Tajikistan

B

Reforms and Repression

An opportunity for greater local autonomy (self-government) presented itself in the 1980s under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev introduced a program for political reforms called glasnost (Russian for “openness”). Although reform was gradual and limited in Tajikistan, this program allowed, among other things, the formation of unofficial political groups. The government of the Tajik republic relaxed its censorship policies, and the increased freedom fostered a renewed interest in Tajik culture. In 1989 the Tajik Supreme Soviet (legislature) declared Tajik the official state language.

In early 1990 social unrest broke out in Dushanbe. Protestors called for democratic reforms and challenged the government to address the scarcity of work and housing. Demonstrators clashed with police, and the local government declared a state of emergency. Some 5,000 Soviet troops were dispatched to Dushanbe and suppressed the demonstrations. Opposition parties were then refused official registration.

In August 1990 the Tajik Supreme Soviet asserted the sovereignty of the Tajik republic. Although it fell short of a declaration of independence, the assertion did indicate a desire for less centralized control over local affairs. In November the first secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, Qahhor Makhkamov, was elected by the legislature to the new post of president. His only opponent was Rakhmon Nabiyev, who had served as first secretary of the party from 1982 to 1985. Makhkamov resigned in August 1991, after a failed coup attempt in Moscow by Communist hardliners to take control of the Soviet government. In reaction to the Tajikistan government’s support of the coup attempt, some advocates of reform began antigovernment demonstrations, which continued sporadically over the succeeding months. The chairperson of the Supreme Soviet then stepped in as acting president.

C

Independence

In September 1991 the Tajik Supreme Soviet declared Tajikistan’s independence from the Soviet Union, following similar declarations by most of the other Soviet republics. The USSR officially collapsed in December. Most of the former Soviet republics, Tajikistan included, joined a loose political alliance called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

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After Tajikistan’s independence, Communist officials who were resistant to democratic and economic reforms continued to control the government. In November 1991 Nabiyev, the onetime head of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, won the country’s first direct presidential election with 57 percent of the vote.

Renewed antigovernment demonstrations began in Dushanbe in March 1992 after Nabiyev dismissed some prominent sympathizers of the opposition from his government. The officially banned opposition parties staged demonstrations calling for Nabiyev’s resignation. The opposition was composed of the Islamic Rebirth Party and pro-democracy secular groups (Rastokhez, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, and Lali Badakhshon). In early May government troops fired on the demonstrators, killing several people. Violent clashes between the opposition and pro-government forces soon escalated into civil war.

In September the opposition seized Nabiyev in Dushanbe and forced him to announce his resignation. In November the Supreme Soviet abolished the office of president and appointed a hardliner official, Imamali Rakhmonov, head of the Supreme Soviet, and as such, head of state. The Supreme Soviet also elected a new neo-Soviet government, maintaining the longtime regional bias in the political power structure. Government officials came from the Khujand, Kŭlob, and Hisor regions, whereas the opposition was based in the southern Qŭrghonteppa (Kurgan-Tyube) region, the Garm (Gharm) Valley to the east of Dushanbe, and Gorno-Badakhshan in the east.

The Islamic-democratic alliance formed a military coalition called the Popular Democratic Army and held control of Dushanbe until December. They agreed to hand over the city when the new government was formed, but militias loyal to the government attacked and captured the capital anyway. Opposition rebels fled to the mountains east of Dushanbe and to Afghanistan. The Islamic opposition, from bases in Afghanistan, continued to wage guerrilla warfare along Tajikistan’s southern border. Fighting between government and rebel forces also took place in Gorno-Badakhshan. The Islamic Rebirth Party rebels, who established a political coalition of parties and individuals and armed supporters called the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), reportedly received the support of Afghan mujahideen (Islamic guerrilla fighters). The continuous fighting killed tens of thousands and drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in late 1992 and early 1993.

After reestablishing control, the government renewed its campaign of suppression and persecution of the political opposition. Activities of the press were severely constrained, and opposition newspapers were closed. Many journalists were arrested, several disappeared, and others were found dead. Prominent opposition leaders were also placed under arrest. The Supreme Court officially banned all opposition parties in June 1993, leaving the Communist Party of Tajikistan as the only legal party in the country. Later in the year members of the government or close associates formed a number of pro-government parties, including the People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT).

