Otunbayeva calls for peace on anniversary

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, June 10 (UPI) -- The Kyrgyz community should look toward to a harmonious and peaceful future, the country's president said on the first anniversary of ethnic conflicts.

Kyrgyz President Rosa Otunbayeva marked the anniversary of ethnic clashes in the south of the country by calling for peaceful co-existence at a memorial on Osh, the flash point of last year's deadly clashes.

Kyrgyzstan, Otunbayeva said, is a united nation.

"We shouldn't let out anger and we should think about the future," she was quoted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as saying.

At least 470 people were killed during ethnic conflicts centered on Osh and Jalal Abad. Most of the victims of the violence were ethnic Uzbeks.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in separate reports this week said investigations into the violence were flawed. Otunbayeva acknowledged the shortcomings by saying there was "no trust in the courts" in Kyrgyzstan.

Rights groups warned that social stigmas associated with sexual violence were exacerbated by simmering tensions between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz communities in Kyrgyzstan.

Otunbayeva during the Osh memorial unveiled a monument depicting two women from the ethnic communities in an embrace.

"There is no alternative for harmony," she said. "There is happiness when there is harmony."