Son of Kyrgyzstan's ousted president held in UK as 60,000 Uzbeks flee 'ethnic cleansing'



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The playboy son of Kyrgyzstan's deposed leader has been arrested in Britain - just as the ethnic violence which have plagued his country reached a new bloody peak.

Maksim Bakiyev fled the crisis-hit former Soviet state two months ago but was arrested on Sunday when his private jet touched down at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire.

The 33-year-old has been on Interpol's wanted list ever since his father, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was forced out as Kyrgyzstan's president in a violent uprising last April.

When his father was in power, the whisky-loving Maksim controlled all foreign investment into the country: a role he allegedly used to embezzle £24million.

Although the UK Border Agency today refused to confirm the Maksim Bakiyev's arrest it is understood that he had been planning to apply for asylum in Britain.

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News of his arrest came as the violent ethic clashes that have followed the change in regime appear to have worsened.

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Today it was claimed that the country's security forces have been cooperating with ethnic Kyrgz to deliberately target the ethnic Uzbeks which make up a fifth of the country's 5.5 million people

One ethnic Uzbek man living in the southern city of Osh said that over a thousand ethnic Uzbeks have died at the hands of armed gangs which are conducting a campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’

Isamidin Kudbidunov, a 27-year-old ethnic Uzbek, said: ‘There are at least 1,000 dead here in Osh. We have not been able to register them because they turn us away at the hospital and say it is only for Kyrgyz people.’

One of the 60,000 Uzbek refugees to have fled the country said: ‘Through Soviet times we lived together in peace, but now we can never stay neighbours.

‘This is ethnic cleansing - if we don't run, they will kill us.’

Western journalists in Osh - which lies on the Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan border - saw Uzbek men armed with makeshift weapons standing guard over basements where their loved-ones were cowering for safety.

Other reports from the neighbouring city of Jalalabad said that mobs of around 200 youths were marching the streets threatening to shoot ethnic Uzbeks.

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The claims that thousands have died in the violence is far in excess of official figures released by the country's interim government which claim that just 124 people have perished.

Though dirt poor, Kyrgyzstan is strategically important because uniquely it hosts both US and Russian military bases, and is also close to China.

The U.S. base is seen as vital for Western efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan as it is a key resupply point for US personnel and equipment in Afghanistan.

One of the reasons for the April's coup was popular discontent with the enormous personal fortune acquired by Kurmanbek Bakiyev while he was in power.

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In a country where the average monthly wage is just £45, revelations about the ‘Bakiyev millions’ plus the family's extravagant lifestyle stirred deep anger.

But while Bakiyev's five brothers and his two sons all held lucrative Government positions, the most hated family member was Maksim, who lived an ostentatious playboy lifestyle in the capital Bishkek.

Former associates have spoken of Maksim's love for expensive whisky, his collection of playing cards inlaid with gold and his passion for pretty women.

While he is now thought to be under arrest in Britain, his father is in exile in Belarus.