Porous and Violent, Afghan-Tajik Border Is a Worry for the U.S.

HAMADONI DISTRICT, Tajikistan — Using a raft made of scrap wood and the inner tube of a truck tire, four armed men recently crossed the river from Afghanistan to a tiny, nameless border settlement here and kidnapped the two adolescent sons of a local army recruiter.

With their hostages, they then crossed back into Afghanistan and called the recruiter, demanding $55,000. They threatened to kill his sons and sell their organs on the black market if he refused.

Such kidnappings, along with murders, armed clashes and other violence, have become persistent features of life along Tajikistan’s extensive border with Afghanistan. A largely unprotected expanse of severe peaks and dusty plains, the border is practically all that separates the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and beyond from the chaos of one of the world’s most war-ravaged countries.

 

VIA: NY Times; Porous and Violent, Afghan-Tajik Border Is a Worry for the U.S. 

 

Assessing Tajikistan’s “Mujahedin”

A public statement by a group calling itself the Mujahedin of Tajikistan has set the experts guessing about whether such an organisation really exists. What they do agree on, however, is that Tajikistan is increasingly vulnerable to militant activity from a mix of dissatisfied Islamists at home, and armed groups over the border in Afghanistan.

The Mujahedin of Tajikistan issued a statement posted on Islamist websites on April 24, warning of revenge attacks against the Tajik government for the death of veteran militant leader Mullo Abdullo, killed by the security forces on April 26 during a military operation in the Rasht valley in the eastern mountains. (For more on this incident, see Few Tears Shed for “Tajik Bin Laden”.)

The Tajik government has not publicly addressed the various permutations of the threat – ranging from insignificant local groups to a coordinated network of local and foreign fighters. One senior official, quoted anonymously by the Regnum news agency, said the threat should not be taken seriously, there was no destabilising force left now that Mullo Abdullo was dead, and the law enforcement forces were in full control of the situation.

A Tajik security source told IWPR, also anonymously, that such statements might well emanate from disgruntled civil war-era commanders now living in Russia – and incapable of doing anything more than make threats. “They’re able to sit and disseminate information via the internet, but they are not capable of fighting against government forces,” he said.

Lola Olimova is IWPR’s Tajikistan editor.

This article was produced jointly under two IWPR projects: Building Central Asian Human Rights Protection & Education Through the Media, funded by the European Commission; and the Human Rights Reporting, Confidence Building and Conflict Information Programme, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway.

Village “Lost” Between Tajik and Uzbek Lands

Residents of a village on Tajikistan’s northern border with Uzbekistan feel they have been cast adrift by their government.

The village of Platina, with around 1,600 residents, lies in the Spitamen district of Tajikistan.

Tajiks and Uzbeks live happily side by side, but both face the same difficulties – lack of medical facilities in the area and a shortage of work.

Tajik families, however, face an additional difficulty as there is no local school, so their children have to attend an Uzbek school six kilometres away. As well as having to travel a long way to school, they are studying the curriculum and history of Uzbekistan, and using Uzbek instead of their native Tajik as the learning medium. Apart from the linguistic differences, they have to learn Latin script for Uzbek instead of the Cyrillic used for Tajik.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

 

Tajiks to Strengthen Border With Afghanistan

As the international troop withdrawal from Afghanistan draws closer, Tajikistan is trying to strengthen its long frontier with that country as a safeguard against attempts to export instability.

Since Tajikistan took over border protection from Russia, whose troops performed the role until 2005, it has sought donor funding to modernise and consolidate its defences.

New border posts have been built or are planned, but existing ones are in need of refurbishment. And the Tajik frontier force is still using obsolete arms, equipment and radios from the Soviet era. Its vehicles date mostly from the early 1980s.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.