Kenyan lessons about Kyrgyzstan
25 June 2010
Henry Smith, Director of Saferworld, suggests that ethnicity is too easy an explanation for the violence in Kyrgyzstan.
Before the dramatic and violent change in Kyrgyzstan's government this April, many in Europe would have struggled to find this country of five-and-a-half million people on a map, let alone give an account of its complex political dynamics. And so, understandably, most reports are falling back on ethnicity as an explanation for the violence. Ethnicity certainly plays a role – a central role – but it is far from the whole story.
Read our op-ed in European Voice
