“The ongoing persecution and human rights violations against the Pamiri minority in Tajikistan reached an alarming scale years ago. But there is almost no one to ring the alarm bell. The Tajikistani authorities stifle virtually all information from the region, while the international community has largely overlooked this serious human rights crisis. It demands immediate attention and action from the international community to safeguard the rights and dignity of the Pamiri people,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 

The ongoing persecution and human rights violations against the Pamiri minority in Tajikistan reached an alarming scale years ago. But there is almost no one to ring the alarm bell

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Tajikistan: Reprisals against Pamiri minority, suppression of local identity, clampdown on all dissent highlights the violations of economic, social and cultural rights resulting from: the crackdown on Pamiri languages, cultural practices, and identities; the heavy presence of security forces from other regions of Tajikistan; violent repression of protest and widespread arbitrary detention; and socioeconomic marginalization faced by the Pamiri Ismaili community in Gorno-Badakhshan. 

Discrimination and securitization 

The central authorities have promoted a culture of prejudice against Pamiris. A state-sponsored narrative depicts them negatively, particularly Ismailis, leading to widespread discrimination. This policy manifests in repressive practices, including suppressing the use of Pamiri languages in media, education, and public life, excluding Pamiris from influential positions within the state administration and security apparatus, and extortion and destruction of local employment opportunities and Pamiri businesses. 

The heavy presence of security forces from other parts of Tajikistan reflects the authorities’ contempt for the Gorno-Badakhshan population. “The word ‘Pamiri’ [for the security forces] means […] separatist, oppositionist, main enemy,” said one of the interviewees. 

The presence of security agencies, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), has significantly increased in GBAO. Security forces have set up armed cordons on roads and in city squares, including the capital city of GBAO, Khorugh, patrolled by heavily armed police and military. “The security forces in Khorugh behave like wolves looking after sheep. ‘You should not walk like this; you should not laugh!’” said one of the interviewees. 

Security operations in GBAO include surveillance, intimidation, and the excessive use of force — often justified as combating terrorism and organized crime — accompanied by arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of local informal leaders and ordinary Pamiris, despite a lack of credible evidence.  

“The heavy-handed securitization in Gorno-Badakhshan is beyond any scrutiny. The local population is perceived as hostile by the central government, and people are harassed and discriminated against on a daily basis,” said Marie Struthers. 

The heavy-handed securitization in Gorno-Badakhshan is beyond any scrutiny. The local population is perceived as hostile by the central government, and people are harassed and discriminated against on a daily basis

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

2021-2022 crackdown and its aftermath 

Mounting tensions erupted after the killing of prominent Pamiri figure Gulbiddin Ziyobekov in November 2021. Officially described as the result of a shootout with law enforcement, evidence points to an unlawful killing of an unarmed man, which may amount to an extrajudicial execution. In response to a four-day protest in Khorugh, security forces used firearms against a crowd that had been peaceful until that point, killing two protesters and allegedly injuring around a dozen.  

“We escorted the women away […] to a safer location. At that time, a bullet hit me. They were shooting from the entrance of the building, wearing uniforms. Some of them were standing directly in the entrance, some of them were on the second or third floor,” said one protester, describing the indiscriminate use of lethal force by law enforcement officials. 

After false promises to effectively investigate, the authorities instead persecuted informal community leaders, harassed civil society, and intimidated and prosecuted ordinary Pamiris.  

A second outbreak of violence occurred in May 2022 when authorities violently dispersed peaceful protests in Khorugh and Rushan, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Pamiris, including informal leader Mamadbokir Mamadbokirov, shot by unidentified gunmen in a pickup — a likely extrajudicial execution. According to independent reports, 24 civilians died, some during the crackdown and some in alleged retaliatory unlawful killings.  

A subsequent crackdown on civil society followed with the arbitrary detention of more than 200 human rights defenders, dissenters, and influential figures such as journalist and activist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva and lawyers Faromuz Irgashev and Manuchehr Kholiknazarov. In December 2023, they received 21, 29 and 15-year sentences respectively, in secret trials, with the details of the charges made public only six months later.  

