Country Report on Terrorism 2023 - Chapter 1 - Kyrgyz Republic

Overview:  The Kyrgyz Republic’s counterterrorism efforts continued to concentrate on rooting out those the Kyrgyz government considers “extremists,” countering violent extremism, preventing those returning from conflicts abroad from engaging in terrorist activities, and repatriating its nationals from northeast Syria.  The Kyrgyz government restricts public information on national security issues, making it difficult to assess the efficacy of its CT operations or the extent of the threat from terrorism.  The country did remain vulnerable to transnational threats, especially in its remote southern regions, where ill-defined and porous borders allowed for the relatively free movement of people and illicit goods.  According to government statistics, since 2014 an estimated 850 Kyrgyz citizens have left the country to join terrorist groups.  The government faced limitations on its ability to rehabilitate, investigate, and prosecute, as appropriate, returning FTFs and their associated family members – owing to a lack of expertise, resources, and potential shortcomings in its legal framework.

2023 Terrorist Incidents:  There were no reported terrorist incidents in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2023.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security:  There were no changes to terrorism-related legislation in 2023.

The Kyrgyz Republic has issued biometric passports since 2021, but the government does not yet operate an Advance Passenger Information or Passenger Name Record system for commercial flights.

In 2023 the Kyrgyz government repatriated 333 of its nationals, including minors, from displaced persons camps in northeast Syria.  The Kyrgyz government estimated that around 150 Kyrgyz women and children still remained in the camps and were willing to be repatriated.  Once those repatriated arrived in the Kyrgyz Republic, the repatriated women and children stayed in a rehabilitation center, where they received medical care, psychosocial counseling, vocational training, and legal assistance.  Following their stay at the center, the women and children returned to their communities to live with relatives.  At that point, local municipalities took primary responsibility for helping the newly returned individuals find housing, register children for school, and find jobs.  Local law enforcement officers monitor the repatriated individuals for indicators of potential “extremist” activities.  Additionally, more than 50 Kyrgyz FTFs remained detained within the detention facilities in northeast Syria at year’s end, as Bishkek had yet to commit to returning them.

International organizations and Kyrgyz government officials expressed concerns that the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Kyrgyz State National Security Committee lacked adequate tools and a legal framework to properly prosecute nationals suspected of committing terrorism acts abroad.

Authorities reported several “extremism-” or terrorism-related arrests in 2023, including of individuals accused of recruiting Kyrgyz nationals to join international terrorist organizations.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism:  The Kyrgyz Republic is a member of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, and its Financial Intelligence Unit, the State Financial Intelligence Service, is a member of the Egmont Group.  There were no significant changes in 2023.

Countering Violent Extremism:  In March the Kyrgyz government adopted a 2023-27 national program titled “On Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism,” which includes rehabilitating FTFs’ associated family members.

The Ministry of Education, with the State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA), continued to implement a curriculum for high school students across the country on “moderate” Islam and to identify terrorist recruitment tactics.  SCRA, in collaboration with the NGO Search for Common Ground, organized a series of prevention activities across the country to inform local governments and religious organizations about state policy on religion, principles of secularism, and freedom of religion or belief.  The SCRA Research Center partnered with local NGO Civic Internet Policy Initiative to study how to improve the system of monitoring and analysis of the religious situation in rural areas of the Kyrgyz Republic.  The SCRA Research Center, in partnership with the local public fund Interfaith Council and the British firm REOC Communications, continued to implement a media campaign focused on countering online radicalization to violence and warning the general population about existing threats in cyberspace.

USAID’s Countering Violent Extremism Project works in communities at high risk of violent extremism mobilization to develop family support networks and psychosocial services to prevent violent extremism.  In addition, through its partner, Search for Common Ground, USAID provided training and technical assistance to SCRA to increase its institutional capacity to promote and protect freedom of religion or belief in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Probation Department of the Ministry of Justice, with the SCRA and UNDP, holds training on preventing violent extremism among its clients.  Together with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the department continued a project on post-release monitoring and probation of FTFs and violent extremist prisoners.

The Kyrgyz Republic cooperates with the UN, the OSCE, and other international organizations and governments to facilitate CVE training and other CVE-related assistance programs.

The SCRA continued to work with the Embassy Bishkek-supported Ulybka Public Foundation to establish an Interfaith Council in three southern regions to promote and support the development of interfaith dialogue.

UNODC worked with the prison administration to secure violent extremists while developing a system to ensure they are not able to radicalize other inmates to violence.

International and Regional Cooperation:  The PRC and Russia provided assistance to law enforcement agencies in Central Asian countries, including the Kyrgyz Republic, in 2023.

The Kyrgyz Republic participated in several U.S.-funded programs, including bilateral programs with UNICEF focused on rehabilitating and reintegrating FTF family members and with UNODC working on managing terrorists/violent extremist prisoners.  The Kyrgyz Republic also participated in regional C5+1 Border Security programs, the FBI International Executive Program, and INTERPOL 1-24/7, in which the Kyrgyz Republic participates in Project Terminus to automate the uploads of stolen and lost travel documents to INTERPOL databases.  The Kyrgyz Republic also engaged in the Central Asia Regional Antiterrorism Assistance Investigations Program, in which the Department of State helped build the country’s capacity to conduct CT investigations, including in the cyber domain.

Bishkek, Jalal-Abad, Osh, Talas, and Tokmok are members of the Strong Cities Network.