Sadyr Japarov responded to a message from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which he expressed concern about the country’s consideration of the law on non-governmental organisations.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov called on the United States and other countries not to interfere in Kyrgyzstan’s internal affairs and to objectively assess the processes taking place in the republic.
I also want to emphasise that we stand for equal co-operation and are ready to work together with all countries and international partners, including the United States. My only request is not to interfere in the internal affairs of our country.
This was stated in the response letter published by the Kyrgyz president’s press secretary Askat Alagozov.
Previously, Blinken sent a message to the head of Kyrgyzstan, in which he expressed his concern about the country’s consideration of the law on non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the adoption of which, according to the Secretary of State, would negatively affect the state of civil society in the republic. The draft law is currently under discussion in the national parliament.
“The Kyrgyz parliament is debating a draft law on the activities of NGOs. The draft law provides for the granting of the status of “foreign representative” and the inclusion in a special register of foreign-funded organisations engaged in political activities. And for the creation of organisations that violate the personality and rights of citizens of the republic, it is proposed to introduce criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to 10 years or a fine.”
Japarov also regretted that the US representative provided biased information about the real situation of human rights and freedoms in Kyrgyzstan. According to him, only a small but “very noisy group” of foreign state-funded NGOs and their individual representatives “speculate on their difficulties and persecution”. This, in turn, forces foreign sponsoring structures to follow suit and engage in “profligate spending of US and European taxpayers’ money”.
Moreover, these same non-governmental structures often spread “false and unreliable information to the public, resulting in litigation by the victims or the defamed”.
In this regard, I propose to conduct an audit of the use of financial resources by non-governmental and non-profit organisations funded by US governmental organisations, at least during the last 10 years.
Additionally, the president invited Blinken to visit Bishkek to “see first-hand that human rights and freedoms in Kyrgyzstan are reliably protected by the Constitution and laws of the Kyrgyz Republic.”
