Activist’s Hospital Stay Sparks Controversy Over Kyrgyz Government Tactics

Edil Baisalov, who heads the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, says authorities hospitalized him against his will for three days. On February 28, Baisalov had been scheduled to speak at a roundtable sponsored by Freedom House, a US non-profit, non-partisan organization that promote democratic values worldwide. He never made it. According to Baisalov, authorities ordered him to a military hospital in Beshkungey, a village near Bishkek, for an eye exam.

Authorities claimed they brought Baisalov to the hospital to examine his fitness for military service. A Defense Ministry spokesman denied March 3 that there was a political motive for Baisalov's hospitalization. But Baisalov insists that he had told military officials in January that his poor eyesight made him ineligible, and that the relevant draft commission had agreed at the time. In a written statement, he characterized the episode as "an attempt to threaten me and my colleagues."

"Doctors at the hospital were surprised.