As the eyes of the world were riveted to the ongoing battle between Syrian rebels and government forces in Syria’s largest city of Aleppo, the government of Tajikistan decided to carry out a military operation against its own rebels in the country’s south. This operation was launched in the wake of a mysterious murder: the head of a local office of the National Security Committee (the KGB’s successor in Tajikistan), General Abdullo Nazarov, 56, was stabbed to death by unidentified armed men. All of his four companions, including three personal bodyguards, were reported to be wounded, but survived the attack and even refused hospitalization, claiming that their lives were out of danger.US-Tajik Relations: A Dangerous Liaison
In response to the killing, Tajikistan’s government accused Tolib Ayembekov, a local leader, of smuggling drugs, precious stones, and tobacco across the border with Afghanistan. The murder of Nazarov, whose responsibility was to fight organized crime in the country’s most unstable and poorest province, was judged as a vendetta for his resistance to Ayembekov’s illegal trade. On July 24, three days after Nazarov was killed when crossing the region in a heavily guarded vehicle, the outskirts of Khorog, which is the administrative center of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province (GBAO), were bombed by the Tajik military. Local media reported that the operation on the ground was conducted not only by the National Security Committee and the Interior Ministry, but also by several detachments of the presidential guard.
From the first hours of airstrikes resounding across the mountainous areas of southern Tajikistan, several experts, both in the country and abroad, expressed serious doubts concerning the validity of the official version of events. Tajik officials working in such remote areas are generally considered to be relatively independent from central authorities in Dushanbe and have been frequently accused of practicing corruption and providing cover-ups for illegal businesses. Locals living in Khorog spoke about Abdullo Nazarov’s direct involvement in large-scale transfers of tobacco across the border. He had purportedly provided protection for most shipments of tobacco products imported without compulsory customs clearing, and was killed as a result of an altercation with his “business partners” over a shipment he had previously refused to accept.
Whatever the real causes of this incident, the situation in the GBAO region of Tajikistan has always remained very strained. In 2008, popular protests were sparked by widespread indignation over the government’s relentless hunting down of “annoying” persons amongst former rebels. Today, Tajikistan is Central Asia’s poorest country, with its GDP per capita rate hardly exceeding $800. Yet, the situation in the country’s south, on the border with Afghanistan, remains particularly difficult. Numerous ethnic groups populating these areas consider themselves to be mercilessly oppressed by Tajiks, while social and economic development is hampered by irresponsible actions on behalf of the central government’s representatives.
For the full article source, pleae visit: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/us-tajik-relations-a-dangerous-liaison-4711/
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Monday, 6 August 2012
For the full article source, pleae visit: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/us-tajik-relations-a-dangerous-liaison-4711/
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