Country Report on Terrorism 2016 - Chapter 2 - Kyrgyz Republic

Overview: The Kyrgyz Republic’s counterterrorism strategy continued to focus on rooting out existing violent extremists, countering the spread of violent extremism, limiting the flow of Kyrgyz national foreign terrorist fighters, and preventing those returning from conflicts abroad from engaging in terrorist activities. While the Kyrgyz Republic is seriously concerned about ISIS and other regional terrorism threats, it has not contributed to Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS efforts, due largely to a lack of resources. The Kyrgyz Republic also has not provided assistance to U.S. counterterrorism operations, although it has continued to cooperate with the United States on counterterrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE) efforts via a number of exchanges, trainings, and programs. The Kyrgyz Republic actively participated in the C5+1 regional cooperation framework between the United States and the Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), which includes a program related to CVE.

While terrorist attacks remained rare, the August 30 suicide bombing against the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek, the discovery of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the capital, and multiple reports of “extremist”-related arrests, underscore the ongoing terrorist threat facing the Kyrgyz Republic. The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) conducted dozens of raids targeting individuals suspected of affiliation with banned “extremist” groups or recruitment activities. The government restricts public information on national security issues, making it difficult to assess the efficacy of its counterterrorism operations and the wider extent of the threat.

The Kyrgyz Republic remained vulnerable to transnational threats, especially in the remote south, where boundary issues with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and porous borders could facilitate the establishment of terrorist safe havens. People and illicit goods continued to move relatively freely into and out of the country. According to GKNB statistics, approximately 600 Kyrgyz citizens, including 100 women, have left the country to join ISIS or other terrorist groups. Most experts believe the true number is higher. According to government estimates, approximately 70 percent of Kyrgyz citizens fighting in Iraq and Syria are ethnic Uzbeks.

2016 Terrorist Incidents: There was one confirmed terrorist incident in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2016. On August 30 a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device inside the compound of the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek. The blast reportedly injured three local embassy employees and caused considerable damage to the facility. According to media reports, the bomber was the only person killed. The GKNB claimed the bombing was carried out by an ethnic Uighur and organized by Syria-based groups affiliated with al-Nusrah Front. Six Kyrgyz citizens, four of whom are ethnic Uzbeks, were arrested in connection with the bombing. The GKNB said that four other ethnic Uzbek Kyrgyz citizens involved in planning the attack remained at large in Turkey or Syria at year’s end.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The Kyrgyz Republic has two primary laws that govern counterterrorism operations. The “Law on Countering Terroristic Acts,” defines terrorism and provides the MVD and GKNB the authority to identify terrorist threats and prevent attacks. The “Law on Countering Money Laundering,” addresses terrorist financing. Kyrgyz law criminalizes activities that support terrorism, extremism, and radicalization if the activities threaten public security, recruit individuals, or include children and has specific provisions targeted at foreign terrorist fighters. In August, the president signed into law an amendment that allows deprivation of citizenship for Kyrgyz citizens convicted of receiving terrorist training abroad and/or participating in armed conflict abroad. The government also added two new counterterrorism articles to the criminal code. One article criminalized taking under-aged children to conflict zones; the other criminalized public endorsement of “extremist” activity, which now carries a maximum three-year prison sentence. There were no reports in 2016 of the government using counterterrorism laws to prosecute political opponents.

The MVD 10th Department and the GKNB are the lead counterterrorism agencies in the Kyrgyz Republic. The GKNB-led Counterterrorism Center has demonstrated the ability to quickly react to bomb scares or other potential terrorist threats, but overall, Kyrgyz security services face capacity issues, are overly bureaucratic, and struggle with corruption, thus limiting their capacity to counter threats. The government does not maintain a terrorist screening watch list or have biographic or biometric screening capabilities at ports of entry. Information sharing with other countries occurs rarely and usually only by request in the context of corruption or organized crime investigations. The government does not collect advance passenger records on commercial flights.

There were reportedly dozens of counterterrorism operations in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2016. Most were small operations that resulted in arrests of suspected extremists due to their possession of “extremist” materials. There were at least 10 significant operations targeting suspected terrorists, however. These operations reportedly resulted in the arrest of 17 terrorist suspects, including four foreigners, and the death of one suspect. At least seven of the detained men reportedly received terrorist training abroad. In five of the operations, law enforcement agencies seized firearms, ammunition, bomb-making materials, grenades, and IEDs. The GKNB claimed that at least three of these operations disrupted planned terrorist attacks. On September 20, the GKNB control-detonated two IEDs near a shop in Bishkek. It was not clear if this incident was linked to terrorist or criminal activity.

Impediments to more effective Kyrgyz law enforcement activity against terrorism included interagency rivalries, a lack of coordination between the GKNB and MVD, and budgetary constraints. Inefficient Soviet-era bureaucratic structures, corruption, low salaries, and frequent personnel turnover also hampered law enforcement efforts. Counterterrorist police units were still largely untested in real-life situations.

