labour and sexual exploitation, current trends, means and methods used by organized criminal groups as well as practices applied by law-enforcement to combat the crime. Drug-Trafficking In November, the Centre in Astana supported an OSCE Chairmanship/SPMU-supported twoweek counter-narcotics training course for ten Afghan police officers. The training was hosted by the Almaty Academy of Kazakhstan' s Interior Ministry and was developed jointly by the experts from the Police Academy of Kazakhstan and the All-Russian Advance Police Academy in Domodedovo. At the training-of-trainers course, participants learned how to plan and organize drug search operations and to employ modern training methods in their work. The officers looked at the entire process of prosecuting drugs-related criminal cases, from police investigation to court trials. ****** 4.13 The OSCE Centre in Bishkek Background The OSCE Centre in Bishkek (CiB) was established in 1998 to promote the implementation of OSCE commitments, facilitate the exchange of information, establish and maintain contacts with local authorities, universities, research institutions and NGOs and to encourage Kyrgyzstan' s further integration into the OSCE community. Implementation of the Police Assistance Programme started in 2003. The Interim Police Assistance Programme established in 2005 aimed at preparing the ground for continued progress towards deep structural reform of Kyrgyzstan’s police system and at strengthening the institutional and implementation capacities of certain police units. Since 2007, the Police Reform Programme (PRP) has become an integrated part of the Unified Budget of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek. Therefore, funding from the Unified Budget increased the longer-term effectiveness of the Programme and allowed to plan, implement and monitor the Programme in a more efficient way. The PRP, which, in 2010, constituted the CiB’s largest component, has been a crucial factor for Kyrgyzstan’s public security, especially in light of the events of April/June 2010 and as well in the conditions of the reform process of the entire criminal justice sector. The circumstances of the April and June events and their dire consequences led to significant challenges to the implementation of the PRP. The April and June events and the project implementation process highlighted a number of problems (often protracted) which sometimes went beyond the whole structure of law enforcement agencies. They include a lack of knowledge and conceptual understanding of conflict and conflict-sensitive approaches at almost all levels of the authority. The police had a difficult time in 2010 working under social stress, particularly during and after the events in April and June. The events had, to a certain extent, negative effects on the implementation of the PRP. During a certain period of time police officers (trainees) were not able to participate in the project activities due to their engagement in the restoration of public order in the south. Due to a number of reasons, some envisaged activities were not 87