Background of the conflict and Alert’s engagement

The five Central Asian states that became independent with the break-up of the Soviet Union – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – escaped the widespread conflict that took place in the Caucasus (with the exception of the civil war in Tajikistan), but share many of the risk factors behind modern conflict: ethnic and religious tensions, scarce natural resources (particularly water and arable land), uneven development, overlapping ethnic and state borders, fragile governments and proximity to a very instable and conflict-prone country, Afghanistan.

Like other parts of the former USSR, Central Asia has been undergoing a considerable political, social and economic transition. Despite some initial reforms and relatively successful economic growth, especially in the natural resource-rich Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, significant structural challenges remain in the region, with widespread poverty and out-migration affecting Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

A relative stability in the region has been achieved by harsh political control rather than through inclusive economic development, participatory governance and effective institutions. The root causes of conflict have thus remained unaddressed.

Tajikistan’s civil war in the early 1990s has left the country with simmering tensions between secularists and Islamists, which have recently resurfaced.

Kyrgyzstan saw two revolutions in the last five years that overthrew undemocratic and corrupt regimes. In May and June 2010, inter-ethnic violence in the South of the country left hundreds dead and shattered the relatively good relations of the majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbek populations.

Relationships of both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with neighbouring Uzbekistan have also been strained for years over the use of water resources.

How

The main approach Alert applies in Central Asia is dialogue. We facilitate dialogue on sensitive issues such as the role of religion in a secular state, the prevention of radicalism as well as inter-ethnic confidence-building and reconciliation. These dialogues have different formats and aim to involve key actors from government institutions, civil society, religious institutions and all affected communities. While in Kyrgyzstan, the focus is on rebuilding inter-community trust and preventing a relapse of violence, in Tajikistan the main area of our work is to bridge the divide between religious communities and the secular government.

Why

In Kyrgyzstan, only days after the June 2010 pogroms in Osh and Jalal-Abad, Alert was invited by President Roza Otumbaeva to support confidence-building and reconciliation. Our assessment conducted in July 2010 concluded that the violence in the South resulted from three main national divisions – state-citizens, North-South and Kyrgyz-Uzbek. In this context, Alert decided to focus on recovery from the violence and supporting the emergence of a new political culture that fosters transparent governance addressing North-South and inter-community relations. Dialogue was chosen as an approach that both brings divided groups together and provides space for formulating a nationally-owned vision for peace and reconciliation.

Over the past years in Tajikistan, the government has been gradually side-lining the Islamic opposition and religious communities from the political process. Engaging both sides in a dialogue process and the development of a shared vision on the role of religion in a secular state was seen as the needed approach in this context.