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Kyrgyzstan
872. By letter dated 8 June 2004, the Special Rapporteur notified the Government that he had received information regarding Mirlan Turatbekovich Boodaev, a 23-year-old student of Jalalabad State University. According to the allegations received, he was arrested on 5 April 2004 in connection with a murder investigation, held in the offices of the criminal investigation department of the Jalalabad Interior Department, and was tortured by militia in order to extract a confession. He was stripped naked, beaten on the head, torso and back. The militiamen put a gas mask on him, which caused temporary suffocation. They threatened to insert a bottle up his anus. His head was struck, one ear was torn, and his body was covered with bruises. He was taken to a temporary detention facility on 6 April, and only saw his lawyer on 9 April. Mirlan Turatbekovich Boodaev’s lawyer reported this case to Spravedlivost, which approached the regional prosecutor’s office through the local Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe representative’s office, and requested a meeting. During the meeting, Mirlan Turatbekovich Boodaev told two employees from Spravedlivost, the deputy and assistant prosecutors, and the deputy chief of the Jalalabad Interior Department about the torture. Upon the attorney’s intervention, Mirlan Turatbekovich Boodaev was examined by a doctor almost two months after the torture. The examination was reportedly superficial, without medical tests. The medical report of 19 May indicated only minor injuries. No treatment has been provided. Mirlan Turatbekovich Boodaev is still detained in the temporary detention facility.
873. By letter dated 3 August 2004, the Government informed that on 5 April 2004, Mirlan Turatbekovich Boodaev was detained by militiamen of the Jalalabad city Interior Ministry Department. On 6 April, a criminal case was opened against him. A lawyer was appointed for him, but he renounced the lawyer’s services. The lawyer hired by Mr. Boodaev demanded a medical examination because of the injuries he sustained, allegedly from beatings by the militiamen during the first interrogation. This examination was approved by the investigator on the same day, 12 April, and found bruises close to the ear and hips, but concluded that these injuries did not constitute any serious damage to his health. The interrogators of Jalalabad city Interior Ministry Department deny having used violence against Mr. Boodaev. All interrogations were held in the presence of the lawyer. Concerning the alleged beatings, the prosecutors of Jalalabad region conducted an assessment in April and May 2004, which did not confirm that any beatings had taken place. Currently the criminal case against Mr. Boordaev and Myrzaev is under consideration of at Jalalabad city court.
874. By letter dated 30 November 2004, the Special Rapporteur notified the Government that he had received allegations concerning Larisa Vladimirovna Ivanova, aged 53, Voznesenovka village, Panfilov rayon, Chui oblast. On 10 February 2004, she was arrested and detained at the Sverdlovskiy Regional Department of the Interior (ROVD), Bishkek, room 35, and the Chief Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of the Interior, rooms 243 and 244. In detention, in order to extract a confession, she was beaten by persons (whose names are known to the Special Rapporteur) with a stick and a flat instrument, a plastic bag was put over her head and she was choked, parts of her body were burned, she was subjected to mock executions, and deprived of sleep, food and water. She sustained injuries on her arms, legs and body, which were documented in a judicial medical examination carried out on 7 July. She was held incommunicado for three days from the date of her arrest, after which time she was visited by her husband. She is currently held in Pre-trial Facility No. 14. Despite complaints filed with a number of courts (i.e. Leninskiy Regional Court, Bishkek City Court, the Supreme Court) and with all levels of prosecutors’ offices (i.e. Sverdlovskiy and Leninskiy regions, Bishkek, and the General Prosecutor) no steps have been taken by the authorities to investigate the complaints.
