| Dushanbe is preparing for elections The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan announced a successful operation to neutralize the “illegal bandit group” and detain its leader Eribek Ibragimov, nicknamed Shaikh. In the northeast of the republic, in the Almalik gorge in the Tajikabad region, a cache was discovered. 15 anti-tank guided missile launchers (ATGM), 10 Igla anti-aircraft missile systems, four Kalashnikov machine guns, two machine guns, 113 mortar shells, 80 anti-tank grenade launcher shells, 21 ATGM shells, 112 aircraft rockets, installation Grad systems, an artillery cannon, as well as a box of explosives and more than 5 thousand rounds of various calibers. During the preliminary interrogation, Mr. Ibragimov said that some of these weapons were delivered here from Afghanistan during the civil war in Tajikistan. The other part was left behind by militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), retreating to Afghanistan after an armed raid on Kyrgyzstan in 2000.
Shaikh himself, who worked as the chairman of one of the dekhkan farms, is currently charged with illegal possession of weapons and malicious hooliganism with their use. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan believes that it was Ibragimov and his people who fired grenade launchers and machine guns at the police station and prosecutor’s office of the Tajikabad region on August 27 of this year. Former opposition fighter Akhmadbek Safarov, in an interview recently published in the Adolat newspaper, the print organ of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, says that the reason for these raids was revenge on the police by amnestied Tajik opposition fighters for the persecution to which they and their families are still subjected. Safarov has been put on the wanted list by the Tajik authorities.
As Vremya Novostei learned from informed sources in law enforcement agencies of Tajikistan, a certain Davlat, the personal bodyguard and driver of the leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, was detained along with Shaikh (an interview with the politician was published in VN on August 31) . A native of the Tajikabad region, Iskandarov was an influential field commander of the United Tajik Opposition during the civil war. After the signing of the peace agreement in 1997, he joined the government with a 30 percent quota for the opposition. First, he headed the State Committee for Emergency Situations, and then until December 2003 he served as general director of the State Unitary Enterprise Tajikgaz, from which he was removed for “violations and negligence.” After his dismissal, Iskandarov left for his homeland in Tajikabad. There were rumors that he was gathering former warlords to create a new political movement.
In April of this year, Iskandarov returned to Dushanbe and met with the country's President Emomali Rakhmonov. Their conversation lasted seven hours. After this, the ex-minister and leader of the Democratic Party began to prepare for the parliamentary elections, which should take place in February 2005. However, Mr. Iskandarov felt that the authorities did not fulfill their promises and did not guarantee fair and honest elections. Apparently, the chairman of the Democratic Party made the final decision to move into harsh opposition to President Rakhmonov.
Experts in Dushanbe believe that the detention of Shaikh, one of Iskandarov’s former associates, will give the authorities the opportunity to rein in the leader of the Democratic Party. This will also make it possible to split the ranks of the democrats before the parliamentary elections and prevent the next party congress scheduled for the end of September, at which Iskandarov could again be elected party leader. Now Mr. Iskandarov is in Moscow, where he left even before the events in Tajikabad. According to some reports, the Democratic leader planned to return in early September. The timing of his arrival in Dushanbe is still unknown. Nurullo MUKHTOROV, Dushanbe |
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