How Emomali Rahmon Wanted to Deal with the Opposition? (Video)

What are human rights?

To make a person honest, kind, and just, the Quran, the Bible, and the Torah were created. To make a person a citizen, constitutions were written, which outline the rights and obligations of the state towards the citizen. These are the rights that the state commits to uphold, and the citizen has the right to demand that the authorities respect their rights.

In Tajikistan, there is a government that allegedly honors the Quran but does not read the constitution of its own country at all. The Quran prohibits lying and humiliating people, and the constitution reiterates this prohibition. It seems that the authorities of Tajikistan are unaware of either, turning the country into one of the most lawless states in the world, with hundreds of political prisoners and thousands persecuted for dissent, which is prohibited by the constitution.

The level of human rights protection is determined not by the number of well-funded non-governmental organizations that receive awards on this day, but by the state of civil society. If the population is afraid to raise their voice in defense of their rights, then no amount of NGOs will help.

This year marks exactly six years since the arrest of the top leadership of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan. On September 17, twenty-three members of the Supreme Political Council of the IRPT were arrested, and two weeks later, the political organization was banned and declared a terrorist organization.

After the crackdown on the opposition, freedom of speech was practically banned in the country, and repression against civil activists, lawyers, and journalists began. There was a mass exodus of intellectuals, specialists, and ordinary citizens from the country, who lost all hope for the future of their homeland.

What preceded the crackdown on the opposition?

The struggle of Emomali Rahmon against the Tajik opposition and the Islamic Revival Party in particular has been ongoing since the first day of his political career as the leader of Tajikistan.

The active armed phase in the form of a civil war lasted from November 1992 to June 1997. Many researchers of modern Tajik history believe that Emomali Rahmon’s assumption of the position of Chairman of the Supreme Council of Tajikistan led to an escalation of the war.

In the post-war period, the struggle transitioned to the political sphere – the IRPT was legalized and allowed to participate in elections. However, against the Islamic opposition, Emomali Rahmon set up his own – the People’s Democratic Party and numerous artificially created pocket parties. And, of course, the entire state apparatus.

However, even this did not help. Against the backdrop of the economic crisis of 2008, the strengthening of authoritarianism, and the transformation of the government into a family-clan group, the popularity of the IRPT sharply increased. Its membership reached 40,000, and in the parliamentary elections of 2010, according to observers, the IRPT received more votes than all other parties. However, the authorities, as usual, falsified the election results.

Secret Protocol

A year after the scandalous elections, a secret document from the Tajikistan Security Council surfaced in the media – “Protocol 32/20”. It outlined the authorities’ plans to eliminate the Islamic Revival Party.

Although the government refused to acknowledge the existence of this document, soon all the points outlined in the protocol began to be implemented. Here are some points from Protocol 32/20:

– discrediting the leadership of the IRPT in the media;

– compiling a complete list of IRPT members;

– taking measures to reduce the number of IRPT members and supporters;

– taking control of the activities of the IRPT, etc.

The arrest of the IRPT leadership and its ban

Four years after the adoption of the secret “Protocol 32/20”, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan declared the Islamic Revival Party a terrorist organization and banned its activities on the territory of the republic.

The formal reason was an accusation brought by the General Prosecutor’s Office, which named the party as the organizer of an armed rebellion, in which Deputy Minister of Defense Abduhalim Nazarzoda was accused.

The authorities of Tajikistan claim that high-ranking general Abduhalim Nazarzoda, along with three officers of the General Staff, allegedly developed a plan for an armed takeover of power on the instructions of the IRPT leadership. For this purpose, the authorities allege, Nazarzoda and his associates attacked law enforcement agencies in the city of Dushanbe and in the districts of Vahdat and Rudaki. However, thanks to the authorities’ response measures, the rebels were eliminated.

According to lawyers and human rights defenders, the authorities lack evidence of the involvement of the leadership and members of the IRPT in this entire narrative.

Because of this, lawyers believe that the trial of the members of the Supreme Political Council of the IRPT was conducted in a regime of extreme secrecy in the building of the State Committee for National Security’s pre-trial detention center.

Who received what?

Since the ban on the Islamic opposition party in Tajikistan, at various times, no fewer than one and a half hundred former members of the IRPT have been sentenced. The longest sentences were given to members of the Supreme Political Council of the party.

First Deputy Saidumar Khusaini and Deputy Chairman of the party Muhammadali Khayit received life sentences.

Three members of the political council – Abdukakhkhor Davlat, Rahmatulloi Rajab, and Kiyomidin Avazov were sentenced to 28 years.

Sattor Karimov, Zubaidulloi Rozik, Muhammadali Faizmuhammad, and Vokhidkhon Kosiddinov received 26, 25, 23, and 20 years respectively.

Three more party members – journalist Hikmatullo Saifullozoda was sentenced to 16 years, Makhmadsharif Nabiev and Abdusamad Gayratov to 14 years in prison.

It is worth noting that during the crackdown on the opposition, the government of Emomali Rahmon brutally and demonstratively punished a group of independent lawyers who announced their intention to create a committee to protect members of the Islamic party immediately after the arrest of the IRPT members.

For example, well-known lawyers Buzurgmehr Yorov and Nuriddin Makhkamov were arrested 12 days after the arrest of the members of the Supreme Political Council of the IRPT. On the day of his detention, Buzurgmehr Yorov told journalists that his client – the first deputy chairman of the IRPT Saidumar Khusaini had been tortured in the pre-trial detention center.

The authorities of Tajikistan accused Yorov and Makhkamov of fraud, forgery of documents, “inciting national, racial, local, or religious enmity” and sentenced them to 28 and 21 years in prison respectively.

Reaction of the international community

To date, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has concluded that the authorities of Tajikistan violated their international human rights obligations by persecuting members of the IRPT. The UN Working Group called on the government of Emomali Rahmon to immediately release the members of the Supreme Political Council of the IRPT and their lawyers.

Karl Harbert, a representative of Freedom Now: “The investigation showed that the charges were fabricated by the authorities of Tajikistan to remove the IRPT from the political scene. The basis for the arrest and subsequent detention of 11 members of the IRPT was actually their exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, and the authorities’ claims that they participated in an attempted coup are unfounded.”

The government, for its part, while not recognizing its legal obligation to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, refused to comply with the recommendations of this UN body.