Arbitrary detentions and torture 

The Tajikistani authorities routinely arbitrarily detain, allegedly torture, and engage in other ill-treatment of Pamiris, with reports of coerced confessions and fabricated charges of crimes against “public safety,” “fundamentals of the constitutional order” or “order of administration.” Legal proceedings lack transparency and due process, with many trials lasting only a few days. During the 2021-2022 crackdown, reports of torture and other ill-treatment were common.  

One of the detainees in the aftermath of the May 2022 protests said he was deprived of sleep for two days, beaten with fists and batons and hit on the head with a thick book. 

“When they asked and I did not answer, they wrapped wet tissues around my fingers, then [fixed it with] tape. They put clips and switched something on. The [electric] current was strong. They did it with different fingers. They did it twice every day, four times in all,” he said. 

The international community must urgently raise concerns about the human rights violations faced by Pamiris with the Tajikistani authorities

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

“After the 2021-2022 protests in Gorno-Badakhshan, the systemic discrimination against the Pamiri community has become ever more entrenched, resulting in fear, harassment and violation of human rights. The international community must urgently raise concerns about the human rights violations faced by Pamiris with the Tajikistani authorities, in all possible fora not the least international fora, stand in solidarity with the Pamiri people, give protection to those who seek it abroad, and take decisive action to oppose this vicious system in Tajikistan,” said Marie Struthers. 

Source

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A diverse group of Pamiri and Ismaili interest groups gathered to discuss the terror attack in Moscow. “We reject the notion this were Pamiris or Ismailis representing us”, said one of the spokespeople, who want to remain anonymous out of fear of persecution by the Tajik authorities. 

“They are Takfiris”, he said. Non-believers, apostates to the cause. The majlis (meeting) was called after Moscow was quick to blame Tajik immigrants for the terror attacks. Previous warnings were ignored by Moscow. “We as a Pamiri community do not belief in the use of violence against the innocent. We understand the suffering and pain caused by such an attack.”, he added. 

The leaders assembled in Dushanbe and represented most of the diaspora in Tajikistan and abroad. “The attempt to taint us with the terrorists is rejected.”, he added. 

The post Tajikistan: These are no Muslims appeared first on Tashkent Citizen.

In May 2022, tens of ethnic Pamiri protesters were killed by security forces as demonstrations were violently suppressed and an “anti-terrorist operation” was launched in the east of the country. Activists, local leaders, journalists and bloggers were arrested and sentenced in unfair trials. Many reported being tortured. Access to information, including through the media and internet, remained heavily restricted. Domestic violence remained widespread with victims rarely securing justice or support. Afghan refugees continued to be detained and deported.

Tajikistan’s economic and political life continued to be tightly controlled by the president, in the 30th year of his rule, and his family. Over 100 people, including dozens of civilians, were killed and homes, schools and markets destroyed during cross border clashes between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in September. In May, following months of targeted repression by the central government, longstanding tensions in the eastern Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) between these authorities and the Pamiris, a small, unrecognized ethnic minority belonging to the Shia Islam Ismaili community, flared into new protests. These were brutally suppressed by the authorities, who launched an “anti-terrorist operation” on 18 May during which tens of Pamiris were killed over several weeks. Over 200 people were arrested.

Pamiri protesters were killed by security forces in May and June 2022, as demonstrations were violently suppressed and an “anti-terrorist operation” was launched in the east of the country. Activists, local leaders, journalists and bloggers were arrested and sentenced in unfair trials. Many reported being tortured.

The official government figure in May for those killed in the “anti-terrorist operation” in the GBAO was originally 21, although unofficial sources reported more than double that number. The circumstances of many deaths, in the absence of independent reporting from Tajikistan, prompted allegations of extrajudicial executions. Prominent activists, informal local leaders, poets, religious leaders and journalists were arbitrarily targeted for arrest. Several prominent members of the Pamiri diaspora in Russia were abducted before resurfacing in custody in Tajikistan. By the end of the year, most of those arrested had been sentenced to long prison terms in unfair trials, typically for purported membership of a criminal organization and seeking to overthrow the constitutional order. The fate and whereabouts of some of those arrested remained unknown, prompting fears that they had been forcibly disappeared.

