OSCE Chairman's Personal Representative presents plan to help maintain stability in Kyrgyzstan

VIENNA, 14 April 2005 - A workplan to support stability and security in Kyrgyzstan - as it enters into a three-month presidential election campaign - has been put together with the country's authorities, the OSCE heard today.

Reporting to the 55-member Permanent Council, Alojz Peterle, Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office for participating States in Central Asia, said that he hoped the main lines of the plan would be endorsed as soon as possible.

The OSCE's leading role in helping resolve the critical political situation in Kyrgyzstan, supported by the European Union and the United Nations, was well accepted, he said.
Mr Peterle, who returned yesterday from his second visit to Bishkek in a month, said that the situation was still volatile.

"The most urgent priorities", he told journalists at a subsequent press conference, "are for the OSCE to assist in maintaining security, primarily through our police assistance programme, provide help with the preparation of the new presidential election and continue to facilitate a political dialogue."

Longer-term, he said the OSCE needed to think of boosting the capacity of its small centre in Bishkek so as to provide more assistance in areas where the OSCE has traditional expertise, such as improving the rule of law, anti-corruption initiatives, promoting sustainable economic development and working to support free media.

The OSCE would co-ordinate the work of the other international organizations that are also present in Bishkek to assist the country through its present crisis, including humanitarian assistance: "Help is needed. There is a decline in economic growth, there are problems with agriculture and we know that a number of Kyrgyz Russian are continuing to leave the country. All these things could strongly undermine the performance of the economy and raise unemployment to even higher levels than now.

"These are problems that will not be solved in a short time", he said. "The country is going to go through a long-lasting transition and needs the assistance of the OSCE."