But Thomas Wood, a Eurasia specialist at the University of South Carolina at Aiken, says that although there have been ethnic tensions among groups, they largely have been dormant. He points out that until recently, relations have been relatively calm between native Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks. But Wood says that years of corruption, government mismanagement and economic upheaval contributed to the outbreak of interethnic violence.

"At the top of my list would be weakening state capacity, an interim government that is in control of institutions that have been hollowed out, decades of governance in which political elites have basically stolen everything that wasn't bolted down," he said. "And all of this has just snowballed. And so I think we have to be cautious of the interethnic hatred explanation, very cautious, because we've had 20 years - by and large, not perfect - but 20 years of reasonable stability."

Regional crisis

But ethnic Uzbeks who live in Kyrgyzstan were the target of the latest violence. And that, says Lauren Goodrich, turned ethnic clashes into a regional crisis as neighboring Uzbekistan moved troops to the border.

"After Uzbekistan began to move troops, Kyrgyzstan, or the Kyrgyz government, the interim government, became increasingly worried that Uzbekistan was about to invade," she said. "I mean, when you see a few thousand Uzbek troops, who are very well trained, move to the border in the southern region where there is not a lot of Kyrgyz military, I would be worried too."