NEWS / analyst. Few people in Kyrgyzstan surprise news that one of the powers that be listening to their phone conversations. Surveillance by the authorities is widely recognized as the legacy of Soviet times. Human rights defenders were also interested in the technical details of the property: who deals specifically with wiretapping?
As is clear from the report of the Bishkek public foundation “Civil Initiative on Internet Policy” (RP CIIP) for 2011, to monitor telephone and Internet connection Kyrgyz citizens have a legal right to more than 11 government agencies. Director OF CIIP Tattu Mambetalieva among others believe that the right to listen, as well as the appropriate equipment should be given one single state structure.
Back in 2008, when then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the successor to the Soviet KGB – the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) – “began to install special equipment to track incoming and outgoing [phone and Internet] traffic. When we asked them, on the basis of what legislation is set on this equipment, we were not able to provide the relevant documents, “- says Tatu Mambetalieva.
Today, legal uncertainty is complicated by the blurring of responsibilities. A variety of ministries and departments such as the Ministry of Defence, Customs and Border Protection Service have access to the monitoring equipment produced in Russia under the name of “The system of search operations”, known under its Russian-speaking reduction “Lawful.” According to recent magazine Wired Magazine, SORM was developed in 1980-1990’s of the Soviet KGB.
Agencies that have access to the system hardware SORM, have the capacity to monitor and record all Internet traffic in Kyrgyzstan, as well as, according to the study of PF CIIP, all telephone connections to mobile and landline phones. However, few people believe that people who experience financial difficulties Kyrgyz government has the resources to screen such a mass of information. Tattoo Mambetalieva and other activists are concerned that a different kind. Tattoo Mambetalieva not believe that Russia has provided this equipment, “not leaving himself a key.”
Moscow has a huge impact on the policy of Kyrgyzstan. It is widely believed that she put her hand to expel Bakiyev in early 2010. If the Kremlin has also access to phone calls and Internet connections, for example, the Kyrgyz political leaders, its effect could be even greater.
Director IT-PF programs CIIP Artem Goryainova inspires concern the question of where the data is received on the way, for example, the mobile operator (where installed equipment SNSC SORM) to one of the many law enforcement agencies have access to the equipment. He is skeptical of the idea that the Kyrgyz authorities also possess such information. “If there are any gaps … this information can go to the side, and have the opportunity to control the system [Lawful] from outside,” – he said.
Simply put, the Kyrgyz authorities failed to properly lack in their listening devices more wiretaps, says Information Security Consultant from Bishkek Anton Kirsanov. “Maybe a few keys that enable remote access to the system. If no one has carefully studied the code, and does not know how the system works, then these pages: [backdoor remote backdoors] may exist for years, “- he said.
While some may dread the idea and that Moscow secretly watching direction CD, hard evidence for this is not yet available. And almost nothing you can do about it, but to opt out of the system, which is unlikely.
Relatively progressive member of the “Ar-Namys” Dastan Bekeshev shares the view that the use of SORM to be controlled, but the system itself, as such, it actively supports. Ask if you need a SORM, “is like asking whether we need to fight crime. SORM is, in fact, a system, “- he said EurasiaNet.org.
At the moment, activists have focused on the issue of domestic legislation, trying to determine who was in Kyrgyzstan uses this equipment. When, soon after the ouster of Bakiyev has surfaced on the web a number of secretly recorded conversations between some of the members of the new management (indicating the possible involvement of some of them in corruption scandals), no one knew who throws such tricks and over whom. Who does this, Russia? – Ask questions alone. Bakiyev? – Ask a friend. After an argument or opposition leaders, suddenly came to power?
On the advice of PF legislators CIIP is developing a bill that would authorize work with SORM only one institution (which is not known, but most likely it will be the National Security Committee), and only by a court and only in some cases. The Cabinet also produces a resolution that would oblige the National Security Committee before taking the appropriate authority to obtain the consent of all the government agencies that have access to the equipment. Preceding the bill, which was intended to help resolve work with SORM, stalled in a climate of political turmoil occurring in Kyrgyzstan in 2010.
Contact spokesman SNSC November 7 failed, although representatives of the agency publicly expressed its support to the idea of how to use the equipment settlement SORM and insisted that that helps prevent crime and terrorism.
One of the potential stumbling blocks to the implementation of this reform is accountability courts and their role in the process of issuing sanctions to audition. Under the current law, most – but not all – cases of listening must be done with a court order to establish the appropriate equipment. However, the courts are known lack of independence of Kyrgyzstan and a tendency to act in accordance with the prosecutor’s office, inherited from the Soviet era. According to local observers, these factors can make a relatively simple task before some high-ranking official of the power department, which needs quickly and quietly (or even retroactively) to obtain from any court middling approval to wiretap .
As long as the courts, the prosecutors and the National Security Committee will not be subjected to systemic reform and will not be made transparent mechanisms of checks and balances, no one should have access to such a serious system as SORM, says a respected leader of the coalition “For Democracy and Civil Society” Dinara Oshurakhunova.
Kyrgyz courts to ensure the accountability of the National Security Committee, she said. In her view, SORM is for certain influential figures just one way of breaking the law, not his defense: “SORM is used as an instrument of political pressure, and its use should be discontinued,” – says Dinara Oshurakhunova.
Translated by Google Translate
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