.OSCE police mission in southern Kyrgyzstan may avert new riots.

23/7 Tass 178

BISHKEK, July 23 (Itar-Tass) -- An OSCE police mission, which may be
brought to southern Kyrgyzstan, will help avoid the destabilization of the
situation there, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said in a special statement
made public on Friday.
"We are convinced that a police consultative group will be a very
useful and efficient incentive for the modernization of the Kyrgyz law
enforcement system. Meanwhile, an international police mission in the
south of the country will keep various destructive forces from provoking
new disorders and destabilization of the situation," the document runs.
The Foreign Ministry also recalled that on July 22 fifty-six OSCE
member-countries decided to form a police consultative group in Kyrgyzstan.
The statement notes that a police mission will include 52 people. "The
OSCE police consultative group will build up the potential of Kyrgyz
police," the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said in the statement. During a
four-month mission it will be guided by "the principles of neutrality,
impartiality, transparency, multinationality, accord of the receiving
country and human rights protection under international laws and
republican legislation." The police mission is seeking to monitor and
consult the police departments in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry does not rule out that a period of the
activities of the OSCE police mission in southern Kyrgyzstan may be
revised "depending on the security situation in the region" at the
initiative and accord of Kyrgyzstan and the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Mass disorders broke out in the southern Kyrgyz regional centre Osh
overnight to June 11. On the next day they spread on the neighboring
Jalal-Abad region. According to official reports, over 330 people were
killed and about 2,300 people were injured in the conflict. A state of
emergency and a curfew were declared in the area of disorders. They will
be in effect at least until August 10.
-0-baz/usn


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