Ethnic Clashes Spread in Soviet Asia; Death Toll Climbs to 40

Ethnic unrest sparked by a quarrel over 79 acres of land spread throughout the mountain-laced republic of Kirghizia on the Sino-Soviet border, with thousands of youths massing in the capital Wednesday to call for the blood of more Uzbeks.

Anatoly A. Lukyanov, chairman of the Supreme Soviet (national legislature), told lawmakers in Moscow that 40 people had been killed as the violence entered its third day. More troops were rushed to the Central Asian republic, about 2,400 miles southeast of Moscow, but “unfortunately the events continue,” he said.

Tass, the official news agency, said rioting erupted Wednesday in the central square of Kirghizia’s capital, Frunze, and that Communist Party Secretary Medet Sherimkulov was showered with stones when he tried to speak. Police fired into the air to disperse the crowd, Tass said in its report, which gave few additional details.

Lukyanov told the Supreme Soviet that the unrest was ignited by a dispute in Kirghizia’s second-largest city, Osh, on Monday night over which ethnic group, the Kirghiz or Uzbeks, would receive permission to build homes on the 79-acre tract of fallow farmland, a precious commodity in the densely populated and mountainous area.

Those clashes quickly spread to nearby areas outside the city of 209,000 people. In Uzgen, 35 miles away, six people were killed and 18 wounded when people attacked the district police headquarters, the defense newspaper Red Star reported. It said two submachine guns were confiscated.

Police fired on armed Uzbeks and Kirghiz bands who were attacking regional civil defense headquarters and police stations in three districts, the Interfax news agency reported. Tass also said the police had been forced to use their guns.

Lukyanov said Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan were arriving in the troubled area to help their ethnic brethren, raising the likelihood of even more bloodshed in the latest outburst of ethnic hatreds to confront President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his leadership.

Helicopters hovered over Osh, and armored personnel carriers ground through the streets of the city, which is 130 miles from the Chinese border. A curfew and state of emergency were declared after the outbreak of violence in Osh on Monday. The Soviet army also sent in reinforcements from another Central Asian republic, Turkmenia, Lukyanov said.

“The difficult process of regulating the conflict is going on,” Lukyanov said. He called on deputies from the two neighboring republics, whose titular nationalities are both predominantly Muslim and speak related languages, to appeal for calm.

Thousands of Kirghiz youths rallied in the city Wednesday “and calls resounded for pogroms,” the Interfax News Agency said. Some Uzbeks working in the city’s peasant markets were beaten up, it said, but no deaths were reported.

Thousands of high school and university students, including many from the Osh region, demonstrated to demand restoration of telephone service with their native cities and villages, which has been disrupted for unspecified reasons, Interfax said.

Tass gave few details of the Wednesday riot but said its correspondent, Vladimir Dotsenko, was beaten up and his camera seized by the mob.

“The gathering dispersed after the police fired warning shots in the air,” Tass said. It did not say if anyone had been hurt or arrested.