In their appeal, the veterans emphasize that the current legislation clearly defines statuses for participants in the war in Afghanistan, liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster, participants in the April and Aksy events, as well as the Tajik-Afghan conflict. However, the defenders of Batken do not have similar legal recognition.
“More than 25 years have passed since the end of the hostilities, but participants in the Batken war still remain without official veteran status. The current laws only provide terms for ‘participants in hostilities on the territory of other states,’” the veterans' appeal states.
The association calls for the consideration of granting official veteran status to participants in the hostilities in the Batken region in 1999-2000 and providing them with the social guarantees and benefits they are entitled to by law.
Additionally, the veterans request that the names of the fallen be immortalized at the state level.
Participants of the Batken events are confident that this decision will restore justice and serve as an important moral signal for future defenders of the country.
The issue of the rights of participants in the Batken events was raised today at a meeting of the Jogorku Kenesh. Deputies Saltanat Amanova and Seid Atambaev voiced the veterans' demands and urged the government to take control of resolving this issue.
- In 1999-2000, armed formations of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan entered the territory of Kyrgyzstan twice through the hard-to-reach passes of the Batken and Chon-Alai regions. A military operation involving about 2,000 Kyrgyz servicemen was conducted to eliminate them. As a result of these hostilities, 54 people died, and more than 130 were injured. These events are known in history as the Batken events.
