BISHKEK -- A well-known Kyrgyz human rights activist says she will sue Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun for endangering her security, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
Aziza Abdrasulova, chairwoman of the Kylym Shamy (Torch of the Century) human rights organization, told RFE/RL that Akun "endangered her safety by spreading false information about her."
She alleges that Akun said on Kyrgyz state television that she had personally met representatives of Human Rights Watch (HRW) at the Bishkek airport earlier this month and provided them with "unproven information" regarding the deadly clashes in June between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions.
On August 16, HRW said in its report about the unrest that Kyrgyz government forces were partly responsible for the clashes.
Abdrasulova said some 50 relatives of Kyrgyz who have been missing since the clashes in mid-June attacked her near the Osh mayoral building this week. She said they forced her inside the building and insulted her.
They then forced her to go to the Prosecutor-General's Office, she said, where they asked that she be "punished for spreading lies." But the officials at the prosecutor's office refused to launch a criminal case against Abdrasulova because they said there was no evidence against her.
Abdrasulova told RFE/RL that "this sort of provocation made my colleague, rights activist Tolekan Ismailova, leave the country, and now it looks like it's my turn."
Akun said on state TV this week that the critical HRW report on the situation in Osh and Jalal-Abad during the unrest was based on some one-sided and distorted information from some Kyrgyz rights activists.
Akun told RFE/RL that he did not intend to create any problems for anyone. "I just criticized those who presented the Kyrgyz as predators, that's all," he said.
Aziza Abdrasulova, chairwoman of the Kylym Shamy (Torch of the Century) human rights organization, told RFE/RL that Akun "endangered her safety by spreading false information about her."
She alleges that Akun said on Kyrgyz state television that she had personally met representatives of Human Rights Watch (HRW) at the Bishkek airport earlier this month and provided them with "unproven information" regarding the deadly clashes in June between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions.
On August 16, HRW said in its report about the unrest that Kyrgyz government forces were partly responsible for the clashes.
Abdrasulova said some 50 relatives of Kyrgyz who have been missing since the clashes in mid-June attacked her near the Osh mayoral building this week. She said they forced her inside the building and insulted her.
They then forced her to go to the Prosecutor-General's Office, she said, where they asked that she be "punished for spreading lies." But the officials at the prosecutor's office refused to launch a criminal case against Abdrasulova because they said there was no evidence against her.
Abdrasulova told RFE/RL that "this sort of provocation made my colleague, rights activist Tolekan Ismailova, leave the country, and now it looks like it's my turn."
Akun said on state TV this week that the critical HRW report on the situation in Osh and Jalal-Abad during the unrest was based on some one-sided and distorted information from some Kyrgyz rights activists.
Akun told RFE/RL that he did not intend to create any problems for anyone. "I just criticized those who presented the Kyrgyz as predators, that's all," he said.
