Rally against Centerra held outside US Embassy in Bishkek

Bishkek, Aug. 17, 2021. / Kabar /. Active citizens of Kyrgyzstan organized a rally in defense of the Kumtor gold mine and against the Canadian Centerra Gold company was held outside the US Embassy in Bishkek.

The rally was attended by representatives of political movements and environmentalists.

Jamila Ishenbaeva, Ambassador of the Save the Tien Shan environmental movement, said that today she spoke at the embassy in Spanish so that more people would learn about the environmental violations committed by Centerra during the development of the Kumtor mine.

“I wanted to appeal to the world community, to all citizens of the world, to the American court, since this is a very important day for Kyrgyzstan. Today, Centerra's lawsuit against the Kyrgyz government begins. We want the trial to be fair, because Centerra Gold must be held accountable for all its atrocities, for multiple violations of environmental legislation, for destroying two whole glaciers - Davydov and Lysyi. Therefore, we hope that all this dirt and injustice will not go unpunished,” said the eco-activist.

The participants also recalled that the Canadian company had violations of the law in the field of taxation. According to a former Kumtor employee Kubanych Dzhumagulov, Centerra had been illegally withholding taxes from employees for 25 years, but did not pay them to the budget.

“Here is a letter, I wrote about it to the apparatus of the Jogorku Kenesh, I have a decision of the October court. I won in this case. There is a decision of the Supreme Court that I was right,” Dzhumagulov said.

Leader of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, Klara Azhibekova, said that embassy officials and the ambassador in particular should inform the New York court of all violations committed by Centerra.

Today, on August 17, the first trial between the government of Kyrgyzstan and Centerra Gold Inc. will take place in a New York court.