It is 21 years since Tajikistan's 5-year-long civil war came to an end, having claimed between 50,000 and 100,000 lives.  This year, the northern city of Konibodom hosted official celebratory events on June 27 that included a speech by President Emomali Rahmon and a concert.

President Emomali Rahmon participated in the celebrations in Konibodom City and congratulated Tajikistanis on this holiday.

The main celebrations took place at the Konibodom stadium.  

In a statement delivered at the event to celebrate the 21st anniversary of peace accord ending the civil war, President Rahmon noted that the civil had been unleashed by enemies of the Tajik people and the main goal of that war had been to create Islamic state in the country.

“More than 150,000 people were killed in that war that lasted for five years and more than one million people became refugees,” said Rahmon.  “Dozens of thousands of residential buildings and many hospitals, schools and other social facilities were destroyed.”  

“The Government of Tajikistan signed the peace accord with the United Tajik Opposition (UTO).  We have never signed any agreements with the terrorist and extremist organization – the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), and the people of Tajikistan should know this.”  

The head of state called on Tajikistanis to preserve peace and stability. 

Civil war broke out in May 1992.  Half a million people, nearly one-tenth of Tajikistan’s population at the time, had lost their homes.  More than 100,000 citizens of the country had fled to Afghanistan.

The United Nations arranged peace talks; appointed a special representative for Tajikistan, Ramiro Piriz-Ballon, to push these talks forward; and created the UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UMOT), military observers sent to monitor the warring factions’ compliance -- or more often record their noncompliance -- in respecting agreements reached at the peace talks.

For the purposes of achieving peace and national accord in Tajikistan and overcoming the consequences of the civil war, inter-Tajik talks on national reconciliation were conducted from April 1994 to 1997 under the auspices of the United Nations.

Protocols that were agreed and signed in the course of eight rounds of talks between delegations of the Government of Tajikistan and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), six meetings between the President of Tajikistan and the UTO leader, and also three rounds of consultations between the delegations of the sides in Almaty, Ashgabat, Bishkek, Islamabad, Kabul, Mashhad (Iran), Moscow, Tehran and Khusdeh (Afghanistan) constituted the General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan.