RIA NOVOSTI

25 June 2010

A police assessment mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has arrived in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek to help stabilize the situation in the country, a Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Friday.

"The OSCE police group will carry out three main tasks: monitoring, supervisory control and consultations in the framework of a package of measures adopted by the OSCE Secretariat," the spokeswoman said.

The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said the OSCE police force is part of a larger international effort to "rehabilitate the southern region of the country."

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's special representative for Central Asia, Kimmo Kiljunen, said on Thursday international police operations would be useful in Kyrgyzstan for technical advice to create an "atmosphere of trust."

He said 50-100 policemen would suffice to maintain security and help escort refugees back home.

The United Nations says up to 400,000 people have been displaced by the unrest.

Fighting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks broke out in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh on June 11, lasting several days and spreading to neighboring Jalalabad region. Official figures say 261 were killed in the clashes and more than 2,000 were injured, however, Kyrgyz leaders admit that the real death toll could be 10 times higher.

BISHKEK, June 25 (RIA Novosti)