DUSHANBE, August 3, 2010, Asia-Plus — Exactly eleven years ago, on August 3, 1999, the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) announced that no further opposition military units existed—all had been disarmed and integrated into existing government units.
The UTO leader Said Abdullo Nuri, who was chairman of the Commission on National Reconciliation (CNR), announced that officially in the presence of all members of the commission, representatives of the Contact Group (CG) and UN Mission of Observers to Tajikistan.
That announcement led the government to lift the ban on opposition parties. On September 26, 1999, a referendum was held on constitutional amendments with about 73 percent supporting the proposed amendments. The constitutional amendments created a new two-chamber parliament where the parliamentarians.
The CNR was the principal mechanism for the implementation of the General Agreement was the Commission on National Reconciliation (CNR). The CNR was established with equal representation from both sides (thirteen members each). The CNR chairman was the UTO leader, Said Abdullo Nuri, with the first deputy speaker of parliament, Abdulmajid Dostiyev, as deputy chairman. Following the first plenary meeting in Moscow in July 1997, the CNR”s mandate went into full effect on 15 September 1997, with a working plan prepared by its four subcommissions to complete the schedule of implementation within twelve to eighteen months. Each subcommission and the expert group consisted of six members, based on equal representation of the government and UTO.
The main monitoring entity of the implementation of the General Agreement was the Contact Group (CG), consisting of eight states (Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and three international organizations (OIC, OSCE, and the UN) with the special representative of the UN Secretary-General serving as coordinator. In addition to its monitoring functions, CG provided expertise, advice, good offices, and recommendations on ways to ensure the parties” compliance with the General Agreement.
