Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan work on border dispute

APRIL 12 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Working groups of the Tajik and Kyrgyz governments met in Dushanbe to decide on the demarcation of the disputed borders between the two countries ahead of a meeting between two two presidents in May.

Both sides have talked up the new round of negotiations as a potential breakthrough deal. Of the 970-kilometre border Tajikistan shares with Kyrgyzstan, 451km remain disputed.

Most of the contested areas are fertile lands, which are a key assets for the rural population in a region still marred with conflict.

In one of the latest clashes, last July, a Tajik civilian was killed during a shootout between Tajik and Kyrgyz border-guards.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who wished to remain anonymous said governments had only now sat down seriously to discuss the border row because of heightened tension.

“The conflict has now escalated and both sides have started using weapons. Both governments realised that they can no longer ignore the problem,” the analyst said.

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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Tajikistan’s Somon Air to fly to Af-Pak

APRIL 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Somon Air, the only private carrier in Tajikistan, said it will open two new routes to Afghanistan and Pakistan, another indicator of how Central and South Asia are moving closer together. Somon Air will fly once a week to Kabul and twice a week to Lahore, in western Pakistan. The company also said it is exploring the possibility of opening a new flight to Tehran.

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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Tajik and Kyrgyz migration start to rise

APRIL 8 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Migration from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Russian cities rose in April, signalling an improvement in Russia’s economy and also, potentially, giving all-important remittance flows back to Central Asia a boost.

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan marked an increase of 0.2% and 1.8% in the number of migrants in Russia compared to the same time last year, according to official statistics from the Russian Federal Migration Service. It recorded its data on April 6.

The rise may be small but it is important as it breaks a downward trend over the past 18 months. Also, official figures only report on a portion of the total migrant population as a large part of it is illegal. When official statistics go up, analysts believe the overall number of migrants grows even faster.

Together with Uzbekistan, which recorded the same number of people living in Russia this year as 2015, people from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan represent the most important migrant populations from Central Asia. The home countries of these migrant workers depend heavily on remittances from their migrant workers.

Migrant numbers to Russia had slowed significantly in the past two years due to tougher migration policies and a sharp depreciation in the rouble at the end of 2014, linked to a fall in oil prices and a recession. The drop in the value of the rouble also depressed the value of remittances that migrants were sending home.

This year, though, the rouble has gained around 17% against the US dollar since the low point of 81/$1 in mid-January and the economic situation in Russia appears to have improved enough to attract migrants once again.

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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Coup trials start in Tajikistan

APRIL 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan sentenced Alisher Nazarov, nephew of former deputy defence minister Abdukhalim Nazarzoda to 3-1/2 years in prison, in what marks the beginning of a series of trials of people accused of a coup attempt last September. Nazarzoda, who allegedly led the armed insurrection, was reportedly killed on Sept. 15 by the Tajik army. The apparent coup attempt lead to a crackdown on Islamists across the country and a ban on supporting religious parties.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Tajik MPs wish to celebrate President’s day

APRIL 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -A group of Tajik MPs proposed a bill to establish a holiday to celebrate President Emomali Rakhmon. The new holiday, which could be called either President’s Day or the Day of the Leader of the Nation, would further entrench Mr Rakhmon’s presence in Tajikistan’s public life. Last December, the Parliament passed a law to give Mr Rakhmon the title of Leader of the Nation.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Man dies after questioning by Tajik police

APRIL 3 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — The death of a 27- year-old man after he had been questioned by Tajik police has sparked a row over police brutality in Tajikistan.

Bunyod Mirzoyev was found hanged after three days of police questioning over his apparent links to the Islamic extremist group IS. His family and friends said that police tortured him to try to extract a confession and had then killed him to try and hide the evidence.

The accusation triggered a forthright response from the police who issued a statement saying that they were on the receiving end of slander and that opponents of the authorities were trying to use the death of Mirzoyev to discredit the police.

Instead, the Tajik police said Mirzoyev had hanged himself from a tree when he returned home after being questioned.

“The suicide of B. Mirzoyev is currently under investigation by the prosecution,” the police said.

Still, human rights groups have long complained about police brutality in Tajikistan.

In 2012, Amnesty International released a report about the Tajik police’s use of torture to extract confessions.

“The torture methods used by the security forces are shocking: involving electric shocks, boiling water, suffocation, beatings, burning with cigarettes, rape and threats of rape – the only escape is to sign a confession or sometimes to pay a bribe ,” it said.

And it’s not difficult to find people who have had first hand experience of it.

A 32-year-old worker, said that the police beat people even if they have not done anything. “They can beat you up so hard that you will confess that you killed Lenin,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

New refinery opens in Tajikistan

MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new refinery opened in Tajikistan’s northern town of Kanibadam, a major boost to the country’s oil products output. Naftrasom, a private company owned by Nosir Usmonov, built the plant with a $3.5m investment. The refinery will have a capacity of 70,000 tonnes. As confirmed by Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, who attended the inauguration, Tajikistan will import raw materials for the plant, mostly from Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Tajik migrant workers appear to be most vulnerable to IS recruitment

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – DUSHANBE — In an apparent effort to shift responsibility for radicalisation away from Tajikistan, the Tajik Prosecutor General, Yusuf Rakhmon, said that around 85% of Tajik citizens who have joined IS in Syria and Iraq were migrant workers recruited in Russia.

Mr Rakhmon also told the state- owned Jumuhuriyat newspaper that official calculations showed 1,094 Tajik citizens fighting for IS.

Tajikistan has been criticised recently for being a soft touch for IS recruiters. Last year a highly regarded Tajik police chief, who had previously travelled to the United States on training missions, joined IS, handing the extremist group one of its biggest publicity coups.

Mr Rakhmon’s comments are important as, although independent research has suggested that disgruntled Tajik migrant workers who have been losing their jobs in the Russian recession are vulnerable to IS recruitment, there has previously been no official acknowledgement of the issue.

Also, the number of Tajik recruits to IS is higher than Mr Rakhmon has previously noted. In June, he said that there were around 400 Tajik fighters with IS. This was updated in November by the Tajik security service which said that 700 Tajiks had joined IS, although 300 had been killed.

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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Tajik power company owes $80m

MARCH 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik hydropower company Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the 670MW Sangtuda plant on the Vakhsh river, said Barqi Tojik, the national power company, owes it 562m somoni ($71m) for electricity. Russia’s state-owned Inter RAO owns 75% of Sangtudinskaya GES-1. Tajikistan’s energy ministry owns the remaining 25% of the company.

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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Afghans free Tajik captives

MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alleged drug smugglers from Afghanistan freed two Tajik road workers they had kidnapped last week. The Tajik border service said in a statement that the two men were caught during a cross border raid and were released after a ransom was paid. Tajikistan is concerned about worsening security around its border with Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)