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Eurasia
August 11, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Tajikistan accuses Iran of Tajik civil war involvement with links to banned opposition
bne IntelliNews
Tajikistan on August 9 accused Iran of involvement in Tajikistan’s 1992-97 civil war, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported. It marks the first time that the Central Asian country has publicly accused Iran of meddling in the war.
According to accusations aired by state television in a documentary, Iran allegedly sent assassins and saboteurs into the former Soviet nation to support an Islamist-led rebel force. Three Tajiks shown in the documentary confessed to the kill- ing of politicians and other prominent Tajik figures as well as attacks on a Tajikistan-based Rus-
sian military base. The three supposedly received financial support and training from Iran. One of the men was previously sentenced to 18 years in prison, but it is unclear if the other two are cur- rently awaiting trial.
The documentary also claimed the three were supporters of Abdukhalim Nazarzoda, an ex-dep- uty defence minister and rebel general, who was allegedly planning a coup and was killed in 2015 by Tajik authorities in a shootout. By linking the trio to Nazarzoda, Tajik authorities were likely try- ing to tie Iran to the banned Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), which was labelled as a terrorist or- ganisation and even “recognised” by the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as an extremist group. While Nazarzoda has not explic- itly been a supporter of the IRP, the authorities claim he operated on behalf of the banned party, when he attempted a coup.
The Tajik authorities have continued to crack down on IRP members since the party was
banned in 2015. Prior to the ban, IRP was the only registered political party of Islamic affiliation in the whole of Central Asia. It also served as the only formidable political opposition force to the Emomali Rahmon regime.
The party failed to enter parliament in the Febru- ary 2015 election, which international observers considered neither fair nor free. Its leader, Muhid- ding Kabiri, announced in June 2015 that
he had gone into self-imposed exile amid repeat- ed threats and fear for his life.
Tajikistan’s decision to accuse Iran appears to be part of an ongoing reaction to Iran having invited the exiled Kabiri to a Tehran conference in December 2015. Relations between the two Persian-speaking and predominantly Muslim countries have been strained since then and the latest move by Tajikistan is likely to exacerbate the tensions.
The Supreme Court of Tajikistan gave life sen- tences to two leading figures of the banned IRP in 2016, while 10 other party members received up to 28 years in jail.
The country’s struggling economy and the stifling tenure of longtime strongman Rahmon plays into the hands of radical Islamic groups by making parts of traditionally Islamic Tajik society vulner- able to the propaganda of radical Islamic groups like IS. Around 1,000 Tajiks had joined IS as of January 2016. The government has been mak- ing the most of the threat of radical Islam as an excuse to get rid of political opposition.