Clinton Urges Support for Kyrgyz
Washington - The Obama administration is working with the United Nations and others in the international community in support of efforts by Kyrgyzstan's provisional government to restore order and is trying to provide humanitarian aid as ethnic violence continues to flare in the southern part of the country, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters June 18.
Speaking at the State Department along with visiting Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen, Clinton also said the United States is working to provide humanitarian assistance to neighboring Uzbekistan, which has allowed more than 110,000 ethnic Uzbek refugees into the country since the violence began in Kyrgyzstan June 10.
Kyrgyzstan's provisional leader, interim President Roza Otunbayeva, estimated June 18 that more than 2,000 people may have been killed thus far in the clashes between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks.
Clinton said the provisional government's planned referendum on a new constitution, scheduled for June 27, is at risk. "They are, unfortunately, under very difficult conditions trying to determine whether they can go forward with that vote. And some have argued that one of the potential reasons for the violence was to prevent the constitutional referendum from going forward," she said.
However, the secretary said it is still "premature to conclude what the source of this outbreak of violence is," adding, "There are many different factors at work."
"Our bottom line is: work with the international community to try to support the provisional government in bringing about a resumption of order; work with Uzbekistan, which has opened its borders to tens of thousands of fleeing Uzbeks; work to get humanitarian aid in as quickly and comprehensively as possible, and then see if you can stabilize the situation," she said.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake joined Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Mike Posner in Uzbekistan June 18 to visit camps that have been set up to shelter the ethnic Uzbek refugees and to hear their accounts of the violence.
Blake told reporters at Andijan Airport that approximately 75,000 of the estimated 110,000 refugees now have registered with the Uzbek government. The Obama administration is responding to appeals from the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, as well as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and plans to provide up to $5 million to help cover their activities in both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, he said.
"We will provide an initial contribution of $2.8 million to the UNHCR to assist the refugees in Uzbekistan. We have also released an initial $50,000 from our worldwide disaster fund to assess the situation and meet gaps in the current international assistance package," Blake said. "We hope that this assistance in combination with that provided by government of Uzbekistan, the United Nations and others will help ease the plight of those who have been affected by this terrible tragedy."
He praised the Uzbek government's quick and constructive actions to receive the refugees and cooperate with international relief organizations, saying, "Uzbekistan's leadership and initiative have saved many lives and mitigated the suffering of thousands of vulnerable people." The United States is committed to helping the country cope with the refugees, he added.
Blake said he and Posner spoke to refugees while visiting the camps. "Many of them told us of stories that their loved ones had been killed and that women had suffered rapes, and, obviously, this calls for an investigation," he said.
Calling on Kyrgyzstan's provisional government to take immediate steps to stop the violence, Blake also urged it to launch an investigation into what caused the violence, and also to ensure that perpetrators will be held accountable.
Blake also said a Kyrgyz investigation should be complemented by an international investigation conducted by a "credible international body" because "there are so many ethnic Uzbek refugees here in Uzbekistan whose stories will be an important part of this investigation."
In Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council, in a June 18 resolution that passed unanimously, also condemned the provocations and the violence in southern Kyrgyzstan and urged a "full and transparent investigation" and accountability.
Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the Human Rights Council, said June 18 that the situation in Kyrgyzstan "requires a response from the international community on multiple fronts," including stopping the violence, ensuring international borders remain open and providing humanitarian relief.
Donahoe said that on June 16 the United States "committed over $32.2 million in assistance for programs for humanitarian relief, reconstruction, and community stabilization," which will be used to meet immediate relief needs as well as efforts to address the roots of the conflict through community development and conflict mitigation programs. "We expect additional efforts to be announced in the near future," she added.
