BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyzs in southern Kyrgyzstan remain tense months after ethnic violence killed hundreds, a human rights official said.
Ethnic violence gripped the southern Kyrgyz cities of Jala-Abad and Osh following an April coup that forced deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the country. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were displaced in conflicts between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz communities.
Zhenishbek Toroev, an activist with the Kyrgyz human rights center Advocacy, said the situation in the south of the country "is still tense," the Kyrgyz news agency 24 reports.
He said most of the complaints come from members of the Uzbek community who said they don't trust local law enforcement officials and instead turn to non-governmental or international authorities.
"Kyrgyz people, on the contrary, solve their problems via state boards," he said. "This situation raises discontent among people."
Kyrgyz officials in late November said two officers were slightly injured when a bomb went off in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, where a court is trying Bakiyev in absentia and his backers for allegedly issuing orders to fire on supporters of opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva during the April coup.
The attack in front of the court followed a skirmish in the southern city of Osh where militants with the Islamic Movement of Turkestan fought with government forces.
