An activist forced to flee, thousands of missing dollars, and citizens left waiting for their piece of promised land.

Astana, capital city of Kazakhstan, was inaugurated 20 years ago.
Astana, capital city of Kazakhstan, was inaugurated 20 years ago. © Taimas Almukhanov

On April 24, 2016, Leila Nazgul Seiitbek and her husband, Zalzar Temiraliev, were driving home with their four-year-old son after a late afternoon meeting with some friends in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Out of nowhere, a Land Cruiser almost slammed into the side of their car, forcing them to pull over. Out came four burly, armed men who tried to break into the family’s car but backed off when another vehicle approached. Fearing possible eyewitnesses, the four men shouted that they would deal with them next time, hopped into their Land Cruiser, and sped off.

“This was the last drop. It was then that I decided to leave the country, for my safety and that of my family,” Seiitbek recalls. The incident was followed by weeks in hiding at several friends’ apartments while frantically looking for a safe land route into a neighboring country, as after the botched road assault the family home was put under surveillance by unknown armed men. The three finally crossed into Tajikistan on June 8 under cover of darkness, stopped at the city of Khujand to buy flight tickets from the capital, Dushanbe, to Dubai, and then flew on to a European capital en route to Ukraine. During transit, they handed themselves in to the border police and asked for political asylum.

As an activist for the poor and marginalized via her Public Foundation Blago.kg, which she founded in 2012, Seiitbek knew well the risks associated with her line of work. Although Kyrgyzstan has long boasted the most vibrant civil society in Central Asia, which earned the country the title of “island of democracy” in the region, the last few years have witnessed a steady “shrinking [of human rights defenders’] space of action,” according to a June 2016 report by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

The media haven’t been spared either, as outgoing President Almazbek Atambayev has taken to suing any outlet and journalist that displeases him for tens of thousands of dollars with the clear intent of silencing criticism. In a highly publicized case during the summer, journalist Ulugbek Babakulov was the object of a public smear campaign for an article he wrote about the sensitive issue of ultra-nationalist material on Kyrgyz social media ahead of the seventh anniversary of the June 2010 Osh events. A few days after the article’s publication, Kyrgyzstan’s main television channel KTRK ran an item under the title “Instigators” describing Babakulov as an enemy of the people and the country.

Facing criminal charges and fearing for his safety, Babakulov was forced to flee Kyrgyzstan. But what has been missing from reports of the journalist’s downfall is how closely – and disturbingly – it resembles the pattern established with Seiitbek the previous year. First, Seiitbek was the subject of character assassination in a news item run by the same KTRK program, which presented her and her husband as fraudsters and members of a criminal cartel. Then came the attempted assault; two criminal cases “against me and my husband on forged documents and charges,” as she writes in her asylum application; as well as threats and intimidation, including calls from unknown people promising “reprisal against me, my relatives, and in particular my child, whom they threatened to kidnap, rape, and kill,” the document continues.

Why was Seiitbek targeted for such horrific treatment? Her transgression was trying to help Kyrgyz citizens track down vanished funds that were supposed to secure new housing plots in a village near Bishkek. It’s a complicated story, but one that has larger ramifications for the state of Kyrgyzstan’s democracy.

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