Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajik military strikes cause protests

MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s restive southeast is threatening to boil over again after a special forces operation near Khorog, capital of Gorno-Badakhshan region, led to four deaths and a week of protests.

The deaths and the subsequent protests underline the difficulty that Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon has in imposing central government will on this restive part of the country.

The target of the operation was given as drug traffickers. That, though, may have been a euphemism for a local anti-government warlord.

The special forces operation killed two people in broad daylight and injured several others, angering locals who then protested and tried to storm the security forces headquarters. Reports said that two protesters were killed and more injured when security forces fired on the crowd.

The whole operation is reminiscent of a security operation in the same area two years ago. Back then, the army had to virtually close off the area and engage in street to street fighting with rebels. Dushanbe may have committed another blunder in a part of the country where its authority has been limited ever since a civil war in the 1990s.

Gorno-Badakhshan, whose population backed the ill-fated United Tajik Opposition in that conflict, is a hub of anti-government resentment.

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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Russia bolsters forces in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

MAY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia views Central Asia as an imminent conflict zone and has bolstered operations at its military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said at the third Moscow Conference on International Security.

The Kant air base outside Bishkek, he said, in particular had seen a significant increase in manpower and airpower in the past couple of years.

This coincides with the US drawdown from its own airbase outside Bishkek as operations to Afghanistan have slowed.

But neither Moscow’s airbase at Kant nor its military installation outside Dushanbe, Tajikistan, both operating under the auspices of the Russia-led regional security group the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), have played any major role in ensuring Central Asian stability. During revolution and ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, as well as clashes between pro and anti-government forces in Tajikistan’s east in 2012, the Russians were nowhere to be seen.

Mr Shoigu’s comments could be interpreted as a sign that Moscow is readying to become a regional security guarantor now that Washington is exiting the region.

That said, the comments may also just be another round of posturing by Russia in its so-called near abroad.

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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Tajik President flying to Bahrain

MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon flew to Bahrain for the start of an official thee day visit. It is his first trip to Bahrain and comes shortly after he signed a deal with Kuwait to improve relations. Mr Rakhmon is likely to sign a similar deal in Bahrain.

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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Tajikistan to work on economy with Afghanistan

May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and Afghanistan are discussing setting up economic free zones, media reported after a meeting between their economy ministers in Dushanbe. Although no agreements were signed, this is a sign that Central Asian states want to incorporate Afghanistan into their economic area.

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

China increases mining activities in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon held talks in Dushanbe with Wan Zhenhua of Zijin Mining’s Zarafshon copper-gold- silver mining company in Khujand, Tajikistan (May 19).

Reports made the meeting sound rather Soviet. They listed the various social achievements which included finding work for 2,000 people since 2007 and noting that Chinese investment has reached $235m. The mine now produces half Tajikistan’s total gold production.

But the real story is elsewhere.

Typically, gold mining projects can take up to seven years to become profitable, while red tape surrounding license issuance and political unrest in Central Asia can considerably extend timeframes.

State-owned Zijin, China’s largest gold producer, also owns a gold mine in Kyrgyzstan’s Chui province. In Kyrgyzstan, Zijin had to evacuate roughly 250 employees from their operation in Orlovka village, Chui, in 2012 when one of their excavators reportedly killed a local’s horse, triggering an attack on the company’s offices.

Given the reluctance of other foreign investors to mine in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, some believe China’s interest in mining projects is about strategic control of mineral wealth in the two countries, rather than money.

“Chinese companies take on projects that in my mind are not profitable,” Valentin Bogdetski, head of the Kyrgyz Miners Association told the Conway Bulletin.

“Last year, a Chinese firm won a license for an iron ore concession in Zhetim-Too [Naryn province]. But this ore has little market value, so why do they want the license?”

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Tajik conscript dies

May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- A Tajik army conscript who died in April was beaten to death, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) website reported. RFE/RL also reported that another army conscript has been paralysed from being beaten. Bullying and beatings are a major problem in militaries across the former Soviet Union.

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Floods hit south Tajikistan

MAY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Floods have heavily damaged parts of southern Tajikistan, along the border with Afghanistan, media reported. The Afghan side has been far worse effected with reports saying that a mudslide hit a village killing several hundred people. In Tajikistan, reports said that hundreds of families in remote villages had been cut off.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Kyrgyzstan plots CU membership

MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s government said that it had drafted a road map for its entry into the Russia-led Customs Union (CU). The economic union also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus. Armenia also plans to join this year. Kyrgyzstan’s membership of the CU should also allow Tajikistan to join.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

World Bank endorses Tajik hydroelectric projects

MAY 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with Tajik media outlet Asia Plus, Jorg Frieden, executive director at the World Bank in charge of its projects in Central Asia, underscored the eggshells the Bank and other international organisations must tread over when dealing with large scale energy projects in the region.

The Bank’s endorsement of hydroelectric projects, whether from a technical or financial point of view, is particularly important for Tajikistan, a country full of hydro potential, but with a track record of failing to attract foreign investment.

Dushanbe is also locked in a perennial conflict over its hydropower ambitions with downstream Uzbekistan. Uzbek President Islam Karimov has said that upstream dams in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan could trigger water wars if constructed.

The World Bank has already pledged $526m towards CASA-1000, a project that aims to deliver power from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to electricity-deficient Afghanistan and Pakistan further south.

Mr Frieden reiterated the bank’s support for CASA-1000 while acknowledging that Uzbekistan strongly opposed it.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Kyrgyz – Tajik border row flares

MAY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An on-off border row between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has flared up again, according to media reports.

Around 60 people were injured in a fight between villagers on each side of the border. Various cargo and trucks were destroyed.

This is a potentially dangerous issue and could destabilise the restive southern edge of Kyrgyzstan and the wider Ferghana Valley region, the most densely populated area of Central Asia.

Talks between the two governments over the delimitation of the 300km-long disputed border have been moving, at a sluggish pace, through out the year.

In January, a shootout between opposing forces injured several soldiers. As with many parts of Central Asia, the borders around southern Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan appear to have been draw up to generate strife and problems. Communities of different nationalities intersect each other; enclaves generate flashpoints.

As well as adding to the daily inconveniences experienced by communities living close to the border, the clashes hurt big business. In March South-Kyrgyz-Cement reported that sales had fallen as a result of Kyrgyzstan’s closure of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border, which lasted over two months after the Jan. 11 shootout.

A Kyrgyz-owned gas station and containers carrying cement and coal were among the property burned during in the most recent conflict.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)