The issue of torture has recently become a topic of rapt attention for state officials, civil society representatives, and experts, triggering many lively discussions.

Kyrgyz authorities consider the struggle against torture in Kyrgyzstan to be proceeding successfully and view the situation positively, but local human rights groups do not agree.

During a State Commission on Human Rights session in late 2007 on the torture and inhuman treatment of those in the detention centers, temporary holding facilities, and prisons, acting Minister of Justice Marat Kayipov, commented on torture in the country:

“There are no cases of torture or inhuman treatment in the system of the ministry I lead,” he said. “That system includes detention centers, penal colonies and correctional facilities. Law enforcement personnel work in specially designed rooms in detention centers. They are observed. Our officers stand behind the doors and it is impossible for an investigator to ‘force’ evidence that he wishes to have. Moreover, it is impossible to use torture.”

Four months later, on April 17, 2008, Karl E. Wycoff, head of OSCE’s Action Against Terrorism unit, visited Kyrgyzstan. During a speech at the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) he offered a positive evaluation of the treatment of prisoners in Kyrgyzstan’s correctional facilities.

Wycoff said that, “taking into account the overall situation in Kyrgyzstan, the conditions of prisoners did not strongly surprise me. I have to admit that there are definitely some efforts to improve the material conditions of prisoners as well as the professionalism of the staff in penitentiary faculties.”

Human rights activists, though, argue that the situation is not so encouraging.

“Every citizen who lives in Kyrgyzstan, in one way or another, has faced this problem, because illegally arresting citizens and placing them in restricted facilities has become a systematic activity of the state,” said Tolekan Ismailova, head of the human rights center Citizens Against Corruption.

“According to our information, citizens are first beaten at the District Department of Internal Affairs; they are brought there first, and are intimidated. Then, when they are put in detention centers and cases are fabricated against them by means of torture,” said Ismailova.  

In addition to frequent complaints from human rights activists about the use of violence by law enforcement agencies, critics point out that since 2000, Kyrgyzstan has not submitted the reports necessary to fulfill its international obligations. Human rights activists believe that the authorities ignore complaints and statements not only from citizens, but also from international human rights organizations.

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The laws of the Kyrgyz Republic clearly stipulates that citizens have the right to freedom and personal immunity as well as a right to freedom from torture. The role of civil initiatives has been important as well.

Article 19 of the Constitution states that, “limitations of physical and moral inviolability shall be allowed only on the basis of the law, by the decision of a court, as a punishment for a crime. No one may be exposed to torment, torture, or inhuman and humiliating punishments.”

Article 305-1 of the Criminal Code defines torture as: “A deliberate infliction of either physical or physiological suffering with the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, punishing someone for an act he has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating and forcing him to take certain actions, when such an infliction is made by a public official or by any other person but with the notification or consent of an official.” Under the Code, the punishment for torture is three to five years in prison and possible suspension from professional activities for a period of one to three years.

In addition to these national initiatives, international agreements to which Kyrgyzstan has become a party also forbid torture.

On Dec. 10, 1998, the Kyrgyz Republic ratified  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; according to Article 5 of the Declaration, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

On Jan. 12, 1994, Kyrgyz Republic joined the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 7 of this document states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.”

On July 5, 1996, the People’s Representative Assembly of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

On Feb. 21, 2008, Kyrgyzstan ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. According to the expectations of human rights groups, this initiative of the state allows the creation of a national preventive mechanism – a body that will monitor the situation in prisons.

In addition to national and international laws, civil society has also played a role in opposing torture in Kyrgyzstan.

In 2007, on the initiative of Kyrgyzstan’s human rights activists, a working group against torture was established under the Office of the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic”. This group has investigated 22 charges of torture to date.

On July 26, 2008, the Coalition on Prevention of Torture in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan called on authorities and the general public to strengthen measures to assist people who had been subjected to cruel treatment. The Coalition, which unites human rights activists, lawyers, attorneys, and journalists, has reported progress on this issue within the past 12 months.

Moreover, the efforts of human rights groups to prevention torture have encouraged the mass media to cover the issue. As a result, there were more than 300 stories in Central Asian mass media about torture last year, according to the Coalition.

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Kyrgyzstan’s human rights groups claim that all the legal prohibitions of torture exist for authorities only on paper, and are not observed in practice.

According to data collected by members of the Coalition on Prevention of Torture, some 90% of torture cases discovered by human rights activists between March 2007 to April 2008 in Kyrgyzstan, occurred in the temporary holding facilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Of 59 cases of torture, 53 were took place in temporary holding facilities, one occurred at the Committee for National Security, one at an army facility, one at a juvenile detention center, and three at other state facilities.

