Press-release
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic
on the Report of the International Independent Commission for Inquiry
into the  events in the Southern Kyrgyzstan of June 2010
May 4, 2011

The Report of the International Independent Commission (IIC) for investigation into the June 2010 events in the Southern Kyrgyzstan was circulated by Mr. Kimmo Kiljunen the Head of the Commission on May 3, 2011 in the city of Bishkek. The report was circulated along with the Comments of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on the Report.

The IIC notes the unprecedented openness and collaboration for the post-Soviet space shown by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic which has created all the necessary conditions for the Commission's work by ensuring maximum access to all sources of information.

The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic appreciates the importance and value of the work done by the IIC and thanks its reputable members for the efforts and contribution devoted to investigate the tragic events that occurred in Kyrgyzstan.

The Government agrees with number of the conclusions and criticisms contained in the IIC Report. It does not absolve the responsibility for what happened. The Provisional Government honestly and openly acknowledged its guilt and responsibility in its address on June 16, 2010 to the people of Kyrgyzstan and the International Community.

The Kyrgyzstan’s Government is taking and will continue to take all necessary measures to eliminate or minimize the consequences of the tragic conflict and to prevent the repetition of similar events in the future. Many of the recommendations contained in the IIC Report have had being implemented by the Government from the day the conflict was localized.

The Kyrgyzstan’s Government will establish the Special Commission to implement and monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the IIC Report and other reports and researches related to the tragic events of 2010 in the Southern Kyrgyzstan.

The Kyrgyzstan’s Government admits that the facts of human rights abuses that occurred during the investigation of the circumstances of the conflict and upon bringing to justice the perpetrators deserve special attention. The Government is taking vigorous measures to improve the situation in the law-enforcement system of the country. All the facts of human rights abuses will be investigated and the perpetrators will be brought to the inevitable and deserved punishment and justice.

In the mean time, Kyrgyzstan’s Government in its Comments has argued its disagreement on a number of conclusions and provisions of the IIC Report. In particular, those are the qualifications of the violations and crimes under the International Law, determination of the perpetrators with the indication of certain names, and the one-sided reflection of the actions of the Provisional Government on localizing the conflict.

The Kyrgyz Government believes that the tragic events of 10-14 June 2010 were a provoked interethnic conflict, in which both parties were armed. Both of the parties acted in violence against each other and have suffered casualties.

The Kyrgyz Government views from the facts that the events of 2010 in the South of the country have much more deeper historical, socio-economic, and political reasons with a broader geographic coverage rather than the clashes on the ground of ethnic intolerance. The conflict was triggered in the conditions of a complex socio-economic and political situation in the country, and the supporters of the former regime have taken advantage of it while attempting to regain the power they lost after April 7, 2010. Another important factor in fomenting and escalating the conflict was the involvement of organized criminal groups, including the drug traffickers.

The Kyrgyz Government considers that the ICC has made an unbiased conclusion stating that the June events can not be classified as genocide or an armed conflict. However, the Kyrgyz Government believes that the IIC Report does not contain a sufficient evidence to conclude that there have been made certain acts that can be qualified as the crime against humanity during the June events in the city of Osh.

The Kyrgyz Government considers as absolutely unacceptable the visible tendency in the IIC report to take into account to a greater extent the crimes committed only by the members of one ethnic group while ignoring the deaths and casualties suffered by the same group and depicting another group as the single suffered and defenseless party.

It is also important to take into account the fact that during the conflict there were no sufficient political, financial, and law-enforcement resources at the disposal of the Provisional Government to counter the large-scaled provocations of interethnic clashes. However, even under such tough conditions, the People and the authorities of Kyrgyzstan independently and without outside intervention managed to stop the violence and localize the conflict within a few days.

The Kyrgyz Government took great efforts to reconcile the parties of the conflict, to overcome the consequences of the conflict and it still proceeds with it. However, there is still tangible tension and a number of unresolved socio-economic problems in the conflict zone. In the conditions of the started presidential campaign, some of the ICC conclusions can be used by the opponents of the democratic reforms to destabilize the situation and strengthen the position of the internal revanchist forces.

The Kyrgyz Government hopes that necessary conclusions from the events of 2010 will be made by the international community as well, including the organizations that pursue the aim of preventing, neutralizing and eliminating consequences of such conflicts.