The odd deaths of opponents in the Pamir region
In Tajikistan, human rights groups accuse the Tajik government of grave abuses in its crackdown against protests in the Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Region. They point to the deaths of four jailed activists in recent months. Prisoners in the rebel region are reportedly subjected to systematic torture to obtain forced confessions or information to indict other activists who have fled abroad.
Dushanbe (AsiaNews) – Several international human rights organisations are calling for sanctions against senior Tajik officials for the crackdown on protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in the Pamir Mountains, citing a series of mysterious deaths of jailed activists.
One of the victims, 35-year-old Aslan Gulobov, officially died in June from a perforated stomach ulcer. He had been arrested for taking part in the protests of thousands of people, who for many months had taken to the streets in Khorug and other towns in the region to protest against the persecution of the indigenous Pamiri ethnic minority.
Protesters were subjected to brutal violence from law enforcement, in an increasingly intense spiral of repression, with hundreds of arrests and dozens of convictions.
Gulobov was sentenced to life imprisonment in August 2022 in connection with the killing of a general in the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) in 2012, based on a classified investigation whose details were never released.
The activist's death was not the first nor the last among the many opposition figures to end up in prison camps; in January, 50-year-old Kulmamad Pallaev died in a Dushanbe prison, after complaining of severe stomach and intestinal pain shortly before his death.
Soon after Gulobov's death, a similar fate befell 39-year-old Yeronshko Makhmadrakhimov and 61-year-old Muzaffar Davlatmirov, arrested after a recent police raid in Rushan and Khorug on charges of terrorism and other crimes, accusations their relatives reject.
In light of the situation, several human rights watchdogs issued an appeal against “the unexplained deaths of at least four Pamir activists” in Tajik prisons, emphasising the “poor detention conditions, [and] problems with access to medical care," certainly nothing new in Tajikistan.
The statement was signed by, among others, the Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial Brussels, CIVICUS, the International Communities Organisation, the International Federation of Human Rights, the Ligue burundaise des droits de l’homme Iteka, Vuka!, the Coalition for Civic Engagement, and the World Organisation Against Torture.
Tajiki authorities have so far not commented on the deaths in detention centres, although Justice Minister Muzofar Ashuriyon stated at a press conference that "prisoners are provided with medical care, and appropriate conditions have been established."
Confirming the deaths of the four prisoners cited in the appeal, Khursand Khurramov, an analyst who has studied the situation in Gorno-Badakshan, notes that no data on detention conditions have been released.
Recent stories are “certainly not favourable information for the government,” he explains. Along with other observers, he notes that President Emomali Rakhmon's pardon of 897 prisoners did not include Pamiri activists, not even those whose release had been requested by the UN.
Prisoners in the rebel region are subjected to systematic torture to extract forced confessions or information to charge activists who have fled abroad.
These repressive measures are often implemented out of “revenge for past activities”, which occurred well before the protests of recent years, and express broad forms of discrimination on religious, linguistic, and cultural grounds, as the appeal emphasises. Thus, in Tajikistan civil society as a whole continues to be oppressed, starting with minorities.
Activists in Gorno-Badakhshan support appeals, although they believe they are "rather belated”. In fact, “the situation is far worse than described even by international organisations, and new repressive incidents occur every day," this according to Alim Sherzamonov, a representative of the Pamiri and Tajiki opposition living abroad, who spoke to Radio Ozodi.
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