Kyrgyzstan: Criminal Kingpins Thriving In Prisons

Inmates say the reason for the prison riots that started on October 19 and led to bloodshed on November 1 is their harsh living conditions. The prisoners complain of starvation and epidemics of infectious diseases, like tuberculosis and AIDS/HIV, in the penitentiaries. However, that seems to be only the life of ordinary convicts. Kyrgyzstan's prison unrest also revealed that while ordinary inmates are poorly housed and harshly treated, jailed criminal kingpins have amenities and power.

Machine guns and knives, mobile phones, and computers with Internet connection, large amounts of money in U.S. dollars and euros as well as narcotics -- all are in the possession of a "vor v zakone", or a criminal kingpin, in Kyrgyz jails.

Consider, for example, Aziz Batukaev, who served a term in Prison No. 31 in the settlement of Moldovanovka near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek until he was transferred to another prison on November 1.

Speaking to journalists on 1 November in the wake of October unrest in Kyrgyz penal colonies, Deputy Prosecutor-General Abibulla Abdykaparov said Batukaev had occupied a whole floor of his prison. That included 16 rooms, where he kept three mares and 15 goats.

Abdykaparov explained that the convict used to drink the domestic animals' milk to heal his ulcer. His wife and daughter-in-law as well as a bodyguard -- not convicts themselves -- were with him when the troops burst into the prison building.

The troops also found pictures of Chechen leaders Shamil Basaev and Aslan Maskhadov, and a flag of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, in the cell of Batukaev, who is of Chechen origin himself.

Abdykaparov said the government troops were in a deep shock when they viewed the conditions the criminal kingpin had created for himself in prison. In other parts of the same prison, however, there were other inmates suffering from hunger and diseases.

Those ordinary prisoners say that harsh living conditions made them riot -- first in early September, then in October. The third wave of unrest hit prisons near Bishkek and in the south this week and ended with the death of four inmates.

Topchubek Turgunaliev, the leader of the Erkindik opposition party, is a former political dissident who served several years in prison before former President Askar Akaev was ousted in March. He told RFE/RL about conditions for ordinary prisoners.

"Conditions are extremely harsh, firstly, because of lack of food. What they get is [called] 'balanda,' which is not only not nutritious, but also kills people. In some prisons, inmates have no food at all or get it once a week. The other problem is that prisons are overcrowded. So there is simply no air. I experienced that myself. In the cells of five-six people, we were 17-18 inmates," Turgunaliev said.

Turgunaliev added that the economic difficulties Kyrgyzstan has faced for the last decade have had an impact on the penitentiary system, too.

An inmate who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity from a prison near Bishkek, agrees. "We cover 85 percent of our needs ourselves," he said. "We get everything including clothing, bed sheets, and pillowcases. We ask our relatives to bring it. We also make some things, like backgammon desks, sell them to the outside world and thus provide for ourselves."

The problem does not seem to be new for Kyrgyzstan's leadership. The current system of controlling prisons as well as governing inmates was formed decades ago. It was based mainly on the hierarchy of the criminal world.

In the Soviet Union, the criminal world had its own hierarchy, rules, and jargon. "Vor v zakone" was the highest title and meant a kind of criminal aristocracy who established a thieves' "code of honor" and served as its guardians. They and "avtoritety," or criminal authority, ruled inmates in prisons.

The prison administration usually collaborated with vory and avtoritety and often sought their support in resolving disputes among inmates. Jailed criminal leaders, in turn, were allowed to lead a comfortable life behind bars.

Turgunaliev said this system continues to dominate prison life in many former Soviet republics. "The problem of penitentiary facilities is rooted in the Soviet Gulag system," he said. "All post-Soviet countries with the possible exception of the Baltic states still have the same system. It's stayed untouched."

Vory v zakone and avtoritety still seem to enjoy close ties with authorities in Kyrgyz prisons. Former prisoner Turgunaliev said both parties, the prison administration and the jailed criminal leaders, benefit from collaboration. It makes control over inmates easier and it also brings financial profit, he said.

"Prison facilities are a center of corruption. I know narcotics, including