The crackdown on prominent Pamiri influencers, local leaders and activists was accompanied by a broader assault on the cultural heritage of Pamiris. Following the May-June unrest, the authorities shut down and confiscated the property of multiple local organizations linked to the Aga Khan Development Network working in the fields of education, economic development and religious instruction.

Freedom of expression remained severely curtailed. The few remaining independent media outlets, human rights defenders and bloggers were heavily targeted in the crackdown that followed the GBAO protests. On 17 May, Mullorajab Yusufi and Anushervon Aripov, journalists working for Radio Free Europe’s Tajik service and regional news outlet Current Time, were severely beaten by unknown assailants in the capital, Dushanbe, shortly after interviewing the well-known Pamiri journalist and human rights activist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva about events in the GBAO. The next day Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva was herself arrested and accused of “publicly calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order”. In December, she was sentenced to 21 years’ imprisonment following a closed, unfair trial. Following her arrest, the authorities ordered Asia-Plus, the privately owned news agency for which she reported, to cease covering events in the GBAO. Other outlets reported similar coercion. On 19 May, Pamiri blogger and journalist Khushruz Jumayev (known online as Khush Gulyam) was arrested. He was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in December on opaque charges relating to the May events in the GBAO. Other activists who faced unfair trials during the year included around a dozen members of Commission 44, an independent group of lawyers and human rights defenders established to investigate the November 2021 killing of an activist that sparked protests in the GBAO.

Shaftolu Bekdavlatov and Khujamri Pirmamadov were sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment each on charges of organizing a criminal group and receiving financial assistance from abroad. The head of the Pamiri Lawyers’ Association, Manuchehr Kholiknazarov, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment on 9 December. Journalists and bloggers also faced prosecutions for critical reporting unrelated to the GBAO. On 15 June, two journalists and collaborators who reported widely on economic and social rights violations, Daler Imomali and Avazmad Gurbatov (also known as Abdullo Gurbati), were arrested shortly after reporting on the demolition of homes in Dushanbe. Avazmad Gurbatov was sentenced on 4 October to seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in a closed trial on trumped-up charges of assaulting a police officer and membership of the arbitrarily banned political organization Group 24. In a separate trial two weeks later, Daler Imomali was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, on equally far-fetched charges of tax evasion, disseminating false information and purported membership of Group 24. The internet was completely shut down for the first few months of the year in the GBAO and only intermittently and partially restored during the rest of the year. Tight restrictions remained in place throughout the country.

Torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread both as a means of intimidation and extracting confessions. Prisoners continued to report abuse and neglect, including beatings, lack of access to food and water and cold and wet conditions within the cells. While in pretrial detention following his arrest in July, Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda, a blogger who had been fired from a state radio broadcaster for criticizing the government in 2020, managed to smuggle out a letter in which he described being subjected to severe beatings, electric shocks and psychological torture, including threats against his family, in order to secure a confession. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in November. In June, while trying to attend a concert in a public park in Dushanbe, Elobat Oghalykova was arrested for wearing a black dress in mourning for the death of one of her sons – a traditional practice that was banned in 2017. She was beaten at Spitamen District Police station and required hospitalization. When she filed a complaint, she was threatened with 15 days’ detention for disobeying a police officer.

According to multiple indicators published during the year, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, Tajikistan’s gender gap was the highest of all Central Asian countries and one of the highest globally. According to a survey published by the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative in June, 77.3% of respondents considered violence against women to be prevalent in Tajikistan and 34% of respondents (across both genders) believed it was justifiable to beat a partner who refused to obey. The accompanying report highlighted many longstanding problems: the weak legal framework; the limited range and inadequate funding of protection services; and stereotypical attitudes among public service providers, including law enforcement agencies. A draft criminal code criminalizing domestic violence, put before parliament in 2021, had not been passed by the end of the year.