- 71 % of complaints (42 cases) of torture were made by victims to human rights activists during monitoring of restricted facilities 

- 20.3 % of complaints came from relatives

- 3.4 % of complaints came from partner organizations and attorneys According to the Coalition’s data, the torture victims included three women and 11 juveniles. Most of the victims of torture were either between the ages of 26 and 40 (23 cases) or between the ages of 18 and 25 (17 cases).

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In 2007, Citizens Against Corruption (CAC) released information on torture by law enforcement officials in the village of Tyup. According to CAC, officials from the Tyup District Department of Internal Affairs arrested local people who were suspected of having stolen manhole covers. and subjected them to illegal methods of influence. Two days later, the real criminal was arrested.

The Voice of Freedom Foundation stated last September at an OSCE/ODIHR meeting in Warsaw that four people had been killed by torture in Kyrgyzstan.

In 2007, the attention of the public and of human rights organizations focused on criminal proceedings related to the death of Akylbek Sakeev. Two employees of the Internal Affairs Department of Naryn who participated in his arrest were put on trial and, on Aug. 13, city judge Ermatov found them not guilty. However, oblast judges overturned this decision on Sept. 21 and the case was sent to the oblast prosecutor’s office for further investigatio. The Supreme Court subsequently found the accused militia men not guilty. On Dec. 11, the panel of judges decided to overturn the decision of the Naryn city court and the decree of the Naryn oblast court and satisfy the submission of the oblast prosecutor’s office. The case is still under investigation. 

On April 22, 2007, according to Voice of Freedom, at the District Department of Internal Affairs in the Aksy region of Jalalabad oblast, Mr. Chynybekov was tortured into confessing to having committed a theft. But the district and oblast prosecutor’s offices refused to initiate a criminal case based on the article on “Torture” in the Criminal code despite medical evidence of Mr. Chynybekov’s injuries. On Feb. 6, 2008, the Supreme Court also declined to open a criminal case.

On June 18, 2007, according to the human rights organization Justice, E. Mamajanova and H. Rejapova, who were accused of murdering Mayram Zairova, were kept in a temporary holding facility of the Department of Internal Affairs in the Bazarkurgan district and, for a month, were subjected to systematic torture.

Zairova’s body was allegedly found in March 2007 and was marked by signs of violent death. However, it was subsequently found that Zairova was alive and unaware of the investigation into her death. Still, during the investigation, operatives managed to obtain – by means of torture – confessions from Mamanjanova and Rejapova and submit a case to the court.

The organization Justice filed a complaint with the oblast prosecutor on behalf of the two torture victims, but the prosecutor refused to open a criminal case. However, the decision of the oblast prosecutor’s office was overturned by the Prosecutor General’s office and the case opened for further investigation. According to Justice, the investigation was not thorough and objective. As a result, the initiation of a criminal case was rejected again. At the moment, the Supreme Court is considering an appeal of the case but no measures have been taken against the illegal acts of the militia men.

Meanwhile, Justice employees Valentina Gritsenko, Muhamadjan Abdujaparov and Abdymalik Sharipov were forced, for all of 2007, to fight a slander prosecution connected with their organization’s human rights work. Jalalabad Oblast Internal Affairs Bureau Senior Investigator Ali Mageev took them to court on the basis of Articles 127 and 128 of the Criminal Code, which deal with slander and insults, and demanded a fine of more than 1 million soms. The basis for his prosecution was an article titled “Even Pregnant Women Are Beaten,” which had been published in the informational bulletin “Law for All.” The article, based on a statement from N. Turdieva, dealt with the illegal acts of a militia lieutenant colonel who used illegal measures to influences arrestees. Mageev’s prosecution finally ended after a year and a half when the lieutenant colonel recanted his private accusation and stated that he was willing to continue litigation in the civil courts, instead.

One of the latest cases possibly involving torture was uncovered in July 30, 2008. Relatives of militia men from the Tokmok Department of Internal Affairs who had been arrested on suspicion of having killed one of their colleagues, stated during a Bishkek press conference that illegal methods of investigation had been used on the suspects.

The body of militia junior lieutenant Ruslam Alymkulov was found in the basement of a high-rise apartment block in Tokmok at the end of May 2008. A gun and a letter were found nearby. The letter asked that no one be blamed in his death; the case was registered as a suicide. However, information suggesting that Alymkulov was murdered later came out. Examinations of the body in Bishkek and Almaty proved that Alymkulov died violently and against his will.

