- Target:
- Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva; Osh Mayor Melisbek Myrzakmatov, AND the Kyrgyz State Commission t
- Region:
- International
- Website:
- helptheuzbeks.blogspot.com
In June 2010, ethnic violence erupted between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan, particularly in the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad. Although the original clashes are now over, the situation remains volatile as systematic violence against ethnic Uzbeks continues, particularly in Osh where the local police arbitrarily arrest and mistreat Uzbeks.
This is why the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has offered to dispatch an advisory police force to both Osh and Jalal-Abad that would help restore citizen trust in the police by ensuring that the police enforce the country's laws even-handedly, and in accordance with human rights standards.
Although the Kyrgyz President has agreed to invite the OSCE police advisors in the country, the Mayor of Osh has openly defied her orders by refusing to permit the OSCE police to come to Osh.
We, the undersigned, demand in the interest of ending the violence within the city of Osh, Kyrgyztan, that Kyrgyz government enforce its decision to allow the agreed-upon OSCE police force to come to the city of Osh and advise local police.
There is clear and incontrovertible evidence of police atrocities against ethnic Uzbeks in Osh. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and various other organizations have solidly documented such atrocities. Therefore the city of Osh is clearly in need of outside observers from a neutral third party that help ensure such atrocities end.
It should be noted that the proposed OSCE police force will have merely advisory capacities, and will not carry weapons, nor arrest people. Thus there is no danger that they will unduly infringe upon the rights of ethnic Kyrgyz. Furthermore, even if majority opinion in Osh is against the deployment of the OSCE police force as Mayor Myrzakmatov claims, this can be attributed to the one-sided media reports about the recent violence in the city. However, as the mayor for ALL of Osh, Mr. Myrzakmatov’s task is to ensure that the needs of ALL the city’s residents are met and that no one group is unduly disadvantaged.
Mr. Myrzakmatov must thus not be allowed to tolerate the blatant and scandalous human rights violations in Osh, regardless of whether or not majority opinion favors such human rights abuses.
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The Allow OSCE police monitors in Osh, Kyrgyzstan petition to Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva; Osh Mayor Melisbek Myrzakmatov, AND the Kyrgyz State Commission t was written by Plight Uzbeks and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.