Interethnic clashes in the south of Kyrgyzstan as a result of which according to some sources hundreds of civilians died, and according to other sources – thousands of victims died, require decisive and immediate intervention.

The reasons which have ruined the everyday lives of people in Kyrgyzstan should be thoroughly investigated. However, the Kyrgyz Interim Government headed by Acting president Mrs. Rosa Otunbaeva bears direct responsibility for the ruined fates of thousands of people in this country.

Today what is taking place in Osh and Djalalabad regions of Kyrgyzstan requires immediate military intervention because the law enforcement bodies and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan have not only recognized that they are paralyzed by the situation, but also some of their representatives have taken part in some parts of the ethnic cleansing.

We call on the United Nations Organization to pass a decision on sending peacekeeping forces to the conflict area.[1] We also call on the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Northern Alliance Treaty Organization to take all possible measures, including military means, in order to stop those illegal paramilitary groups which have exterminated the civilian population.

We think that the current situation in Kyrgyzstan also requires immediate introduction of another international mechanism – a peace enforcement operation. A peace enforcement operation according to the UN documents, has "two forms: without applying armed forces (economic, legal, and financial sanctions) and with application of armed forces (of the UN peacekeeping forces, regional inter-governmental organizations, and coalition of states).

By definition the peace enforcement operations should not necessarily be built on the consent of the conflicting parties. During peace enforcement operations arms and military machines are used not only for self-protection, but also for destroying military facilities, infrastructure and armed groups (including illegal paramilitary groups, bandits and the like) which impede localization of the conflict, its regulation and solution. Such operations are carried out in accordance with section 7 of the UN Charter which reserve forced measures sanctioned and supervised by the UN Security Council”.

We also stress the first and foremost role of the territorial enclaves of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in raising the propensity to conflicting between those countries. This makes it necessary for the involved parties to seek for the ways of effective legal regulation of the statuses of those national enclaves in the post-conflict peace-building period in Kyrgyzstan. Moreover, it is impossible to ignore the role of the local community institutions, such as mahalla, aksakals or elderly people, esteemed leaders of the local civil society institutes in securing measures on not allowing the local conflicts grow into armed conflicts and localizing the scales of such conflicts if they occur in the future.  

We believe that the events in neighboring Kyrgyzstan will be thoroughly studied and investigated by the international community. It is unallowable to let those events detonate and bring to a chain reaction in other regions of the Central Asia.

June 13 2010

List of persons and organizations supporting and signing this statement:

1.                  The Expert Working Group – Uzbekistan represented by its Coordinator Sukhrobjon Ismoilov, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The EWG is a non-governmental non-commercial network of ten independent Uzbek experts who are interested in the issues of law, public interests, fundamental human rights and freedoms, rule of law, democracy and market economy.

2.                  Kamoliddin Rabbimov – an independent political scientist and analyst, Sable, France

3.                  Bakhodir Uzakov - an independent political scientist and analyst, Gemert, Nederland

The present statement is open for signatures by the civil society representatives both in and outside Uzbekistan. If you wish to sign it you can do so by emailing the EWG at xprtwg09@gmail.com or using "Human Rights in Central Asia” electronic list-serv. at  hrca@mail.ru, HR-Uzbekistan@yahoogroups.com