BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, (16 July 2010) – A month after violence forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in southern Kyrgyzstan, UNHCR estimates that some 75,000 people there are still displaced. Thousands continue to be affected by uncertain security, problems arising from the wide loss of personal documents, and a shortage of shelter.

The situation is calm in Osh and Jalalabad, but there are scores of police checkpoints and the two cities remain under night-time curfew. This, in turn, is presenting difficulties for people without personal papers and there are frequent allegations of police harassment.     

Jalalabad, (8 July 2010) – More than six hundred people gathered in a mosque near the city of Jalalabad in southern Kyrgyzstan Wednesday in an effort to promote reconciliation between Uzbek and Kyrgyz communities following a wave of violence that swept through the region last month.

Kyrgyz elders in distinctive tall white hats sat side-by-side with their Uzbek neighbours drinking tea and eating watermelon while sharing hopes for a better future. Local leaders urged forgiveness and pledged to bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice.

With only four houses burnt, the community of Suzak suffered relatively low levels of damage in the violence, which ravaged others areas of southern Kyrgyzstan in June. Villagers also offered assistance to the thousands of refugees from Jalalabad who passed through on their flight to Uzbekistan.

JALALABAD, Kyrgyzstan, (1 July 2010) –  UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres continued a visit to southern Kyrgyzstan on Thursday by meeting returned refugees and victims of conflict in the city of Jalalabad before returning to the capital, Bishkek.

Guterres met families in Lenina and Ozernaya Streets in central Jalalabad who had returned to their burnt out homes and were living in tents provided by UNHCR. They had begun to clear debris and rubble from their homes but were concerned about the coming winter. Guterres also saw distribution of relief items including jerry-cans, blankets and tents being carried out by UNCHR partner ACTED.    

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, (30 June 2010) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres today visited southern Kyrgyzstan and appealed to the international community not to turn its attentions away from the tens of thousands of people still faced with having to rebuild lives and overcome trauma following the violence there in mid-June.

Speaking to journalists at a site for returned refugees and other displaced people in the town of Osh, Guterres spoke of the difficulties for those left homeless or living in fear of further unrest.   

"The world was taken by surprise with Kyrgyzstan, we must not be taken by surprise again," he said. "Entire communities here have been left fractured and embittered. Immediate and sustained humanitarian help is needed to avert a dangerous expansion of grievance and loss."   

Geneva (29 June 2010) -- This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 29 June 2010, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The situation in southern Kyrgyzstan remained relatively calm over the weekend. Humanitarian access to different parts of Osh, Jalalabad and villages in southern parts of the country is gradually improving.    

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan, (June 25, 2010) – Amid mass returns from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan, UNHCR field officers have been visiting groups of returning refugees and displaced people near the southern towns of Osh and Jalal-Abad.

According to the Kyrgyz authorities, 70,000 refugees have returned so far. At the same time, internally displaced people (IDPs) are also returning to their places of origin.

Both refugees and IDPs have expressed mixed feelings to UNHCR staff about going home. Although they want to be reunited with their families, many are worried for their safety and about going back to destroyed, damaged or looted homes.   

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan, (June 24 2010) – Sixty-year-old grandmother Mavludahon spent months putting aside wheat and other food for her son's wedding in the autumn. But over the past two weeks, she has been using the stockpile to feed hundreds of people who have fled to her village to escape violence in other parts of southern Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad region.

Soon after the violence erupted on June 10, thousands of scared civilians passed through the village on their way to seek shelter in nearby Uzbekistan. An uneasy calm has returned to the south, but Mavludahon still hosts internally displaced people (IDP) in the compound of her family's walled home, though many of the estimated 12,000 IDPs in the area began returning home on Thursday.

GENEVA, (June 23 2010) – UNHCR urged caution on Wednesday over the returns of refugees and other displaced people to southern Kyrgyzstan following reports that thousands of people were going back to their communities, with some under pressure to do so from local officials.

In a statement released in Geneva, the refugee agency applauded the efforts of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to address the needs of displaced people, but said it was essential that returns were voluntary and on the basis of people being properly informed.   

ANDIJAN, (22 June 2010) – The distribution of UN refugee agency aid is under way in Uzbekistan to tens of thousands of refugees who have fled violence this month in southern areas of neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. The Uzbekistan government believes that more than 100,000 have crossed the border since June 10.

The Uzbek authorities have distributed tonnes of aid since the weekend, including tents, plastic sheeting for shelter, blankets and other relief items. The government is providing medical care and meals to the ethnic Uzbek refugees, some 90 per cent of whom are women and children.

A UNHCR emergency team arrived in the Andijan area last week and has since been visiting sites where the refugees are staying and doing assessments. "We were impressed by the organization and maintenance. All refugees get hot cooked meals three times per day, they get bottled drinking water and water for washing," said a UNHCR official.   

20 June 2010 -- The first cargo plane carrying UNHCR shelter and non-food relief arrived in Osh, Kyrgyzstan this morning local time, with a second flight expected within a day.

The two planes are UNHCR's first cargo flights to arrive in Osh since the crisis erupted and are providing 80 tonnes of initial assistance for some 15,000 people. Two hundred and forty tonnes of aid for refugees has already been flown into neighbouring Uzbekistan.