Conflict Mitigation and Peace Building in Kyrgyzstan

International Alert recently oversaw the training of community mediators in Jalal-Abad province in Kyrgyzstan.

International Alert implemented a Training of Trainers in  Batken Province (Oblast) of the Kyrgyz Republic between 2nd and 6th April 2012, as part of Alert’s contribution to TASK – an EU-funded conflict mitigation and peacebuiding project in Kyrgyzstan implemented by Alert together with partners Foundation for Tolerance International (FTI) and Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society (CDCS), and 12 other international and national NGOs.

Since the widespread violence broke out in the south of the country in April and June this year, International Alert has sent staff members to Kyrgyzstan on three separate missions in the past two months. Their purpose was assessment and to start to engage in face to face meetings with politicians, religious leaders and leaders of civil society groups from all sides of the conflict. On this basis, we have put together a comprehensive peacebuilding plan for the country with three key strands:

Kyrgyzstan is slowly moving forward after the June 2010 violence in the south of the country that left hundreds dead. On 10th October, parliamentary elections were held in a peaceful manner and characterised as relatively fair. 56 per cent of those with the right to vote went to the polls and cast their vote for one of the 29 parties contesting the 120 seats in the Parliament. According to the OSCE and European Parliament election observers, the elections ‘constituted a further consolidation of the democratic process’*.