One year since arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders in Tajikistan – what has been the international response?

The Pamiri indigenous minority in eastern Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province GBAO) has now suffered a year of violent repression by the central government. We look at the international response to these egregious human rights abuses.

Since the time of the Tajik civil war (1992-1997), the government of Emomali Rahmon has been paranoiacally concerned about the loyalty of the population of the Pamirs, without, it must be noted, any concrete evidence of threats to the central government. Several targeted assassinations and military incursions were undertaken from 1994 onwards, of which the most violent was in 2012, when the army and special services began a full-scale military operation, targeting essentially local leaders associated with the opposition forces in the civil war, but with little regard for the safety of the rest of the civilian population.

In May 2022, however, following public protests against the 2021 unexplained torture and death of a young man, the authorities began a military and police campaign targeting specifically journalists, human rights activists and leaders of civil society. According to reliable reports, at least 40 persons have been killed and hundreds detained in peaceful protests, or indeed, far from the scene of any dissenting activity. 

Many of those arrested were subsequently sentenced to long prison terms, in secret courts with little or no evidence to back up the charges, including “organizing a criminal community, murder, terrorism, treason against the state, and an attempt to illegally seize power.” Lawyers had restricted access to the detainees and were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. The prisoners have no means of contact with their families and survive on food brought to the prison by friends and relatives and handed to guards at the prison entrance.

Prominent journalist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva was sentenced to 21 years, her ex-husband and retired general of border guards Kholbash Kholbashev to life imprisonment and her brother Khursand to 18 years. Nearly all the members of the civil rights group “Commission 44” – originally set up in November 2021 by civil society activists with the specific aim of calming the situation and establishing a dialogue between the government and the citizens of GBAO – have been detained.

The religious practices of Pamiris are also under threat. The vast majority of the population of GBAO are Ismaili Muslims, followers of the Aga Khan. The current crackdown on civil society has targeted Aga Khan institutions in the Pamirs, closing Aga Khan schools, restricting access to mosques, banning private prayer gatherings and removing all public references to the Aga Khan.

Many human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and others, together with the main Pamiri news outlet Pamir Daily News, provide regular coverage of human rights abuses in Tajikistan. Reporters without Borders, surprisingly, does not specifically mention Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, the highest profile case. 

With the exception of The Guardian, Le Monde and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung there has been little coverage in the Western Press. Questioned on this, a spokesman for the latter newspaper explained that, despite interest in human rights issues, daily extensive coverage of the war in Ukraine does not leave editorial resources for “marginal” countries such as Tajikistan. A similar situation arose at the start of the bloody civil war in Tajikistan: the media were fully occupied with violence in Russia, Bosnia and Somalia and reported little from Tajikistan.

Western governments. in their reaction to the current situation in Tajikistan, have been passive at best, hypocritical at worst. Some continue relations, undeterred, with the government, others publicise and facilitate conferences on investment opportunities, and most are simply silent, as are the finance and business sectors.

The United States are an exception, but their position is ambiguous. The USA is, indeed, pro-active in drawing attention to human rights abuses in Tajikistan; at the same time, however, it pursues close co-operation with the Tajik military and security services on narcotics and border issues. In fact, the latter activities actually provide some leverage over the Tajik government. It must be hoped that the USA will use it. Threats to securityon the long border with Afghanistan should be a strong motivation.

Despite a “business as usual” approach by the International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the various human rights bodies of the United Nations are becoming increasingly critical about Tajikistan’s human rights abuses, including religious persecution and racial discrimination.

Perhaps the strongest leverage is available to the European Union. EU policy is that “all treaties and agreements signed by the EU need to be compliant with human rights as defined by the EU charter.” The EU is currently conducting negotiations with Tajikistan on an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. Tajikistan wishes to benefit from the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) that gives developing countries a special incentive to pursue sustainable development and good governance in return for cuts in EU import duties to zero on more than two thirds of the tariff lines of their exports.

Eligible countries have to implement 27 international conventions on human rights, labour rights, the environment, and good governance. On several occasions, most recently in December 2022, the EU delegation has pointed to Tajikistan’s dismal record on human rights. In a Special Resolution adopted in July 2022, the European Parliament has also taken up the issue. The question now is whether the EU will be firm on this conditionality before granting enhanced trading status: an EU Fact Sheet from November 2022 gives little prominence to human rights on the list of issues in bilateral relations.

Similar considerations apply to Tajikistan’s trade relations with the UK, that applies principles similar to those of  the EU in according preferences.

Tajikistan has also committed to the Geneva Conventions of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The work of the ICRC is conducted discreetly and confidentially, but there is no indication that the ICRC has been allowed access to Pamiri detainees in Tajikistan.

According to the arguments of the Tajik government, all those in prison are legally sentenced criminals and, moreover, the Pamiri population comprises large numbers of terrorists. A concerted action by Western governments, the UN and human rights organisations is necessary to combat this false and negative propaganda about Pamiris and put the Tajik government under pressure to respect the human rights treaties it has signed.

Original article by William Roberts

10 May 2023