KYR­GYZS­TAN: UNPRECE­DENT­ED MASS ARRESTS OF CRITICS

Author­i­ties in Kyr­gyzs­tan must stop the deten­tions of crit­ics, civ­il activists and mem­bers of the com­mit­tee to pro­tect the Kem­pirabad reser­voir, cease the search­es of homes and seizures of prop­er­ty, and imme­di­ate­ly release every­one arrest­ed in con­nec­tion to the crit­i­cism of the author­i­ties, includ­ing the mem­bers of that com­mit­tee who were tak­en into cus­tody dur­ing morn­ing raids on Octo­ber 23 and in the days that followed.

Kam­chy­bek Tashiev, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Com­mit­tee for Nation­al Secu­ri­ty, which also includes the bor­der guard ser­vice, announced on Octo­ber 10 that that an agree­ment in nego­ti­a­tions with Uzbek­istan on the bor­der demar­ca­tion would see Kyr­gyzs­tan receive more than 18,000 hectares of land added to the Osh and Jalal-Abad Provinces, but as part of con­ces­sions the Kem­pirabad reser­voir would become part of Uzbek ter­ri­to­ry. Kyr­gyz Pres­i­dent Sadyr Japarov lat­er said that use and main­te­nance of the reser­voir would be “50–50” and the two coun­tries would man­age the reser­voir togeth­er. How­ev­er, the terms of the agree­ment between Uzbek­istan and Kyr­gyzs­tan was kept secret with author­i­ties rush­ing the approval process­es behind closed doors and away from the public.

Many Kyr­gyz res­i­dents of the area where the Kem­pirabad reser­voir is locat­ed did not agree with the terms of the deal author­i­ties reached with Uzbek­istan. On Octo­ber 15, some 1,000 peo­ple gath­ered for a kurul­tai in the Uzgen dis­trict of Osh Oblast and denounced the plan to give the reser­voir to Uzbek­istan. The kurul­tai called for the estab­lish­ment of a com­mit­tee to pro­tect the Kem­pirabad reser­voir. On Octo­ber 21, res­i­dents of sev­er­al vil­lages in the area of the reser­voir marched in protest at the agree­ment demand­ing the reser­voir not be giv­en to Uzbekistan.

For­mer mem­ber of par­lia­ment Ravshan Jeyen­bekov pub­lished a post on his Face­book page on Octo­ber 22 that the Com­mit­tee on pro­tec­tion of Kem­pir Abad has been formed. The list of com­mit­tee mem­bers was pub­lished by Kloop. With­in 24 hours of announce­ment about cre­ation of the Com­mit­tee author­i­ties opened a crim­i­nal case, con­duct­ed unprece­dent­ed mass raids and arrests detain­ing 22 civ­il soci­ety and polit­i­cal activists.

Pres­i­dent Japarov said on an Octo­ber 22 inter­view that “provo­ca­teurs” were behind the demon­stra­tions against the government’s bor­der deal  with Uzbek­istan and that pro­test­ers were paid by these unnamed provo­ca­teurs to pub­licly oppose the agree­ment. Japarov also con­nect­ed the protests with plans to “desta­bi­lize the sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try” and vowed author­i­ties would not per­mit that to happen.

On the morn­ing of Octo­ber 23, secu­ri­ty forces in Bishkek were urgent­ly assem­bled in large num­bers, report­ed­ly lead­ing some mem­bers of the      force to believe that a con­flict had bro­ken out. Instead, they were sent to stage raids on more than 20 homes in the Bishkek area where mem­bers of the com­mit­tee to pro­tect the Kem­pirabad reser­voir and oth­er crit­ics resided. The raids includ­ed seiz­ing com­put­ers and mobile phones, some of which belonged to the chil­dren of those being detained.

