Kyrgyzstan: Security Officials Blame Islamic Radical Group for Recent Violence

Security officials in Kyrgyzstan are linking an attack on a synagogue last September, the bombing of a sports arena in Bishkek in November, and the murder of four law enforcement officers in early January to an Islamic radical group.

Marat Imankulov, deputy head of the State National Security Service, described the group as influenced by Salafi Islamic beliefs. Salafis are Islamic fundamentalists who look to the beliefs and practices of the early days of Islam to provide spiritual guidance. Imankulov identified the radical group as being inspired by Said Buryatsky. A convert to Islam who was born in the Russian region of Buryatia, a region that is home to mainly Buddhists, Buryatsky in 2008 emerged as an influential figure in the Islamic radical insurgency in the North Caucasus. He was killed in March 2010.

Speaking during a parliamentary hearing on January 12, Imankulov asserted that some of the group’s members received explosives training in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. To date, 25 criminal cases have been opened and 10 suspects are being held in connection with the attacks, he added.

During the same January 12 hearing, Interior Minister Zarylbek Rysaliev said the group had a network of up to 50 operatives in Kyrgyzstan. Both Imankulov and Rysaliev went on to lament the poor state of Kyrgyzstan’s security services, describing them as underfunded, overworked and operating with antiquated technology.

“In Georgia, where there’s a population of 4.5 million people, there are about 60,000 law enforcement officers,” Rysaliev said. “We have a population of 5.5 million and only about 9,000 officers. We’re asking the government for assistance in the form of funds, additional staff and technical support.”

Separately, concern that security services are resorting to the use of torture to obtain confessions appears to be rising. On January 13, the US Embassy in Bishkek issued a brief but potent statement. “The US Embassy is deeply concerned about increasing reports from human rights defenders of torture of detainees by law enforcement officials in Kyrgyzstan,” the statement read.

“Having signed The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1997, Kyrgyzstan committed to taking effective measures to prevent any acts of torture. … Those guilty of crimes should be brought to justice, but must be given due process under the law.”

Kyrgyzstan’s ombudsman, Tursunbek Akun, downplayed the use of torture by security officials, asserting at a January 13 news conference that “only one of those detained on suspicion of organizing the explosion at the Sports Palace shows signs of a beating.”