A18 The World


S


KLMNO Israel will allow more


goods into Gaza Strip Sea blockade remains over reports of further aid ships arriving soon


by Janine Zacharia


jerusalem — Israel eased re- strictions on goods entering the Gaza Strip on Thursday but left in place a sea blockade of the Pal- estinian enclave, raising the pros- pect of further clashes with aid flotillas following last month’s deadly confrontation with a Turkish ship. The decision came amid re-


ports that Israeli foes such as Iran and Lebanon, as well as Turkey, are planning to send additional ships to Gaza. The May 31 con- frontation occurred after aid ships refused to detour to an Is- raeli port. That incident drew the world’s


attention to the extent of Israel’s prohibitions on Gaza-bound goods — which until now covered items from vinegar to school sup- plies — and highlighted how dominant Israel remains in the territory, controlling even the smallest affairs of Palestinians there five years after Israel with- drew 8,000 settlers. After two weeks of behind-the- scenes pressure from European and U.S. diplomats, Israel’s secu- rity cabinet agreed to let more ci- vilian goods enter the strip, which the Islamist Hamas group has ruled since 2007. But the scope of what would be permitted remained vague. “The Israeli security envelope around Gaza will continue. There’s no substitute for that,” said an Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Current security measures, the cabinet said, must stay in force to prevent weapons and war materi- el from reaching Hamas, which the United States, Israel and the European Union regard as a ter- rorist organization. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, told reporters Thursday that “we welcome the principles” announced by the Is- raeli government. “They’re a step in the right direction,” he said, adding that the administration would continue to work with Is- rael “to improve a humanitarian situation in Gaza that the presi- dent has said is unsustainable.” Mark Toner, a State Depart- ment spokesman, said the United States wants to see “an expansion of the scope and types of goods al- lowed into Gaza to address the Palestinians’ legitimate needs . . . while addressing, obviously, Is- rael’s legitimate security needs.” Israel has yet to decide on addi- tional steps to implement the pol- icy change. Those decisions in- clude whether to reopen crossing points into Gaza that were closed under Hamas’s rule, to accommo- date additional delivery trucks, and whether to station interna- tional monitors at the crossing points. The partial nature of the policy


change prompted criticism from some Palestinians, human rights


groups and academic observers, who said it did not go far enough. Although Israel is trying to


“make it appear that it has eased” the blockade, “in reality, the siege of the Gaza Strip, illegally im- posed on Palestinians, continues unabated,” said Palestinian nego- tiator Saeb Erekat. Amnesty International said the decision was not enough to end the “col- lective punishment” of Gazans. Augustus Richard Norton, a Boston University international relations professor, described the decision as an “arrogant in-your- face to the U.S. and other con- cerned members of the interna- tional community.” “If Israel was serious about im- proving the living conditions of Gazans, it would stop preventing the exports of agricultural goods and allow the strip’s simple man- ufacturing sector to resume mak- ing and selling everyday essen- tials,” Norton said. A military spokesman had said


after the cabinet decision that all food would be allowed to enter the territory as of Sunday, includ- ing industrial-size containers of ingredients such as margarine, necessary for food production. Many factories closed in the past three years because of the ban, which was designed to put pressure on the Palestinian econ- omy as part of an effort to foster popular dissatisfaction with the Hamas leadership. But Raed Fattouh, head of a


Palestinian committee that coor- dinates the flow of goods with Is- rael, said he had been told that all food sold at a supermarket would now be permitted and that the ban on foods sized for factory production would continue. Fattouh estimated that Israel


on Thursday had doubled the number of products that can en- ter to 250 — including such previ- ously banned items as kitchen utensils — although it remains a fraction of the total allowed in be- fore Hamas took power. Still, Fat- touh called the Israeli decision “a beginning.” Israel said that crucial building items would still be permitted only for projects that are mon- itored by a third party such as the United Nations or the World Bank to ensure Hamas does not use materials like concrete for its own purposes. In addition to the criticism that the changes don’t go far enough, Prime Minister Binyamin Netan- yahu also faced the accusation that they go too far. “The easing of the closure is a


victory for terror,” said Yoel Has- son, a lawmaker from the centrist opposition Kadima party. “Netan- yahu’s campaign slogan of ‘strong against Hamas’ today became empty words. The absence of a clear diplomatic strategy is lead- ing Israel to international isola- tion while ending Hamas’s isola- tion.”


zachariaj@washpost.com


Special correspondent Samuel Sockol in Jerusalem and staff writers Scott Wilson and Glenn Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.


FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010


ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS Uzbeks run to catch a bus for the airport as they flee the Kyrgyz city of Osh, where several Uzbek districts have been burned to the ground. Kyrgyz crisis grows more severe


