National identity will help prevent ethnic conflicts in Kyrgyzstan - president
OSH/BISHKEK. June 10 (Interfax) - Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said ethnic problems can only be resolved by uniting the ethnic groups populating Kyrgyzstan.
"Ethnic conflicts [between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks] have broken out three times in southern Kyrgyzstan over the past 50 years, and we must draw lessons from them and work to draw the constituent ethnic communities together without dividing them into Kyrgyz and Uzbek," Atambayev told a rally marking the second anniversary of ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan.
"We must unite them on the basis of their common citizenship. Only this way will we manage to prevent such tragedies. But if the confrontation continues, fresh conflicts will become inevitable," he said.
Now that two years have passed since the tragic events in southern Kyrgyzstan, the situation is seen from different angles, the Kyrgyz president said. "Some say the situation has returned to normal, and peace and stability have been re-established, while others claim ethnic discrimination persists and tensions remain high in Osh and Dzhalal-Abad," he said.
"Citizens must decide on their own and understand that peace and stability is something they themselves are responsible for. If no awareness of this arrives, confrontation and tragedies will continue," Atambayev said.
"Since Kyrgyzstan became independent 20 years ago the Kyrgyz leaders have never tried to create an environment for the ethnic communities' mutual and active ethnic and cultural integration. No progress has been made in forging common a national identity," he also said.
"The southern regions were rigorously divided into ethnic communities, torn by growing mistrust. Trivial disputes and fights common between young men would be increasingly interpreted as ethnic conflicts," the Kyrgyz president said.
"Among the main lessons to be drawn from the 2010 events, is that the authorities and our politicians must not play footsie with the nationalists and separatists, that nationalism inevitably breeds separatisms, and that playing on citizens' ethnic feelings, which some of the Kyrgyz politicians are doing, is unacceptable, he said.
"The Kyrgyz ethnic community must become the backbone of one multi-ethnic nation. Finally, those who divide the nation by ethnic origins must be brought to justice. We must become a single nation in which everyone, irrespective of his ethnicity, could say with pride that he is a citizen of Kyrgyzstan," Atambayev said.
More than 440 people were killed in the ethnic unrest between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks on June 10-15 2010, and thousands of buildings were destroyed. The government is providing aid to those affected in the conflicts, he said.
There were representatives of the Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities, and relatives of those affected in the 2010 conflict among the participants in the commemorative rally in Osh, an Interfax correspondent reported. People were cleared in after they produced invitations, he said.
Another commemorative rally was held in Bishkek on Sunday morning, attended by Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov and ex- president Roza Otunbayeva.
June 10 is a day of memory in Kyrgyzstan. All entertainment events have been cancelled.
