WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 680, July 28, 2012 UNPRECEDENTED CLASHES IN SOUTHEAST TAJIKISTAN Authorities send in army to take on powerful figure linked to high-profile murder case. By Lola Olimova
TAJIK WOMEN HIT GLASS CEILING Despite government programmes, women rarely make it past second-in-command. By Gulafshon Sokieva - Central Asia **** NEW ************************************************************************************ KYRGYZSTAN ELECTION UPDATES 2011: http://iwpr.net/focus/kyrgyz-election-2011 LATEST PROJECT REVIEWS: http://iwpr.net/make-an-impact/project-reviews VACANCIES: http://iwpr.net/what-we-do/vacancies **** IWPR RESOURCES ****************************************************************** CENTRAL ASIA PROGRAMME HOME: http://www.iwpr.net/programme/central-asia CENTRAL ASIA RADIO: http://iwpr.net/programme/central-asia/central-asia-radio NEWS BRIEFING CENTRAL ASIA: http://iwpr.net/programme/news-briefing-central-asia CENTRAL ASIA HUMAN RIGHTS: http://iwpr.net/programme/central-asia-human-rights-reporting-project BECOME A FAN OF IWPR ON FACEBOOK http://facebook.com/InstituteforWarandPeaceReporting https://www.facebook.com/iwprkazakhstan https://www.facebook.com/iwprkg FOLLOW US ON TWITTER http://twitter.com/iwpr http://twitter.com/IWPR_Kazakhstan http://twitter.com/iwprkg **** http://iwpr.net/ ********************************************************** DONATE TO IWPR: http://iwpr.net/donate **** http://iwpr.net/ ********************************************************** UNPRECEDENTED CLASHES IN SOUTHEAST TAJIKISTAN Authorities send in army to take on powerful figure linked to high-profile murder case. By Lola Olimova Forty-two people died when Tajik government forces clashed with supporters of a renegade military commander in the remote southeastern province of Badakhshan, police agencies said. In a joint statement issued on July 24, the interior ministry and national security committee said 12 of the dead belonged to the Tajik security forces and the rest were members of a rebel armed group targeted in a major military operation. On July 25, the Tajik military and police held talks with Ayombekov’s group and agreed a ceasefire. This held through the day – gunfire was no longer heard in the main provincial town, Khorog. It appeared the Tajik government military had fallen short of achieving its objective of crushing the rebel forces. (See Halt to Fighting in Tajikistan's East, No Clear Outcome.) This outbreak of violence – highly unusual for this sparsely-populated, high-altitude region of Tajikistan – began on July when the provincial head of the national security service, Major-General Abdullo Nazarov, was killed in an attack outside Khorog. The authorities identified one Tolib Ayombekov as a possible suspect. Like the murdered man, Ayombekov was a member of the regular security forces, in his case as commander of a border guards unit at Ishkashim, close to the Afghan frontier. According to the official account of events, the authorities sent a team to negotiate with Ayombekov and urge him to hand over the alleged killers among his men. After three days of talking, it was clear this was not going to happen. “Ayombekov categorically refused this demand and instead he mobilised armed criminals,” an official statement said. The authorities then sent in the military, resulting in street battles in Khorog. Although casualties were high, the government said no civilians were killed. A state of emergency was declared in Badakhshan, the few roads in and out were blocked, flights between Khorog and the capital Dushanbe were suspended, and mobile phone and internet access was cut. Ayombekov is a former rebel leader turned security forces member. Like many opposition commanders who fought the government during the 1992-97 civil war, he was given his command in the border guards force as part of the peace and reintegration agreement that ended the conflict. In that job, officials are now alleging, he set up a crime ring that ran cross-border smuggling of narcotics, tobacco and precious stones. Unlike other former rebel strongholds, Badakhshan has been less of a worry for central government over the years. In eastern valleys nearer to Dushanbe, there have been sporadic incidents since the civil war, which though localised, raised concerns of a Sunni Islamic insurgency with possible links to the Taleban or al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. (See Tajikistan: Islamic Militancy No Phantom Menace and Tajik Authorities Struggle to Quell Militants.) People in Badakhshan are mostly Ismaili Muslims, so that kind of link is of little direct concern. Some experts argue that Badakhstan’s remote location and apparent stability meant that officials in Dushanbe did not keep such a close eye on things. According to the editor of the Asia Plus newspaper, Marat Mamadshoev, Badakhshan was the last region where the authorities have taken on the former insurgent commanders. “Operations like this one tackling civil war-era warlords have taken place virtually everywhere in Tajikistan – in the Rasht valley, in Soghd and in Kulob,” he said, naming regions in the east, north and south of the country. “The majority of the [major] civil war participants have either been killed or imprisoned.” Left to their own devices, some of the ex-field commanders have built up a strong presence in Badakhshan, perhaps leaving them with the impression that they could defy the central authorities. In an incident four years ago, a group led by one Muhammadbokir Muhammadbokirov attacked the provincial offices of the interior ministry. The names of several former guerrilla leaders come up in connection with allegations of organised crime, above all the highly lucrative trade in heroin from Afghanistan. The border is porous due to the difficult terrain and lack of adequate patrols. The ongoing military operation in Badakhshan is likely to shake the powerbase of former warlords whose influence seems to have grown over the last ten years or so. Ayombekov, who has not been killed or captured, reportedly sent a letter to President Rahmon, perhaps in the hope he would step in as a kind of arbiter. It clearly did not work. The major-general’s murder was a direct challenge to central government, and the response was a show of force. Political analyst Nurali Davlatov argues that the government should carefully weigh the consequences that excessively heavy-handed action could have in this distinctive part of Tajikistan. The Pamiri people of Badakshan differ from the rest of the country in language, culture and Islamic practice, and feel underrepresented in central government institutions. “The use of force could strengthen separatism,” Davlatov said. “There are differences of ethnic background and religion and – whatever