Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2005 - Kyrgyzstan

Harassment of the Kel-Kel movement²²

The youth movement Kel-Kel, aiming at encouraging young people to take part in the parliamentary elections in 2005, was founded as a temporary organisation on 15 January 2005, following the refusal by the authorities to allow students to meet the election candidates. The website of Kel-Kel, created the same day, was sabotaged two days later and was no longer accessible. A second website that went online around 20 January 2005 was blocked a week later. The service provider explained in a letter that an organisation registered with the same name wished to take back "its" website. In fact, the aim of the usurping organisation was to discredit the original organisation. As a result, Kel-Kel had to use a foreign service provider.

In addition, on 5 February 2005, agents came to the home of Mrs. Azima Rassoulova, editor of morning programmes of the former national television channel KHTV, and a Kel-Kel activist, while she was out, and attempted to bring her son to the Ministry of the Interior, claiming that she had been beaten and left unconscious.

Between February and April 2005, Mrs. Rassoulova's apartment was visited twice, and she received an offer of money to quit her job, before receiving several death threats against herself and her family.

Mrs. Rassoulova was also subjected to pressure from her employers following the broadcast of one of her documentaries on Uzbek refugees seeking political asylum in Kyrgyzstan, after the events in Andijan. Mrs. Rassoulova was threatened with dismissal on several occasions and received threats by telephone. At the beginning of June 2005, Mrs. Rassoulova was victim of an attempted poisoning. After using a handkerchief she had left on her desk, she felt her face swell up and irritation in her eyes. An independent laboratory discovered traces of a synthetic virus, but could not determine its origin.

During the night of 28 to 29 December 2005, the organisation premises were looted by unknown persons who removed computer equipment and papers relating to Kel-Kel's activities.

KCHR situation²³

Ongoing lack of legal recognition of KCHR

In November 2003, the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights (KCHR) had been "replaced" by an organisation holding the same name, formed by former members of the Committee who were close to the government, with the intention of discrediting its activities. Since then, the "real" KCHR has been deprived of its legal status, and has not yet obtained the annulment of the registration of its legal "twin", despite a change of government in March 2005.

On 20 November 2005, the Lenin District Court of Bishkek rejected KCHR's petition against the Ministry of Justice without giving any reason for its decision.

Ongoing acts of harassment of Mr. Ramazan Dyryldaev²⁴

Mr. Ramazan Dyryldaev, KCHR president, who was forced to live in exile from July 2000 until April 2002 and then from May 2003, returned to Kyrgyzstan after the "revolution" in March 2005.

On 1 February 2005, the newspaper Slovo Kyrgyzstana published an article saying that the real aim of the denunciations made by Mr. Dyryldaev on human rights violations perpetrated by official agents was to obtain funding from Western institutions.

In addition, on 2 February 2005, a dozen police officers entered the building where Mr. Ramazan Dyryldaev used to live until 2003. They asked the new occupants whether they knew where he was, adding that he was being sought for embezzling about 16,943,710 soms (340,000 euros).

On 22 August 2005, the criminal proceedings initiated against Mr. Dyryldaev for "non-implementation of a judicial decision" under Article 388 of the Criminal Code²⁵ were closed by the Public Prosecutor, Mr. Beknazarov, on the grounds that he had not committed any crime. On 22 November 2005, following Mr. Beknazarov's dismissal, the assistant of the Prosecutor General of Bishkek overturned this decision and re-opened the case against Mr. Dyryldaev. However, KCHR was informed by a letter from the office of the Prosecutor of Pervomai that these proceedings had been abandoned again on 20 December 2005, due to a lack of evidence to constitute a crime.

Harassment of Mrs. Aziza Abdurasullova and her family²⁶

On 21 September 2005, upon her return from a seminar on the rights of refugees, Mrs. Aziza Abdurasullova, a lawyer and president of the human rights NGO Kylym Shamy, discovered that her husband had been abducted in Bishkek by four men on 19 September 2005, and taken to an unknown place. His kidnappers demanded that he wrote that Mrs. Abdurasullova had received about 845,350 soms (16,960 euros) from rail workers she had been defending,²⁷ and they also demanded copies of all the documents regarding the cases of corruption and embezzlement of funds of the railways. When he was detained, he was repeatedly beaten on the head and in the kidneys. His assaulters said they knew which schools their children and grandchildren attended.

Mrs. Abdurasullova's husband was detained for over two hours before being released.

In addition, on 26 September 2005, Mrs. Abdurasullova's daughter received anonymous threats.

By the end of 2005, none of the attackers had been identified, despite the deposition made by her husband to the Department of Home Affairs in the Alamedino district, on 19 September 2005 and the complaint lodged by Mrs. Abdurasullova on 26 September 2005.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

22. See Conclusions of the international fact-finding mission sent by the Observatory to Kyrgyzstan, 26 June – 6 July 2005.

23. See Closed Letter to the Kyrgyz authorities, 6 April 2005 and Press Release, 8 August 2005.

24. See Annual Report 2004 and Urgent Appeal KGZ 002/0803/OBS 044.6.

25. This decision followed the lawsuit initiated by a former employee of KCHR in 1999. On the basis of this decision, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Mr. Dyryldaev in July 2000, as a result of which he fled the country. See Annual Reports 2000 and 2001.

26. See Annual Report 2004.

27. From 26 to 31 August 2005, the railway-workers were on hunger strike to demand the appointment of a professional railway-worker at the head of the Rail Board of Kyrgyzstan. Indeed, this sector of activity is particularly corrupt, and it seems that anyone wishing to be appointed would have to pay for this. Until then, the railways were managed by a friend of the Akaev family, who had connections with the criminal underworld. The rail workers had demanded his departure, and Mrs. Abdurasullova had been assured their rights would be respected.