# State Committee for National Security (Kyrgyzstan)

The State Committee for National Security (SCNS-KR) is the national agency responsible for intelligence on counter terrorism and organised crime in Kyrgyzstan. In carrying out this task, it carries out both preventive and investigative measures against organized terrorism and crime. The chairman of the UKMK is a military officer and a member of the Security Council of Kyrgyzstan. It is currently based on 70 Erkindik Street, Bishkek.

## Official tasks

The activities of the UKMK include:
* Conducting counterintelligence
* Gathering intelligence on terrorist organizations, drug traffickers and analyzing national security information (including conducting covert action)
* Securing information
* Suppress the activities of harmful organizations
* Uncovering espionage and corrupt activities
* Extraction and deliver secret information related to organized criminal and terrorist groups
* Carry out the protection of the state border
* Carry out the protection of economic and legal interests in Kyrgyzstan
* Encrypted communication systems for government institutions
* Seizing any type of illegal activities and organizations
* Disarming and securing corrupted systems and people who messed with it

## History

The history of the modern Kyrgyz intelligence services dates back to December 1917, when the communist All-Russian Emergency Commission (VChK) was formed. A year later, on the Pishpek district investigation commission was established. After national delimitation occurred in the early 1920s, Regional State Political Directorate of the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was created. Later on the Committee for State Security (KGB) of the Kyrgyz SSR was formed, which served as the republican affiliate for the national KGB agency. On 20 November 1991, President Askar Akayev signed a presidential decree establishing the UKMK. Since 2007 after the Tulip Revolution, the State Committee for National Security has been operating in its current form.
In August 2002, the State Border Guard Service was established as a part of the UKMK, having been merged with the Main Border Guard Directorate of the Ministry of Defense and the Main Directorate of Border Control of the UKMK that day. This was done to have a more centralised intelligence system in Kyrgyzstan. In the years that followed, the UKMK would have little influence on the border guard service until it was finally removed from the National Security Committee on 4 September 2012, it was and was re-established as an independent department in the government.

## Special Forces

The UKMK controls the Alpha anti-terrorist unit, which like all former Soviet countries refers to a top-secret special forces unit. The unit helps deliver on the tasks listed above. In August 2010, fighters of the unit went on strike in protest against the arrest of their former chief Almaz Dzholdoshaliyev. They appealed to President Roza Otunbayeva with a demand to change the measure of restraint for the detained UKMK officers. In response, the Prosecutor General's Office opened criminal cases against nine employees of the unit, accusing them of shooting at demonstrators during the Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010.

## Criticisms
### Political repression

Following his party's success in the 2010 Kyrgyz parliamentary election, on 23 October, the home of Kamchybek Tashiev was burglarized. He later stated to Al Jazeera that "they broke in like bandits" and "tried to eliminate me", adding that "for sure, GSNB [security services] was behind these actions." Tashiev later became Chairman of the UKMK.

## Chairman

* Idris Kadyrkulov (20 April 2018 – 15 May 2019)
* Orozbek Opumbayev (June 2019 – 9 October 2020)
* Kamchybek Tashiev (since 16 October 2020)

## Awards

Since its establishment, the UKMK has sported many commemorative awards such as the following:
* Breastplate "70 years of the Chief Directorate of the National Security Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic in the city of Bishkek"
* Breastplate "Mildet" (means "Order" or "Duty")
* Medal "100 years of Kyrgyz security services"

## Related security services in foreign countries

* Russia – Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
* United States – National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation
* Israel – Shin Bet
* Ukraine – Security Service of Ukraine
* Belarus – State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus
* Kazakhstan – National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan
* France – General Directorate for Internal Security and Directorate-General for External Security