others might think – the Pamiris believe their rights are infringed on. “If the government is able to draw a distinction between the ordinary people and the warlords, then an escalation can be averted.” Davlatov warned that if former field commanders were cornered but not defeated, they might look for support from armed groups over the border in Afghanistan, where he believes they already have connections. That would lead to an expansion in the conflict that Tajikistan’s military would be hard-pressed to cope with, he added. Any failure to resolve the current situation is likely to place the government under considerable international scrutiny, Davlatov said. As a key Ismaili region, Badakhshan has benefited from development aid from the Agha Khan Foundation – but so have other, non-Ismaili parts of the country. Lola Olimova is IWPR Tajikistan editor. Updated information from radio editor Shahodat Saibnazarova. TAJIK WOMEN HIT GLASS CEILING Despite government programmes, women rarely make it past second-in-command. By Gulafshon Sokieva - Central Asia Despite legislation designed to secure gender equality, women rarely make it beyond deputy positions in the Tajik government, and instead remain stuck in the lower ranks or hit a glass ceiling after reaching middle management. Tajikistan has no female cabinet ministers, though the state committee for women and family affairs is headed by a woman. Marifat Shokirova, who heads the committee’s gender department, argues that government efforts have resulted in improvements this year. President Imomali Rahmon promoted nine women – almost all to deputy positions – at the start of the year. Eight were promoted to become deputy heads of government bodies including the agriculture ministry, the committee on investment and state property management. and the state electricity provider Bark-i Tojik. A ninth woman was made head of the municipal government in the northern town of Chkalovsk, becoming one of just four women nationwide heading town or district authorities. Oinikhol Bobonazarova, head of the Perspektiva Plus NGO, said she was pleased with the number of women promoted, but disappointed by the levels they had reached. She questioned whether government officials were taking a presidential decree on women’s promotion too literally. President Rahmon issued a decree in 1999 that paved the way towards positive discrimination and sought to improve female representation in parliament, the judiciary and the government. The decree tasked the government with promoting deserving female candidates to deputy positions in ministries, government committees and agencies, state-run companies, local government, the prosecution service and the courts. While this was intended to empower women, experts like Bobonazarova fear its real effect has been to hold them in check. “If we are talking about gender equality, why can’t a woman be a leader?” Bobonazarova asked. Times have changed since the decree was passed, in the immediate wake of the 1992-97 civil war, she said, and women should no longer be restricted to second-in-command positions. Aside from the decree, the government has introduced programmes including a nine-year strategy adopted in 2011, intended to help women find employment in areas including business and politics. An additional programme from 2007 to 2016 aimed to promote women to leading positions in the government and NGOs, and to encourage education for women. While these measures brought about some changes, rights workers say more needs to be done. The Tajikistan Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law said in 2011 that only five per cent of leading government posts were held by women, and that there were no women leading provincial-level administrations. As for the legislature, 12 of the 63 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament are women, while of the upper house’s 25 members, five are female. In the judiciary, the more than 70 court chairpersons include just seven women, according to 2011 figures. Officials recognise that there is a shortage of women in top government jobs. “At the level of ministries and agencies, male bosses do not understand the responsibility to assure gender equality,” Shokirova said. “They still operate according to old stereotypes.” On International Women’s Day, March 8, this year, the president noted that there were too few women in top government positions. Activists often blame the situation on pervasive social attitudes towards female roles. Many in Tajikistan believe women’s main job is to raise children, an attitude which politicians and the media reinforce. For example, Bobonazarova noted that International Women’s Day was used to celebrate the role of mothers rather than women’s accomplishments in the workplace. Tajik journalist Jovid Mukim believes officials are wary of women with leadership skills, and prefer them to display qualities like loyalty instead. Daler Sharifov, a young man from Dushanbe, said there was a lack of positive female role models in the media. He also questioned how much power female lawmakers really had. “State TV channels portray women [as] only singers and dancers. We do not have women who are really active in public life.… Women represented in parliament are just a token gesture,” he said. “Why can’t our women lead big enterprises like women do in Russia?” Matluba Uljabaeva, head of the Tajik Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, believes women can compete against men in any area of public life, but traditional mindsets among government officials have driven many educated and skilled women into the NGO sector. “Those who had knowledge and experience of being in leading positions [during Soviet times], and who spoke foreign languages, established themselves as NGO activists,” Uljabaeva said. In the NGO sector, she added, women are confined to campaigning from the sidelines, rather than deciding and leading on policy. Gulafshon Sokieva is an IWPR-trained journalist in Dushanbe. **** http://iwpr.net/ ********************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA provides the international community with a unique insiders' perspective on the region. Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across Central Asia on a weekly basis. The service forms part of IWPR's Central Asia Project based in Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent and London, which supports media development and encourages better local and international understanding of the region. IWPR's Reporting Central Asia is supported by the UK Community Fund. The service is published online in English and Russian. The opinions expressed in Reporting Central Asia are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. 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