The United Nations has doubled its estimate of refugees fleeing clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan to some 400,000. Earlier today, the interim government said it believes some 2,000 people may have been killed, ten times the current official toll. The International Committee of the Red Cross says the humanitarian situation there is an “immense crisis.” The former Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has been accused of provoking the unrest in order to destabilize the country ahead of a planned constitutional referendum later this month. Bakiyev was a US ally until his removal in an uprising last April. On Thursday, Kyrgyz officials threatened to close the US military airbase there unless Britain extradites Bakiyev’s son on allegations of orchestrating the clashes.