“We will destroy anyone who raises his head. If you try to complain, you will suffer the fate of those Pamiris arrested and executed. We order you to halt any kind of dissent or criticism of the government.”

Governor Alisher Mirzanabatov

On a warm spring day last May, an ominous news conference was held in the picturesque city of Khorog, the regional capital of Tajikistan’s autonomous mountain region of Badakhshan, and where protestors had been gathering by the hundreds to decry government injustices.  Speakers included senior officers of both the country’s internal security services and feared secret police, but the last word was by the region’s recently appointed governor, Alisher Mirzanabatov (Mirzonobot).  The grim faced, stocky governor and former deputy head of the Tajikistan secret police, warned that “criminal elements” were destabilizing the region and that protests needed to cease, or else action would be taken. 

A few days later, Mirzanabatov coordinated the launch of a campaign of ethnic cleansing – killing, arrests, torture, and silencing, that targeted the non-violent demonstrators and civil society leaders of the Pamiri ethnic minority. Most Pamiris are followers of Ismaili Shi’ite Islam, speak languages separate from Tajik and boast of an ancient cultural history that sets them apart from the majority Sunni Muslims of Tajikistan. A hardy, highly educated and peaceful people, the Pamiris inhabit the “rooftop of the world” – the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) that comprises 40 percent of the country.  

It is precisely their autonomy and insistence on being culturally separate but equal Tajik citizens, that set the Pamiris on a collision course with the aspirations of President-for-life Emomali Rahmon for complete control over a country that has essentially become his extended family’s fiefdom.  

Knowledgeable sources inside the security services describe how an escalating campaign against Pamiri autonomy gathered steam in November 2022 with the appointment of Mirzanabatov as governor, replacing a conciliatory Pamiri.  Secret police, civilian police, and government apparatchiks imposed increasingly repressive measures on the population, neighborhood “watch committees” were organized like those in communist Cuba, and security service officers humiliated Pamiris daily with threats, sexually abusive language toward women, and provocative insults of the Pamiris’ Ismaili faith and their spiritual leader the Aga Khan.  

The May 2022 new conference marked the long-planned launch of what a well-placed source access to the presidential office described as the “final solution” to the problem of Pamiri autonomy, and the perceived humiliating outside economic support the Pamiris had received by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), that employed thousands in health, education, rural development, and cultural institutions.  This, despite the decades of educational initiatives by the AKDN to inculcate the values of citizenship and national unity among Pamiri youth.

Two days after governor Mirzanabatov marched off the stage, Tajik military trucks and armored personnel carriers carrying units of both the dreaded Alpha Unites of the GKNB secret police, and elite units from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) descended on Pamiri protestors in the town of Vamar who were blocking their access to Khorog, 60 km to the south.  

The 18th May has become a day of infamy for Pamiris, as the security forces carried out a blood bath, shooting protestors not only from the ground, but also from circling helicopters with snipers who hunted down protestors fleeing to the mountains.  Sources estimate that around 40 persons were killed, and many more injured.  Others were arrested and tortured, some to in jail death, and their bodies dumped near the local hospital.  Videos of distraught and wailing relatives outside the hospital were smuggled out of the country.  

Proportional to the population of Pamiris, almost 300 Russians would have died, or almost 3,000 Chinese in a single incident.  What followed in the weeks and months after the Vamar massacre were the arrests of hundreds of Pamiris, many subjected to extreme torture, and then condemned to lengthy prison terms, including popular athletes, journalists, and religious leaders.  The community was further traumatized as the security forces systematically hunted down and killed all remaining informal community leaders who had once led self-defense militias during the bloody Tajik civil war of 1991-1997. They played a critical role in preserving community harmony, promoting cultural traditions, and allocating social aid to needy families.  Dozens of Pamiris, including leaders of the diaspora community in Russia, were extradited to Tajikistan to disappear into prison.  

Human rights researchers note that there is no evidence of any arrested Pamiri advocating violence against the state, or the overthrow of the regime.  These same researchers estimate that around 2,000 Pamiris are now imprisoned, including Pamiris arrested before 2022.  The economic impact of these numbers is incalculable, as families have had to sell their homes to move near their loved ones’ prisons far from GBAO in order to support them with food and medicine that is not provided by the prison authorities.  

The AKDN’s development projects have come under bureaucratic strangulation threatening the livelihoods of an estimated 3,000 breadwinners.  Small businessmen and merchants have been forced to shutter their companies, and religious ceremonies in homes forbidden.  Today, GBAO resembles North Korea, with its omnipresent surveillance cameras, forced cult of the President-for-Life Rahmon, mandatory marching parades, and somber town hall meetings led by governor Mirzanabatov and his police chief, who lecture sullen citizens about the merits of obeying the law.  Hundreds of families have abandoned their homes and fled to freedom in distant countries.

The post Ethnic Cleansing on the Rooftop of the World: Tajikistan’s Final Solution Against the Pamiris appeared first on Tashkent Citizen.

The unique Pamiri culture is under threat as a brutal state crackdown targets religious leaders and practices

It’s a year since Muzaffar Davlatmirov, a respected religious leader in the Gorno-Badakhshan region in Tajikistan, witnessed Tajik state forces brutalise his community as part of a long-running attempt to suppress the area’s religion, culture and anti-government protests.

