Central Asia

The overthrow of president Bakiev in April 2010, followed by the violence that broke out in June in Kyrgyzstan’s Osh and Jalalabad regions, not only exposed the fragility of Kyrgyzstan but has significant implications for neighbouring states, as well as the international community working on stability in the region. While the focus in southern Kyrgyzstan is now on reconstruction and reconciliation, long term efforts to prevent the spread of violence and conflict in Central Asia require significant investment in changing patterns of governance, economic growth and security provision.

The five CIS countries in Central Asia constitute a distinct sub-region shaped by a shared Soviet legacy in the form of weak democratic institutions and poorly adapting economies, over-centralised and increasingly authoritarian governments, arbitrary and often disputed borders, and a reliance on highly repressive law-enforcement agencies.These countries also lie strategically at the intersection between Europe and Asia, and consequently provide a transit corridor for various forms of trafficking including narcotics, small arms and migrants, as well as a strategic supply route in support of military operations in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s proximity is also a major concern for security in Central Asia, with suspected trafficking in drugs and in SALW contributing to the criminalisation of economies. Among the strongly suspected legacies of the civil war in Tajikistan are a significant surplus of SALW and their illegal possession, and trafficking of SALW. Tajikistan also holds poorly protected stockpiles of ammunition.

In Central Asia, Saferworld is supporting 15 communities as well as civil society organisations in the Ferghana Valley to respond to safety and security challenges in a cooperative and conflict sensitive manner. Saferworld is working with local partners, the Foundation for Tolerance International (FTI) in Kyrgyzstan and the Association for Scientific and Technological Intelligentsia (ASTI) in Tajikistan on a cross-border community safety project in the Ferghana Valley. The first phase of the project aimed to lay the grounds for the adoption of participatory community safety approaches to enable neighbouring communities to address community security concerns collectively and to build communities’ resilience to violence and conflict. In response to the June 2010 violence in Kyrgyzstan, we expanded the project to include communities affected by violence in Osh and Jalalabad.

Saferworld is also working with the Eurasia Foundation for Central Asia (EFCA) to increase the capacity of local civil society organisations in the South of Kyrgyzstan to respond to the post-violence crisis in an effective, coordinated and conflict sensitive manner.