In August, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, raised grave concerns about the continued detention and deportation of Afghan refugees. The agency documented dozens of cases in August and September alone. Members of the nearly 14,000-strong Afghan refugee community reported that the forced expulsions were taking place without any procedure or obvious justification.

Source: Amnesty International

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Kidnapping, intimidation, and blackmail are just some of the means used to hit enlistment quotas in Tajikistan.

When conscription season comes around in Tajikistan, military recruiters begin resorting to desperate measures. Scooping young men off the streets in actions tantamount to kidnapping is standard. But that is just for starters. To pressure communities into giving up their sons, recruiters will disconnect the electricity, detain relatives, and shut down mosques.

Eligible levees draw lots to decide who will be the one to hand themselves over.

The hunting season for men of draft age, which applies to people between 17 and 27, happens twice yearly. Men with no siblings and the medically unfit are exempted. The spring enlistment drive starts in April. Fear of recruitment is well-founded. Military service lasts two years and tales of horrendous abuse and dismal living conditions are legion. Countless men who have completed their service have also reported the devastating psychological effects of being sexually assaulted.

In Tajikistan, scooping young men off the streets in actions tantamount to kidnapping is standard during the enlistment season. But that is just for starters. To pressure communities into giving up their sons, recruiters will disconnect the electricity, detain relatives, and shut down mosques.

Mustafo, a 16-year-old from Dushanbe shared that he took to carrying his birth certificate and paperwork from his school to prove to prowling recruiters that he was still studying.

He has reason to be nervous. “[On one occasion], I was in my regular clothes at the market, my mother had sent me to do the shopping. Two men came up to me and greeted me. I reacted calmly, suspecting nothing. Then they grabbed me by the belt and tried to get me to go into their car. Only once I was in the car did I realize that that it turned out I was being taken into the army. Telling them that I was still at school had no effect on them,” Mustafo said.

Mustafo was lucky not to have had his phone taken away from him. As soon as he could, he called his father. “My father came to the recruiting office with a birth certificate. But they did not believe him. They demanded a certificate from my school and from the head of our local mahalla (neighborhood). Only once my father brought all the documents did they let me go,” he said.

Exact numbers on how many young men are conscripted are not made public. Local officials will at times compete, however, on who has managed to hit their quotas the earliest.

Not long after dawn on the first day of this most recent conscription season, on April 1, the mayor of Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, or GBAO, posted a statement online to say his city had already achieved 104 percent of the quota. Eighteen people even returned to Tajikistan from Russia so they could serve, he claimed.

However, sources in GBAO reported that recruitment quotas were not met, and that the local authorities, led by governor Alisher Mirzonabotov, former deputy chairman of the GKNB, initiated a draft campaign, known locally as “Oblava” or “the Raid,” which launches in early Spring and Autumn. The governor of GBAO, like other regional leaders, was tasked by the central authorities with providing a quota of recruits from the region.

The Spring 2022 “Raid” reportedly differed significantly from previous years. Gov. Mirzonabotov faced significant challenge in meeting the required quota, as many young Pamiris men had already left GBAO en masse since the repressions against the Pamiris sharply escalated in May 2022. According to sources on the ground, these individuals are desperate to leave the region, with many opting to go to Russia despite the difficulties and risks they may face there. This exodus has made it difficult for the authorities to find enough draftees from the region, and they are now resorting to desperate measures to meet their quotas.

_{Above picture: Pamiri recruits form the Spring 2022 “Raid”, forced to parade through the streets of Khorog, surrounded by police officers and plain clothed secret police to deter any protests.}

Anora Sarkorova, a journalist based in Europe but originally from the GBAO, wrote on her popular Telegram channel that she had learned of young people being scooped up directly from schools and that parents of eligible men were threatened with reprisals unless they got their children to return from Russia. In other episodes from Khorog reported by Sarkorova, young people were expelled from university so that they could be enlisted.

The expedients dreamed up by recruiters are becoming ever more elaborate with every passing year.

A resident of Panjakent, a town in western Tajikistan not far from Samarkand in Uzbekistan, told of how several people there had been arrested by the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, the successor agency to the KGB, in order to pressure them into getting their sons to return from Russia.

