Updated on
Summary
Security has been beefed up around Kyrgyzstan as the country prepares for a national referendum on the constitution in the southern city of Osh.Armed security forces patrolled the streets and stood guard as election officials prepared polling stations vote. Kyrgyz nationals will decide whether to become Central Asia's first parliamentary republic in a referendum that the country's interim leader says is crucial to restoring order after a wave of ethnic bloodshed. It is pertinent to mention that at least 250 people were killed this month and hundreds of thousands fled violence between the two main ethnic groups in southern Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic that hosts U.S. and Russian military air bases and shares a border with China.
