Head of probe into Kyrgyz-Uzbek clashes willing to meet Kyrgyz deputies
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 6 July 2011 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Head of probe into Kyrgyz-Uzbek clashes willing to meet Kyrgyz deputies, 6 July 2011, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4e20439323.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
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July 06, 2011
Kimmo Kiljunen (file photo)
BISHKEK – The head of the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission that investigated last year's deadly ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan says he is willing to explain his commission's findings to parliament, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
Finnish politician Kimmo Kiljunen, who was declared persona non grata by the parliament shortly after the commission report was issued in May, told RFE/RL on July 5 that he would come to Kyrgyzstan as soon as he was officially invited.
Kiljunen said he thought the international commission's report – which many Kyrgyz politicians rejected as being biased against ethnic Kyrgyz – was accurate.
Nadira Narmatova, a Kyrgyz parliament member, told RFE/RL on July 5 that in mid-June a group of Kyrgyz deputies unofficially met with Kiljunen at his request in Helsinki.
She said Kiljunen took notice of some of the perceived shortcomings in the commission report as cited by the Kyrgyz deputies and that they agreed to consider a visit by him as soon they received an official request.
Tokon Mamytov, head of the Kyrgyz parliament's commission on the 2010 unrest, told RFE/RL that if an official request from Kiljunen was received the parliament could change its persona-non-grata decision by adopting a new resolution and issue him a visa for up to five days.
Kyrgyz deputies told RFE/RL that they had not yet received an official request from Kiljunen to visit the country.
Issued on May 3, the commission's report said some of the attacks on ethnic Uzbek communities in Osh and Jalal-Abad might qualify as crimes against humanity and suggested some government forces may have been complicit in the violence.
The report was roundly rejected by Kyrgyz officials as being one-sided and on May 26 Kiljunen was declared persona non grata, a move that Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva said she opposed.
A parliament deputy also accused him of accepting bribes from "Uzbek separatists" while working on the report. Kiljunen rejected the accusation, calling it "ridiculous."
At least 470 people – most of them ethnic Uzbeks – were killed in the ethnic clashes between local Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in June 2010.
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
