Kazakhstan will give Kyrgyzstan $10 million towards building materials and power plant fuel, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said during the opening of an informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in the Kazakh city of Almaty.
"Construction materials are needed today to restore the destroyed housing; fuel is needed for power plants. We will provide $10 million in emergency assistance," Nazarbaev said.
He said two international conferences would be held to discuss the provision of financial aid to Kyrgyzstan: one in July in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, and the other in Almaty in August.
Nazarbayev said the overall budget deficit and shortage of funds for rebuilding damaged infrastructure in Kyrgyzstan is estimated at around $1 billion.
Violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan broke out in the city of Osh on June 11 and then spread to the neighboring Jalalabad region. Unofficial estimates put the death toll at around 2,000 people, while half a million may have been made homeless by the violent pogroms, which saw thousands of homes burned. The Kyrgyz authorities have estimated the damage at around $71 million.
ALMATY, July 17 (RIA Novosti)
