Kyrgyzstan: Please Look After This Foreigner

The government in Kyrgyzstan is introducing an identity card scheme which should help protect foreigners from being robbed and roughed up by the police force – but some people doubt it will produce a swift change in the police’s behaviour.

The interior ministry is issuing foreign visitors with ID cards from June 1, in a bid to “prevent violations of the law, protect the rights and freedoms of foreign citizens, and provide them with help in an emergency from the law-enforcement agencies and other authorities”.

Besides the holder’s details, the cards will contain a reminder to police officers – in Russian - that they are supposed to treat foreigners in a proper and legal manner, and advise the holder what to do if they are mistreated – for example requesting identification from the officer and reporting the incident to the central police authorities.

The move is a sign that the authorities recognise the country has a serious image problem which could drive away potential donors and investors. On May 20, the government took a separate step to address the problem by opening a legal aid centre specifically for foreign nationals.

Bermet Bukasheva, chief editor of the Litsa newspaper, welcomes the ID card initiative as a way of saving the country’s reputation. “Of course, not only foreigners but also Kyrgyz citizens suffer from police abuse, but it is foreigners who can influence public opinion about Kyrgyzstan abroad, and the flow of investments too,” she said. “It is important that the authorities are trying to provide some security for foreigners. They at least admit that there is chaos in our law enforcement agencies.”

As Yrysbek Omurzakov, editor of the human rights newspaper Tribuna suggests, police harassment is common in Kyrgyzstan, but foreigners appear to get special attention, on the assumption they may have money on them, and will be more easily intimidated when stopped on the pretext of a document check.

“Policemen don’t stop people who look poor and unable to give them anything,” Omurzakov told IWPR. “But they always expect to get something from foreigners, preferably in foreign currency. In such cases, foreigners can end up in serious trouble - police can even ‘find’ drugs in their pockets.”

In such an encounter, someone who is stopped by police has little option but to do as they are told. "I was going home after a party when I was stopped by policemen who asked to see my documents,” recounted Toshio Takashi, a volunteer for the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. “I showed them – but after that they demanded my wallet. When they had gone, I found they had taken 100 US dollars. That has happened to me twice during my stay in Kyrgyzstan".

Sometimes things get out of hand and police use violence. “I was brutally attacked by the police themselves,” said Jeffrey Millard, a travel agency manager in Bishkek. “It began the usual way – they asked for my documents as I was entering the building where I live. Suddenly, one of them grabbed me and I had to hold on to the railing so as not to fall down. Then he dragged me backwards down the stairs. The other policeman quickly joined in. They hurt my nose, broke my glasses and twisted my arm.”

A spokesman for the interior ministry said problems arose simply because of the language barrier, and some confusion among police about visa regulations.

“Frequently, problems arise between law-enforcement bodies and foreigners because the latter cannot explain anything to police, and the police do not know which citizens of which countries can visit without a visa. This all scares people away, including potential investors. The personal card will help us to solve these misunderstandings,” said Bishkek city police chief Alexander Myznikov.

The pocket-size cards will confirm that the holder’s paperwork is in order and that he or she is staying in Kyrgyzstan legally, and provide both sides in an encounter between police and foreigners with some basic ground rules setting out their rights and obligations.

“I don’t understand what foreigners say to me,” said Murat Atambekov, a district police officer. “So it’s very hard for us to respond and help them. I hope these cards will make our work easier.”

The scheme also has its critics, who doubt that it will do much good and will prove a pointless and costly exercise.

Pensioner Chynybek Isabaev doubts the new cards will bring immediate changes to the behaviour of a police force so accustomed to mistreating people.

"I doubt they’ll reform since they behave appallingly to their own citizens as well as to the foreign ones,” he said.

Gulnura Toralieva is a student at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic University. Ainagul Abdrakhmanova is an intern for IWPR-Kyrgyzstan.