Blue Domes: Conscripts in Central Asia dangerous obligation

The report states that soldiers across Central Asia, particularly conscripts, face serious dangers from bullying, hazing, beatings, accidents and psychological pressure, and that these factors account for a large share of deaths and injuries in the region’s armed forces. It opens with the 18 August 2022 gunshot death of 19-year-old Syrgak Sabyrbekov at Kyrgyzstan’s Military Institute, where the guard commander was later arrested on suspicion of murder, and documents further deaths and suicides in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan that families attributed to beatings or foul play despite official “accident” or “suicide” verdicts. The report describes sexual harassment in the ranks, citing the Kazakh soldier Aighanym Elshibayeva, dismissed after rejecting her commander’s advances, and notes that more than 30 Turkmen military personnel died in a 2021 traffic incident near Ashgabat. Focusing on Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as the region’s most authoritarian states, the report states that Tajik men aged 18 to 27 are forcibly conscripted, often abducted from their homes or workplaces by plainclothes officers, and that only those able to pay a 25,000 somoni fine (around $2,400) can legally avoid the two-year service. It adds that in Turkmenistan, officers seize students during final exams or from their homes; postponing service reportedly costs close to $6,000 in bribes, and families who cannot pay see sons posted to the Afghan border.