Police in Kyrgyzstan are probing a gruesome case of underage sexual violence involving an underage girl who was allegedly raped repeatedly by numerous men near the capital, Bishkek.
The horrific case underscores a longstanding problem in the Central Asian nation of nearly 7 million where dozens of children annually fall victim to rape and other forms of sexual abuse.
Activists, the parents of victims, and many ordinary Kyrgyz accuse the government of failing to tackle sexual violence against children, an intractable issue in Kyrgyz society.
A review of multiple cases in recent years shows that some rape victims committed suicide, others were forced into “marrying” their rapists, and some were bullied into silence by attackers or even by police. Many were forced to relocate from their hometowns to escape perceived shame by neighbors and even family members in the conservative society.
It is a widespread belief that many more cases go unreported than those that are registered because victims are ashamed to speak out, families decide not disclose it to avoid disgrace, or simply due to their mistrust in police.
The parents of the recent high-profile case in the village of Sokuluk -- just outside Bishkek -- claim that as many as 10 men systematically raped their daughter starting in April 2023 and threatened her into staying silent.
They also claim that they first discovered about her ordeal in February after she disappeared for 20 days before she was found by Bishkek police being kept in a hotel.
Deeply traumatized by what she had endured, the girl, now 14, is currently being supported by psychologists and other specialists at the Sezim crisis center. The office of the national ombudsman has hired a defense lawyer for her.
“She had tried to take her own life by slashing her wrists,” Sezim Director Bubusara Ryskulova told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service. “What she has suffered is unendurable.”
Lack Of Trust In Police And Courts
In another high-profile case in Bishkek, a 13-year-old girl was raped by two policemen, including an inspector in charge of the protection of children.
The two officers and two other men were convicted last year of repeatedly raping the minor between August 2021 and February 2022.
According to the victim and her family’s testimony, the police officers first encountered the girl when a shopkeeper reported her to police for allegedly shoplifting.
The policemen detained her, demanded she pay money, and raped her when she couldn’t pay the exorbitant sum. They then threatened that she would be arrested for many years if she told anyone about the situation. The officers also passed the victim to others, including a bazaar guard and a waiter.
The systematic rape continued until the family of the victim read the policemen’s threatening messages on her phone and reported it to authorities.
Amid public protests, the child-protection inspector was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison. But his sentence was later reduced to seven-and-half years, prompting criticism that courts had treated the rapists lightly. The other three attackers were also sentenced to up to nine years in prison.
In March 2023, Bishkek police chief Azamat Nogoibaev angered many when he blamed underage rape victims for what he called “willingly” getting involved with their potential abusers.
“The girls themselves get acquainted with certain people, willingly sleep with them, and then we have these kinds of situations in hand as the result,” he said, commenting on a child rape case.
The remark -- dubbed by one activist a “green light” for men to rape -- was met by protests and calls for his resignation. Nogoibaev was fired several months later due to an unrelated issue.
Some victims’ families claim police often try to sweep child rape cases under the carpet, possibly in lieu of being bribed.
In 2021, a teenage victim committed suicide when police in Bishkek refused to detain her attacker and claimed the sex was consensual, even though the victim was only 13 years old. Only after her death was a new probe launched and two policemen and a forensic officer taken into custody for falsifying the victim’s testimony.
'National Tragedy'
In another harrowing case in the Batken region in September 2022, villagers found the body of a 14-year-old girl dumped in a canal. A forensic exam showed she had been gang-raped before being strangled to death.
The case prompted calls by some lawmakers to reinstate the death penalty for those who rape children.
Lawmaker Yrysbek Atazhanov said the incident was a “national tragedy but not an isolated case,” demanding that the penalty for such crimes be capital punishment.
The Batken incident occurred a month after Kyrgyzstan introduced tougher punishment for child abuse. The new law extended prison terms and increased fines for those convicted of crimes against children. Kyrgyz prosecutors that year reported 55 cases of sexual assault against children.
Meanwhile in Bishkek, the Sezim crisis center is calling for the probe into the latest case in Sokuluk to be transferred from the local police to the capital to ensure the case is properly handled.
“It has not been ruled out that the relatives of the suspected rapists work in influential places and we’re concerned they might put pressure on the investigation,” Ryskulova said.
Earlier, the office of the national ombudsman accused the relatives of the suspects of “threatening” the family of the victim.
Upon learning about the incident, the girl's relatives filed a complaint with Sokuluk district police on the same day, February 12. But they claim police did not take any action so they contacted the ombudsman’s office. The story then went public and, they say, the investigation finally started. Police deny not investigating after initially being contacted.
Police in Sokuluk said they have arrested two of the suspects and were looking for eight others, most of them believed to be in their 20s.
Many of the same problems regarding the handling of sexual violence cases exists in other Central Asian countries as well.
In neighboring Uzbekistan, two regional government officials were jailed last year for sexually abusing three teenage girls at a foster care home for at least 10 months in 2021. The minors in the Khorezm region were reportedly forced to have sex with officials by their foster mother, who also beat and starved the girls when they protested.
In a similar case, an orphanage was closed down in the Uzbek city of Marghelon in 2018 after it was revealed that children were being sexually and physically abused by staff members. At least 10 people were imprisoned for beating and raping the children under their care, forcing minors to have abortions, and stealing the funds provided by the government and donors.
