DUSHANBE, March 18, 2013, Asia-Plus — Leaders of the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT), Rahmatillo Zoirov, claims that head of the Uzbek ethnic community in Khatlon province, Salimboy Shamsiddinov, has disappeared.
He writes about this in an open letter to the Tajik Human Rights Ombudsman Zarif Alizoda, Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimov and State Committee for National Security (SCNS) Chairman Saymumin Yatimov.
According to Zoirov, Shamsiddinov’s disappearance is politically motivated.
The letter, released on March 18, in particular, notes that Shamsiddinov disappeared in Qurghon Teppa two days ago and his current whereabouts are unknown. SDPT leader, however, supposes that Shamsiddinov was arrested by the SCNS officers and taken to Dushanbe.
Zoirov says that it cannot be ruled out that Shamsiddinov was arrested for his collaboration with him.
“We have cooperated with him. In November 2012 I was invited to the conference of the Uzbek ethnic community in Qurghon Teppa as head of Tajikistan’s Legal Consortium. Representative of the Qurghon Teppa administration also attended the conference, which made a decision on legal cooperation between the Uzbek ethnic community’s organization for Khatlon and the Legal Consortium. Shamsiddinov is a lawyer by specialty and he has represented the Legal Consortium in Khatlon since March 1 this year.”
Zoirov also notes that Shamsiddinov participated in a roundtable that was arranged by the Coalition Committee on making amendments to the country’s law on the presidential election in Dushanbe on January 12, 2013.
On March 15, they reportedly had a telephone conversation to discuss some aspects. “Shamsiddinov said that the law enforcement authorities are making pressure on him,” SDPT leader noted in his letter.
We will recall that SDPT leader released an open statement on March 7, noting that the law enforcement authorities are trying to make his friends and neighbors witness against him. In his opinion, this is connected with the upcoming presidential election in the country. According to Zoirov, over the past six months, the central and local authorities as well as the law enforcement agencies have tried to prevent any addenda and changes to the country’s Constitutional law on the presidential election.
According to the statement, the unregistered public association, The National Movement of Tajikistan, has decided to nominate Rahmatillo Zoirov as a single candidate for president without any coordination with the Coalition Council and Rahmatillo Zoirov. This initiative has reportedly disturbed the authorities and pressure has become stronger. Zoirov noted that the law enforcement authorities have made pressure on his friends and former neighbors, trying to make them witness against him, but they have refused.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has denied these allegations as baseless. A statement released by a MoI on March 13 says that nobody has been summoned to the ministry for witnessing against the SDPT leader.
