Kyrgyzstan police have arrested almost a dozen people, including a former lawmaker, for allegedly plotting protests to “destabilise” the Central Asian country, the interior ministry announced on Monday.
The former Soviet republic, which borders China, has had multiple bouts of turmoil in recent years, including an anti-government revolution in 2020 that saw President Sadyr Japarov rise to power.
According to civil society groups, Kyrgyzstan’s human rights status has deteriorated in recent years, despite being regarded as the most democratic country in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes.
The interior ministry said that police detained 11 members of the “Forty Tribes, Seven Regions Unity” groups accusing them of holding regular meetings to plan rallies and unrest.
During searches of their homes, law authorities allegedly discovered guns, “balaclavas,” and “instructions for organising mass riots,” among other items, it stated.
Kyrgyz media reported that one of the detainees was a former member of parliament.
According to an AFP count based on official sources, approximately a hundred politicians, journalists, and civil society members have been jailed in Kyrgyzstan in the last three years for “organising riots” or carrying out “attempted coup d’états.”
Japarov, who was elected in 2021 on a populist platform, denied cracking down on civil society and claimed that those jailed pose actual concerns to national security.
He has championed his government’s record of raising living conditions and strengthening the economy in one of the poorest former Soviet republics.
However, rights groups such as Amnesty International claim Kyrgyzstan, a Moscow ally, has increased pressure on civil society in recent years, arresting opposition activists and human rights campaigners on an irregular basis.