Now, the 59-year-old Ismaili khalifa (cleric) from the regional capital, Khorog, is in prison, as are hundreds of other locals.

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), a mountainous and sparsely populated region covering the eastern half of Tajikistan, is home to the Pamiris, a minority ethnic group that follows the Ismaili branch of Shi’a Islam, who the central authorities have long distrusted.

On 16 May 2022, Davlatmirov saw the start of efforts by the Tajik military and law enforcement to tear Khorog apart. They killed at least 25 people in the process. Another 32 people were killed in the nearby village of Rushon, according to local journalist Anora Sarkorova.

It was the culmination of a long-running and violent attempt by the authorities in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital, to take control of GBAO.

Davlatmirov reportedly did not want to deal with Tajik state officials, and wanted to preserve the form and practice of the Ismaili faith; in short, he was dedicated to Pamiri culture.

This was bound to put him in conflict with the authorities – the majority of whom are Tajiks (the largest ethnic group in the country) and Sunni Muslims. Davlatmirov was arrested last July, towards the end of the law enforcement operation. Eight days later, at a closed trial, he was convicted of publicly calling for extremist activities and sentenced to five years in prison.

“In his sermons, [Davlatmirov] urged residents to be calm, but he also often criticised the illegal actions of the authorities,” said a close associate of Davlatmirov, speaking under condition of anonymity to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tajik service.

But no evidence has been produced to show that Davlatmirov was calling for extremism. He never did so during previous periods of violence in GBAO – for example, in 2012-13, when dozens of people were killed in fighting between government forces and local groups in the aftermath of the killing of a local security chief.

“So many of our people were killed,” one person (who asked to remain anonymous) told openDemocracy. They knew Davlatmirov and remembered that time, adding that he “was one of those bearing the bodies [to the grave].”

Many in GBAO believe Davlatmirov was imprisoned for performing funerals for influential local leaders killed during the 2022 security operation, despite the government warning him not to do so.

“Law enforcement agencies did not like his fight for justice, and the fact that Davlatmirov was respected by both residents and informal leaders of the region,” the RFE/RL source said.

Once again, Davlatmirov put his faith and people before the state, but it seems it was one time too many for the government.

A unique culture under threat

Difficult to reach even now, the rugged landscape of GBAO is home to a unique culture. Pamiris are a pocket of Shiite Muslims surrounded by Sunni Muslims, though their presence in the region is believed to predate Islam by several hundred years. Pamiris speak eastern Iranian languages that are distinct from the two main Iranian languages of the region, Tajik and Dari.

Now this culture in the high mountains of Central Asia is heading towards extinction, and Davlatmirov might end up being one of the last khalifas of GBAO.

Several influential community leaders were killed in the events of May/June 2022, while hundreds of GBAO’s best and brightest — journalists, bloggers, activists, lawyers, even a poet – are now in prison, following secret trials similar to that of Davlatmirov.

The Tajik authorities initially said the security operation was targeting “terrorists acting with foreign support”, but that claim soon disappeared from the state’s narrative. Most of the 100-plus Pamiris now in prison have been convicted of “extremism” or connections to “extremist groups”.

In the past, the Tajik government has accused informal local leaders in GBAO of running “criminal groups”. Residents turn to these people for help when dealing with state-appointed local officials, or finding employment; they are not considered criminals by the local population, who tend to view the soldiers and security forces as the lawless element in the region.

The most likely reason for the Tajik government’s brutal campaign is that it was never able to control GBAO to the extent that it does the rest of Tajikistan. Despite being neglected economically – it’s the poorest region in the country – it had one of the liveliest civil societies in Central Asia. Until last May, it was the only region where there were still protests against government policies.

That culture is now under direct assault. The authorities ordered the closure of Ismaili prayer houses in May 2022 as the violence started, and then proceeded to ban prayer meetings in private homes. People can still pray at official centres – but there are only two of these in the whole country, in Khorog and Dushanbe – and they are no longer allowed to run cultural and educational activities.

Davlatmirov was at the forefront of the resistance to this, according to an independent journalist from GBAO. The Tajik government did not like Davlatmirov, they claimed, because he “did not accept their interference in religious affairs”.

Khorog officials have told Ismaili elders to inform their community that all portraits of their spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, must be removed from homes. Most of the improvements in GBAO since Tajikistan became independent in 1991 are due to the Aga Khan’s philanthropic foundation, the Aga Khan Development Network (ADKN).

The AKDN funded the construction of hydropower plants that provide electricity to remote communities, parks and the University of Central Asia in Khorog. It has also funded research into hybrid crops that can grow at the region’s high altitudes.

The Aga Khan was once welcomed in Tajikistan, even by President Rahmon (who has been in power since the fall of the Soviet Union), but since 2012 he has not been allowed to visit the country and the government is working hard to reduce his influence in GBAO.

This is all happening in plain sight. There has been strong criticism from international rights agencies over events in GBAO, but the Tajik government has shrugged this off.

There have not been any serious diplomatic repercussions for Tajik authorities for their brutal campaign against the Pamiris. If the Tajik state’s policies continue unabated, this ancient culture of the remote mountains will cease to exist.

Source: Opendemocracy

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