BISHKEK. July 16 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan is completing talks with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on sending a police force to its southern regions.
"We are at the final stage of the talks with an OSCE mission in compliance with their mandate, on sending a police force [to southern Kyrgyzstan]," interim President Roza Otunbayeva said at a news conference on Friday.
"We will take this step because stability has not yet been restored to the extent where normal functioning of the two communities (Uzbek and Kyrgyz) can happen," she said.
Otunbayeva also announced that 50 OSCE policemen would be sent to southern Kyrgyzstan for four months. "These are going to be precisely consultative forces performing three functions: monitoring, consultations and training," she said.
The zone, where the OSCE police force will be deployed, is being defined, she also said.
Otunbayeva said threats could emerge threatening the stability in southern Kyrgyzstan. "Reports are arriving on possible outbreaks of instability, especially now that the glaciers are beginning to melt, first of all in the Batken region, and drug routes are re-opening and drug smuggling is picking up," she said.
"We are well prepared. The border guards and other services are busy working and the situation is under control," Otunbayeva said.
"The mourning for the events in southern Kyrgyzstan continues. A state of emergency will last until August 10 in Osh and Jalal-Abad. The regime will be maintained for now. The Osh authorities reported that they are keeping the situation under control," she said.