Kyrgyz president’s letter to Blinken: end of US ‘democratising’ role?

14.02.2024, 17:18 exclusive.kz

President Sadyr Japarov has in plain words told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken not to meddle in Kyrgyzstan’s affairs.

Japarov’s ‘undiplomatic’ response to Blinken’s expression of concern about the ‘foreign agent’ bill being considered by the Kyrgyz parliament shows his determination to tighten control over the country’s civil society.

However, and this is no less significant, it also reflects a serious decline in the United States’ political influence in Central Asia, as well as the rest of the world.

Arguably, the first serious blow to US clout in Central Asia was its massive military, political and moral failure in nearby Afghanistan.

The next, perhaps even bigger, blow to the US image in the region is linked to its half-hearted support of Ukraine following Russia’s aggression – two years on, Putin is still in the Kremlin and still occupying a good chunk of eastern Ukraine.

The most recent development that has undermined the United States’ ‘moral’ standing in predominantly Muslim Central Asia is its support for Israel’s bloody onslaught on Gaza, which has meant in effect the denial of any human rights to the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State Blinken expressed his concern about the Kyrgyz bill on non-profit organisations in a letter to Japarov sent in January.

The bill in question, if adopted, will require all Kyrgyz non-profit organizations receiving foreign funding and involved in political activity to be registered as “foreign representatives”. They will also be required to provide additional financial reports and subjected to additional inspections.

The bill will also introduce a new criminal offence – “creation of a non-profit organisation that encroaches upon citizens’ individual rights” – punishable with up to five years in jail.

Japarov’s government has been recently clamping down on independent media, non-government organisations and organised criminal groups.

All three ‘forces’ have respectively played important roles in the three government overthrows Kyrgyzstan has seen since independence, including the last one in 2020 that brought to power Japarov’s government.

In his response to Blinken’s letter President Japarov noted “with regret” that it “carried signs of interference in our country’s internal affairs”.

He said that the bill aims “to clarify and streamline” the work of NGOs operating in Kyrgyzstan.

Some of them get foreign funding, which “naturally, creates a problem directly connected to the protection of the Kyrgyz state’s legitimate interests”, he continued.

Japarov said the government intended “to control where non-government organisations get funding from and to what ends they use that funding”.

He also said his government welcomed foreign-funded non-government organisations and media provided they observed the constitution and the tax code, and their activities were transparent.

He blamed the negative backlash to the bill on the part of Kyrgyz civil society on their “fear of coming out of the shadows and being subjected to real tax control by the state”.

Japarov said there was a small group of foreign-funded organisations that spread “deceitful, false information, which leads to legal suits by defamed victims”. He alleged also that some of such organisations’ leaders turned them into “family businesses engaged in misappropriating funds coming from foreign sponsors”.

Japarov also noted that the planned new legal regulation was similar to the US Foreign Agent Registration Act.

“In this connection I cannot help but ask: why may you do that, while we may not?”

He concluded by saying that Kyrgyzstan was ready to cooperate “as equals” with all international partners, “including the USA”.

“I have only one request: don’t interfere in our country’s internal affairs,” Japarov added.