"Banned" Investigator Regrets Kyrgyz Probe Response

The head of an independent commission set up to investigate last year’s violence in southern Kyrgyzstan has expressed surprise and disappointment at the hostile reaction to its report.

Kimmo Kiljunen headed the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission, KIC, a team of international experts commissioned by President Roza Otunbaeva to look at what happened during last summer’s violence in and around Osh and Jalalabad, and what the root causes were.

When the KIC published its report on May 3, the response was furious. Politicians in Kyrgyzstan dismissed its findings out of hand, although they were based on months sifting evidence and gathering witness testimony. On May 26, parliament voted by a large majority to declare Kiljunen persona grata. The motion said the KIC report was one-sided and a threat to national security.

The angry reactions reflect the rise of Kyrgyz nationalism in mainstream politics since the bloodshed. Officials and parliamentarians appeared particularly wounded by the KIC’s statement that more Uzbeks than Kyrgyz died in the violence, and most of those arrested as alleged perpetrators afterwards were also Uzbek, even though both facts were well-established before the investigation was launched. 

IWPR asked Kiljunen, previously a member of the Finnish parliament and former special representative of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly with responsibility for Central Asia, to discuss the hostile reaction to the KIC’s findings.

IWPR: How have other members of the KIC reacted to the Kyrgyz parliament’s decision to declare you persona non grata?

Kimmo Kiljunen: They are very disappointed. They are saying that it isn’t a criticism of me, it is a criticism of the whole commission. They feel this very strongly, and they would obviously like to raise that question. We all want to know exactly what the attitude in Kyrgyzstan is, what the position of the government and the president is.

IWPR: What do you make of parliament’s decision?

Kiljunen: It’s a great pity; I am very sorry about it. It’s very sad situation, because of course we made a very serious effort to write an objective analysis and make good recommendations which could help the reconciliation process. It’s obviously a big disappointment.

IWPR: How should one view parliament’s action given that it was President Roza Otunbaeva herself who suggested you lead the commission? Do you think there’s disagreement at a political level in Kyrgyzstan?

Kiljunen: I don’t know – you must ask the politicians there in Kyrgyzstan. I only know that it is very strange for parliament to make a decision on persona non grata. It is typically governments that do that. So it is a politically significant move for parliament to make this decision.

I don’t know the legal status of this decision, but obviously I know the political side of it…. [Although] the government was critical of the report itself in terms of its interpretations, they agreed with its conclusions and with our recommendations.

The government says it would like to establish a special commission to fulfill, implement and monitor our recommendations. Politically, if the parliament of Kyrgyzstan makes this type of decision, it is a great pity.

IWPR: What do you think the president should be saying about this?

Kiljunen: I cannot say anything; it is up to the president and the government, and I only hope that Kyrgyzstan understands that we tried to do our best, we tried to help the country and help the reconciliation process, and we tried to be as objective and as balanced as possible.

IWPR: Can you give assess the other reports that have been produced by Human Rights Watch, the Osh Initiative group, and the National Commission led by Kyrgyz politician Abdygany Erkebaev?

Kiljunen: There are different approaches – some focus on human rights questions, some on the political situation in the country, like ICG [International Crisis Group] which is more on the political consequences. The national report, obviously – this was done by the Erkebaev commission – and it’s important… and we made our report. So the approaches are a bit different.

IWPR: Do you think you will visit Kyrgyzstan again?

Kiljunen: Of course I very much want to. I want us to be able to have a dialogue and serious discussions. And I love the country, I love the people, and I know so many parliamentarians – they are my friends.

So obviously I would like to visit the country, but I cannot come if I am not invited.

Dina Tokbaeva is IWPR regional editor for Central Asia. Nina Muzaffarova is an IWPR intern in Bishkek .

Correction: We wrongly identified Kimmo Kiljunen as a serving Finnish politician and special representative of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly; he has in fact left both posts. The story ha been corrected, with our apologies.