Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller VOA Interview

Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller
Erica Marat - VOA
On the Record
October 15, 2010

VOA: What is your assessment of the parliamentary elections?

Ambassador Gfoeller: We are very pleased. We think they were good elections. We have been in touch with ODIHR, of course, with NGOs. I had a roundtable at my house yesterday with some very prominent NGOs who told me all about how they had been monitoring the elections. Of course the embassy itself had teams of monitors all over the country. We also had American citizens who were monitoring as part of other groups like OSCE. And from everywhere we hear these were good elections. We were very excited that such clean elections were able to take place.

We were talking in fact this morning, my staff and I, that this is probably the best election not only of Central Asia, but a good part of Asia itself, and in fact of Eurasia. So it’s really exciting.

We did hear about some irregularities, but that’s to be expected. Nothing systematic, so we are pleased. We really congratulate -- In fact I’d really like you to put that in, that I really want to personally, and on behalf of the United States, congratulate the Kyrgyz people, because it has been a hard couple of months. It’s fantastic that they were able to bring that off.

VOA: Aside from observers, what role do you think the United States played to bring about these elections? Not directly, perhaps.

Ambassador Gfoeller: We did a lot, actually. We helped organize and fund nine debates between political parties. Also we gave a lot of democracy grants to a number of organizations, especially young people, organizations that helped teach people, citizens, about their rights, their responsibilities, explain the elections. We also did some training for judges in case there ever were to be disputes after the election, to help them be able to adjudicate these disputes. So we’ve been quite active as an embassy.

Also if you recall, we did a lot of funding to NDI, IRI, and IFES and they did a lot of good work preparing the population for the elections.

So we feel pretty proud, actually, of what we were able to contribute. Though of course the vast majority of the credit goes to the Kyrgyz people, but we were there to help and we were very happy we were able to do that.

VOA: What’s your assessment of the work of the new government, the government that came as a result of the regime change in April this year?

Ambassador Gfoeller: We have been supportive of the provisional government. We have been very excited that they want to create a democracy here, a parliamentary democracy. We were very congratulatory of the fact that they were able to run the referendum, a democratic vote. Again, a clean vote. The referendum passed, the constitution passed. The interim president, therefore, was installed. Here, again, all the credit really goes to the provisional government for having been able to organize these clean parliamentary elections. So I just want to express my congratulations.

VOA: There is a possibility that a [inaudible] pro-Russian coalition is going to form in the parliament. [Midov’s] [inaudible] party, [inaudible] and Ata-Zhurt. Of course it’s still in the talks, but there is a possibility of this happening.

Do you think strong views in the parliament in favor of cooperation with Moscow might impact Kyrgyz-U.S. relations?

Ambassador Gfoeller: No, I don’t. That’s something that actually I’ve tried to make the hallmark of my two and a half years here. I always say that there is no zero sum game between Russia and the United States in Kyrgyzstan.

This 19th Century idea of this “great game”, that two big powers are somehow trying to carve up Central Asia, that’s just really very 19th Century and we’re in the 21st Century right now. So if there are some pro-Russian parties in parliament, that doesn’t mean at all that they’re going to be anti-American. In fact I don’t expect them to be anti-American. I personally have an excellent relationship with the Russian Ambassador here in Bishkek. We talk very often. When we have high level visitors we always try for the other one to be able to meet with them. We do some things together, we exchange information on our aid for Kyrgyzstan.

If you recall, we actually had a joint Victory Day congratulatory message. Him and I, we both signed the message to the Kyrgyz people. And I think we have a lot of common interests in Kyrgyzstan. Stability, democracy, fight against terrorism, fight against narco-trafficking. So we find a lot of common ground. So no, I don’t expect any adverse impact.

VOA: In his interview to Voice of America, Felix [Kulov], the leader of Ar-Namys party said that he will demand greater transparency of the work of the Manas Transit Center. He said that he wants the U.S. to report to the Kyrgyz side whenever planes leave and land on the Kyrgyz territory. Do you think these are acceptable conditions on cooperation on this transit center?

Ambassador Gfoeller: I haven’t seen this particular interview by Mr. [Kulov] so I can only comment in a very general fashion, which is that we support transparency. We very much appreciate that Kyrgyzstan has been hosting the Manas Transit Center. We think that it is in Kyrgyzstan’s interest to host it because it’s in Kyrgyzstan’s interest for there to be stability in the region. And as you know, the Manas Transit Center’s job is to support Operation Enduring Freedom which is bringing stability to Afghanistan.

So we appreciate that the transit center is in Kyrgyzstan and we think that it’s very important for there to be transparency so that the Kyrgyz government and the Kyrgyz people know what’s going on there.

But specifically on what Mr. [Kulov] said, I can’t really comment more than that because I haven’t read his interview.

VOA: This is going to be my last question. I am right now sitting in Osh, in fact in one of the Uzbek villages where they’re trying to rebuild their houses right now. What are your recommendations to the Kyrgyz government in the aftermath of this ethnic violence?

Ambassador Gfoeller: Of course reconciliation is the very most important thing that needs to be done between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz ethnic groups. We have said this repeatedly, we the United States as well as other countries that are friends of Kyrgyzstan and that have a good future for Kyrgyzstan very much at heart. We have made a number of recommendations. We’ve also already as the United States started helping with reconciliation through NGOs, experts, that kind of thing. But specifically I wanted to mention two things. First of all, the Commission of Inquiry. We are very pleased that the Kyrgyz government has now signed the terms of reference for the International Commission of Inquiry which is going to be led by Finnish Parliamentarian Kimmo Kiljunen and we think it’s important that the truth be told.

We don’t believe that one ethnic group or another can be blamed for what happened. We think that individuals can be blamed. So it is important that the Commission of Inquiry have a serious mandate and access to witnesses. Of course also witness protection is important. There are a whole series of things that need to be done to facilitate a free and effective inquiry so that the truth can be established and the perpetrators of certain crimes and atrocities can be brought to justice.

The second thing we suggest and support is deployment of the so-called PAG, the Police Advisory Group which the OSCE is putting together. The idea behind deploying these 52 international police officers to the south of the country is, again, to promote reconciliation, to promote the feeling of security for both ethnic groups. These people are not going to be doing the inquiry, they’re simply going to be out and about on the street. And since they are international they will be, obviously, objective. They will not try to take one side against another. We think that it would be important for a feeling of security on behalf of all the people of the south for this Police Advisory Group to be able to be deployed.

VOA: Madame Ambassador, this is excellent. Thank you so much.

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