LJUBLJANA - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) can play an important role in Kyrgyzstan by bringing parties to the negotiating table, US deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday during a visit to Slovenia.
"There is a key role (for the OSCE) in terms of trying to bring the parties together within Kyrgyzstan as they deal with the departure of the president and looking towards the new government," Zoellick told journalists after meeting Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel.
Speaking at the start of a European tour that is to take him to 14 NATO member states, Zoellick said the OSCE, which is currently chaired by Rupel, should also play a particular role in soothing Russian sensitivities about the crisis in the former Soviet republic.
"The OSCE can also play a role in terms of making sure that key partners, particularely Kazakhstan, Russia and others, have a comfort about the process moving forward and supporting it," Zoellick said.
"All these needs to be kept in the context of recognising that the people of Kyrgyzstan want to determine their own future," Zoellick said.
Moscow, reeling from a series of popular uprising in former Soviet republics, last week accused the OSCE of triggering the unrest that led to the fall of president Askar Akayev because the pan-continental body criticised this month's elections in Kyrgyzstan.
"What we've seen over the course of past months is an expression by people in very diverse parts of the world - whether it is Ukraine, Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan or the Palestinian elections - of a desire to be free and participate on their own future with their governments," Zoellick said.
He added that "large changes are afoot but the process of change also requires careful attention by countries that want to try to support the process taking place peacefully."
Zoellick also said the OSCE should also play a role in Kyrgyzstan in the context of election assistance and election monitoring, as well as work with the free press and providing support to the police services.
Rupel announced he would visit Kyrgyzstan in the near future.
03/29/2005 14:09 GMT