Bishkek residents demand effective police force

A change of regime and subsequent upheaval in the Kyrgyz capital has changed the attitude of many local residents towards the country's police force. Prior to the fall of deposed Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev's regime on 24 March, many Bishkek residents considered law enforcement officials inefficient and corrupt. As night fell on the city at the end of that day, many Bishkek residents found themselves without police protection. Officers kept a low profile and looters ransacked the city. In April, illegal land seizures around Bishkek were a cause of great concern to residents of the capital and tension was increase by the distribution of leaflets allegedly targeting ethnic minorities. These events highlighted the need for a strong, transparent police service, accountable to the people. "We need the police, which will protect people's interests, not their own," Almaz, a Bishkek resident and a student of the Kyrgyz Technical University, told IRIN in the capital. Another Bishkek resident, Alexander, agreed. "There needs to be a reliable, effective and functional police service in the capital and in the country to maintain order and recent mayhem showed that," he said. But other members of the local community remained pessimistic. "I do not think we will have a strong police force given the very low salary they are paid. Any attempts to change the system would fail, unless their living conditions are improved as well," Ulugbek, a Bishkek resident working in a shopping outlet, said. Melis Turganbayev, deputy head of the Bishkek city police department believed that the last government had deliberately made life tough for the police force. "Perhaps, the previous regime was interested in keeping the police 'half-hungry'. Long working hours, poor salaries, all benefits were cut and [many] professionals left the [law enforcement] system for other jobs in order to earn a living," he told IRIN in Bishkek. But on 24 March, in the midst of the collapse of the old regime, many police officers began to ask themselves whom they were protecting, according to Turganbayev. He explained that the police had little appetite to resist the protesters and defend the government. "Many of them felt resentful. So, at the critical moment they moved aside, leaving the [ousted] government alone against the people," said Turganbayev. "On that night we turned out to be unprotected as the police did not show up to work," Ibragim Orozaliev, lawyer with the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, a local pro-democracy NGO, told IRIN. Such fears were common amongst many Bishkek residents. "I was afraid they [looters] would start ransacking our apartments and killing people. I called "102" [the local police emergency number], but there was no answer. We were in panic," Svetlana Grigorieva, a local Bishkek resident recalled. At that moment, the police faced a crisis of trust and they did not know whom to believe: Akayev's regime or the new authorities? Some of them left their duties altogether, simply deserting. "The only thing we could do was to protect our buildings to prevent possible pogroms as had been the case in [the southern cities] of Jalal-Abad and Osh where the police buildings were burnt down and secret data stolen," Turganbayev said. In an effort to increase support for the police and change the public's mindset about them, a public initiative named 'For the Protection of Bishkek' was launched in late April. The aim of the campaign was to help the police in the capital by providing them with packages of everyday necessities and food. The purpose of this scheme can be clearly understood when the average monthly salary of a police officer in Bishkek was less than US $35, while the minimum monthly living costs were estimated to be $50. In addition to this, many officers had to rent apartments. The interim government quickly pledged to increase the salaries of all law enforcement employees by 50 percent as of 1 May, to improve their living conditions and to tackle corruption. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) now plans to expand and revamp its Police Assistance Programme (PAP) in Kyrgyzstan following the events of 24 March. This scheme includes a pilot initiative to train and develop a conflict prevention unit to prevent looting and disturbances in the capital. "The issue is not about creating the unit that would counter authority to the nation but about protecting peaceful citizens against belligerent groups and criminals aimed at looting. Such a unit had not yet been created but is planned to be up and running in early June," Evgeny Cherenkov, the PAP manager with the OSCE, told IRIN. The OSCE, Europe's largest security organisation, is also planning to provide vehicles, protective clothing including special helmets and shields, radio communications equipment and special training programmes to the Kyrgyz police. However, Markus Mueller, head of the OSCE in Kyrgyzstan, assured IRIN that "the programme did not include the provision of any tactical equipment [water canon, tear gas or stun-guns] to law-enforcement bodies." Another component of the PAP will be the creation of a properly organised "102" emergency call-centre that should significantly improve the effectiveness of the police in their response to reports of criminal activity.