U.N. doubles estimate of Uzbek refugees; aid delivery is hampered


by Philip P. Pan


osh, kyrgyzstan — The Unit- ed Nations said Thursday that some 400,000 people have been driven from their homes by eth- nic clashes in southern Kyrgyz- stan, doubling its estimate of the number of refugees here and ac- knowledging that it was having trouble delivering aid because of continuing violence. The new U.N. assessment high- lighting the severity of the crisis came as the Kyrgyz military ap- peared to run into difficulties in its effort to restore order to the region, where more than 2 mil- lion people live. At least 180 have been killed in clashes between Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks over the past week. For a third straight day, condi- tions seemed to improve, with more residents feeling safe enough to venture out of their homes. But witnesses reported sporadic gunfire as troops pa- trolled the streets, including shots fired by unidentified gun- men at aid workers attempting to distribute food. A children’s home was report- ed to have been looted and set on fire, and in the afternoon, a dark plume of smoke could be seen ris- ing from a village outside Osh, the country’s second-largest city, where several Uzbek districts have been burned to the ground. In another incident that sug-


gested the volatility of the situa- tion, a motorist stopped in Osh at what appeared to be a military checkpoint was asked his eth- nicity, and when he said he was Uzbek, one of the uniformed men allegedly drew a knife and threat- ened to slit his throat. The driver tried to escape but was shot, ac- cording to his niece, Zebeil Ham- rayava, 32, who said he had been hospitalized in serious condition. Hamrayava said it was unclear


whether the men at the check- point were Kyrgyz soldiers or im- postors. But her account of the shooting dovetailed with other reports of Kyrgyz men in military uniforms targeting ethnic Uzbeks who leave their enclaves. The behavior of the army and police during the past week’s vio- lence is a major grievance among Uzbeks, who accuse the security forces of letting Kyrgyz mobs run wild for several days, and in many cases, of taking part in the mayhem and slaughter them- selves. While Uzbeks make up nearly half the region’s popula- tion, almost all soldiers and po- lice here are ethnic Kyrgyz. Bakytbek Alymbekov, a deputy interior minister and the top po- lice official in the Osh region, ac- knowledged that Uzbeks were wary of the troops that have been dispatched across the city. But he said investigators had not identified any soldiers or po- lice involved in the violence and suggested that those who orga- nized the riots had distributed uniforms and weapons to the mobs. He added that the crowds managed to seize control of mili- tary vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, in the first few days of the chaos. Ole Solvang, a Human Rights


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Mandela mourns loss of great-granddaughter


Watch researcher investigating the clashes in Osh, said the testi- mony he has collected thus far in- dicates that Kyrgyz troops at the very least ignored the attacks on Uzbek neighborhoods. “It seems to be an extreme fail- ure on the part of the government to intervene and protect these people,” he said. Kyrgyzstan’s shaky interim


government has accused the de- posed president, Kurmanbek Ba-


Fleeing violence


• 100,000 Uzbek refugees have fled to Uzbekistan


• 300,000 Uzbek refugees remain displaced in Kyrgyzstan


• 180 have been killed • 1,870 have been injured


KAZAKHSTAN Andijon UZBEK. TAJIKISTAN KYRGYZSTAN


Jalal-Abad Bishkek


Osh CHINA


shift barricades meant to keep Kyrgyz out. The barricades have made it


difficult to deliver relief aid to the Uzbek villages and neighbor- hoods where it is needed most, and Kyrgyz officials have debated trying to use force to reach some of the Uzbek refugee settlements — a move that human rights ac- tivists say could cause further bloodshed.


According to a new estimate by AFGHANISTAN


Uzbek population concentrations


SOURCE: UNHCR PAKISTAN 0 MILES THE WASHINGTON POST


kiyev, and his family of triggering the riots by paying gunmen to at- tack Kyrgyz and Uzbek neighbor- hoods. In recent days, the govern- ment has also begun to shift the blame toward ethnic Uzbek poli- ticians, many of whom had been strong allies in opposing Bakiyev and his base of ethnic Kyrgyz supporters in the south. By turning against the Uzbek leaders and accusing them of pro- voking the riots with radical po- litical demands, the new govern- ment appears to be trying to win support by tapping into Kyrgyz nationalism, including anger over foreign news media reports showing that Uzbeks bore the brunt of the violence. Speaking to reporters in Bish-


kek, the capital, a deputy prime minister, Azimbek Beknazarov, suggested that the government was planning to detain Kadyrz- han Batyrov, a leading Uzbek na- tionalist, and had already taken two of his followers into custody. Any attempt to arrest Batyrov and other Uzbek community leaders is likely to further alien- ate Uzbek residents, who are furi- ous at the government and its se- curity forces and have used buses, trucks and trees to set up make-


150


the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, about 260,000 people displaced from their homes have been taken in by relatives or oth- ers, and 40,000 have been left without any shelter. “No U.N. agency is on the ground at the moment,” said An- drej Mahecic, a U.N. spokesman. “For the humanitarians to go, there must be a minimum of a se- curity environment so they can do their work.”


Another 100,000 refugees have crossed the border into Uzbeki- stan, where aid is getting through and conditions in the camps are generally better, he said. In his remarks, Beknazarov also said the government was try- ing to extradite Bakiyev’s son, Maxim, from Britain, where he reportedly sought political asy- lum this week. Beknazarov accused him of


playing a key role in provoking the riots and linked the disposi- tion of his case to the future of a U.S. air base in northern Kyrgyz- stan that supplies NATO opera- tions in Afghanistan. “If the U.K. does not extradite


Maxim Bakiyev to Kyrgyzstan, then the interim government has no other choice but to expel the Americans from the air base,” he said, according to the local AKI- Press news agency.


panp@washpost.com on washingtonpost.com


Exodus from violence in Kyrgyzstan


Residents continue to flee ethnic attacks by bus, car


or foot — any way they can. washingtonpost.com/world


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Former South African president Nelson Mandela is led by his wife, Grace Machel, as they arrive for a memorial service for his great-granddaughter Zenani Mandela at the St. Stithians College chapel in Sandton, north of Johannesburg. The 13-year-old was killed when a car overturned June 10 in Soweto.


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