On July 2, 2008, officials from the Chui Oblast Internal Affairs Bureau arrested four members of the Patrol and Inspection Service of the Tokmok Internal Affairs Department (IAD). One of them confessed to Alymkulov’s murder. However, at the press conference in Bishkek, the mother of the militia man who confessed stated that his confession was obtained using torture. She said investigators had threatened her son, saying that if he recanted his confession, his brother and father would be arrested.

In response, the head of the special investigations group of the Chui Oblast Prosecutor’s Office, Azat Oskombaev, released the results of medical examinations of the four Tokmok IAD employees who had been arrested. These examinations, he said, did not reveal any injuries. Furthermore, the investigator argued that parents cannot determine whether their children have been tortured because they do not have the right to meet with arrestees. Also, he noted that the suspects were in custody on legal grounds, sanctioned by the court.

Lawyer Sartbay Jaychibekov, who was approached by IPP to comment on the situation, said human rights organizations do not have information on the case. Still, he noted that torture is often used against militia men suspected of committing crimes. He said that, usually, cruel forms of treatment are applied to “illiterate people who have no relatives and citizens suspected of committing serious crimes.” However, if a member of law enforcement bodies is a suspect, he will be treated in the same way. 

“Torture is definitely present in Kyrgyzstan and takes place in each District Department of Internal Affairs, each city-level IAD throughout the country. This problem is not solved because employees of the law enforcement bodies are not punished, being supported by prosecutors and judges,” said Jaychibekov.

According to the Coalition on Prevention of Torture, there were 26 cases of torture and cruel treatment in Issykkul Oblast between March 2007 and April 2008, 13 in Jalalabad Oblast, 11 in Chui Oblast (including Bishkek), and 3 in Osh Oblast.

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The main obstacle to ending torture in Kyrgyzstan is that law enforcement bodies refuse to recognize that it exists, according to an April 2008 report from Voice of Freedom.

“Militia men argue that they do not use medieval means of inquisition during investigations. However, based on complaints registered with human rights organizations, it is possible to say that the most common forms of torture are beatings with feet and batons and strangling with gas masks and plastic bags,” the report found.

Another major problem, according to Voice of Freedom, is the absence of the rule of law in Kyrgyzstan. The central authorities basically do not control developments on the local level. The declared intentions of authorities to improve the situation at restricted facilities have not been yet been realized properly. In most respects, the authorities in the regions are connected by family relations, a situation which does not allow for the prosecution of unfair officials.

As noted in a report from the human rights organization Kylym Shamy that was released in the beginning of 2008, activists have been able to successfully initiate criminal cases under Article 305 of the Criminal Code (“Torture”) based on several cases of cruel forms of treatment re-qualified to the article “negligence.”

Law enforcement officials deny using illegal methods of investigation and pressure on prisoners.

During an interview with the Bishkek Press Club, the head of the media relations office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Colonel Bakyt Seitov, emphasized that since Kyrgyzstan became an independent state, he has not come across a single case where militia employees tried to obtain information by means of physical force.

“Perhaps torture was used in the past, but today it is unacceptable in our work. In recent years, with the support of the OSCE, the Center for Reform was established. Through it, both the OSCE and the Ministry of Internal Affairs try their best to improve the transparency of MIA activities,” Seitov said.

“Nowadays, the MIA staff is instructed to conduct preventive activities. If the mass media – including Internet publications – write about a violation of human rights by law enforcement personnel, we investigate every case individually and report to the Minister. In addition, there is a special group within the structure of the MIA, which focuses on temporary holding facilities. This group checks on the conditions at detention centers and the legality of citizens’ arrests. There was a time when people remained there for exceedingly long periods – the investigation of cases was delayed. But today we are trying to solve this problem,” Seitov said.

“Nowadays, both officers and generals are engaged in the punchfest,” Jogorku Kenesh Deputy Zaynidin Kurmanov said during a June 17 IPP roundtable entitled The Struggle Against Torture in Kyrgyzstan: Analysis of the Situation and Joint Efforts.”

According Kurmanov’s view, a high degree of cruelty is presently used by investigators. Methods of physical and moral torture are used by most of workers of relevant state institutions, regardless of their official positions.

 “There was no concept of torture in the history of Kyrgyz statehood. Kyrgyz people did not know at all about torture and capital punishment was applied only very rarely. Even murder was punished by payment of a fee, according to Kyrgyz law, and the severest punishment was exclusion from the tribe,” Kurmanov said.

