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Police Officers in Bishkek Fired Over Mob Conflict with Foreign Students

The Kyrgyz Interior Minister and various heads of district police departments, whose duties include ensuring law and order in Bishkek, attended a meeting to discuss the recent mob conflict with foreign-students, wherein the Interior Ministry board of directors and staff members received disciplinary citations. The head of the Interior Ministry's Internal Investigation Service, Zholboldu Kochkonov, briefed law enforcers on the results of an internal investigation which was conducted following the events of May 13th and 17th, when foreign students and workers were beaten, and violent scenes erupted on the streets and in several Bishkek hostels. "A total of 20 employees have been brought to disciplinary responsibility. Of them, 10 employees of the Bishkek Sverdlovsk District Department of Internal Affairs, including the head of the unit, have been relieved of their posts," Kochkonov stated following the meeting. According to the head of the Internal Investigation Service, an additional 10 employees of the Bishkek City Main Department and the Sverdlovsk District Department of Internal Affairs were given various types of disciplinary penalties. Kochkonov said that an investigation was launched into the officers' failure after the May 13th fight, and it was due to their inaction that the conflict escalated into the large-scale riots seen on May 17th. As TCA reported, on May 13th, a fight between local youths and foreign students took place in a hostel in Bishkek. Four days later, a rally and riots occurred in the center of the city in which around a thousand people participated. More than 40 people were hospitalized. Following the unrest, President Japarov promised swift action should the events be repeated, stating that, “Anyone, whether he is our citizen or a foreign citizen, who threatens the integrity of our state, organizes chaos, will be punished mercilessly.”

Another Uzbek Citizen Convicted of Insulting Mirziyoyev

A court in Uzbekistan has sentenced a 28-year-old Almalyk resident to correctional labor for insulting the country's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The man said he wrote insulting comments on the internet during a fit of anger because he had received several fines from the tax office. According to the case, the married father of two, an owner of a pharmacy, left insulting comments under four videos and photographs of Mirziyoyev between May 2 and August 31 last year, The defendant pleaded guilty and expressed regret for his actions. He said that while running his pharmacy, in the Tashkent region, tax inspection officers had fined him several times, and when he saw the photos and videos on Instagram he left derogatory comments in a fit of anger. Local media has reported that "The court took into account the man's admission of guilt and sentenced him to correctional work for two years and six months with the recovery of 20% of his salary to be given to the state. Also, the court imposed on the Ministry of Digital Technologies to restrict access to the account of the man on Instagram, and also decided to recover the phone Samsung Galaxy A53 in favor of the state". In March 2021 an article was added to Uzbekistan's Criminal Code establishing liability for public insult or slander against Mirziyoyev using telecommunications networks or the internet. This crime is punishable by corrective labor of up to three years, restriction of freedom from two to five years, or imprisonment of up to five years. In October 2023 a court sentenced a 19-year-old resident of Kattakurgan district (Samarkand region) to two years and six months in prison for insulting comments about Mirziyoyev on Instagram. In March this year a court sentenced a 27-year-old resident of Namangan, who had recently returned from Iran, to five years in prison for insulting and defamatory comments about Mirziyoyev on Facebook.

Arrest Made in Connection with Bishkek Unrest

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyrgyzstan has announced the detention and opening of a criminal case against a man suspected of beating foreigners during unrest which occurred on the night of May 18, leaving 41 people hospitalized. The suspect also allegedly transported people to places where foreigners lived during the events which transpired in the Kyrgyz capital. On May 18, 2024, a video showing the beating of foreign citizens began circulating on social media. The footage revealed an unidentified man of Asian descent, approximately 20-25 years old, wearing a beige hooded sweater, striking victims with his hands and feet on their faces and other body parts. The incident took place after four individuals broke into a house near the Dordoi Market. The accused assailant was identified on surveillance cameras located in the vicinity. “Four attackers arrived in a dark-colored Mercedes-Benz Sprinter on May 18 at 04:00 am.,” the Ministry’s statement reads. Investigations revealed that it is “registered to a resident of the Issyk-Kul region. The driver of the said car was Zhekshenbekov Azat, born in 1999, a native of the Issyk-Kul region, living in Bishkek, and an employee of a furniture workshop. The detainee was placed in the temporary detention center of the Bishkek City Internal Affairs Directorate.” The investigation is ongoing, with the authorities seeking to identify and apprehend the others involved. On Monday, President Japarov promised swift action should the events be repeated, stating that “Anyone, whether he is our citizen or a foreign citizen, who threatens the integrity of our state, organizes chaos, will be punished mercilessly.”

