The tragic events in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 took away 446 lives. Minimum 17 more are still considered missing, but their relatives still hope that they would come back home one day.
12 years like 12 days
Every June, dozens of pupils wearing white shirts happily promenade in the streets of Osh after taking examinations. They all remind Zhyldyzkan Eskulova of her child who went missing during the June 2010 events. Her son Semetei Akhmatov went to the university to take examinations and never came back. He was 21. 12 years have passed since then, but mother’s hope lingers on.
– He was the second year student of the law department of Osh State University. Back then, he transferred to the correspondence department because of his job and took the examinations. No information is available about him since then. 12 years have passed. But these 12 years passed like 12 days for us,” Eskulova said.
– Are you still waiting for him?
– Of course, I am… He was 21. He’s gone missing when he was in the May of his life and nothing is known about him since then.
Zhyldyzkan Eskulova is the member of the society of missing persons. The mother lives with pain in her heart and waits for the search activities to resume.
“If those people “above” were not so indifferent and were carrying out searches properly, we would have learned something new. I don’t want anyone to go through such a grief. Let no mother cry ever,” Eskulova said.
The resident of Aravan district of Osh region, Aibek Imenov, also lost a friend during the tragic June 2010 events. He still recalls his friend Baktyyar Kochkonbaev, a jack of all trades.
“We used to grow together, worked in Moscow together. A day before the disorders, I had met with him. Only Allah knows what his heart was filled with, what he wanted to share. His wife and I were searching for my friend for a long time, we visited all dead houses, but we failed to find him. Thought so many years have passed, we often recall him. His mother couldn’t stand the grief and died,” Imenov said.
Back then, Baktyyar Kochkonbaev lived in Aravan district and accidentally turned out to be in the centre of the events. His friends and fellow villages were looking for him on their own for two years, but to no avail.
Searches will never end
In addition to Semetei Akhmetov and Baktyyar Kochkonbaev, 15 more people minimum are considered missing during the Osh events. On June 10, 2010, the south of Kyrgyzstan experienced a major interethnic conflict between the ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, which will always remain the “Osh events” or “June tragedy” in the country’s history. It took lives of 446 people. Nearly two thousand people were wounded, 57 went missing, including 14 residents of Osh and Osh region and 3 residents of Djalal-Abad region who are still missing, according “Osh okuyasynyn daiynsyzdary” public assosiation. But according to the police of Osh and the Osh region, 33 people are listed as missing.
Are they alive or not – nothing is known about their fate. The head of public association “Mothers of missing children during the Osh events”, Burma Ashimova, said that many families do not believe that the police continue the search.
“The police have stopped searching a long time ago. 3-4 years ago. To be honest, the police do not want to see us. All I can say is that they have stopped working with us. They talked to us previously. And now we don’t even know their regular staff and their chiefs. Both city and regional police officers do not let us inside. Even local authorities do not want to see us,” Ashimova said.
However, the Osh City Police said to CABAR.asia that criminal cases are pending and searches are ongoing.
“Searches won’t stop until criminal cases are closed. People should not think that we stopped searches. At the meetings, we report to our chiefs about the results of the searches,” Zamir Sydykov, press secretary of the Osh City Directorate of Interior Affairs, said.
According to the Osh Regional Directorate of Interior Affairs, the searches are ongoing.
“According to law, we cannot stop our work until the searches are completed. Special leads have been sent to neighbouring and other countries,” Zhenish Ashirbaev, press secretary of the regional Directorate of Interior Affairs.
He also said that there were cases in their practice when people were found 10 or even 20 years later. According to him, there are suggestions that some of those who are considered missing today were involved in the 2010 disorders, and then departed the country under someone else’s documents.
“Cases were initiated on murders, looting, damage to property, etc. There are citizens who are accessory to these episodes. Back then, there were no digital video recorders, no witnesses. There are assumptions that people accessory to such crimes are on the run and hide in other countries,” Ashirbaev said.
Believe and wait
Just after the June 2010 disorders, local residents held searches on the riverside of Ak-Buura and in basements. But after the police initiated criminal cases and announced the searches, all independent actions stopped.
“How and where can ordinary citizens find the missing ones? It’s only police officers who can find such people as we don’t have necessary resources. Some were found 2-3 years later. Some digged out the bodies of their folks and took them away, others said prayers there. What can we say about searches of the missing ones if they tell us, ‘Stop recalling Osh events! They ended, don’t get back to them again!” Nasipa Zhanyzakova, head of public association “Osh sheitteri”, said.
The organisation emerged after the Osh events and its name means “Osh martyrs”. She helped the families of those injured during the events to get compensations and to search for the missing ones.
Some years after the tragedy, relatives of those missing took out to protest to be heard, addressed the government and the parliament, participated in the sessions and met with ex-presidents Roza Otunbaeva and Almazbek Atambaev. However, to no avail.
According to Nasipa Zhanyzakova, after the June 2010 events, the families of the deceased and injured received privileges for medical treatment, resort recreation, students could get a discount for university tuition fees. Later on, such privileges were cancelled.
“Every year, they allocated slender means on the Day of remembrance of Osh events. Then they stopped doing it. This year, we visited the presidential envoy for Osh region, Zyiadin Dzhamaldinov, and asked for financial support to pay tribute to those events. He said there would be no support, and all orders of the Interim Government were cancelled. And he kicked us out of his office,” Zhanyzakova said.
Lawyer Kalygul Saliev said that according to the law of Kyrgyzstan, a citizen can be declared deceased by court if no information has been available about him for three years.
“If a person goes missing under the circumstances that were deadly or that give ground for assuming their death from a certain accident, their death can be announced within six months,” he said.
Those injured in the June events received apartments from the state. If a family member is considered deceased, his relatives may qualify for the apartment privatisation. But the relatives of the missing ones do not give up hope and believe that their loved ones are alive and will get back home one day.
“They refused to obtain such a document and said that there is a big difference between the deceased and the missing one. ‘If a person has died, give us their body, otherwise, we won’t apply for a death certificate,’ they said. Therefore, they are still considered as missing,” Nasipa Zhanyzakova said.