Warsaw, 18 November 1997 (RFE/RL) - The chairman of the Kyrgyz Human Rights Commitee today described human rights violations in his country and said the situation was even worse than it had been in the former Soviet Union.
Ramazan Dyryldayev, speaking at an OSCE conference on human rights in Warsaw, said the political opposition in Kyrgyzstan is oppressed and its members are thrown into prisons or labor camps. Dyryldayev said nothing had been done to eliminate the use of torture and that in some cases things are even worse than in the former Soviet Union.
Dyryldayev also told an RFE/RL correspondent that the visit of U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to several Central Asian republics helped ease a little persecution of the opposition in Kyrgyzstan. He said that as a result of the visit one journalist, who was serving a 30-month prison term, was freed.
Ramazan Dyryldayev, speaking at an OSCE conference on human rights in Warsaw, said the political opposition in Kyrgyzstan is oppressed and its members are thrown into prisons or labor camps. Dyryldayev said nothing had been done to eliminate the use of torture and that in some cases things are even worse than in the former Soviet Union.
Dyryldayev also told an RFE/RL correspondent that the visit of U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to several Central Asian republics helped ease a little persecution of the opposition in Kyrgyzstan. He said that as a result of the visit one journalist, who was serving a 30-month prison term, was freed.