Kyrgyz Opposition Under Pressure

Deputies and activists claim that the authorities are trying to intimidate them into silence. Kyrgyzstan’s opposition movement is accusing the authorities of “persecution and provocation” in the run up to the parliamentary elections on February 27. The Civil Society Against Corruption groups held a forum for opposition leaders to voice their worries on January 18, following a series of graffiti attacks and threats against drivers working for opposition deputies. Atajurt (Fatherland) co-leader Roza Otunbaeva, a former diplomat who was recently controversially barred from standing for election, described the opposition’s position as bleak. Opposition deputy Bolot Sherniyazov told journalists that his driver Talant Turgunaliev had been kidnapped and interrogated on January 10, after being approached by men who had introduced themselves as police officers. “They took 68 US dollars from me, and planted a matchbox containing marijuana in the boot of the car,” Turgunaliev alleged. The driver claims that the “police officers” drove him out of the city in a car without government number plates, and interrogated him for several hours.