By December 1993 Russia and all of the Central Asian states except Turkmenistan had deployed a CIS peacekeeping force of about 25,000 troops to Tajikistan. The troops were stationed to guard the Tajikistan border with Afghanistan and fight the Islamic guerrilla groups operating within Tajikistan and from bases in Afghanistan. In early 1994 President Rakhmonov announced the government was willing to negotiate with the opposition, which had been urging peace talks since 1993. In September both sides reached a temporary cease-fire accord and agreed to seek reconciliation through political means. The cease-fire took effect in October, and the United Nations (UN) sent an observer mission to monitor it.

In an election held in November 1994, the people of Tajikistan elected Rakhmonov as president while simultaneously approving a new constitution that reinstated the presidential system. Opposition parties were not allowed to field candidates, and international observers found the election neither free nor fair. The opposition was also excluded from legislative elections held in February 1995. Candidates affiliated with the Communist Party of Tajikistan and its ally, the PDPT, dominated the new legislature, called the Majlisi Oli (Supreme Assembly).

With the help of the UN, peace talks between the two sides continued on an on-and-off basis after the establishment of a cease-fire in 1994. By mid-1996 Russia, which backed the Tajikistan government, began to view the rise of the Taliban, an Islamic movement in Afghanistan, as a bigger threat to its interests than the UTO. Russia urged the Tajikistan government to make some concessions to obtain a peace agreement with the UTO. The talks resulted in a new cease-fire agreement in December. However, some Islamic rebel factions and other armed groups caused further sporadic fighting.

Negotiations over the terms of a formal treaty continued, and in February 1997 Rakhmonov and the leader of the UTO, Said Abdullo Nuri, signed a preliminary peace agreement. In subsequent negotiations, the government agreed to legalize the opposition parties it had previously banned and to include opposition leaders in 30 percent of high-level government posts. In June of that year, both sides signed a peace accord that incorporated these government concessions. The two sides also formed the National Reconciliation Council (NRC), a joint council of government and opposition representatives that would oversee implementation of the peace terms. Nuri returned to Tajikistan, ending five years in exile in Iran and Afghanistan, as chairperson of the NRC.

In January 1998 Rakhmonov announced the government would grant amnesty to all opposition leaders in exile. He also agreed to appoint one of the Islamic opposition’s leaders as first deputy prime minister. In 1999 the UTO twice suspended its participation in the NRC, claiming the government was not upholding its promises or acknowledging UTO demands. In September of that year, voters approved major constitutional amendments in a national referendum. The amendments created a new bicameral (two-chamber) legislature, extended the presidential term of office from five years to seven, and legalized the right to form religion-based parties.

In November 1999 Rakhmonov was reelected president in a basically uncontested election, after the electoral commission barred three of his challengers from running. Legislative elections were held in 2000 for the new 63-seat lower house, the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Assembly of Representatives). The majority of seats went to Rakhmonov’s party, the PDPT. As provided for in the 1997 peace treaty, members of the opposition were appointed to 30 percent of all government posts. After the elections the NRC was dissolved, having fulfilled its mandate, but many divisions within the country remained unresolved.

In June 2003 a popular referendum approved a package of constitutional amendments. One of these exempted President Rakhmonov from a two-term limit, allowing him to stand for two additional terms after the expiration of his second term in 2006. Another of the approved amendments abolished the constitutional guarantee of free, state-funded health care and higher education.

Rakhmonov’s ruling PDPT won by a landslide in the 2005 legislative elections, which international monitors said were marred by widespread voting irregularities. The PDPT captured 51 seats, giving it nearly complete dominance of the lower house. Only two other parties, the Communist Party of Tajikistan and the opposition Islamic Rebirth Party (IRP), won enough votes to gain seats. In November 2006 Rakhmonov was reelected by a landslide to a third term as president. He faced no real competition in the election, as opposition parties refused to field candidates and boycotted the polling. Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported widespread voting irregularities and criticized the election process for failing to meet democratic standards.