Kyrgyzstan’s President Warns of Swift Crackdown If Unrest Flares Again

President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan on Monday has addressed the nation about recent unrest and anti-foreigner sentiment, saying “our hot-blooded youth” were led astray by inflammatory internet posts and warning of a crackdown if it happens again. Japarov spoke after a week of tension in Bishkek that began with a fight between local and foreign people at a hostel on May 13 and culminated with large crowds of angry Kyrgyz youths roaming intersections on the night of May 17-18. There were scattered attacks on foreigners, whose population includes students and workers from Egypt, Pakistan and other countries. Some people were hospitalized. Riot police were on standby as officials negotiated with the crowds and persuaded them to disperse peacefully. “Now, if such an event happens again, then the law enforcement agencies will switch to the method of dispersal by force from the first minutes. Thank God, now the power structures are not as weak as they used to be,” Japarov said. “Anyone, whether he is our citizen or a foreign citizen, who threatens the integrity of our state, organizes chaos, will be punished mercilessly.” Japarov said the demands of Kyrgyz youth for tough action against illegal migration were “certainly correct” and that the government had taken steps to address the problem. But he chastised those who were “led by the temptations of provocateurs” seeking to spread chaos. The president referred to “bloggers” trying to foment a “large-scale uprising in the crowd,” though he did not offer more details on the alleged agitators. Kyrgyzstan has experienced periodic unrest on a much bigger scale over the years, and three presidents have been ousted by uprisings since 2005. Japarov, who had been in exile and in prison, came to power in 2021 after being freed by supporters whose protests against a disputed election toppled the previous government. The Central Asian country had been known for a lively media scene and other relative freedoms in a region with authoritarian traditions. Japarov has rolled back some of those rights, tightening control over foreign funded non-governmental organizations despite international concerns and increasing pressure on some media critical of the government. Japarov said law enforcement officials arrested “the perpetrators” of the May 13 brawl and appealed to the country to consider the damage that the unrest of the last week can do to tourism and the economy, as well as the nation’s interaction with the world. He noted that more than one million Kyrgyz citizens live abroad (the total population is about seven million), and that the number of working migrants in Kyrgyzstan is 5,322 people and foreign students number 42,620. “We should be happy about that,” he said.

Statelessness

Lost Identities: Tackling Statelessness in Central Asia

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent emergence of 15 new countries transformed what was once considered internal migration, leaving an extraordinary number of people marooned across newly established borders. Many found themselves holding obsolete Soviet passports or lacking any documentation with which to verify their birthplace. Such was the scale of the problem that in its 2014 Special Report: Ending Statelessness Within 10 Years, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimated that “more than two decades after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, over 600,000 people remain stateless.” This was the case for Vladi, a forty-year-old man with a learning disability, bright blue eyes and a shock of blonde hair, who The Times of Central Asia spoke with at a truck stop in the hamlet of Darvaza in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Vladi was with his father in Ashgabat. With non-ethnic Turkmen not feeling particularly welcome in the chaotic early days of independence, most Russians went home, but during their passage back to Kazan in Tatarstan, Vladi and his father became separated. With no passport, Vladi had become landless, an illegal alien unable to return home. Having drifted from village to village ever since, he’d been in Darvaza for eleven years, now, serving as little more than a whipping boy. Whilst the number of those with expired or invalid papers is difficult to gauge, particularly badly affected are so-called “border brides” who’ve married across national frontiers and found themselves legal in neither country. For years now, though, Central Asia has sought to tackle the issue of statelessness head-on. Thus, for example, in 2020 Tajikistan adopted an amnesty law which granted official status to some 20,000 people. In the same year, a new provision in the law allowed 50,000 stateless people in Uzbekistan to acquire citizenship. TCA spoke with Azizbek Ashurov, the Executive Director of Ferghana Valley Lawyers Without Borders, who in 2019 received the Nansen Refugee Award for his work, which saw the Kyrgyz Republic declared by the UNHCR and UNICEF to be the first country in the world to have eradicated the issue of statelessness. TCA: How did you first become involved in the question of statelessness, and what brought the issue to your attention? Ashurov: I was born during the days of the Soviet Union, when we all had a unified citizenship; the population was very mobile at that time. There were just administrative borders; there was no need to obtain any authorization documents in order to cross these. When the collapse of the USSR occurred in 1991, a lot of people were caught in another state, studying, working, temporarily residing, etc. So, when the 15 new states were formed, along with many other things, each state faced the question: out of the population on the territory at that moment, who should be recognized as our citizens? All these things had to be linked to the legislation emerging in the states. Many adopted their constitutions two or three years...

UN Special Rapporteurs Denounce Repressions of Independent Media in Kyrgyzstan

A number of UN Special Rapporteurs have denounced the repression of independent media in Kyrgyzstan and sent a letter to the authorities of the country. In the letter, they mentioned recent events related to the publications Kloop, 24.kg and Temirov Live, Vesti.kg reports. The UN Special Rapporteurs called on the Kyrgyz authorities to fully respect international norms and standards regarding freedom of expression. "We are concerned that attacks on independent journalists and news outlets appear to be a direct result of their independent journalistic investigations. We are concerned that independent media and human rights defenders are worried that they will not be able to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and associations to do their legitimate work without intimidation or reprisal," the letter states. The authors of the letter also ask the Kyrgyz authorities to provide detailed information on the charges against Kloop, 24.kg and Temirov Live. Earlier TCA reported that evidence regarding the case of 11 current and former journalists of Temirov Live, arrested on charges of calling for mass riots, were transferred to the court and will soon be handed over to the judge.