Crossroads Asia | Politics | Central Asia
Outstanding Pamiri activists and figures have been pursued by the authorities via a wide range of means, with these in Russia seemingly on the biggest threat of extradition or rendition.
A pair of Russian residents reportedly disappeared in Moscow and reappeared a day later in a YouTube video saying that they had “voluntarily” returned to Tajikistan to reply questions from the authorities about occasions within the metropolis of Khorugh, the capital of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO).
Oraz Vazirbekov and Ramzi Vazirbekov (unrelated) are referenced within the media as activists or neighborhood organizers among the many Pamiri diaspora in Russia. The 2 males, in keeping with kin who spoke to RFE/RL, disappeared from the Domodedovo Airport after arriving from Yekaterinburg.
Tensions in Tajikistan’s GBAO flared into violence earlier this yr with a mid-Might crackdown, which the federal government labeled an “anti-terrorist operation,” that resulted within the deaths of a minimum of 21 civilians. Tajik authorities had blocked most web communications within the area from November 2021 to March 2022, and once more from mid-Might to late June.
Outstanding Pamiri activists and figures have been pursued by the authorities via a wide range of means, with these in Russia seemingly on the biggest threat of extradition or rendition. The return of the 2 Vazirbekovs to Tajikistan matches into a well-recognized pattern.
In late December 2021, Chorshanbe Chorshanbiev, a 26-year-old MMA fighter residing in Russia, was detained and deported to Tajikistan, allegedly over a dashing incident. However upon arrival he was detained and charged with violating articles 189 and 307 of the Tajik Felony Code, which cowl actions “arousing nationwide, racial, native or spiritual hostility,” and “public requires the forcible seize of state energy” via social media posts. In Might, he was sentenced to eight years in jail.
In some unspecified time in the future in January 2022 Amriddin Alovatshoev, a 44-year-old migrant chief from GBAO, disappeared in Russia — he was later reported to have been detained in Belgorod on the request of Tajik authorities — and extradited to Tajikistan. He confronted prices of hostage-taking; particulars of the fees weren’t publicized and Alovatshoev was not allowed visits by household whereas in detention. Tajik authorities reportedly launched a video of Alovatshoev confessing and in a trial that lasted two hours on April 29 he pleaded responsible. Alovatshoev was sentenced to 18 years.
Human rights activists famous that Alovatshoev was arrested after collaborating in a protest outdoors the Tajik embassy in Moscow in November 2021. After that very same protest, Oraz Vazirbekov informed Voice of America in March 2022 that he started to fret about being kidnapped by Tajik particular companies and extradited to Tajikistan, regardless of his Russian citizenship. Earlier, in February, he mentioned in a YouTube video that he’d acquired info he was being focused by Tajik safety companies for kidnapping or killing. Ramzi Vazirbekov additionally reportedly warned that ought to he flip up in Tajikistan all of a sudden, it might not be of his personal free will.
Tajikistan has lengthy reached past its borders to silence opposition. In earlier phases, numerous political actions — together with Group 24 and the Islamic Renaissance Social gathering of Tajikistan (IRPT) — discovered their leaders and members focused overseas. Russia’s complicity in Tajikistan’s pursuit of political opponents is especially problematic given the large Tajik diaspora in Russia, which encompasses all kinds of people from short-term migrants to long-term residents who’ve acquired Russia citizenship.
In reporting on the Vazirbekov circumstances, Fergana identified: “It ought to be famous that many Tajik residents sought to acquire Russian citizenship within the hope that its presence would turn into a assure of safety for them and defend them from repressions from Dushanbe.”
