WHY THE WEST TURNS A BLIND EYE TO EMOMALI RAHMON’S CRIMES?

International human rights organizations have increasingly referred to Tajikistan as a country of lawlessness in recent years. The republic is sliding down in all existing rankings, and in the Human Freedom Index, it ranks among the ten most repressive countries in the world. Law enforcement and supervisory bodies, as well as the judicial system, have never been independent. They have been and remain tools in the hands of the existing regime. Consequently, achieving justice in the country is practically impossible. For this reason, citizens of Tajikistan have increasingly turned to UN structures to compel the existing regime to respect their rights. However, neither UN resolutions nor its recommendations, let alone calls from human rights organizations, have any effect on the behavior of the authorities. Are there mechanisms or tools that could compel the regime of Emomali Rahmon to stop the lawlessness? We will try to answer this question in this episode of our program.

International Obligations

According to the UN Charter, the government of Tajikistan, as a member of this organization, is OBLIGATED to respect and protect human rights. But in practice, as we know, this does not happen. The UN, except for the International Criminal Court, which addresses crimes against humanity and genocide, has no structures that hold governments accountable in other cases. For example, the existing UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued about twenty decisions based on appeals from citizens of Tajikistan, calling on the government of Emomali Rahmon to comply. But in Dushanbe, they did not consider it necessary to familiarize themselves with the opinions of UN experts. In addition, the leadership of Tajikistan refuses to join international treaties that could obligate it to respect human rights in order to continue its repressive policies.

Financial Instruments

Indeed, it is a seemingly hopeless situation. However, a number of countries and organizations do have tools to influence the regime in Tajikistan, and if they wish, they can compel the leadership of the republic to respect the rights of its citizens. What are they? First and foremost, these are financial and economic levers. The USA and the European Union, as well as Western credit organizations, provide the regime of Emomali Rahmon with hundreds of millions of dollars in the form of concessional loans. Few talk about it, but the total share of Western loans in Tajikistan’s external debt exceeds the total amount of loans provided by China to Tajikistan: China – 1 billion 140 million dollars, Western loans 1 billion 250 million dollars.

Grant Support for the State Budget

Moreover, again, this is not something the government of Tajikistan likes to talk about, but Western countries and organizations send tens of millions of dollars in grants annually to support the state budget of the republic. For example, last year, the World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank, and other Western structures contributed over 30 million dollars to Tajikistan’s state budget for 2021. And all this money was given to them free of charge. In addition, these same financial structures acted as donors in investment projects of the Tajik government amounting to about 250 million dollars. I want to clarify that while 30 million in grant funds went to pay pensions and benefits for poor Tajik citizens, 248 million dollars were directed towards the construction and modernization of vital infrastructure in the republic – roads, tunnels, substations, and hydroelectric power stations. This money was also provided on a grant basis.

Humanitarian Aid

The annual volume of humanitarian aid received by Tajikistan from the West is approximately 80 million dollars. For example, last year, the USA sent over 23 million dollars in humanitarian aid to Tajikistan, and in the first quarter of 2022, more than 20 million dollars. In addition to food, America helps the government of Tajikistan in the organization and technical equipping of border troops. Since 2005, the US government has provided more than 150 million dollars to strengthen the security of Tajikistan’s borders. Recently, the US embassy in Dushanbe announced an additional allocation of 60 million dollars for Tajik border guards.

Personal Accounts of the Rahmon Family

Another significant and possibly the most important lever of influence on the Rahmon regime is the financial accounts of family members and their companies. International investigative groups have recently discovered bank accounts of the closest relatives of the President of Tajikistan in offshore zones in the Virgin Islands. In addition, Sharofiddin Gadoev, a former partner of Rahmon’s son-in-law, published official documents about the bank accounts of Shamsullo Sokhibov in Western banks. Gadoev claims that hundreds of millions of dollars are transferred there annually from Tajikistan, and the real owner of the accounts is none other than Emomali Rahmon himself.

The habits of the Rahmon family to collect money in Tajikistan and transfer it to their offshore accounts were noted in diplomatic cables by the former US ambassador to Tajikistan, Richard Hoagland. In one of the cables, American diplomats noted that Emomali “Rahmon and his family control the largest enterprises in the country, including the largest bank, and fiercely protect their business interests, regardless of the damage to the country’s economy. Most of the income from the aluminum company TALCO is hidden in offshore companies controlled by the president. Rahmon prefers to receive 90 percent of a ten-dollar pie rather than a third of a hundred-dollar pie.”

Global Magnitsky Act

To hold the government of Emomali Rahmon accountable for human rights violations, the USA and the European Union have the so-called Global Magnitsky Act in effect. Under this act, the US president and the European Council can sanction foreign nationals guilty of corruption, extrajudicial killings, torture, and other violations against human rights defenders and those who expose illegal activities. The actions of the government of Emomali Rahmon against the opposition, journalists, and civil activists, as well as numerous restrictions on civil rights in Tajikistan, fully fall under these criteria.

As we can see, the West has all the necessary tools to influence the government of Tajikistan. However, in practice, neither the USA nor the countries of the European Union pay any attention to the large-scale repression and lawlessness perpetrated by the regime of Emomali Rahmon in Tajikistan.