About 40 people in Kazakhstan cannot prove the death of their relatives who left for the combat zones in Syria and Iraq and went missing.
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Tomiris Ilyasova was born in a small town in Karaganda region of Kazakhstan. She graduated with honours from high school, and prepared to become a doctor. During the first year of university, she fell in love with a guy named Shyngys, and two months later, the young people got married.
They lived together for six years. After the birth of their son, the husband began going somewhere often, found strange friends, and then announced that he was going to start a business of supplying clothes from Turkey, as the woman recalls. He took all the savings and left, saying he would return in a week.
“He called me six months later. He said that he left to fulfil his duty, and was in Syria. He said that he married a Muslim woman there, and that I was kaafir [infidel] because I wore short skirts. I went to my parents. A year later, in 2013, we were told that he was no longer alive. We rented an apartment, and I did not ask anything from his parents. However, I cannot get a divorce and survivor benefits. I addressed all authorities. Unfortunately, I did not succeed,” says Ilyasova.
The Law on Marriage and Family regulates the procedure of marriage dissolution in Kazakhstan. According to the Articles 15 and 16, a marriage can be dissolved in the following cases:
- in case of death or judicial declaration of one of the spouses as deceased or missing;
- at the request of one or both spouses.
However, Tomiris Ilyasova’s husband was not declared dead officially, but was put on the international wanted list. Although, according to the legislation of Kazakhstan, the missing person is declared dead after three years.
According to Ruslan Kamranov, expert at the Institute of Diaspora Studies and Integration for the CIS countries, about 40 people in Kazakhstan cannot prove the death of their relatives who went missing in Syria.
“The women whose sons blew themselves up during the war addressed us. Obviously, they are not buried in Kazakhstan. However, they were not declared dead, although 6 years have passed. These men have bank accounts,” Kamranov said.
He says that according to the law “On legal procedures in cases of declaration a citizen as missing or dead”, a person who deliberately hides or is on the wanted list for committing a criminal offense or for evading legal obligations cannot be declared missing or dead.
“Therefore, the courts should clarify the issues of this person’s presence on the wanted list, leaving Kazakhstan and other circumstances of his absence, while suppressing unfair actions of the applicants, including those aimed at obtaining benefits and other material assets,” the expert notes.
“Death Is Not Proven”
According to the official data of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan since the beginning of the war in the Middle East, in July 2018 alone, about 800 citizens of Kazakhstan left for Syria and Iraq. There is no precise data on how many citizens of Kazakhstan left for the combat zone for the entire period. About 85% of Kazakhstanis who went to fight in Syria and Iraq have already died. Now, 380 Kazakhstanis remain in Syria, including women and children.
“When I went to court, they told me to bring a certificate from the country where my son died. How can I go to Syria and where can I get this certificate? It is ridiculous – as if it were another city of Kazakhstan. The connections are needed everywhere – they will not solve my problem without connections,” says Zhanerke Akhmetova, Almaty resident, whose son went missing in March 2020.
Kazakhstan resident Sabira Ospanova’s brother went missing 5 years ago. She addressed the Almaty Prosecutor’s Office twice and received a reply that his death was not proven.
“Almost all children, whose fathers went to fight in Syria, will grow up without them. They do not even know what war and terrorism are. I believe that judicial authorities planned to ignore this in advance to discourage others. If this continues, we will file complaints with international organisations,” says Ospanova.
Political scientist Omarkhan Oksikbaev believes that such complaints cannot be ignored, because in most cases, women and children became victims of terrorism themselves.
“I know that since 2014, the women who cannot prove the death of their relatives have addressed the City and Supreme Courts. However, for some reason, their cases are not considered, which affects their children. They are not to blame and should receive benefits and other payments. We need a law that will regulate such issues. We are obliged to protect our citizens, regardless of their relatives,” says Oksikbaev.
Six Years of Bureaucracy
On July 11, 2017, a law was adopted in Kazakhstan allowing the courts to deprive the dangerous criminals, including terrorists, of citizenship. Only in case of deprivation of citizenship, the relatives are able to file a divorce, receive child support, or deregister an ex-relative from the apartment. However, this procedure can take from 1 to 15 years.
“Kazakhstan residents, whose relatives died in the combat zone, could solve this problem if their relatives were deprived of citizenship,” says lawyer Asel Zhakanova.
However, this regulation from the law on deprivation of citizenship for committing crimes of a terrorist nature has never been implemented.
Zabykhan Toktabekova is 97. It took her six years to prove her daughter’s death and re-register her apartment.
“My daughter died in the war. Then, everybody left. We saw video and photo of her body. However, this evidence was not enough, and we were unable to prove her death. Every year, I tried to prove it, but for some reason, no one accepted the application. To receive a piece of paper, a certificate, I went through torments of hell. My grandchildren and I are not guilty of anything, but they despised us,” Toktabekova says.
At the end of December 2020, in tengrinews.kz agency interview, a director of the Pravo Public Foundation Olga Ryl said that they were trying to solve this problem and made inquiries to the Supreme Court, the Ombudsman and the General Prosecutor’s Office.
“We propose to accept the testimony of the witnesses of person’s death. Then, the children will be able to receive survivor benefits. They should not be responsible for the parents’ choice,” said Ryl.
At the end of October 2020, a pilot online system for obtaining a death certificate was launched in Kazakhstan.
“Kazakhstan residents who lost their relatives can receive a death certificate via the eGov.kz portal,” stated the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
With the launch of this online service, the requirements for the mandatory provision of a medical certificate of death and perinatal death, as well as a certificate of state registration of death, are eliminated. To obtain a certificate, it is necessary to enter the Individual Identification Number (IIN) of the deceased only. The relatives of the people who went missing in Syria and Iraq hope that they finally will be able to resolve this problem.
This article was prepared as part of the Giving Voice, Driving Change – from the Borderland to the Steppes Project.