KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT STEPPING UP HARASSMENT OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BISHKEK 000156 SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN (GORKOWSKI) E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL KG SUBJECT: KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT STEPPING UP HARASSMENT OF OPPOSITION REF: 08 BISHKEK 1279 BISHKEK 00000156 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller, Reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Over the past few months, pressure on the opposition has increased, in some cases carried out directly by the government, and in other cases through anonymous or hired agents. In late January, a newspaper published sexual photos of opposition leader Omurbek Tekebayev, and subsequently a supposedly explicit video of Tekebayev has been circulating on cell phones. Tekebayev reportedly considers his political prospects damaged by the incident. On January 17, following a political meeting in the Talas region, several opposition leaders were detained by local police. Authorities brought criminal charges against opposition leaders Tekebayev and Alikbek Jekshenkulov, which were subsequently dropped. These episodes follow several other recent instances of government harassment of the political opposition. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Over the past few months, pressure on the opposition has increased, in some cases carried out directly by the government, through prosecution of opposition members, and in some cases indirectly, through hired government supporters or anonymously distributed photographs. Sauna-Gate -------------- ¶3. (C) In late January, the newspaper Agym published photos of Omurbek Tekebayev, the leader of the Ata Meken party, seated next to an unidentified woman, both apparently nude in a private sauna room. An explicit video clip of the two together is reportedly circulating on cell phones, and is accessible on a Kyrgyz website. Tekebayev has not commented publicly, and post has seen no additional press coverage of the incident. However, Bolot Alymkulov, an Ak Shumkar party activist, told Poloff on February 13 that Tekebayev considers his political prospects significantly weakened by the incident. According to Alymkulov, Tekebayev and Temir Sariyev, the head of Ak Shumkar, had a deal that if Tekebayev were elected President, then he would pick Sariyev as his Prime Minister, but now Tekebayev is reconsidering his role as the presumptive front runner for the opposition. ¶4. (C) Post has no information on who was responsible for the covert photography, beyond the rumor that one of Tekebayev's bodyguards was bribed to place the camera in the room. However, Nurlan Motuyev, the co-chair of the Kyrgyz Muslim Union, has repeatedly called an embassy FSN offering to provide the Embassy with the video. According to the FSN, Motuyev disavows responsibility for the film, but said that he wanted to "kill Tekebayev politically," explaining that the woman in the film is from his village, and her parents had called him to ask for his help. Tussles in Talas -------------- ¶5. (C) On January 17, following a political meeting in the northwestern district of Talas, opposition leaders Omurbek Tekebayev, the chair of the Ata Meken party, Alikbek Jekshenkulov, a former Foreign Minister and leader of the "For Justice" movement, Asiya Sasykbayeva, the director of the NGO Interbilim, and SDPK parliamentary deputies Bakyt Beshimov and Roza Otunbayeva were detained by local police.Tekebayev and Jekshenkulov were charged with holding an illegal rally, and Tekebayev was charged with transportation and possession of an illegal weapon. On January 19, Tekebayev and Jekshenkulov were tried on the illegal rally charge, and were released with official warnings. The Prosecutor General's Office dropped the illegal weapons charge against Tekebayev on February 10. ¶6. (C) Sasykbayeva told Poloff in a February 11 meeting that BISHKEK 00000156 002.2 OF 003 the United National Movement, an opposition umbrella group, had organized a series of political meetings in Talas oblast, and that at every stop, groups of "criminals" interfered with the meetings. At one stop, two men told Tekebayev and Sariyev that they should "leave now, or you'll leave in pieces later." ¶7. (C) In a tactic reminiscent of earlier political altercations, Sasykbayeva said a group of seven elderly women followed them on their rounds, and repeatedly charged the stage, breaking microphones and shrieking abuse. A local party member said that one of the women was an alcoholic who normally sold cigarettes on the street, and Sasykbayeva concluded that the women had been paid by the government to disrupt the meetings. Driving between the meetings, Saskybayeva said that they were repeatedly stopped and searched, and that by the end of the trip, not a single driver still possessed a driver's license -- the police had taken them all, for minor infractions. She also said, incredulously, that Tekebayev's car was stopped several times before someone finally noticed the weapons. ¶8. (C) Sasykbayeva also said that security officers had been making inquiries at the homes of staff members of Interbilim, the NGO that she heads. She said that local authorities had also visited her sister in Chui oblast, and had forcefully recommended that she try to rein Saskybayeva in, and keep her from criticizing the government. Sasykbayeva, laughing, said that she told her sister to tell anyone who asked that they were estranged, and that she loved the President more than her. ¶9. (C) These episodes follow several other recent instances of government harassment of the political opposition. On February 10, member of parliament Bekyt Beshimov, a member of the opposition Social Democratic Party and possible Presidential candidate, told DCM that, after releasing a public statement supporting Manas Air Base, he had gone home to find a note on his door that read, "Go Home, Yankee Spy." Beshimov also said his office in parliament had been broken into, and he was certain the harassment was coming from the Government. ¶10. (C) On January 19, the Ak-Shumkar party announced that the Ministry of Justice had refused to renew the party's registration unless the party provided names and addresses for each of its members. On December 31, the Prosecutor General's office opened a criminal case against former defense minister Ismail Isakov, who had recently resigned his position as Secretary of the State Security Council and moved to the opposition, for misuse of government funds, negligence regarding government property, and providing his son with an official apartment. ¶11. (C) On December 19, eight members of the Ata Meken party were arrested while collecting petition signatures at a local market (reftel). On December 15, the Prosecutor General's office announced that it had launched an investigation into the theft of state funds by Jekshenkulov during his tenure as Foreign Minister. On December 13, investigators from the Prosecutor General's office, along with GKNB officers, searched the joint headquarters of the Green Party and the People's Revolutionary Movement without a warrant. Subsequently, on January 9, the Prosecutor General's office announced that it was bringing a criminal suit against Erkin Bulekbaev, the head of the Green Party, because they had found cartoons and posters that insulted the President when they searched the office. ¶12. (C) Scott Kearin (strictly protect) the head of the National Democratic Institute in Kyrgyzstan and a long time observer of Kyrgyz politics, attributes the recent crackdown to the influence of Adakham Madumorov, the new Secretary of the State Security Council. Kearin said that Madumorov BISHKEK 00000156 003.2 OF 003 believes in an iron hand in dealing with social disorder. Comment -------------- ¶13. (C) The government is playing a finely calibrated game: keeping the pressure on the opposition, without tamping them down so far that they become objects of public sympathy. It is rumored that much of the pressure is being applied indirectly, through threats to prosecute or otherwise endanger opposition leaders' families. Given Sasykbayeva's account, it is clear that the government at least knows where opposition leaders' families live. GFOELLER