for fear of jeopardizing what they view as one of Washington’s most strategic, but fragile, rela- tionships. They stress that coop- eration with Pakistan has im- proved, pointing to examples such as its arrests in February — at times in coordination with the CIA — of a handful of Afghan Tali- ban commanders, including dep- uty leader Abdul Ghani Baradar. The report also accuses Paki- stan of releasing senior Taliban prisoners. Earlier this year, senior U.S. intelligence officials said they had seen evidence that Pakistan had let at least two high-level Tali- ban operatives go at roughly the same time as Baradar’s arrest. U.S. officials said the releases


reflected Pakistan’s strategy of working closely with the United States on key fronts while also


maintaining relationships with militant groups capable of serving Pakistan’s interests in Afghani- stan when U.S. forces are gone. Among the report’s most strik- ing claims is that Pakistani Presi- dent Asif Ali Zardari met with Tal- iban prisoners and assured them of Pakistan’s support. That as- sertion was greeted with skepti- cism by several analysts and U.S. officials, who note that Pakistan’s civilian government and military establishment have mutually sus- picious relations. One U.S. official said the assertion “didn’t make sense, to put it mildly.” The senior Pakistani official said Zardari “doesn’t deal with these people. . . . I cannot think of a more ridiculous story or a big- ger fairy tale.”


brulliardk@washpost.com


Staff writer Greg Miller in Washington contributed to this report.


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