July 28, 2010

Stephen Kaufman

Washington — The United States has pledged $48.6 million to help Kyrgyzstan as it meets challenges posed by recent ethnic violence and political upheaval. The Obama administration joined other international donors in Bishkek in pledging a total of $1.1 billion for the Central Asian nation.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters July 27 that the U.S. contribution “will go towards funding community-defined projects, small infrastructure projects, addressing food shortages, strengthening democratic processes and institutions, assistance for internally displaced people, help with supplies such as fertilizers, fuel and other things that contribute to the fall harvest in the Kyrgyz Republic, additional shelter and resettlement assistance, and other such support.”

According to a July 27 State Department fact sheet, $ 21 million is slated for immediate expenditure by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on community improvement and stabilization projects, including small-scale construction, assistance to improve Kyrgyz government operations, and employment opportunities and skills training directed at disenfranchised populations.

The fact sheet said $10 million will address food shortages by providing cash vouchers and supporting local and regional procurement to meet urgent needs. The United States will also spend $6.1 million in USAID grants to nongovernmental organizations to support internally displaced persons through protection activities, water and sanitation projects, humanitarian communications and other assistance. U.S.-funded projects to strengthen Kyrgyz democratic processes and institutions, human rights and civil society will receive $5.1 million, the fact sheet said.

The Obama administration also pledged support for humanitarian projects being undertaken in Kyrgyzstan by the International Committee for the Red Cross/Red Crescent, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the U.N. Children’s Fund and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

 The fact sheet said the $1.1 billion pledged at the donors conference includes $47 million in separate U.S. assistance to Kyrgyzstan for the 2010 fiscal year and $42 million that the Obama administration has requested for the 2011 fiscal year. It also said U.S. humanitarian assistance that came in response to ethnic violence, valued at $4.1 million, was in addition to its July 27 pledge.

Violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan killed an estimated 350 people and displaced around 400,000 in June. The violence occurred after a populist uprising overthrew former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April and installed a provisional government headed by Roza Otunbayeva.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said the security situation in the country “has since generally stabilized, though tensions still remain in the south,” and virtually all of the 100,000 refugees who had fled to neighboring Uzbekistan have returned to Kyrgyzstan.

Blake told the U.S. Helsinki Commission in Washington July 27 that psychological pressure, monetary incentives, threats of loss of citizenship, concern for family members who stayed behind, and participation in the country’s June 27 constitutional referendum all may have been factors in the rapid repatriation of the refugees.

“Most of the estimated 75,000 persons who remain displaced in Kyrgyzstan and those who returned from Uzbekistan currently reside with host families; others are squatting in abandoned buildings or camping on the sites of their destroyed homes,” Blake said.

He added that many ethnic Uzbek businesses in the south remain closed, and some Uzbeks are unable to return to work. There are also fears of disenfranchisement due to reports that the Kyrgyz government intends to expropriate property in destroyed Uzbek neighborhoods, he said.

The United States is focused on providing humanitarian assistance to those who were displaced by the violence. “We need to make sure that people have the ability to return to their homes, to have shelter for the winter, to help schools reopen, and to meet the near-term needs,” Blake said.

Second, he said, security needs to be boosted to prevent future violence. He welcomed the decision by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to deploy an initial 52 police officers for four months as an advisory group to support Kyrgyz government efforts to reduce tensions and restore public order.

“A third step to ensure reconciliation is that the local Kyrgyzstani law enforcement and judicial institutions must be reliable and credible and have the trust of the people,” Blake said, recounting reports of human and civil rights abuses by local police. “The United States is prepared to work with the government of Kyrgyzstan to deal with the challenges of strengthening the professionalization and accountability of the police,” he said.

The assistant secretary also called for a “systematic and credible inquiry” into what caused the ethnic violence and welcomed President Otunbayeva’s decision to establish a national commission of investigation, as well as her decision to include international diplomats in the process.

Blake said democracy promotion is also an important priority. The Obama administration is supporting the October parliamentary elections through a variety of projects, including training election officials, support for election outreach, media training and monitoring, dispute-resolution training and voter education.

“The United States has a strong commitment to Kyrgyzstan,” Blake said. “While we recognize that the situation remains very fragile and that there are real risks, we remain very hopeful that with the goodwill and sustained efforts of all, including the United States and the international community, the people of Kyrgyzstan can chart out for themselves a more hopeful, democratic and stable future.”