Kurmanov stressed that the concept of “torture” was imposed on Kyrgyzstan from the outside: it adopted it quickly and now cannot get rid of it.

Tolekan Ismailova of Citizens Against Corruption told BPC why she believed torture exists in Kyrgyzstan: After independence, the Kyrgyz authorities did not show the political will to reject that system of punishment. In other words, there was no distinction between the punishment system of the past and the independence of the country when law enforcement bodies and the restricted facilities were open for a control. At present, in order to enter the temporary holding facility or detention center, it is necessary to undergo difficult bureaucratic procedures. Those procedures must be eliminated to allow human rights journalists to observe the situation in those facilities.”

“Present-day torture exists to allow law enforcement officials to prepare their reports and receive awards and other commendations. It also allows them to hide real criminals who pay enough so that, instead of the real criminals, people who are not guilty go to prison. Thus, torture today has turned into a business,” Ismailova said.

Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic Tursunbek Akun confirmed the existence of torture in Kyrgyzstan. However, he maintained that it is not widespread, as argued by some experts.

“There are likely to be individual cases. It is true that once a month people approach us complaining about being tortured. Therefore, it is impossible to say that there is no torture in Kyrgyzstan. But it is not massive,” Akun said when approached by BPC.

The reasons for torture, according to Akun are the following: “Sufficient educational work is not being carried out among employees of the law enforcement agencies and staff who work with arrestees and prisoners. Their activities do not meet international standards. This problem has to be comprehensively addressed. Seminars and conferences must be organized; at least a half of the personnel of the Main Directorate of Administering Punishment (MDAP) are not familiar with the basics of human rights.”

MDAP head Ernst Isaev stated during a June 17 IPP roundtable that, “At the moment there are no grounds to raise the question of punishing public officials for using illegal methods of investigation, since brutal forms of punishment have been completely liquidated in the restricted facilities.”

To support his argument, Isaev referred to research conducted in 2004-2006 by the European Commission on Human Rights. The results, he said, showed that torture is not present in the system. This is supported by related official findings, he said.

Furthermore, it is not the prisoners but the law enforcement officers who undergo torture in restricted facilities, Isaev said.

“The problem is that these people say that they have nothing to lose and they can commit any crime. They can kill both other prisoners and our personnel. Don’t you think that it is torture for the personnel of the MDAP?” he said. Also, up to 80% of those sentenced to life in prison (the most dangerous category of criminals) are with other criminals in the general prison population, he said. And there is no prospect of changing this in the coming years by creating a specialized facility for this category of inmates.

Kylym Shamy leader Aziza Abdirasulova is concerned with the conditions in the prisons. Along with torture, she pointed out another serious violation: limitations on access to lawyers.

“First of all, the most widespread violation is that the arrested do not have access to lawyers. As admitted by investigators, this is done intentionally, because lawyers create trouble. Thus, investigators intentionally violate the constitutional right of the arrested to have a legal protection,” Abdirasulova said at a June 17 IPP roundtable on torture.

“Secondly, it is often the case that those arrested meet with ‘dark’ lawyers. This usually occurs after the first or second interrogation. Such lawyers intentionally harm the interests of their defendants. They sign the materials and protocols of the interrogation even though they were not present and they prove in court that the arrested has a lawyer de jure, but de facto, it is not true,” said Abdirasulova.

These measures, according to human rights activists, allow law enforcement bodies to hide the fact that they use illegal methods of investigation and to maintain good case closure rates.”

Sardar Bagishbekov, head Voice of Freedom, thinks that limiting access to lawyers results in situations when arrestees are alone with law enforcement officials. The officials feel they have authority over the arrestees and know the arrestees cannot complain to higher authorities and therefore use torture.  

To eliminate illegal methods of investigation, the state does not need to make major efforts or economic investments, Bagishbekov told the BPC.

“Yes, torture cannot be eliminated in a moment; this practice of investigation has been introduced and implemented in the law enforcement bodies over a long period of time. However, the problem can be solved and mostly depends on how actively high-level officials will engage in the process. For example, their participation can be seen through a statement at the level of President, Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Prosecutor General that people should not be tortured, and instead other legal methods of investigation must be applied. We have a very strong vertical power; therefore, I do not think that the President’s decree can be ignored,” Bagishbekov said.

“In other countries, the state must prove that there has been no torture, but in Kyrgyzstan we are supposed to prove that there has been torture. In other words, if we complain to an prosecutor’s office about torture, they will either accept our complaint or decline to start a criminal case on the basis of the requirement to submit a photo or video file. This is despite the fact that the prosecutor’s office must conduct its own investigation,” he said.

