Representatives of non-governmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan have approached the country's top leadership with an initiative to denounce the Agreement on the construction of a biolaboratory in Bishkek, signed in 2008.
The appeal, addressed to President Sadyr Japarov and the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Akylbek Japarov, has been sent to the Administration of the President of Kyrgyzstan.
The agreement on cooperation in the field of biological protection and biological safety between the governments of Kyrgyzstan and Canada was signed on August 22, 2008. The law on the ratification of the document was passed by the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan on December 26 of the same year, and it was signed by Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the then-President of Kyrgyzstan, on February 6, 2009.
In 2011, the country’s public, along with several members of parliament and the Bishkek City Council, strongly opposed the implementation of the project, i.e., the construction of a BSL3 standard biolaboratory in Bishkek and in the country as a whole, with the participation of Canada, which led to the suspension of the project. However, the document was not officially denounced by either the Kyrgyz or Canadian side.
According to civil activists and experts, due to the absence of a legally formalized note on the denunciation of the Agreement, its provisions pose serious risks for Kyrgyzstan in addressing issues related to ensuring the country's biological security and fulfilling Kyrgyzstan's multilateral international obligations in this area.
It is noted that the decision to appeal to the President and the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan with this initiative was made on July 3, 2024, by participants of the roundtable "Kyrgyzstan's Priority Tasks in Ensuring Regional Biosafety," organized by the Center for Expert Initiatives "Oy Ordo."
The initiative received support from members of the Kyrgyz Parliament, public associations and non-governmental organizations, civil activists, experts, journalists, and ordinary citizens of the country.
“We must ensure that the agreement with Canada, shortsightedly signed in 2008, is declared invalid, as it violates the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan and hinders our country's fulfillment of multilateral international obligations. At the very least, because there is a clause that allows various dangerous strains to be brought into our country, allegedly for peaceful research purposes. But we clearly see the current global situation and how these pathogens can be used for completely different purposes, such as the production of biological weapons that could be directed against us,” said Anara Dautalieva, head of the NGO "Taza Tabigat."
This view was supported by systems analyst Murat Musabayev: “When we signed the Agreement in 2008 to build a biological laboratory in our country, we may not have fully understood the risks and potential danger of such an undertaking. But years later, after experiencing the coronavirus pandemic, it became clear that such projects have a single common source of funding, and it is related to military objectives.”
According to him, responsible politicians should have long since opened their eyes to these things and taken measures to correct the mistakes of their predecessors.
“We must understand that everything changes, the world itself has changed, and time brings its corrections to global processes. If we continue to understand events at the same level as before, it will affect the security of the entire country and create threats for neighboring states. Therefore, such things must be prevented in advance, not waiting for their consequences,” the expert added.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
September 18, 2024