OSH, Kyrgyzstan -- At least 20 residents of the town of Shark in Kyrgyzstan's southern Osh region have protested the arrest of a local journalist.
The April 2 protest took place two days after Muhammadsoli Ismoilov, the chief editor of the Uzbek-language "Ush sadosi" (Voice of Osh) newspaper, was detained.
A Kyrgyz Interior Ministry spokesman told RFE/RL on April 2 that Ismoilov was arrested for suspected involvement in a murder of a local resident during ethnic clashes between local Uzbeks and Kyrgyz almost three years ago.
More than 400 people were killed, mostly ethnic Uzbeks, in the clashes in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in mid-June 2010 and tens of thousands displaced.
Dozens are still listed as missing, since many bodies have not yet been identified due to a lack of DNA laboratories in Kyrgyzstan.
The April 2 protest took place two days after Muhammadsoli Ismoilov, the chief editor of the Uzbek-language "Ush sadosi" (Voice of Osh) newspaper, was detained.
A Kyrgyz Interior Ministry spokesman told RFE/RL on April 2 that Ismoilov was arrested for suspected involvement in a murder of a local resident during ethnic clashes between local Uzbeks and Kyrgyz almost three years ago.
More than 400 people were killed, mostly ethnic Uzbeks, in the clashes in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in mid-June 2010 and tens of thousands displaced.
Dozens are still listed as missing, since many bodies have not yet been identified due to a lack of DNA laboratories in Kyrgyzstan.