Concerns About Rebuilding in Southern Kyrgyzstan

The Kyrgyz government is offering loans to residents of Osh and Jalalabad whose homes were destroyed or damaged in ethnic violence in June. But many are turning the money down.

The loan sums are 200,000 soms, about 4,300 US dollars, repayable after 20 years on low interest rates.

The reasons give for refusing to accept the loans are that the money is not sufficient to rebuild a house, and they do not want to burden their children with a debt that could lead to repossession if unpaid.

Experts point out that if the devastation had been caused by a natural disaster, the state would have provided monetary compensation or rebuilt properties itself. They note that international donors have given government significant sums in grants as well as loans, which could be passed on to the people affected.

The audio programme, in Russian and Kyrgyz, went out on national radio stations in Kyrgyzstan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.