Inflow of aid unequally distributed

A traditional beneficiary of international help, Kyrgyzstan is receiving an increasing amount of aid as donors come to realise the importance of stability throughout the region. On 30 October, Kyrgyzstan received a US $5 million humanitarian aid package provided by the US-based group CitiHope International Inc in cooperation with the US Department of State. This programme, called Operation Provide Hope, delivers free medical equipment and drugs for state hospitals, most of them in the capital, Bishkek. "This is the typical mistake Western donors fail to see: almost 70 percent of humanitarian aid is distributed in the north of the country, whereas most problems lie in the south," Avazbek Atakhanov, an independent specialist on Central Asia, told IRIN on Wednesday. Wheareas the north of Kyrgyzstan is relatively urban, secular and developed, the south remains rural, religious and economically underdeveloped, as well as threatened by ethnic tension between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz communities. On average, revenues and salaries are three to 10 times lower than in the north.