A/HRC/46/57/Add.1 73. Information about intimidation and attacks against members of religious minorities, particularly against Protestant Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, have been shared with the Special Rapporteur. 74. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur was made aware of difficulties that minorities faced with regard to the burial of their relatives in their respective regions. The concerns focused on the scarcity of cemeteries, the absence of a clear framework for demarcation within cemeteries (for the burial of individuals from religious minorities), and the negative popular sentiments against certain religious minorities, especially against persons who had converted. Cases were reported where persons from the same ethnicity but who had converted to a different religion were not allowed by local communities to be buried in the same cemetery, and the person’s family members or members of their religious group were obliged to travel hundreds of kilometres to find a burial place for the deceased person. In other cases, bodies of deceased relatives were exhumed, under pressure from local communities, and sent to another cemetery. VIII. Interethnic relations, targeting of minorities, and conflict prevention 75. Interethnic relations in Kyrgyzstan, particularly the relations between the ethnic Kyrgyz majority and the ethnic Uzbek minority following the violent events of 2010 in Osh and the Fergana Valley, remain fragile. 76. There are several ongoing factors that could bring the level of interethnic tension to breaking point, such as the absence of minority languages in education and public services, the underrepresentation of minorities in the civil service and in political, judicial and other State institutions, cases of claimed unfair treatment by law enforcement authorities, and issues relating to resource management, including of water and land. 77. The conflict of 2010 officially claimed the lives of more than 400 people,7 around three quarters of whom were ethnic Uzbeks, and led to the destruction of thousands of houses, properties and businesses. There remain continuing concerns over the Government’s response to this conflict, particularly with regard to the investigations and the administration of justice for the serious violations committed at that time. Reports presented to the Special Rapporteur indicate that a significant number of criminal cases for murder as well as for destruction of property and robbery or theft remain suspended, and that the Government has not implemented programmes for the rehabilitation of victims and their families, including children who were exposed to violence and destruction. 78. Following the events of 2010, the Government adopted, in 2013, the Concept on Strengthening National Unity and Interethnic Relations, which underlines the commitment to ensure everyone’s equal rights and opportunities, regardless of ethnicity. 79. The body responsible for implementing the Concept and developing strategies for conflict prevention is the State Agency for Local Self-Government and Interethnic Relations (GAMSUMO). With the support of the United Nations and others, the State agency has created 23 community-based reception centres, each with a dedicated interethnic advisory council, which monitor developments at the local level, implement the agency’s programmatic activities, receive complaints and cases brought by local communities, and report regularly to the central monitoring body to formulate recommendations for the Government. At the national level, the agency has established a central interethnic public 7 A national commission of local experts reported that 426 people died in the violence in January 2011, among them 276 ethnic Uzbeks and 105 ethnic Kyrgyz. This was strongly contested by members of civil society that the Special Rapporteur met, with more than one suggesting that thousands were killed, and that the proportion of Uzbeks was much higher than the official figures indicated. The independent Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission, led by Kimmo Kiljunen, Special Representative for Central Asia of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, released findings in 3 May 2011 showing that the military was complicit in some attacks against ethnic minority Uzbeks, who made up 74 per cent of its death toll of 470; 25 per cent were ethnic majority Kyrgyz; and 1 per cent were from other minorities. The Commission’s findings on the death toll were obtained from official sources. 13