EMERCOM jet brings 6 victims of Kyrgyzstan violence to Moscow,

MOSCOW, June 13 (Itar-Tass) - An Ilyushin-76 transport jet of the
Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense /EMERCOM/ has
delivered to Moscow a group of six victims of the violence that has swept
Kyrgyzstan.
According to an EMERCOM spokesman, all the six people, who traveled to
Moscow in special modules the jet it fitted out with, have severe wounds
and need a durable highly qualified medical treatment.
The jet landed at EMERCOM's Ramenskoye airdrome to the southeast of
Moscow.
A team of ten physicians from the All-Russia Center for Disaster
Situations Medicine and the Special Airmobile Emergency Aid Detachment
/Tsentrospas/ accompanied the wounded aboard.
Earlier reports said one of the wounded is a five-year-old girl who is
paralyzed after a bullet pierced several vital organs in her body.
One more evacuee is a policeman whose leg was torn off by an explosion.
Right from the Ramenskoye airdrome, the wounded were rushed to various
medical centers and city hospitals on ambulance cars.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had telephone conversations with
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Public Health Minister
Tatiana Golikova Saturday, telling them to render humanitarian aid to
Kyrgyzstan.
The presidential press secretary, Natalya Timakova said Medvedev
instructed the ministers to organize evacuation of the wounded and to
supply medicines and other humanitarian cargoes to Kyrgyzstan.
Ethnic clashes between the people of Kyrgyz and Uzbek nationalities
began in the city of Osh, the main urban center in the south and the
country's second largest city, on the night from Thursday to Saturday. The
introduction of an emergency situation and curfew in the area by the
authorities had practically no effect on the unfolding of tragic events.
Official data indicates that up to 80 people died there in the course
of clashes and about 800 others turned for medical aid.
Kyrgyzstan's interim President Roza Otunbayeva admitted Saturday that
this country is unable to settle the conflict in the Osh area on its own
and that is why she turned to President Medvedev for military assistance.
She accused the blood brothers of the ousted President Kurmanbek
Bakiyev of standing behind the violence in southern regions.

.Russian carrier rocket Soyuz rolled out to launching pad at Baikonur.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, June 13 (Itar-Tass) - A roll-out of the Russian
carrier rocket Soyuz with a namesake spaceship docked to it has begun at
the Baikonur space center in central Kazakhstan.
Sources at the Russian Space Agency /Roskosmos/ said the roll-out of
the Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-19 spaceship began by tradition at
05:00 hours Moscow daylight saving time. It will be installed at launching
pad No. 1, which is known as the Gagarin pad.
Monday, June 14, the state commission is due to take the final
decision on who of the cosmonauts will take seats inside the Soyuz.
Awaiting the moment is the basic crew of Expedition 24/25 including the
Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and U.S. astronauts Douglas Willock
and Shannon Walker and the backup crew that comprises Dmitry Kondratyev,
Catherine Coleman, and Paolo Nespoli.
The crewmembers are currently getting the final pre-flight training
sessions and taking walks in the open air.
After the start, the leaving crew will not be able to breethe in the
scents of the earth for five and a half months.
The lift-off of the Soyuz TMA-19 has been scheduled for 01:35 Moscow
daylight saving time Wednesday, June 16 (21:35 GMT Tuesday).
While on board the ISS, the crew will receive the manned spaceships
Discovery and Soyuz TMA-01M, and also three Progress cargo spacecraft.
The crew is scheduled to walk out into open space on three occasions
from the ISS.
Yurchikhin, Willock and Walker will be a part of the ISS Expedition 24
and ISS Expedition 25 crews /Energia/. The trio will join Russians
Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Tracy
Caldwell Dyson for the Expedition 24 segment.

.EU to send expert to Kyrgyzstan for assessing situation there.

BRUSSELS, June 13 (Itar-Tass) - European Union is sending an expert on
humanitarian issues to Kyrgyzstan for assessing the situation in the
tumult-stricken Central Asian country from the angle of view of aid it
might need, a spokesman for the European Commission told Itar-Tass.
In the conditions of growing tensions in Kyrgyzstan the European
Commission has decided to send an expert there for assessing the course of
events and coordinating actions that should be taken to provide
humanitarian aid.
The spokesman recalled that the EU's High Commissioner for Foreign and
Security Policy, Catherine Ashton had condemned the spate of violence in
Kyrgyzstan's southern regions and had urged all the parties to the
conflict to exercise restraint.
The European Commission is closely watching the situation in the
region, he said.
The International Red Cross says more than 6,000 refugees from
Kyrgyzstan have already crossed the border of neighboring Uzbekistan and
the inflow of people fleeing their homes in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions
is growing.
-0-kle


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next