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Controversial Osh Mayor Dismissed


Melis Myrzakmatov
Melis Myrzakmatov
The controversial mayor of Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city, has been dismissed from his post.

A spokesman for Kyrgyz Prime Minister Jantoro Satybaldiev said that a decree on the dismissal of Melis Myrzakmatov was signed on December 5.

Myrzakmatov was the only top official in Kyrgyzstan with ties to former President Kurmanbek Bakiev who had managed to remain in his post after Bakiev's ouster by violent protests in 2010.

Kyrgyzstan's government had long sought to remove Myrzakmatov, whose critics accuse him with doing too little to prevent the deadly clashes in 2010 between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan.

More than 400 people were killed and thousands displaced.

Myrzakmatov survived previous attempts by the government to dismiss him due to mass protests by his supporters.

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