Dilnoza, a final-year student at the Tajik National University in Dushanbe, said that the men in her class were allowed to take their exams early so that they would be freed up from their studies and thereby rendered eligible.

“The boys in our group were offered help to make sure they passed their exams and free driving licenses and they were promised help finding employment later on,” said Dilnoza, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “The ones who weren’t too confident in their [academic abilities] agreed to enlist of their own free will and did their exams early. The ones who were more confident naturally refused, but they made them do their exams early anyway.”

Some outrageous mass round-up attempts have at times sparked scenes of solidarity among victims. Last year, video footage surfaced online showing the scene of GKNB officers attempting to forcibly escort away young people filing out of an exam hall at the Yavan medical college, around 60 kilometers from the capital, Dushanbe. Female fellow students leapt into action, pelting the recruiters’ bus with rocks and preventing it from leaving. The would-be recruits were eventually allowed to leave.

The authorities as a rule issue blanket denials that recruiters stoop to such measures, limiting themselves only to reports on purportedly successful enlistment drives.

A resident of Kolkhozobod, a town around 130 kilometers south of Dushanbe, commented that their neighborhood went without electricity for three days until they could agree among themselves on whose sons would enlist.

“What happens is that most guys leave to work in Russia. Those who are here hide in the homes of their relatives. The electricity was cut off for three days. They said that until guys who could serve surrendered, the power would not be turned back on. After three days, the residents came to an agreement: some got their sons to return from Russia, others snitched on the ones who had hidden,” the Kolkhozobod resident said on condition of anonymity.

There is a way out of all this, though. There are provisions in law that sons can be exempted against payment of a fee of 28,500 somoni (around $2,600). Average nominal monthly salaries in Tajikistan stand currently around $170.

Dilrabo Samadova, head of the Office of Civil Liberties, a group that campaigns for the rights of military personnel, said that the lot of conscripts has improved somewhat in the past 15 years or so. She conceded, however, that mandatory military service remains as unpopular as ever.

“Young people do not strive to fulfil their constitutional duty because of hazing,” she said. “Military personnel are subjected to bullying, including physical abuse, for up to six months.”

Because levees have no access to their phones, cases of bullying go unreported until somebody is killed or gravely injured. News outlet Cabar.Asia has reported, citing UN data, that at least 100 people have died while serving in the army over the past three years.

On some occasions, though, the outrage is so great that even the Tajik government is unable to ignore it.

In April, footage appeared on social media showing a number of young soldiers receiving a vicious beating with sticks and being kicked in the stomach. It was not clear from the footage what had instigated this punishment.

The Prosecutor General’s Office responded to the ensuing public clamor by saying that the attackers, who were reputedly later sentenced to 10 years in prison, had violated the military code of mutual respect among servicemen.

Prosecutors typically only react this way to the rare incidents caught on camera, however. Hazing is ubiquitous and almost all takes place far from the prying eyes of the public.

Anora Sarkorova, a journalist based in Europe but originally from the GBAO, wrote on her popular Telegram channel that she had learned of young people being scooped up directly from schools and that parents of eligible men were threatened with reprisals unless they got their children to return from Russia. In other episodes from Khorog reported by Sarkorova, young people were expelled from university so that they could be enlisted.

The expedients dreamed up by recruiters are becoming ever more elaborate with every passing year.

A resident of Panjakent, a town in western Tajikistan not far from Samarkand in Uzbekistan, told of how several people there had been arrested by the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, the successor agency to the KGB, in order to pressure them into getting their sons to return from Russia.

Dilnoza, a final-year student at the Tajik National University in Dushanbe, said that the men in her class were allowed to take their exams early so that they would be freed up from their studies and thereby rendered eligible.

“The boys in our group were offered help to make sure they passed their exams and free driving licenses and they were promised help finding employment later on,” said Dilnoza, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “The ones who weren’t too confident in their [academic abilities] agreed to enlist of their own free will and did their exams early. The ones who were more confident naturally refused, but they made them do their exams early anyway.”

