Dushanbe, February 28, Asia-Plus – Suhrob Sharipov, Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the President of Tajikistan, has called assessment given by Freedom House to
Tajikistan
’s freedom status “unfair” and “prejudiced”.
The U.S.-based human rights monitor has rated
Tajikistan
in its annual report as “not free”.
Commenting on this subject Mr. Sharipov noted that notion of “freedom” was the relative one. “Of course, we cannot claim that
Tajikistan
is a pattern of
free state
,” said Suhrob Sharipov, “The country’s leadership has also admitted that we are just moving towards democracy.” On the other hand, if the criterion of freedom is anarchy, “
Tajikistan
, of course, is not
free state
.” “It is to be remembered that the main reason for rating our country’s freedom status as “not free” is the fact that Freedom House was not registered in our country,” Mr. Sharipov said.
Tajik independent expert Jovid Muqim has seconded Suhrob Sharipov, noting that it is not clear “on what criteria this assessment is based.”
In its annual report, Freedom House has raised freedom status of
Kyrgyzstan
and
Afghanistan
from “not free” to “partly free”, while
Russia
’s freedom status has been lowered from “partly free” to “not free”.
Kazakhstan
and
Uzbekistan
have also been rated as “not free”.
According to Mr. Muqim, it is just an opinion of view of one organization. “With the same result, any organization in
Tajikistan
may rate the
United States
as not
free state
but will not be an official position of our state,” he said. “If this assessment concerns state of media, it is wrong,” said Mr. Muqim, “Indeed, it is impossible to compare
Tajikistan
to the
United States
but it is also wrong to put
Tajikistan
in one rank with
Uzbekistan
.”