Kyrgyz law enforcement continued to participate in the Department of State’s Antiterrorism Assistance program, receiving capacity-building training in border security and other counterterrorism-related skill sets.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: The Kyrgyz Republic is a member of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style regional body. The State Financial Intelligence Service, the country’s financial intelligence unit, is a member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

The government passed an amendment to the country’s anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism law in August 2016 that criminalizes the financing of terrorism and imposes stricter sanctions against those committing terrorism-related offenses in accordance with international standards. The Kyrgyz Republic also follows most international financial industry requirements related to monitoring and regulating money transfers, and in 2016 the government signed more than eight international cooperation agreements on exchanging information on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Kyrgyz Commission on Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT) was largely inactive in 2016. While the Kyrgyz Republic has adopted regulations to implement UN Security Council resolution 1373 and the UN Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qa’ida sanctions regime, mechanisms for effective implementation of these resolutions have not been fully established. There were no reports in 2016 indicating that the government pursued any terrorist finance cases, or identified or froze any terrorist assets. The Kyrgyz government’s CFT efforts are hampered by multiple factors, including but not limited to, resource constraints, underdeveloped procedures for investigation and enforcement, and lack of interagency cooperation and information sharing.

For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.

Countering Violent Extremism: The Kyrgyz Republic continued to make public statements in 2016 recognizing the need to counter violent extremism. In December, the vice prime minister for law enforcement and border security convened an interagency meeting to begin work on a government-wide CVE program. The government also launched several new CVE-relevant programs, including:

  • The opening of a new religious-issues information/consultation center and hotline to help prevent radicalization. The center is staffed by specialists in theology, psychology, and law, who can answer questions or otherwise discuss religious issues with Kyrgyz citizens.
  • Authorization for the creation of a standard methodology to determine if religious material confiscated during law enforcement operations constitutes “extremist” material. This methodology will be utilized by a team of theologians, linguists, and legal experts working within the Ministry of Justice.
  • Passage of a law in April that requires prisons to separate those convicted of terrorism and extremism from the general prison population to deter recruitment in Kyrgyz penitentiaries.

The government expressed concern about the growing level of religiosity in the country combined with a lack of educated religious leaders. Government officials and local experts stated that this combination creates a vacuum that is being filled by online imams and other online resources that propagate violent extremism and/or recruit for violent extremist groups. The government maintained that most Kyrgyz are radicalized outside the country. According to government officials and local experts, significant drivers of violent extremism included:

  • Lack of economic opportunities, which force a large portion of the population to seek employment opportunities in Russia, where they are particularly susceptible to recruitment.
  • Grievances associated with a sense of injustice among and discrimination against ethnic minorities, particularly ethnic Uzbeks.

The non-governmental organization (NGO) and donor community has published research on drivers of violent extremism in the region, and to a lesser extent within the Kyrgyz Republic. Public statements of government officials on CVE are generally consistent with the existing body of Kyrgyz-specific CVE research.

The Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the State Committee for Religious Affairs (SCRA), is developing a new curriculum for high school-aged students on “moderate” Islam and identifying terrorist recruitment tactics. The government is also working with SCRA and Muslim leaders to develop a new national religious strategy which includes CVE measures. In 2016, the government worked with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international organizations and foreign governments, including the United States, to facilitate CVE training and other CVE-relevant assistance programs. The government typically does not discourage or interfere with non-governmental programs that work with religious communities at risk of radicalism.

The Kyrgyz Republic lacked an effective rehabilitation and reintegration program for the general prison population, much less for those convicted of terrorism or extremism-related crimes. The government has acknowledged a need for such a program, but the primary effort on penal reform to date appears to be plans for the segregation, rather than rehabilitation, of violent extremists. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime is working with the Ministry of Justice to incorporate CVE elements into planned penal reforms.

The GKNB continued its public awareness campaign in the Kyrgyz language press to discredit the efforts of ISIS recruiters. The MVD, together with local religious leaders in the south, conducted meetings with schoolchildren and their parents to explain terrorist recruitment tactics and the legal consequences for foreign terrorist fighters from the Kyrgyz Republic if they choose to return. NGOs, the donor community, and foreign governments carried out multiple programs aimed at counter-messaging, including youth-generated messaging and training for journalists on how to effectively report on violent extremism. The Kyrgyz government was involved in several of these programs.

Regional and International Cooperation: The Kyrgyz government continued to seek training and technical assistance from international organizations and foreign governments to bolster its capacity to prevent domestic terrorist attacks. In 2016, the Kyrgyz Republic participated in counterterrorism activities and trainings organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States Antiterrorism Center, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Antiterrorism Center, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The Kyrgyz Republic also participated in five CSTO and two SCO counterterrorism military exercises in 2016, two of which were held in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Due primarily to resource constraints, the Kyrgyz Republic does not typically support international or multilateral efforts to prevent or counter violent extremism. The Kyrgyz Republic routinely signs bilateral agreements with international partners as part of high level visits. The agreements frequently include general statements on cooperation on counterterrorism but there is seldom any resulting implementation outside of the examples listed above.