A court in Bishkek on April 12 ruled that Gulnara Jurabaeva, Klara Sooronkulova, Asia Sasykbaeva, Ulukbek Mamataev, and Taalaibek Mademinov should be transferred to house arrest until at least June 20.
The Birinchi Mai district court also ruled that Chyngyz Kaparov, who was rushed to a hospital a day earlier with acute gallbladder issues, should also be transferred to house arrest after completing treatment.
The activists were among 26 rights defenders, journalists, and politicians — members of the so-called Kempir-Abad Defense Committee — who were arrested in late October 2022 after they protested against the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border demarcation deal.
Under the accord, Kyrgyzstan in November handed over the territory of the Kempir-Abad reservoir, which covers 4,485 hectares, to Uzbekistan in exchange for over 19,000 hectares of land elsewhere.
Those arrested were charged with planning riots over the border agreement, which is more than three decades in the making.
Four activists — Perizat Suranova, Orozaiym Narmatova, Nurlanbek Asanbekov, and Talantbek Eshaliev — were transferred to house arrest earlier this year.
On April 10, one of the group’s members, Ilgiz Shamenov, was transferred to a hospital in Bishkek over an unspecified medical condition.
In November 2022, the presidents of the two Central Asian nations, Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan and Shavkat Mirziyoev of Uzbekistan, signed the disputed deal into law after lawmakers in both countries approved it.
The Kempir-Abad reservoir, known in Uzbekistan as the Andijon reservoir, was built in 1983. It is located in the fertile Ferghana Valley, where borders of three former Soviet republics — Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan — meet, and represents a vital regional water source. Uzbekistan, whose population of 35 million is five times larger than that of Kyrgyzstan, uses most of the water from the area.
Many Kyrgyz civil activists, opposition politicians, and residents living close to the dam have been against the deal saying Uzbekistan should continue to be allowed to use the water, but the reservoir’s land should remain within Kyrgyzstan.
Source: RFERL
