The UN's human rights chief said Tuesday that she had information that security forces had committed repeated abuses such as torture and arbitrary detention in southern Kyrgyzstan, the scene of June's deadly ethnic violence.

"Large numbers of people -- most of them young men, and virtually all of them Uzbek -- have been arbitrarily detained in ways that not only demonstrate flagrant ethnic bias, but also break many of the fundamental tenets of both Kyrgyz and international law," Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

"My staff in Kyrgyzstan have received information suggesting that local authorities are routinely turning a blind eye to illegal arrests, torture and ill-treatment of detainees leading to forced confessions."