Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) made "no fatal mistakes" during this June's violence in Kyrgyzstan, amid criticism that it failed to address ethnic problems that led to bloodshed in the Central Asian republic.
Nearly 400 people were killed and over 2,500 injured in fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad during the summer conflict.
"The organization did not commit any fatal mistakes," Medvedev said at the CSTO summit in Moscow.
"The events that followed in Kyrgyzstan proved that the organization maintained a circumspect position on the basis of its international mandate," he said.
Medvedev admitted, however, that the bloodshed indicated that the CSTO had "certain legal problems."
He also said that it was necessary to make the organization more efficient in tackling current threats.
A number of agreements to this end are expected to be signed later on Friday, he added.
The CSTO's seven member states include Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti)
