CHRONICLE OF THE MONTH: June, 2011
June 1 – The lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of the Tajik parliament voted to ban hunger strikes in public places and in front of government buildings. The ban is among several amendments to the Law on Assemblies, Demonstrations, and Peaceful Protests and to the Administrative Code that were approved by the Majlisi Namoyandagon. Members of the Majlisi Namoyandagon also unanimously endorsed the bill requiring establishment of the Chamber of Accounts.
June 1-3 – Pakistani business delegation visited Tajikistan to discuss cooperation issues.
June 2 – President Emomali Rahmon received a delegation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), led by Mr. Daniel Glaser, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and Co-chairman of the FATF Working Group on Terrorist Financing. The sides discussed issues related to cooperation between Tajikistan and this premier international body in the fight against money laundering in combating economic and corruption crimes;
– The trial of two former police officers charged over the death of Dushanbe resident Safarali Sangov opened in Dushanbe. Police say Sangov committed suicide by jumping from a second-story set of stairs and, when he was then returned to an interrogation room, by repeatedly banging his head against a wall. The defendants have been officially charged with negligence that led to Sangov”s suicide. This statement profoundly upset Sangov”s relatives, who were present in the courtroom. They insist that Sangov was severely beaten and that his death was not suicide, but murder.
June 5-11 – President Emomali Rahmon toured Europe. Rahmon”s tour took him to France, Austria, Luxembourg, and Hungary.
June 6-9 – Tajik parliamentary delegation, led by the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Chairman Shukurjon Zuhurov, visited South Korea.
June 7 – Armed Tajik border guard was arrested in Uzbekistan”s Surkhandarya region. A statement issued by Uzbekistan”s National Security Service says the Tajik guard tried to cross the border illegally near the Uzbek village of Labiob. It added that he took possession of the Uzbek border guards” weapons and then offered to return them for money.
June 7-8 – The third meeting of the Tajik-Turkmen intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation took place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
June 7-9 – Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov attended the 7th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in Astana, Kazakhstan. The topic of the conference that will last till June 9 is “Globalization: Interaction, Competition and Cooperation for the Mobilization of Muslim and Non-Muslim Countries to Greater Economic Independence through Open Channels of Multilateral Relations and Strategic Cooperation.”
June 8 – The alleged leader in Tajikistan of the banned Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, Sharifjon Yoqubov, was arrested in Dushanbe. Yoqubov is from the Bobojon Ghafurov district in Sughd province and moved with his family to Dushanbe last year. Yoqubov and his followers reportedly prepared and distributed leaflets on the streets of Dushanbe. According to the Interior Ministry, Yoqubov”s arrest became possible after his online correspondence with Ata Abu ar-Rushta, Hizb ut-Tahrir”s London-based leader, was monitored by Tajik security services. Yoqubov has spent 10 years in prison for being an active member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was banned in Tajikistan in 2001.
June 9 – Two Tajik schoolboys kidnapped and taken to neighboring Afghanistan on June 1 were released and returned to Tajikistan without a ransom being paid, while kidnappers demanded US$40,000 for their release. The two brothers, Faridun and Sangmad Sangmadov, were released thanks to the joint efforts of the Tajik and Afghan authorities. According to RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, earlier this month, an Afghan gang released a resident of Tajikistan”s southern district of Shouroobod after a $20,000 ransom was paid.
June 10 – Police detained two men suspected of attacking a court and prosecutor”s office in Khorog, Gorno Badakhshan. Dozens of men attacked and vandalized the regional court building and prosecutor”s office in Khorog. Several court employees were beaten in the incident. The men were reportedly angered by a nine-year prison term the court gave Qayum Rahmikhudoyev for killing a man who allegedly broke into his home and attacked him. They also claimed that a court employee accepted money in return for a more lenient sentence for Rahmikhudoyev, but that the bribe-taker did not keep his promise.
June 12 – One man was killed in a landslide near Dushanbe. According to the Committee for Emergency Situations, Saidkhoja Tolibov, a 44-year-old employee of the state traffic inspection service, died when a landslide crushed his car and swept it into the Surkhob River near Dushanbe. A rescue team retrieved Tolibov”s body early on June 13.
June 13 – Tajik authorities detained BBC Uzbek Service correspondent Urunboy Usmonov, 59, in Khujand. The Interior Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloyev said that Usmonov joined the banned Islamic movement Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2009 and sought to recruit new members for the group through the Internet. Asadulloyev said several people have made statements confirming this information.