Some outrageous mass round-up attempts have at times sparked scenes of solidarity among victims. Last year, video footage surfaced online showing the scene of GKNB officers attempting to forcibly escort away young people filing out of an exam hall at the Yavan medical college, around 60 kilometers from the capital, Dushanbe. Female fellow students leapt into action, pelting the recruiters’ bus with rocks and preventing it from leaving. The would-be recruits were eventually allowed to leave.

The authorities as a rule issue blanket denials that recruiters stoop to such measures, limiting themselves only to reports on purportedly successful enlistment drives.

A resident of Kolkhozobod, a town around 130 kilometers south of Dushanbe, commented that their neighborhood went without electricity for three days until they could agree among themselves on whose sons would enlist.

“What happens is that most guys leave to work in Russia. Those who are here hide in the homes of their relatives. The electricity was cut off for three days. They said that until guys who could serve surrendered, the power would not be turned back on. After three days, the residents came to an agreement: some got their sons to return from Russia, others snitched on the ones who had hidden,” the Kolkhozobod resident said on condition of anonymity.

There is a way out of all this, though. There are provisions in law that sons can be exempted against payment of a fee of 28,500 somoni (around $2,600). Average nominal monthly salaries in Tajikistan stand currently around $170.

Dilrabo Samadova, head of the Office of Civil Liberties, a group that campaigns for the rights of military personnel, said that the lot of conscripts has improved somewhat in the past 15 years or so. She conceded, however, that mandatory military service remains as unpopular as ever.

“Young people do not strive to fulfil their constitutional duty because of hazing,” she said. “Military personnel are subjected to bullying, including physical abuse, for up to six months.”

Because levees have no access to their phones, cases of bullying go unreported until somebody is killed or gravely injured. News outlet Cabar.Asia has reported, citing UN data, that at least 100 people have died while serving in the army over the past three years.

On some occasions, though, the outrage is so great that even the Tajik government is unable to ignore it.

In April, footage appeared on social media showing a number of young soldiers receiving a vicious beating with sticks and being kicked in the stomach. It was not clear from the footage what had instigated this punishment.

The Prosecutor General’s Office responded to the ensuing public clamor by saying that the attackers, who were reputedly later sentenced to 10 years in prison, had violated the military code of mutual respect among servicemen.

Prosecutors typically only react this way to the rare incidents caught on camera, however. Hazing is ubiquitous and almost all takes place far from the prying eyes of the public.

Anora Sarkorova, a journalist based in Europe but originally from the GBAO, wrote on her popular Telegram channel that she had learned of young people being scooped up directly from schools and that parents of eligible men were threatened with reprisals unless they got their children to return from Russia. In other episodes from Khorog reported by Sarkorova, young people were expelled from university so that they could be enlisted.

The expedients dreamed up by recruiters are becoming ever more elaborate with every passing year.

A resident of Panjakent, a town in western Tajikistan not far from Samarkand in Uzbekistan, told of how several people there had been arrested by the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, the successor agency to the KGB, in order to pressure them into getting their sons to return from Russia.

Dilnoza, a final-year student at the Tajik National University in Dushanbe, said that the men in her class were allowed to take their exams early so that they would be freed up from their studies and thereby rendered eligible.

“The boys in our group were offered help to make sure they passed their exams and free driving licenses and they were promised help finding employment later on,” said Dilnoza, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “The ones who weren’t too confident in their [academic abilities] agreed to enlist of their own free will and did their exams early. The ones who were more confident naturally refused, but they made them do their exams early anyway.”

Some outrageous mass round-up attempts have at times sparked scenes of solidarity among victims. Last year, video footage surfaced online showing the scene of GKNB officers attempting to forcibly escort away young people filing out of an exam hall at the Yavan medical college, around 60 kilometers from the capital, Dushanbe. Female fellow students leapt into action, pelting the recruiters’ bus with rocks and preventing it from leaving. The would-be recruits were eventually allowed to leave.

The authorities as a rule issue blanket denials that recruiters stoop to such measures, limiting themselves only to reports on purportedly successful enlistment drives.