Follow-up to previously transmitted communications
875. By letter dated 15 January 2004, the Government provided information concerning:
876. Tursunbek Akunov, Sovetbek Tagayev, Kadyrkul Saparaliyev, Begaly Chetinbayev and Urkumbaev Satynay (E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.1, para. 785). The Government informed that on 17 March 2002, some 700 villagers - some on horseback - from Kyzyl-Tuu, Kara-Suu, Kara-Zhygach, Avletim, Bospiek and Zherge-Tal in Aksyisk district, Jalal-Abad duban, set out for the local administrative centre of Kerben, supposedly to hold a rally in support of a Zhogorku Kenesh member, Mr. Beknazarov. Accompanied by 61 militia officers carrying firearms and special restraining devices, the following officials drove out to meet them: chief administrator of the district; deputy director of the duban internal affairs authority; the district procurator; the chief of the district internal affairs office; the chief of the duban internal affairs authority’s criminal investigation department; the deputy speaker of the district assembly; and the chief of the district office of the National Security Service. At approximately 4.30 p.m., near the village of Bospiek, the citizens advancing towards Kerben were halted by the representatives of the local authority and the militia. The leaders of the district and duban authorities talked with the citizens in an attempt to dissuade them from proceeding to Kerben. However, attempts to reason with them proved fruitless. At this point Tursunbek Akunov arrived at the scene. When he appeared the demonstrators became quieter. He demanded to be given a megaphone to address the citizens, at which point he was arrested by militia officers. In response to this, some people in the crowd started to shout that they did not recognize the district leadership, they wanted to see representatives of the central Government. There were also calls for the militia officers to be disarmed. At the same time, people in the crowd started to throw stones at the district leaders and militia officers. The crowd advanced on the militia officers. The leaders of the district administration and the district procurator left the scene. Tursunbek Akunov was forcibly removed by car to the district internal affairs office. The bulk of the militia officers were forced back by the crowd but 15 officers of the Jalal-Abad special duties militia and the deputy chief of the Jalal-Abad Internal Affairs Authority were surrounded and hemmed in. Shots were fired from the crowd, and a special duties militiaman fell to the ground with a gunshot wound to the left leg. The militia then fired warning shots. The demonstrators dispersed, and Sovetbek Tagayev, Kadyrkul Saparaliyev, Begaly Chetinbayev, and Urkumbaev Satynay were left lying on the ground with gunshot wounds, and later died. The criminal investigations launched in connection with the events in Aksyisk district have established that no instructions or orders to use firearms were issued by the internal affairs authority, Ministry of Internal Affairs or other officials. The evidence gathered in the course of the investigations indicates that the internal affairs officers used firearms in the circumstances of an attack that endangered their lives and health. In addition, the officers did not shoot to wound. As the testimony of the militia officers and close study of video footage of the events near Bospiek indicates, even before the militia officers took any action some of the civilians present started to pick up stones, and when the crowd hemmed in the special duties militia officers and started to pelt them with stones, horseback riders bore down on the officers. In the circumstances, the lives and health of the militia officers were in real danger, and there was also a risk that their weapons would be seized. Cartridges and cartridge cases from a small-calibre rifle, broken boules with traces of an incendiary mixture, strips of material used as fuses for Molotov cocktails and numerous stones found during the inspection of the premises of the district internal affairs office and the adjacent area bear witness that the attack on the district internal affairs office was real and highly dangerous. In addition, according to the expert opinions sought in the course of the criminal investigation, some of the bullets extracted from the bodies of the killed and wounded had struck the victims after ricocheting off a solid wall. These facts, the respective positions of the crowd and the internal affairs officers when weapons were fired, the size of the crowd and the number of persons killed and wounded by gunfire give reason to believe that the internal affairs officers did not shoot to wound. In the light of the foregoing, the investigation found that the internal affairs officers’ use of firearms, both in the clash near Bospiek and when repulsing the attack by rioters on the building of the district internal affairs office, was legitimate.
877. Baiysbubu Suiorkulova (E/CN.4/2001/66, para. 678). The Government informed
that in the period 13 to 22 March 2000 some citizens rallied on the square in front of the
administrative headquarters of Kara-Buurinsk district in Talas duban (region). To all attempts
to reason with them the demonstrators responded with foul-mouthed denigration of the
authorities, threatening to seize the district administrative building and set it ablaze. A group
of 100-150 individuals then entered the building, blockaded all the entrances and obstructed
the conduct of normal business. On 22 March 2000 the Kara-Buurinsk Procurator’s Office
directed lawful measures to be taken to clear the premises and the surrounding area.
Accordingly, on the same day senior officers from the Talas duban Internal Affairs Authority
took steps to end the unauthorized rally and mass disruption of public order. The
demonstrators were initially requested to desist, and warned that they would be held liable
according to law. Despite this warning, they persisted in their unlawful course. Steps were
then taken to disperse the unauthorized rally of around 110-140 individuals. Fifty-one
demonstrators were detained and taken to Kara-Buurinsk district internal affairs office. Of
these, 10 were placed in administrative detention for periods ranging from 7 to 10 days for
violating articles 371 and 392 of the Kyrgyz Code of Administrative Offences. Three
individuals were fined 300 soms each. Thirty-eight demonstrators were officially cautioned by
the Kara-Buurinsk district procurator not to commit similar violations in future.
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This report has been published by Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights on July 27, 2005.