Kyrgyz Parliament Attempting to Oust Ombudsman
Kyrgyz Parliament Attempting to Oust Ombudsman
The Kyrgyz parliament’s refusal to accept a report on the human rights situation looks suspiciously like an attempt to get rid of the current ombudman, Tursunbek Akun.
In an interview for IWPR, Sardar Bagyshbekov, head of Golos Svobody/Voice of Freedom, a human rights group in Kyrgyzstan, said parliament’s actions seemed to reflect a “political decision”. A recent change to the law allows the ombudsman, who is supposed to be independent of government but answerable to parliament, to be dismissed before his term is up if the report he submits is unsatisfactory.
As Bagyshkekov pointed out, the problem with that is that any ombudsman who does his job properly is going to run into trouble from politicians.
“If his report does not get approval, then that has to be according to some specific, well-founded criteria. You can’t just take a political decision to the effect that “we don’t like this ombudsman, we need to replace him, so let’s refuse to accept his report’,” he said.
Bagyshbekov also spoke about the efforts his group is making to address the widespread use of torture in Kyrgyzstan, including trying to work with police to gain a better understanding of why abuses happen.
“It’s thanks to civil society and the media that we been able to lift the silent taboo that hung over the word “torture”. State institutions were afraid to talk about it and didn’t acknowledge that there was a problem. Now, thank goodness, the problem is acknowledged. Even at the interior ministry, they accept that torture does exist,” he said.
Bagyshbekov said his NGO faced some criticism when it started working with the police force, with suggestions it would mute its criticism. He rejected this, saying that while it was good to get a better understanding of the pressures the force was under, and perhaps offer some solutions, “no argument can serve as justification for police beating and torturing people”.
The audio programme, in Russian and Kyrgyz, went out on national radio stations in Kyrgyzstan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
