Kyrgyzstan Arrests Activists en Masse – Kyrgyzstan

Arrests could also be Related to Switch of Dam, Territory to Uzbekistan

Syinat Sultanalieva
Researcher, Europe and Central Asia Division

Greater than 20 individuals in Kyrgyzstan had been detained on Sunday, October 23, and positioned below arrest for 48 hours, after publicly disagreeing with the upcoming switch of an necessary dam to Uzbekistan as a part of a border demarcation cope with the neighboring nation. These detained included activists, human rights defenders, bloggers, and politicians.

The subsequent day, courts ordered a number of of the detainees be held in pre-trial detention for 2 months whereas the investigation continues. All the detainees had been charged with preparation for and group of mass unrest. The police additionally initiated an investigation over “proof obtained from a particular investigation,” which transpired to be a sequence of edited and excerpted wiretapped conversations between among the detainees. The wiretapped montage was leaked to social media and had apparently been constructed to look like some detainees known as for a authorities overthrow due to the contentious border settlement.

In response to an announcement by Kyrgyzstan’s Ombudsman, earlier than their arrests, authorities performed warrantless searches of the activists’ homes and seized private property. Usually, together with with human rights defender Rita Karasartova, police pressured entry into their properties and tried to forestall video documentation of the arrests. The activists had been transferred to detention facilities and a few weren’t allowed entry to their attorneys.

Twelve of the 23 detainees are members of a newly created group created to guard the Kempir-Abad water reservoir in south-west Kyrgyzstan. The group opposes Kyrgyzstan’s plan, which incorporates transferring territory and the dam itself to Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyz authorities maintains the settlement advantages Kyrgyzstan and each nations will handle the reservoir and have entry to its water.

The reservoir plan was signed on September 26 as a part of an settlement that seeks to find out official borders for the 15 per cent of non-demarcated territory between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Protests in Uzgen, the place the reservoir is situated, started after residents nervous about dropping water entry.

The settlement’s full textual content remains to be secret.

Protests demanding authorities launch the activists and share details about the settlement happened on October 24 in Bishkek and Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Forward of the protests Web connectivity was severely restricted, particularly in Bishkek. Web suppliers said an accident on the channels of the upstream supplier induced the failures.

Kyrgyz authorities ought to launch the detainees and be certain that their rights, together with due course of rights, are strictly noticed in any investigations going ahead.