Since Dale was employed as NHC´s representative in Bishkek in the spring of 2007, he and his office have been subjected to numerous harassments, including a police razzia of his office in June this year, a refusal of NHC´s application to register its office, a rejection of Dale´s application for an extension to his one-year-long visa, and a court trial to render this rejection invalid.
-When Dale came to Bishkek yesterday, he was told by staff at the immigration barriers that he would not be permitted entry to the country. No clear explanation was given for the refusal. We were unable to do anything about it. Dale had to spend the night at the airport, before he could board a plane to Istanbul, explains Engesland, left. -It seems that parts of the state bureaucracy in different ways try to prevent us from establishing ourselves in a proper way, he adds. Dale is on his way to Norway today.
Representatves from Norwegian authorities, the European Union, United States and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has gotten involved in the joinjt multinational attempt to resolve the tension between the NHC and Kyrgyzstani authorities. It has also been suggested that pressure from neighbouring countries of Kyrgyzstan, among them the very authoritarian regime of Uzbekistan, may have requested some of the harassment and thus added to NHC´s problems. Engesland comments that while this may be true, it is still the strongly critical elements inside the Kyrgyzstani state bureaucracy that may be considered the prime cause of their trouble.
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