Among more than two dozen detained are:

Asya Sasyk­baye­va, 71-year-old founder and ex direc­tor of human rights cen­ter Inter­bil­im, ex speak­er of parliament

Rita Karasar­to­va, Human Rights Defend­er, head of NGO Insti­tute of Civic Analysis,

Klara Sooronkulo­va, Human rights defend­er, head of NGO Shko­la Pra­va, ex judge of Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court

Gul­nara Jurabae­va, ex Project Coor­di­na­tor of Inter­na­tion­al human rights Cen­ter “Inter­bil­im”, Ex Deputy Chair­man of Cen­tral Com­mis­sion for Elec­tions & Referendums

Per­izat Sura­no­va, mem­ber of the Women’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic Net­work of Kyrgyzstan

Aydan­bek Akma­tov, jour­nal­ist, внештатный корреспондент Азаттык 1999–2017

Uluk­bek Mamatayev, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Jen­ish Moldok­ma­tov, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Ali Shab­dan, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Nurlan Asan­bekov, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Taalay Mademi­nov, Civ­il soci­ety activist,

Erlan Bek­choro, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Atai Beishen­bek, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Chyn­gyz Kaparov, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Talant Eshaliev, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Aibek Busurmankulov, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Marat Baya­zov, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Kem­pir Abad

Oroza­im Nar­ma­to­va, Civ­il soci­ety activist

Ilgiz Shamen­ov, Civ­il soci­ety activist

The Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or said it is inves­ti­gat­ing whether those detained had vio­lat­ed Arti­cle 36–278 of Kyrgyzstan’s Crim­i­nal Code — plan­ning to orga­nize mass unrest. They could face up to 10 years in jail.

Well-known rights activist Rita Karasar­to­va said police in plain clothes did not imme­di­ate­ly iden­ti­fy them­selves or show any proof they were police when they came to her door, and when she refused to let them enter, they forced their way into her home. A video of Karasar­to­va try­ing to pre­vent police from enter­ing her flat with­out iden­ti­fy­ing them­selves and pre­sent­ing a war­rant was post­ed on Kyr­gyz media out­lets. Karasar­to­va was tak­en to the Sverdlovsk police sta­tion. Video showed Karasar­to­va being brought to the Per­vo­mai region­al court on the evening of Octo­ber 24.

Activist Ali Shab­dan was detained and brought to the Per­vo­mai police sta­tion. In a video of an argu­ment between Shab­dan and one of the police­men present the police sta­tion, the police­man is heard threat­en­ing Shab­dan with death, say­ing, “You are going to die now boy. You will fall and not get back up.”

By ini­ti­at­ing these crim­i­nal cas­es and arrests against its crit­ics Kyr­gyz author­i­ties vio­lat­ed fun­da­men­tal human rights norms stip­u­lat­ed in the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights, the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights, the Kyr­gyz Con­sti­tu­tion, such as right to lib­er­ty, right to invi­o­la­bil­i­ty of the home, free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion, right to free speech and free expres­sion, right to phys­i­cal integri­ty, right to privacy.

Despite numer­ous egre­gious vio­la­tions of the Code of Crim­i­nal Pro­ce­dure, dur­ing a series of tri­als that ran through­out the night on Octo­ber 24–25, a Kyr­gyz dis­trict court ordered 2 months deten­tion for all of the detained civ­il soci­ety lead­ers and politi­cians with 1 forced into house arrest due to heart attack in court.

We con­demn the raids and deten­tions in Bishkek car­ried out with gross pro­ce­dur­al vio­la­tions and urge the Kyr­gyz author­i­ties to drop all charges imme­di­ate­ly, free those in cus­tody with­out delay and estab­lish a dia­logue with its soci­ety. Giv­en the impor­tance of bor­der demar­ca­tion and access to water issues we remind the Kyr­gyz gov­ern­ment that account­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy are its duties before the society.мRights to access the infor­ma­tion, to protest and to express crit­i­cal opin­ion are rights pro­tect­ed by the Kyr­gyz con­sti­tu­tion and inter­na­tion­al treaties to which Kyr­gyz Repub­lic is a party.