A resident of Kolkhozobod, a town around 130 kilometers south of Dushanbe, commented that their neighborhood went without electricity for three days until they could agree among themselves on whose sons would enlist.

“What happens is that most guys leave to work in Russia. Those who are here hide in the homes of their relatives. The electricity was cut off for three days. They said that until guys who could serve surrendered, the power would not be turned back on. After three days, the residents came to an agreement: some got their sons to return from Russia, others snitched on the ones who had hidden,” the Kolkhozobod resident said on condition of anonymity.

There is a way out of all this, though. There are provisions in law that sons can be exempted against payment of a fee of 28,500 somoni (around $2,600). Average nominal monthly salaries in Tajikistan stand currently around $170.

Dilrabo Samadova, head of the Office of Civil Liberties, a group that campaigns for the rights of military personnel, said that the lot of conscripts has improved somewhat in the past 15 years or so. She conceded, however, that mandatory military service remains as unpopular as ever.

“Young people do not strive to fulfil their constitutional duty because of hazing,” she said. “Military personnel are subjected to bullying, including physical abuse, for up to six months.”

Because levees have no access to their phones, cases of bullying go unreported until somebody is killed or gravely injured. News outlet Cabar.Asia has reported, citing UN data, that at least 100 people have died while serving in the army over the past three years.

On some occasions, though, the outrage is so great that even the Tajik government is unable to ignore it.

In April, footage appeared on social media showing a number of young soldiers receiving a vicious beating with sticks and being kicked in the stomach. It was not clear from the footage what had instigated this punishment.

The Prosecutor General’s Office responded to the ensuing public clamor by saying that the attackers, who were reputedly later sentenced to 10 years in prison, had violated the military code of mutual respect among servicemen.

Prosecutors typically only react this way to the rare incidents caught on camera, however. Hazing is ubiquitous and almost all takes place far from the prying eyes of the public.

Source

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You are not Forgotten.

Berlin, Brussels (1/5 – 40)

The Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region (GBAO) is the largest region in Tajikistan in terms of area, but the least populated in terms of population. In May and June 2022, there were deadly outcomes after President Emomali Rahmon’s regime quelled the scene of protests.

Jumanazar Bayozov lived in old multi-story buildings on Sangovak Street. On May 18, he was arrested from his residence and taken to the police station. He never returned alive.

“One day later, on May 19, we found his body,” said one of the people close to him.

Jumanazar, according to his relatives, worked mostly in Russia, and thus supported the family. “He was in Rushon for the last 3-4 years,” said our interlocutor.

A father of 3 sons, his life centred around his family. His wife worked in the Rushon boarding school. “Every morning, at four o’clock, he took his wife to work. On May 18, after seeing off his family, when he returned home, he was arrested and taken to the police station,” our witness said.

According to his relatives, “Jumanazar did not participate in the demonstrations.” His body was taken from near the district hospital. He was shot in the back of the head. He was buried in the village of BaRushon.

The killers were not identified but his bullet wound in the head and direction of the shot suggested that a government issued ammunition was being used. He died in execution style typical for the KGB methods.

Jumanazar Bayozov
1967 – 2022

Jumanazar was reported died at the age of 56.

Source

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These threats were made by Alisher Mirzanabatov (лишер Мирзонаботов), the former deputy head of the dreaded Tajik secret police, the GKNB, which is modelled after the Soviet KGB. Currently, Mirzanabatov is the governor of the restive Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous province (GBAO), home of one of Tajikistan’s oldest indigenous citizens, the Pamiris.

Mirzanabatov made no empty threats. He installed a regime of terror on the Pamir residents and created an unprecedented assault on the Pamiri society, culture and economy. For his efforts he received what civil society actors call, the “order of the blood banner” for his efforts to kill and exterminate many of the regimes opposition figures in GBAO. The Pamiri moniker of Alisher Mirzanabatov is calling him the “Butcher of Pamir”

Appointed by the Imomali Rahmon in November 2022, Mirzanabatov led the regime’s campaign of killings, mass arrests, and economic strangulation of Pamirs, who are Ismaili Shi’a. Mirzanabatov has a gruesome history of physical violence and guilty of state-sanctioned criminal activities as he rose through the ranks of the GKNB.

