MOSCOW. June 22 (Interfax) - The leaders of the Kyrgyz and Uzbek diasporas were behind the Osh clashes, said Omurbek Suvanaliyev, who served just over a week as chief of the Osh regional police department. He denies the possibility of a third party being involved in the conflict.
"If mercenaries had been involved, the combat tactics would have been totally different. Strategic assets and administrative buildings would be hit by localized strikes with the use of explosives. Vital facilities would have been disabled in the first place. Snipers would have targeted officials and leaders of the conflicting sides. But here they just burnt houses and showered one another from assault rifles. It was an ordinary guerilla war, with the use of whatever tools were at hand - knives, axes, and sticks," Suvanaliyev said in an interview with the Kommersant daily, published on Tuesday.
"The chiefs on both sides [of the rioting] were the leaders of diasporas," he said. "Their subordinate field commanders were recruited from among former security and army officers," the former police chief said.
"Tensions were in the air even one month before the bloodshed began. Both sides were getting ready by forming mobile squads, appointing commanders and identifying targets. Local television was showing a controversial speech by Uzbek community leader Kadyrzhan Batyrov day and night. Why the interim authorities took absolutely no measures in this situation is a mystery for all," he said.
It was reported earlier that Suvanaliyev, who was appointed as chief of the Osh regional police on June 12, resigned last Saturday on political motives.