Tag Archives: Tajikistan

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.

ENDS

(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.

ENDS

(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.

ENDS

(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.

ENDS

(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.

ENDS

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

ENDS

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

Tajikistan tightens security at mosques

MARCH 28 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik authorities ordered mosques in Dushanbe to improve security by installing CCTV and metal detectors, a move that sceptics said was actually aimed at clamping down on pious Muslims who officials view with increasing unease.

Mahmadsaid Ubaydulloev, Dushanbe city mayor, said the extra surveillance was needed to ensure public safety in the city and that mosques would have to buy the kit with cash from their own budgets.

This is a continuation of a policy of tightening security around mosques in Tajikistan.

A month ago, Tajik authorities ordered mosques to police their prayers for extremists. The government is increasingly worried about radicals infiltrating mosques and either recruiting young men to join the extremist IS group in Syria or inciting revolution. Last year, the government banned the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and arrested its leaders and activists in what free speech advocates have described as clamp down on human rights.

And pious Muslims in Tajikistan have complained of increased harassment too, including being forced to shave long beards. They told The Conway Bulletin’s Dushanbe correspondent that the latest move to install extra security is merely aimed at making life even more difficult.

Umedjon, a 36-years old salesman, said that he does not feel free to pray. “Instead of focusing on praying, I have to think about how I am praying in order not to get in trouble with the authorities. If they install metal detectors and cameras, the mosque will become a constrained place for praying,” he said as he left one of central Dushanbe’s mosques.

ENDS

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

Presidential Office empties the most famous store in Tajikistan

MARCH 28 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — The tops floors of the most prominent department store in Tajkiistan’s capital, the Soviet-era TSUM, are eerily quiet.

Most of the traders who sold mobile phones, clothes and Tajik national mementos to foreign tourists have quit their leases. They said the Presidential Administration took over the company that owned the store earlier this year and has forced up rent.

Aziz, a 26-year-old man who sold Tajik-themed gifts, told The Conway Bulletin’s Dushanbe correspondent that rent used to be around $7 per square metre.

“Now they want us to pay more than $20 per square meter,” Aziz said, the anger clearly audible in his voice.

He shook his head, more to himself than to anybody else, and continued to pack up his products into boxes scattered across the floor. Like most of the other small traders he was quitting TSUM.

“I am moving out because I cannot pay the rent. Trade is not good in TSUM, not so many people come nowadays,” he said.

Traders said that a month ago, President Emomali Rakhmon’s Executive Office, which is headed by his daughter Ozoda Rakhmon, took control of the company that ran TSUM. The Investment and State Property Control Committee said that TSUM was privatised illegally in the 1990s. Officially, TSUM has now been re-nationalised although critics of Mr Rakhmon have said that it is now effectively under the control of his family.

Built in 1960’s, TSUM is one of the few remaining Soviet-built buildings in Dushanbe and had been one of the most popular trading centres. But Tajikistan is hurting from a sharp economic downturn. The Bulletin’s correspondent said that while bigger shops selling various Western brands were still operating on the ground floor of TSUM, the first and second floors were almost entirely empty.

Mr Rakhmon’s Presidential Administration has not commented on allegations that it has inflated rent at TSUM but the accusations will bolster critics who accuse the president of corruption.

ENDS

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

Tajik Air buys numbers of planes from Airbus

MARCH 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to boost the status of state- owned Tajik Air, Tajikistan’s deputy PM Azim Ibrohim said that the government had bought a number of planes from Europe’s Airbus. State-owned Tajik Air and privately-owned Somon Air are the only two airlines in the country and both use Boeing-made aircrafts. Countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been using airlines to promote their national brands.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Editorial: Banking in Tajikistan

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – There are two kinds of banking crises. One is when the financial sector struggles to stay healthy, as toxic assets mar the books of commercial banks, as seen most notably in Kazakhstan in 2011-2013.

The other one is a crisis of trust, when citizens start doubting the ability of their banks to provide cash and protect their savings.

This second type of crisis is now happening in Tajikistan. Our correspondent listened to angry voices from the long queues forming outside Tojiksodirotbank, Tajikistan’s third-largest lender.

A regional economic downturn has hit Tajikistan hard, especially because of the sharp drop in the value of worker remittances from Russia.

The government has put the blame on external and private factors. Notably, the Central Bank blamed exchange offices for the imbalance in the exchange rates.

Now responsibility seems to be shifting to commercial lenders, which are a channel for remittances and an increasingly popular method for paying wages among businesses.

ENDS

Editorial from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Tajik banking system wobbles as rumours grow of a collapse

MARCH 17 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — People in Tajikistan appear to be losing faith in their banking system, triggering a run on one of the country’s biggest banks.

This week crowds of around 100 people have been gathering at the head office of Tojiksodirotbank in Dushanbe, the only place the bank’s customers can withdraw money.

Nuriniso, a 30-year-old street-cleaner, was queuing to withdraw her salary. “Yesterday, I was at the bank until 9pm to get my money. They gave me 700 somoni (around $90) and told me to come another day for some more,” she told a Conway Bulletin correspondent.

An older woman standing next to Nuriniso explained.

“Don’t you understand that the bank is bankrupt?” she said of rumours fuelling what could, effectively be a run on the bank. “The bank will close from the first of April and money can only be withdrawn from other ATMs at 25% (commission).”

This is important for the entire Central Asia and South Caucasus region which has been hit by a worsening economic crisis. If withdrawals from Tojiksodirotbank did accelerate and it did become a run on the bank, it would be the first instance of an unplanned banking failure linked to the current economic downturn.

Tojiksodirotbank, which holds the majority of accounts for the country’s lower and middle classes such as doctors, teachers and government officials, has not commented on the queues forming outside their branches. Instead it said via its website that a technical problem was slowing down transactions.

And Tojiddin Pirzoda, the bank’s chairman has denied rumours of its impending bankruptcy. “Tojiksodirotbank holds a leading and a strong position in the banking system,” Tajik state news agency Khovar quoted him as saying in February.

But Nuriniso, the street cleaner who earns 640 somoni a month (around $80), said she had now lost confidence in Tajik banks.

“I will never keep my money in banks. My workplace has created this headache (by paying my salary into Tojiksodirotbank) ,” she said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)