Experts propose all kinds of measures to eliminate brutal treatment. “It is necessary to make a rule that territorial prosecutor’s offices and legal centers must be on duty in the restricted facilities day and night. Employees of such structures must have regular tours of prisoners’ rooms, and the medical staff must check prisoners consistently for signs of torture,” Kyrgyzstani political scientist Toktogul Kakchekeev, who worked in the Prosecutor General’s media relations office” for a long time, told BPC. 

In addition, Kakchekeev emphasized the “need to strengthen civil control, and NGOs must have immediate access to restricted facilities. Thus, along with measures by the state to eliminate torture, the public pins big hopes on the NGO sector.

Well-known human rights activist Nazgul Turdubekova, in an interview with the BPC said that, “There is a good human rights movement in Kyrgyzstan, one may say, a professional one, and it has a clear vision of how to prevent brutal forms of treatment. Kyrgyzstan signed the optional protocol against torture and in coming years the state must develop a national mechanism to prevent torture. It means that civil society can monitor restricted facilities and the state must provide round-the-clock access there. If the optional protocol is successfully implemented, then we can change the situation radically.”

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According to an April 2008 report prepared by Voice of Freedom and Freedom House - Europe, to prevent torture in Kyrgyzstan the government must take the following steps:

1. To fulfill obligations of the Kyrgyz Republic as a result of its adherence to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Tortures and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, it is necessary to consolidate the efforts of state structures and public associations in the establishment of a national prevention mechanism within the assigned period. 

2.  Relying on the positive experience of human rights organizations in lobbying and advocacy campaigns, which resulted in the ratification of the optional protocol, to undertake attempts at recognition by the Kyrgyz Republic of the competence of the UN Committee Against Torture to consider individual complaints of torture victims as well as messages of member-states on the violation of the terms of the Convention by other member-states, in accordance with the articles 21 and 22 of the Convention.

3. To stop the practice of systematic violation of the terms of submitting regular reports to the UN Committee Against Torture on the implementation of Kyrgyzstan’s obligations in accordance with the UN Convention Against Torture. To recognize as ineffective the activities of the Commission on Preparation of National Reports on the observance of international agreements on human rights, which is a consultative and advisory body, and recommend the creation of a permanent body under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This body must deal with the preparation of regular reports as well as the systematic monitoring of the process of implementation of recommendations given by corresponding UN committees at the stage of communication during the consideration of individual complaints.

4. To develop and adopt a package of draft bills introducing amendments into the criminal, criminal-procedural legislation and the legislation on common principles of amnesty and pardon, to initiate the adoption of ministerial normative acts of law enforcement bodies, decrees of the Supreme Court Plenum of the Kyrgyz Republic, in order to have every individual complaint on torture checked comprehensively and objectively as well as to make sure that it will be investigated and considered at the courts through the issue of legal and grounded decisions, to provide the irreversibility of punishment for tortures in any form.

5. To review and constantly improve the system of legal education for the population. Special attention must be paid to the moral-professional qualities of law enforcement personnel, in particular, employees of operative-investigating services, investigating departments, and other sections which work on providing conditions to the arrested and imprisoned. 

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Stuart Kahn, Freedom House’s Chief of Party in Kyrgyzstan, named some positive developments regarding torture in Kyrgyzstan.

In addition to the above-mentioned ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and the creation of the NGO working group under the Ombudsman's office, Kahn drew attention to the involvement of high-level officials in forums addressing torture.

He also highlighted improvements in the condition and treatment of detainees, more access for human rights defenders to some detention centers, and the criminal prosecution of torturers.

Kahn noted the active involvement of the Golos Svobody network of human rights defenders, which monitor and report on torture. He also emphasized that Voice of Freedom’s informational site maintains its focus on human rights violations and torture. And he noted increased reporting on human rights and torture in Kyrgyz media outlets.

Ombudsman Akun, while evaluating the situation said that, “Undoubtedly, there are still problems in this sphere, but they will not be solved all at once. Time is needed. As a whole, I positively accept activities within the country that assist in the struggle against cruel forms of treatment.”

“There isn’t a single state in the world that is completely free from torture, but torture numbers can be seriously reduced. At the moment, all the conditions and opportunities exist in Kyrgyzstan to reduce it to the minimum,” Akun said.  

Radislav Safin, IPP media coordinator

11.08.2008

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Materials provided by Voice of Freedom, Kylym Shamy, Citizens Against Corruption were used in the preparation of this article.