– Establishing the truth about the violence is important from a political point of view, but especially in terms of the rule of law, the protection of the rights of those who have been subject to unfounded criminal persecution, and to ensure accountability for those who committed crimes, Gunnar Ekelove-Slydal, Deputy Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee says.
The violence in the south of Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 left over 400 dead and wounded more than 2000 people. These events have formed political discourse in Kyrgyzstan since, often without any serious view to fact. Tensions are still felt in the region.
The events remain topic of discussion both inside the country and abroad. Although a great number of reports and articles on the conflict have been published in the time since, many central episodes from the period have not been described in detail. – Discussions are often characterized by a lack of view to the facts of the conflict, or give an unbalanced, ethnically framed picture of the events, Vitaliy Ponomarev of Memorial Human Rights Centre says.
The 200-page report was prepared by Memorial Human Rights Center (Russia), the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (Norway) and Freedom House (USA).
The report is the results of field research in Osh starting from 18 June 2010. It is based on the accounts of over 300 eye-witnesses to the events, who have been interviewed in Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Turkey. Other sources include unpublished reports by government organs, documents from medical facilities, satellite images, and so forth.
A preliminary version of the report was presented to authorities in Kyrgyzstan in February 2012, and was discussed with activists from civil society, lawyers and experts from several countries.
For further information:
– In Moscow, Vitaliy Ponomarev, Director of Memorial’s Central Asia Program, +7-910-424-58-06 (Russian)
– In Oslo, Gunnar Ekelove-Slydal, Deputy Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, +47 95210307 (English, Norwegian)