Promoting a Stable and Multiethnic Kyrgyzstan: Overcoming the Causes and Legacies of Violence

In June 2010, southern Kyrgyzstan erupted in a series of extremely violent confrontations involving Kyrgyz and Uzbeks groups. Within three days the clashes claimed the lives of at least 400 people, left more than 2,500 injured and created a refugee disaster with 400,000 displaced persons, a large number of which crossed the nearby border to Uzbekistan.

After the violence had subsided, large parts of two key urban centers in southern Kyrgyzstan, Osh and Jalalabad, were left in ruins. The violence came on the heels of the April 2010 overthrow of the government under President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, which installed an interim government headed by Roza Otunbayeva. The interim government, widely regarded as progressive, succeeded in installing the first parliamentary democracy in post-Soviet Central Asia, but the general situation in the country remains tense, and the key political, economic, and societal challenges that drove the outbreak of violence in June 2010 have yet to be overcome.

This discussion will launch the latest in the Occasional Paper series of the Open Society Central Eurasia Project, which looks into causes and legacies of violence in southern Kyrgyzstan. The author, Neil Melvin, will present key findings and recommendations, and discuss these against recent developments in the country with Viola von Cramon. Von Cramon has recently returned from an OSCE mission to Kyrgyzstan and will share her insights on the latest political trends in Central Asia. The discussion will be introduced and moderated by Cornelius Graubner, who manages the Occasional Paper series.

Join us also for light refreshments and further informal discussion after the talk.

Speakers

• Neil Melvin, Director of the Armed Conflict and Conflict Management Program, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
• Viola von Cramon, Member of the German Bundestag, Green Party
• Cornelius Graubner, Program Officer, Open Society Foundations New York (moderator)

Location

Bel Étage, Wirtshaus Max und Moritz
Oranienstr. 162
Berlin, Germany