Human Rights Watch flays deteriorating rights record

As Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev met George W Bush on Monday, the Washington-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the White House to address what it describes as Kygryzstan's dramatically worsening human rights record, a country once heralded as an island of democracy in a highly repressive region. "Basic protections of civil and political rights in Kyrgyzstan have deteriorated dramatically during the past year," Central Asia researcher for the watchdog group, Acacia Shields, told IRIN from New York. The tiny mountainous country of 4.8 million has proven an important US ally on the war against terrorism and Bishkek has taken increasingly aggressive measures to crack down on political opposition and limit the freedom of expression, she explained. According to the activist, in Kyrgyzstan, as elsewhere throughout the former Soviet Union, there have been consistent reports of the torture of detainees by police, unjust and politically motivated trials, and horrendous prison conditions. Moreover, the use of criminal libel against journalists in retaliation for articles and broadcasts critical of the government was destructive to free expression and directly contradicted any promises to establish greater transparency and openness in the country. She noted security forces had committed flagrant abuses with seeming impunity; including, most notably, the shooting and killing in March of five unarmed demonstrators in the Aksy district of western Jalal Abad province. "None of the officers who shot into the crowd, using what appears to have been excessive force, have been held responsible under the law for their misconduct," she said. She added for average citizens, restrictions on freedom of assembly and government retaliation against critical media also constituted a serious infringement of their basic rights. Her comments follow a letter by the rights group to Bush on 12 September asking him to urge the Kyrgyz government to take a number of steps before the Akaev visit. Included in this were the release of political opposition figure Felix Kulov, the establishment of an independent commission into the March demonstrations, and the elimination of criminal penalties for libel. "The Kyrgyz government's record on human rights is bad and getting quickly worse," Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Right's Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division said in a statement last week. "President Bush has an opportunity now to ask for a turnaround." Accounting for the current state of decline, Shields said the degree of rights protection had been decreasing steadily since the presidential elections of 2000. "President Akaev, who ran for a third term in 2000, despite a Kyrgyz law on term limits, took aggressive steps to disqualify and discredit his rival candidates," she said. Numerous members of the political opposition who had declared their candidacy were excluded from the race after failing to pass a Kyrgyz language test put forth by the government-organised linguistic committee, while others were arrested on trumped up charges and therefore deprived of their place on the list of candidates, she explained. "After successfully eliminating contest from his rivals and winning the election, President Akaev appeared to regard himself as having a free hand to tighten control over politics, media and civil society," Shields claimed, maintaining a reversal of democratic and human rights reforms had taken place. And while the activist felt Bush could play a critical role in improving the rights situation in the country, responsibility could not be left just to Washington. "This is everyone's business and the international community is beholden to weigh in on the problem," she said. "Advocacy for human rights reform in Kyrgyzstan cannot be left to the US alone."