Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks massed on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are refusing to return home, saying they fear for their lives after violent pogroms and don't trust Kyrgyz troops to protect them.
Associated Press reporters saw some 50 Kyrgyz troops, many in armoured transport carriers, enter the border village of Suratash and try to reassure refugees in this Central Asian nation that it is safe to return home.
Yet the soldiers' presence terrified the families - ethnic Uzbeks who fled after attacks and arson by ethnic Kyrgyz - since they blame Kyrgyz troops for abetting the violence that left hundreds of Uzbeks dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.
Entire Uzbek neighbourhoods in southern Kyrgyzstan have been reduced to scorched ruins by rampaging mobs of ethnic Kyrgyz who forced nearly half of the region's roughly 800,000 Uzbeks to flee.
Interim President Roza Otunbayeva says up to 2,000 people may have died in the clashes.
The refugees said they would not return home and are unsure where to go. Some said they would try to sell all their belongings and move to Russia, while others expressed a desire to go to Uzbekistan.
However, there is no official border crossing in Suratash - 16 kilometres away from the region's main city of Osh - and many refugees lacked documentation since they fled their homes in a rush.
The United Nations estimates that 400,000 people have fled their homes in Kyrgyzstan and about 100,000 of them have entered Uzbekistan.
There is no official estimate of the number of refugees in Suratash, though the Uzbeks themselves claim there may be 20,000.
