Kyrgyzstan’s Soviet past

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek people in southern Kyrgyzstan has left more than 180 people dead, and thousands of Uzbeks have crossed the border to Uzbekistan. Marco Werman talks with Peter Zeihan of the global intelligence company Stratfor about the historical background of the two former Soviet republics. Download MP3

• Q&A: Kyrgyzstan’s ethnic violence
• In pictures: Aid arrives in Kyrgyzstan
• Ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan

Afghanistan’s precarious moment

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

On our history podcast this week, The World’s Jeb Sharp looks at the history of warlordism in Afghanistan after the return of the notorious Uzbek leader General Abdul Rashid Dostum. We consider the legacy of Afghanistan’s civil strife and its regional and ethnic politics and the implications for this week’s elections. AP Photo/Darko Bandic. >>> Click here to subscribe to Jeb’s “How We Got Here” podcast.

Abdul Rashid Dostum returns from Turkey

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ex-warlord and President Hamid Karzai’s former chief of staff, returned to Afghanistan today. He had been living in exile in Turkey. Dostum is the leader of Afghanistan’s Uzbek community. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh). >>> See a BBC profile of Afghanistan’s ethnic communities.