According to Mamadbokir Mamadbokirov (Boqir), a respected “commander” and Pamiri communal elder who was executed by GKNB troops on the street of the regional capital Khorog in May 2022, Mirzanabatov served as his deputy in the Border Troops in the early 2000s.

Boqir found Mirzanabatov was responsible for the attempted rape of a woman and engaging in narcotics trafficking.  In 2006, Commander Boqir and his men sized a large shipment of heroin, which led to Mirzanabatov being reassigned from the Border Troops.

By 2017, Mirzanabatov had himself ingratiated in and with GKNB’s Chairman, General Saymumin Yatimov. He was then appointed Deputy Chairman of the secret intelligence service. In 2018 he returned to the Pamir mountains where he became the deputy governor, then mayor of the regional capital Khorog, and then was appointed Governor of the province in November 2021.

He replaced the long-standing popular Pamiri governor, Yodgar Faizov, the former head of the Agha Khan Foundation, and very quickly established his reputation for ruthless violence against Pamiris. Observers noted the move was to “de-Pamirimize” the province and turn the province interests towards Chinese investors. Recent reports show a Chinese troop build up on the Pamiri-Tajik-Chinese border.

Governor Mirzanabatov oversees all the GBAO’s provincial districts, provincial elected assembly, and regional offices of the various ministries of the state government.  For internal security matters, he works in close cooperation with General Abdolrahmon Alam Shahzoda, head of the GBAO Coordinating Committee and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, and Gen. Sharif Nazarzoda, Chief of Police for GBAO.   Mirzanabatov is the “eyes and ears” of General Yatimov, GKNB, in GBAO.

He coordinated the arrest and brutal killing of Gulbiddin Ziyobekov, a popular local boxer, who had roughed up an official with the prosecutor’s office who had allegedly sexually harassed a local woman. Public protests ensued from 24 – 28 November 2021. These, and subsequent protests in 2022, demanded the resignation of Mirzanabatov, and government accountability for the Ziyobekov killing.  Government negotiations with the protestors, organized under the umbrella “Group of 44,” were characterized by duplicitous regime promises of reform, false assurances that those responsible for the violence on the government side would be held responsible, and ultimately proved a sham as the Rahmon regime mobilized its security forces for the May-June violent campaign of arrests, killings, imprisonment and torture of Pamiris peacefully resisting regime oppression and termination of the GBAO’s autonomous status.

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

Alisher Mirzanabatov, the “Butcher of Pamir”, speaking at a public meeting in GBAO 2022

The Pamiri community was outraged by this slew of heinous crimes and human rights violations committed by the Tajikistan government led by President Emomali Rahmon and his son, Rustam Emomali. What follows was a wave of unprecedented unrest and intimidation in this central Asian country, the premeditated butchery of Pamiri community leaders and activists, the arrests of hundreds of lawyers, journalists, students, old farmers and caused bands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) crossing the borders to run from the dictatorship of the Rahmon regime.

Group of 44, also known as Commission 44, who protested against the atrocities and cruelty of the Rahmon regime towards the Pamiris had their leaders put into prisons, clobbered and beaten. Some were hunted and murdered. In a video posted by Group-24 by now banned by the regime of Emomali Rahmon some of the aspect of the brutality of the regime can be seen.

The European Union responded with resolutions in July 2022 warning the Rahmon regime and his government in Dushanbe to stop making additional arrests, outright suppression of basic civil rights and freedom of expression, receiving extradition from Russia and engaging the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) to silence those who oppose and express discontentment towards the Tajik government.

The UN Human Rights Commission folllowed suit and dispatched a delegation to Tajikistan to gather evidence of human rights violation. The findings are expected to be published soon with the various government agencies and international bodies. Well informed insiders in The Hague pointed out an “ICC court action should come to no suprise to any known and named offenders”, a senior official at the ICC said to Tajik Herald.

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