
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990                   TAG: 9006130064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

DEATH TOLL IN U.S.S.R. HITS 139

Another 32 deaths have been reported in a Soviet Central Asian republic convulsed by ethnic fighting. The latest violence brings to 139 the number of people killed in the region since June 2, the official news agency Tass said Tuesday.

Tass reported "the situation is stabilizing" in the republic of Kirghizia, with residents staging counterdemonstrations and holding talks on how to resolve the protracted crisis between Kirghiz and Uzbeks.

But Tass said a new clash occurred Monday night when youths in Frunze, capital of Kirghizia, pelted police with stones and bottles. Several youths were detained, it said. No injuries were reported.

By Saturday, 107 deaths had been reported, with the situation in western Kirghizia reported in state-controlled newspapers and television to be returning to normal.

But Tuesday, the Kirghiz Interior Ministry said a total of 139 people had been killed and 486 wounded, Tass reported.

Soviet officials said the violence has been centered between the two Sunni Moslem groups in Osh, about 80 miles west of the China border.

- Associated Press

by CNB