June 13-17 – German parliamentary delegation, led by Dr. Dagmar Enkelmann, chairperson of the Bundestag Group for German-Central Asia Affairs, visited Tajikistan.
June 14 – Violence broke out after a championship football match between Istiqlol from Dushanbe and hometown Ravshan from Kulob. The match turned into minor riot that left at least 10 people injured and some 20 others in jail. Kulob fans poured into the streets outside the stadium, fighting with Istiqlol supporters and members of local law enforcement and damaging automobiles. One unidentified witness said some of the Kulob fans used “offensive words.” Police used tear gas and percussion grenades to disperse the crowd.
June 15 – The Majlisi Namoyandagon passed a parental-responsibilities law, which was submitted to parliament by President Emomali Rahmon.
June 20 – An escapee from a high-profile jailbreak last year and a suspected insurgent were killed by security forces in Rasht district. The men were reportedly killed during a government operation in the village of Yasman. Asadulloyev noted that Mazhariddin Khudoyorov, a participant in the mass jailbreak in August, and armed militant Mahmadkarim Ibrohimov (known as Shaykh Kamol) were killed during the operation. Another jailbreak escapee, Furqat Kholmetov, and suspected militant Imomnazar Muqimov were detained in the operation;
– The 8th CIS education ministers’ conference, presided over by Tajik Minister of Education Abdujabbor Rahmonov, took place in Dushanbe;
– Tajik Minister of Education Abdujabbor Rahmonov and Russian Minister of Education and Science Andrey Fursenko signed an agreement on opening of branches of Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Technical University) and National University of Science and Technology “MISIS” (former State Technological University “Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys”) in Tajikistan.
June 21 – Ways to settle arising local border conflicts and coordination and interaction between police stations of border districts of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in abating tension in the border areas were discussed at a meeting of law enforcement authorities of Tajik Sughd province and Kyrgyz Batken region that took place in the Tajik northern city of Isfara.
June 22-23 – The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai visited Dushanbe to discuss with Tajik state officials issues related to cooperation between NATO and Tajikistan.
June 22 – Some 40 fans of the Ravshan soccer club were detained in Dushanbe for rioting after their team”s victory in the country”s top soccer league. The rioting started after fans left Dushanbe’s Politekhnikum Stadium where Ravshan defeated CSKA Pamir 3-2. Tohir Normatov, the Interior Ministry”s chief of staff, says hundreds of Ravshan fans went into the streets of Dushanbe shouting slogans and throwing rocks at police and parked cars. According to him, nobody was injured in the rampage and the damage was limited, with some car windows being smashed.
June 23 – A conference of Tajik and Iranian entrepreneurs took place at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) of Tajikistan in Dushanbe. Presided over by Saidrahmon Nazriyev, Tajik Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, and Imran Mohammad Kazemi, Head of the Sorosh-e Beinalmelali Company, the forum reportedly brought together representatives of Tajik Ministry of Health (MoH) and senior representatives from a number of Tajik and Iranian companies to discuss ways to expand bilateral economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran.
June 25-26 – Tajik President Emomali Rahmon attended the International Conference on Global Fight against Terrorism in Tehran, Iran.
June 27- Tajikistan marked the National Unity Day.
June 28 – Dushanbe hosted Interpol’s working group meeting of the Project Kalkan. Held at the OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe, the meeting formally titled “Terrorism in the Region” brought together some 30 experts from Central and South Asia’s countries to discuss issues related to combating terrorism and religious extremism;
– A conference of representatives from business communities of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan took place in Dushanbe. Afghan entrepreneurs also attended the forum, the main objective of which was in promoting expansion of trade and economic cooperation, attraction of investment for development of Tajikistan’s economy and launch of joint ventures in Tajikistan.
June 29 – Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Sergey Naryshkin, Head of Russian President’s Office, and Anatoly Serdyukov, Russian Minister of Defense;
– U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Ken Gross, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) William Brownfield, and Deputy Chief of Tajikistan”s Border Guard Forces Major-General Safarali Nazirov, traveled to southern Tajikistan to visit a barracks facility at the Border Guard Detachment in Shouroobod and to participate in the opening ceremony of the reconstructed Border Outpost Yakhchi-Pun.