Bloody clashes between rival ethnic groups have "escalated into pogroms" in Soviet Uzbekistan, where angry mobs used clubs, rocks and fire to kill scores of people since the weekend, the official news agency Tass said Wednesday.
President Mikhail Gorbachev told the Soviet parliament "there are still killings and arson" in the troubled Central Asian republic, although security forces had restored order in most areas. "The situation causes us concern," he said.Tass said at least 56 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded in clashes between minority Meskhetian Turks and the majority Uzbekis. But the Communist Party daily Pravda said Thursday that at least 71 have been killed.
The Soviet television news program "Vremya" reported Tuesday the unrest that began over the weekend had claimed about 100 lives.
Tass said at least 5,000 people had fled their homes because of fighting between the Uzbekis and Meskhetian Turks, who were forced by dicator Josef Stalin to resettle in Uzbekistan from their native Georgia in 1944.
"Clashes between the native population (the Uzbekis) and the Meskhetian Turks have escalated into pogroms," Tass said. "According to preliminary information, 56 people were killed. Some were stoned to death, others perished in the burning debris of houses. A considerable number of women and children died."
A television newscast showed bloody, nail-studded sticks that were used as weapons in the fighting. It also showed footage of burned-out cars and shattered windows in a local police station.
About 9,000 security police have been flown to the troubled republic to help enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew in areas where fighting has occurred.
The ethnic violence is the worst since February 1988, when 32 ethnic Armenians died in clashes in the Azerbaijanian city of Sumgait.
Soviet television said Wednesday that the violence, which erupted Saturday between Uzbeks and minority Meskhetians, had spread and acquired an anti-government aspect with attacks on police stations and government buildings.