UNHCR Chief Urges Continued Help for Kyrgyzstan’s Displaced Rushes Emergency Relief from International Humanitarian City, Dubai Kyrgyzstan, 30 June 2010 - UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ant?nio Guterres today visited southern Kyrgyzstan and appealed to the international community not to turn its attentions away from the tens of thousands of people still faced with having to rebuild lives and overcome trauma following the violence there in mid-June. Speaking to journalists at a site for returned refugees and other displaced people in the town of Osh, Guterres spoke of the difficulties for those left homeless or living in fear of further unrest. "The world was taken by surprise with Kyrgyzstan, we must not be taken by surprise again," he said. "Entire communities here have been left fractured and embittered. Immediate and sustained humanitarian help is needed to avert a dangerous expansion of grievance and loss." Since mid June, and with some tens of thousands of people having been displaced inside Kyrgyzstan as well as across the border into Uzbekistan, UNHCR has rushed hundreds of tonnes of emergency relief into the two countries in a series of massive air shipments from Dubai. With refugees having since returned to Kyrgyzstan the focus of help has now shifted to the displaced populations in and around Osh and nearby Jalalabad. On Wednesday in Osh, High Commissioner Guterres received the first convoy of some 20 trucks at the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border carrying UN aid materials into Kyrgyzstan from Uzbekistan, where they are no longer needed. Guterres has been visiting Kyrgyzstan to see for himself the conditions on the ground for the many thousands of people who have been displaced by the violence. As well as traveling to Osh on Wednesday he met government officials including President Roza Otunbayeva. On Thursday he's expected to visit other towns in the south. Photo: Shipment being sent from UNHCR emergency stockpile in IHC, Dubai About UNHCR: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. In more than five decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives. Today, a staff of some 6,600 people in more than 110 countries continues to help about 34 million persons. To learn more, please visit www.unhcr.org.   For further information, please contact: • for local inquiries (UAE): Firas Kayal External Relations Officer UNHCR Abu Dhabi Tel.: +971-2-6677668 Mobile: + 971-50-6139439 Fax: + 97126676615 E-mail: kayal@unhcr.org • for international inquiries: Andrej Mahecic Senior Information Officer UNHCR Geneva Phone: +41 22 739 86 57 Mobile: +41 79 200 76 17 E-mail: mahecic@unhcr.org • or UNHCR Media + Public Information Service phone: +41 22 739 85 02 fax: +41 22 739 73 14 e-mail: hqpi00@unhcr.org