OSCE States call for restoration of peace in Kyrgyzstan, stand ready to step up assistance

VIENNA, 15 June 2010 - The 56 OSCE participating States called for the rapid restoration of peace, public safety and the rule of law in Kyrgyzstan and offered to build on assistance to resolve the crisis in a statement adopted at a special session of the Permanent Council in Vienna today.

In the statement, the OSCE States, taking note of the early warning issued by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities on the situation in the southern parts of Kyrgyzstan, expressed deep concern over developments and urged "all communities in Kyrgyzstan to refrain from violence and exercise restraint".

The States said the OSCE stood ready to "assist Kyrgyzstan upon its request in resolving the current crisis, preventing the spillover of tensions in the region, and in promoting post conflict rehabilitation, and to work in close co ordination and co operation in this respect with the UN and other relevant international actors on the ground, and urges the international community to provide immediate humanitarian aid".

Ambassador Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan, who chairs the Permanent Council, welcomed the statement. "The consensus statement shows that all 56 OSCE participating States are united in recognizing the urgent need to restore peace in Kyrgyzstan and prevent further violence and loss of life," said Abdrakhmanov. "The adoption of this statement is particularly important in the context of the strong appeal to the OSCE for assistance made yesterday by the Delegation of Kyrgyzstan at the Permanent Council meeting. I trust that the OSCE will be able to step up its support to the people of Kyrgyzstan, hand in hand with all other international actors."

"In that context, I warmly welcome the address by the High Commissioner on National Minorities made yesterday at the Permanent Council, in particular his practical suggestions. I call on all participating States to consider these ideas, together with other eventual proposals for action from OSCE structures. I sincerely hope that we will also be fast in making decision on concrete actions and on allocating the necessary resources for their implementation."

A special session of the Permanent Council, one of the OSCE's main decision-making bodies, was convened following the decision of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Kanat Saudabayev, based on the 12 June early warning issued by Ambassador Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities.

The High Commissioner's mandate calls for such warnings if, in his judgment, tensions involving national minority issues have the potential to develop into conflict. The High Commissioner has invoked this article only once before, in response to the situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 1999.