23 June 10
A referendum on amending to Kyrgyzstan's Constitution, which is scheduled for Sunday, is important for the country, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Special Representative for Central Asia, Kimmo Kiljunen believes.
"Holding the referendum in these circumstances is not easy. But there is no other option. If they don't organize the referendum it'll even worsen the situation," Kiljunen told Trend over phone from Bishkek.
He said, thus, the referendum is important to stabilize and create legitimacy for the country, as the country needs a constitution and further opportunities to hold elections.
Kiljunen expressed the hope that riots that took place recently in southern Kyrgyzstan and caused numerous human casualties, will not take place again.
"Nobody can obviously foresee the future. But we all hope that more democratic system will help for stabilization in the country," he said.
After former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's overthrow in April of this year, the Interim Government head Rosa Otunbayeva heads the country.
According to Kiljunen, of course, such a problem like real tragedy that took place in Osh has weakened people's trust to the authorities.
She indicated that some of the refugees are already returning back from Uzbekistan to their homes and this is a good sign.
"That is very unfortunate and all can understand that. But we can clearly see here in Bishkek that the people are trusting to the authorities. I met Rosa Otunbayeva and she indicated that today the people have more and more trust on the stability," he said.
He also stressed the fact of returning of some of the refugees back from Uzbekistan to their homes and called it as a "good sign".
