An international probe into inter-ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan has largely laid the blame for last year's unrest on its government. The riots last June were the worst inter-ethnic clashes to hit the Central Asian state since the collapse of the Soviet Union, taking place two months after violent street protests deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The findings of a probe led by Kimmo Kiljunen, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's special representative for Central Asia, said the interim government led by diplomat Roza Otunbayeva might have underestimated tensions between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks. "The interim government which had come to power two months before the events either did not acknowledge or underestimated a worsening in inter-ethnic relations in the south of Kyrgyzstan," said a Russian-language copy of the report. 
The report, which Kiljunen's commission has already forwarded to the government and plans to make public next week, said the interim government moved to support an ethnic Uzbek minority.
"Thus, a political standoff between the new authorities and supporters of the ousted president escalated into an inter-ethnic conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks," it said.

Security officials

The commission also zeroed in on the role of security officials suggesting they had played a part in the unrest in the south of the country, which is the former president's stronghold. "An inability by security forces to protect their property causes questions about their complicity in the events, direct or indirect," it said. While it said the June events were not war crimes or a genocide, the killings, rapes and other forms of violence may be qualified as "crimes against humanity" if proven in court.
The study said human rights abuses in the country were continuing and included tortures in prisons and reeled off a series of recommendations that could help prevent a repeat of the violence.
They included the strengthening of the status of the Uzbek language and promoting gender equality.
Even before the clashes in the south, the government struggled to impose its authority and later admitted it was essentially helpless in the face of the unrest that claimed hundreds of lives.

One-sided interpretation

Russia's Valery Tishkov, one of the representatives of the seven-member commission, cautioned against the one-sided interpretation of the findings, saying both sides in the conflict shared the blame.
"Everyone is guilty here. It's not like they were children in a sandpit, " Tishkov, who is the director of the Moscow-based Ethnology and Anthropology Institute, said. Even before its publication the study proved controversial. "The report plays into the hands of those who want a civil war to begin in Kyrgyzstan," said lawmaker Ismail Isakov, who acted as the interim government's special representative in the country's south last June, referring to the Bakiyev family.

Serious lapse

Isakov was directly criticised by the commission which said the general's inability to curb the violence was a "serious lapse." Analyst Mars Sariyev said that such studies should be taken with a grain of salt as international experts tend to side with national minorities.
But he praised his country for allowing the probe to take place in the first place, saying neighboring Uzbekistan, Iran or China never allowed international commissions to probe similar unrest.