VIENNA, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Kyrgyzstan's peaceful transfer of power in the wake of a 2010 coup should serve as an example to other countries in the region, the U.N. secretary-general said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met in Vienna with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazabayev to discuss reconciliation efforts in the Central Asian country.
Kyrgyzstan elected its first new government last year after an April 2010 coup led former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee to Belarus. Following the coup, at least 470 people were killed in ethnic conflicts near Osh and Jalal Abad.
Few skirmishes were reported last year, though ethnic tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyzs continued and human rights officials said torture in the country was systemic.
Nevertheless, Ban, in a statement issued through his spokesman's office, praised the Kyrgyz minister for the relative peace.
"The secretary-general said Kyrgyzstan's peaceful transfer of power was an important step toward consolidating democracy in the country and was an example for other countries in the region," his statement read.
Protesters loyal to the opposition in neighboring Kazakhstan demonstrated in January after the ruling Nur Otan party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev won 80 percent of the vote. Its borders with Turkmenistan were closed earlier this month as a precaution ahead of Turkmen presidential elections.
