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:
Strand One: High Level Dialogue. We are currently identifying and meeting with potential participants for a High Level Dialogue. The purpose is to develop a nationally owned approach to peacebuilding and reconciliation. Participants will be key opinion formers and leaders in Kyrgyzstan public life and society. This particular strand has the support of the President of Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbayeva, and we are at an advanced state of preparation for the first meeting of the Dialogue.
Strand Two: Reconciliation and Harmony. For this strand, we have put together a number of short-term and longer term proposals that are currently under consideration. They include the development of conflict-sensitivity training courses, support to Local and Regional Authority Councils in the conflict affected South of Kyrgyzstan, and a project that would seek to minimise the potentially destabilising effect of expected future events, such as the parliamentary elections on October 10th.
Strand Three: Analysing Peacebuilding. This strand address a more medium to long term need: The development of Kyrgyzstan’s analytical capacity to continue the process of peacebuilding and reconciliation. For this strand, we envisage the development of a “think-tank” or other institution that can continue to monitor and assess continuing developments in the country long after the immediate crises are over.
International Alert has been careful to co-ordinate its efforts with other international community organisations working in Kyrgyzstan like the UN, the OSCE and the EU. It is clear that in the short term, there is a risk that unco-ordinated activity could lead to avoidable project overlaps. So we have, for instance, spoken extensively with the UNDP representatives in Kyrgyzstan to ensure that our High Level Dialogue has explicit links and common membership with the UNDP’s National Steering Board, and so that our activity in the South of the country is carried out in co-ordination with the work of the OSCE Police Advisory Group.
We strongly believe that this combination of national level dialogue with grassroots peacebuilding work provides a stable and necessary platform to ensure that Kyrgyzstan makes the changes it needs to ensure that the events of April and June can never happen again.