DUSHANBE, June 3, 2016, Asia-Plus – Member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) provided nearly US$10 million worth of humanitarian aid to Tajikistan during the period from July 2015 to May 2016, according to the CSTO Secretariat.
In all, six 20-ton dump trucks MAZ, 3.335 tons of food products, 1,190 tons of building materials, fuels, and other materials have been delivered to Tajikistan over the report period.
We will recall that mudslides and floods caused by rains and melting glaciers in July 2015 destroyed dozens of houses, trade and cultural facilities, electricity lines, and an irrigation systems in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) and Rasht Valley (eastern Tajikistan).
Besides, heavy rains throughout Tajikistan last month triggered floods and mudslides killing five persons, affecting over 1500 households and leaving them without shelter and food, damaging arable land critical infrastructure, and killing livestock.
The regional security organization was initially formed in 1992 for a five-year period by the members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) — Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, which were joined by Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Belarus the following year. A 1994 treaty reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force, and prevented signatories from joining any “other military alliances or other groups of states” directed against members states. The CST was then extended for another five-year term in April 1999, and was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO. Uzbekistan that suspended its membership in 1999 returned to the CSTO again in 2006 after it came under international criticism for its brutal crackdown of antigovernment demonstrations in the eastern city of Andijon in May 2005. On June 28, 2012, Uzbekistan announced that it has suspended its membership of the CSTO, saying the organization ignores Uzbekistan and does not consider its views. The CSTO is currently an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.
