Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We warmly welcome Ambassador Idil here to the
Permanent Council for the first time today in his new
capacity as Head of the Center and we would like to
thank him as well for his comprehensive report.
Mr. Chairman, the United States strongly supports the
work of the OSCE Center in Bishkek, and we appreciate
Ambassador Idil's suggestions for further activities,
particularly those concerning judicial and penitentiary
reform.
We look forward to discussing further the Kyrgyz
proposal for an OSCE University in Kyrgyzstan, as well
as Ambassador Idil's ideas concerning an International
Democratization Center.
Education is an extremely important area, and we
support more focus on this area. While creating an OSCE
University in the Kyrgyz Republic would certainly be
costly, the United States would support developing
programs or an institute within one of the many existing
Kyrgyz institutions.
We also hope that the Center in Bishkek will work
closely with the new Economic and Environmental
Coordinator in outlining further areas for OSCE
activities in that dimension.
The United States Government remains concerned that
the trial of Parliamentarian Azimbek Beknazarov, which
resumed on March 11, be conducted in a fair and open
manner. We raised this issue several weeks ago, and we
once again would like to take this opportunity to urge
the Government of Kyrgyzstan to release Mr.
Beknazarov pending
the outcome of this trial.
We would also like to continue to urge the repeal of
Decree 20. As we said a few weeks ago, the January 14
decree introduced government controls on the ownership,
import, and operation of copying, printing and
typographical equipment, as well as mandated
government-ownership in newspaper printing presses, and
required re-registration of religious groups.
Ostensibly, Decree 20 is directed against the spread
of religious extremist leaflets. But its measures would
not improve the government's ability to determine where
leaflets are published. Instead, this decree creates an
atmosphere of repression that could promote
extremism.
Mr. Chairman, the United States supports the OSCE's
efforts to work with the Kyrgyz Republic in the areas of
human rights and free expression, for we believe that
these are the best guarantees against extremism and
intolerance. We look forward to exploring ways of
working with the OSCE to increase the level of media
freedom there.
At the same time, we are also concerned that the
publication of the independent newspapers Respublika
and Moya Stolitsa continues to be blocked.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would also like to raise the
issue of the Bishkek Conference on Combating Terrorism,
which was held last December. The United States was very
supportive of this conference, and we believe that the
resulting documents are an excellent basis on which to
continue working. We would hope, therefore, that the
Chairmanship will organize a follow-up meeting in the
near future so that we can all work together to
implement and build on the results of this
conference.
Thank you very
much.
