According to Churkin, a number of members of the CSTO in the region, many of whom are based along the northern Afghan frontier, are concerned that the instability NATO is causing is spreading into their nations.

Indeed when NATO began its occupation in 2001, northern Afghanistan was almost exclusively on their side, as NATO entered into an already existing civil war on the side of the Northern Alliance faction. After over nine years of NATO failing to destroy the insurgency, however, the Taliban has added to its sphere of influence and now has a growing presence across the northern border.

Churkin also addressed Afghan government complaints about Russia’s role in anti-drug operations in the country, which NATO apparently included Russia in without asking the Karzai government beforehand. Churkin insisted Russia’s involvement was long overdue and would continue.

As anti-government protests in the southwestern portion of the nation have continued to rise, violence has turned largely against the Uzbeks. At least 140 have been reported killed and over 1,800 wounded, though reliable figures are impossible to come by and local human rights workers suggested the death toll could be far higher.

The Kyrgyz government has continued to request foreign aid, primarily from Russia but also from several other former Soviet states, in helping to crush the protests. Though such aid may be forthcoming, it appears unlikely that it will do anything but add to the conflict.

The protests started in the city of Osh, but now reports are that the nearby town of Jalal-Abat is in even worse shape, and that ethnic Kyrgyz gangs are attacking Uzbeks and burning their homes throughout the region.

“They are killing Uzbeks like animals. Almost the whole city is in flames,” one human rights worker reported. Between attacks by pro-government gains and police orders to “shoot to kill” Uzbeks are pouring out of the region in enormous numbers.

As of this morning more than 75,000 of Kyrgyzstan’s minority Uzbeks had arrived in neighboring Uzbekistan, with more coming all the time. Those fleeing are claiming that there is “genocide” in the city of Osh, the center of the violence.

Kyrgyzstan saw its pro-US ruler Kermanbek Bakiyev ousted in April, after he ordered police to kill Kyrgyz protesters in the capital of Bishkek. The new violence is, ironically enough, coming from the pro-Russian interim government that loudly condemned Bakiyev’s human rights violations, but is now ordering a virtually identical crackdown against pro-Bakiyev protesters in Osh and other southern cities.

The violence also has a racial component. After Bakiyev’s ouster many of the Kyrgyz protesters turned on Bishkek’s Uzbek minority, forcing many to flee to the Uzbek-majority south, and taking their resentment with them.

Since then southern Kyrgyzstan has seen on-again, off-again protests in support of Bakiyev and against the new interim government. As the latest protests grew, however, they saw counter-protests in Bishkek, of government supporters looking to raise forces to attack the Uzbeks in the south.

This has predictably led to violence, and the government has ordered police and troops down to “restore order,” though at this point it seems they are largely joining into the crackdown on the Uzbeks.

The new government has pressed Russia to send troops to help with the crackdown, and while Russia initially declined this request, they say now that they will send some additional troops to protect the Russian military base in the nation.

Either way, a pair of bloody government crackdowns on protesters appears to have set the stage for irreconcilable differences between Kyrgyzstan’s Kyrgyz majority and the 750,000 strong minority of Uzbeks, and violence with no end in sight.

The death toll has continued to rise throughout the day and at least 80 confirmed kills have been reported, with nearly a thousand protesters wounded by riot police and later, troops. Counter-protests have been reported in the northern capital of Bishkek, where ethnic Kyrgyz protesters supportive of the new government call for the Uzbek uprising to be crushed.

Ethnic Uzbeks, apparently have seen the writing on the wall, and thousands of them have poured across the border into Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government, for its part, has attempted to blockade the border and force the fleeing protesters back into Kyrgyzstan.

The current government came to power in April amid international outcry over the pro-US Bakiyev government killing somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 protesters in the north. Bakiyev was seen more favorably in the south and the Uzbek protesters are largely in favor of his return.

It seems now that the interim government, after all its posturing about human rights, is pursuing the exact same path Bakiyev did in trying to crush the protesters with a bloodbath. If there is any good news to be had it is that the Russian government, largely supportive of the new government, has declined an official request to dispatch troops of their own to join in the crackdown.

“If people want to cross borders, NATO cannot prevent that. If extremists want to cross borders into Central Asia to continue their horrific work there, NATO cannot possibly stop that,” Scheffer conceded. He added that NATO’s current mandate doesn’t allow it to conduct operations in those nations.

Since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the former Taliban government has grown in influence in neighboring nations, particularly Pakistan where the group’s presence has led to the founding of several sympathetic groups among the tribesmen along the border.

US officials, including Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Michael Mullen have expressed concern that the massive surge meant to cope with the growing violence in Afghanistan would worsen the situation in Pakistan, where insurgents are already stretching the government to its limit. This is the first time officials have conceded the danger of the surge extends beyond Pakistan, into Afghanistan’s northern neighbors.