Sending a police advisory group from Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to Kyrgyzstan for four months will cost several million Euros, Director of OSCE Conflict Prevention Herbert Zalberg said on Saturday.
Zalberg said on Friday that a police advisory group, composed of 52 officers from OSCE states, may be sent to the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan. The idea has already been discussed with Kyrgyz officials but the final decision will be taken on July 22.
"Several million Euros over four months is quite expensive," Zalberg said at a briefing in the Kazakh city of Almaty during an informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers, adding that he hoped a decision on the matter would be "taken as soon as possible."
"In the last few weeks, we have seen the deployment of the first police groups in Kyrgyzstan," he said.
Violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan broke out in the city of Osh on June 11 and then spread to the neighboring Jalalabad region. Unofficial estimates put the death toll at around 2,000 people, while half a million may have been made homeless by the violent pogroms, which saw thousands of homes burned.
ALMATY, July 17 (RIA Novosti)
