More than 350 people were killed during ethnic unrest in June in Kyrgyzstan, where additional 375,000 were forced to flee and more than 1,500 houses burnt down. The riots left a large need for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction aid. Danish Refugee Council has been able to respond already since the early stages of the recovery process ensuring rapid assistance to vulnerable groups.

- We have succeeded in a very short time to be recognized and registered by the authorities in Kyrgyzstan. It puts us in a unique position and enables us to provide an immediate aid response. Now, there is a need to focus on the resettlement of the many ethnic Uzbek in Kyrgyzstan, still displaced and homeless after their houses were burned down, says Rikke Johannesen, programme coordinator at the Danish Refugee Council.

Funding from the Danish Refugee Council earmarked for rapid emergency aid response as well as funding from international donors, has made it possible to design and launch a reconstruction programme with a short notice. The need for housing of the many displaced people has high priority and should be addressed immediately. In the Central Asian republic Kyrgyzstan winter sets in shortly with plummeting temperatures.

Danish Refugee Council has been tasked to rebuild 450 of a total of the 1,500 houses, and has further been designated by UNHCR to be responsible for ensuring construction materials to the entire international effort to ensure the reconstruction.

Besides the reconstruction efforts Danish Refugee Council will work to ensure legal assistance to vulnerable groups in affected areas in southern Kyrgyzstan, and further to help creating income-generating activities.

- It is important that we are able to assist many of those who are in need of legal assistance when it comes to issues related to land and housing. Many of the affected Kyrgyz ethnic Uzbeks have lost personal papers and documents in the riots, says Rikke Johannesen from the Danish Refugee Council.

- Finally, there are many who have lost livestock and other essential livelihoods, seeds have been stolen and small workshops or shops were burnt down. Those are among the people whom the Danish Refugee Council will help to recover, says Rikke Johannesen.

Danish Refugee Council has worked in Kyrgyzstan since 2003 through a network of local and international NGOs. Local experience along with vast global expertise, lead to Danish Refugee Council taking on the role as a key player in the international reconstruction effort.

The new headquarters is located in the southern Kyrgyzstan city of Osh, to where ten persons have been seconded by the Danish Refugee Council. From here they will work to ensure reconstruction in cooperation with a number of local staff.

Read more about the Danish Refugee Council's work in Kyrgyzstan:
www.drc.dk/relief-work/where-we-work/central-asia/kyrgyzstan/

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