An international police mission to Kyrgyzstan is to be deployed as early as August, dpa quoted the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as saying after its member states approved the project Thursday. It will be the first international security-related force to be deployed in Kyrgyzstan after a June wave of bloody inter-ethnic unrest between the majority population and the Uzbek minority. Initially, 52 unarmed officers are to be sent to the central Asian country for four months, but the mission - which was requested by the interim government - could be extended and enlarged, the Vienna-based organization said. The head of the OSCE conflict prevention unit, Herbert Salber, stressed that the mission's officers would not be deployed to carry out police duties, but to monitor and advise the Kyrgyz police, who have lost the trust of wide parts of the population. Ethnic Uzbeks have accused security forces of standing by or participating in the clashes in which some 2,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the south of the country. "It is an open secret that there are certain allegations," Salber told reporters. Salber conceded that the OSCE mission had a "limited function," but he said that the wishes of the Kyrgyz government had to be respected. "The police advisers can make a big contribution by their sheer presence," he said. The officers are to be deployed in the southern regions of Osh and Jalal-Abad. At the planned OSCE mission headquarter, the public will be able to report police-related incidents.
