Erkin Saipedinov quickly learned the basics of surgery when he joined the tens of thousands fleeing ethnic bloodshed in the Kyrgyz city of Osh, according to AP. A doctor by profession, he now performs emergency operations in a mosque only yards (meters) from the border with Uzbekistan. Up to 300 people a day require medical treatment in squalid conditions. Disease is starting to spread among the refugees. "We have practically no medicine and the conditions are completely unsanitary," said Saipedinov. Behind a bedsheet, a young boy suffering from acute diarrhoea was fixed to a drip. "And we don't have any psychological aid." Clashes between southern Kyrgyzstan's main ethnic groups, Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, have killed at least 191 people since June 10. Some observers put the toll at nearer 1,000. The killing has subsided in the last two days, but up to 100,000 people have fled their homes and set up camps in the Ferghana valley, where Kyrgyzstan borders Uzbekistan. A barbed wire fence patrolled by Uzbek troops divides the countries. Tens of thousands who crossed into Uzbekistan before the border was closed are housed in schools and rows of tents. On the Kyrgyz side, up to 100 people at a time are crammed into the clay houses and courtyards of ethnic Uzbeks. Many sleep rough on the arid ground. Refugees, some with weeping sores on their feet, queue for bread distributed from local stockpiles. The rules are strict: one loaf per family. Women, children and the elderly make up the majority of the refugees. Many were dressed in nightgowns. They boiled and drank clay-coloured water drawn in buckets from a pool in the village. -- SPA
