DUSHANBE, May 2, 2014, Asia-Plus:

 

April 1                          - The spring conscription campaign started in Tajikistan.  The draft affects able-bodied male citizens in the age bracket of 18 years old to 27 years old, who are not members of the armed forces reserve.  The same decree provides for the retirement from active duty of soldiers and sergeants whose service under conscription is over;

                                   - A meeting of the SCO Defense Ministers’ Council took place in the Tajik northern city of Qairoqqum.  The meeting participants included Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo, Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, Kazakh Defense Minister Adilbek Jaksybekov, Kyrgyz Defense Minister Taalaybek Omuraliyev, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Uzbek First Deputy Defense Minister Bakhodir Toshmatov.  The sides reportedly discussed issues related to expansion of military and technical cooperation between the SCO member, the current situation in Syria and Ukraine as well as providing stability and security in Afghanistan in connection with withdrawal of international coalition forces from there by the end of this year.  The meeting participants also exchanged views on maintaining security and stability in the Eurasian region;  

                                   - Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu in the Tajik northern city of Qairoqqum on the sidelines of the SCO defense ministers’ meeting.  The sides discussed cooperation issues;

                                   - U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kurt Crytzer, deputy commander of Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT), visited Tajikistan to meet with senior U.S. and Tajik officials on issues of bilateral security cooperation and regional interest.  During his visit, Brig. Gen. Crytzer met with U.S. Ambassador Susan Elliott and discussed areas of continued military cooperation between the United States and Tajikistan, including SOCCENT’s relationship with the Tajik Special Operations Forces.  He and senior military officials also underscored SOCCENT’s support to stability and security in Central Asia.

 

April 2                          - The annual forum of the OSCE–Tajikistan Task Force took place in Dushanbe.  High-ranking officials from the OSCE and the Tajik government as well as representatives of civil society reportedly highlighted their recent major achievements and identified priorities for national and regional co-operation in 2015;

                                   - Dushanbe’s Economic Court invalidated the decision on privatization of Closed Joint-Stock Company (CJSC) Guliston on the basis of a suit filed by the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption.  The clothing factory Guliston was privatized Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry V. Firtash in 2002, when Zayd Saidov was Minister of Industry of Tajikistan and representatives of the anticorruption agency note that Zayd Saidov allegedly promoted illegal privatization of the enterprise using his official status.

 

April 2-4           - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon paid a working visit to Sughd province.  On April 2, he attended an official ceremony of opening of a flagpole in Khujand, the capital of Sughd province.  A 55-meter flagpole that erected in the administrative center of Sughd province hoists the country’s three-color flag, measuring 12 meters by 7 meters.  The 55-meter flagpole in Khujand reportedly costs some 3.5 million somoni.  On April 3, President Rahmon attended a groundbreaking ceremony for construction of a new cement plant in Bobojonghafourov district and an official opening of new state-of-the-art diagnostic and clinical center in Qairoqqum.  On April 4, Rahmon officially inaugurated the construction a 220kV Qairoqqum-Asht power transmission line.

 

April 3              - Radio Liberty reported that three women in Uzbekistan were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for spying for Tajikistan.  They were found guilty of using their mobile devices to take pictures of military and other objects in the region''s Uzun and Sariasi districts and later passing the materials along with reports about Uzbek military personnel to the Tajik secret services for financial compensation.  Kimyo Khudoyarova, who is a stateless local resident but originally from Tajikistan, received 15 years in jail, while two other women, both Uzbek citizens, Gulnara Amonova and Rano Khursandova, were sentenced to 14 years in jail;

                                   - Dushanbe’s Economic Court invalidated the decision by the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest) on privatization of Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Elektronika-M.  The enterprise was privatized in 1999 by Qurbon Isroilov.  Before 1999, it was the center for computer engineering and informatics.  After privatization, it was reorganized into the enterprise for producing soft drinks, Tabarruk.  Controversial Tajik tycoon Zayd Saidov reportedly assumed the 50 percent ownership interest and Iranian entrepreneurs owned the remaining 50 percent of shares in that enterprise.

 

April 7                          - Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister, Nizomiddin Zohidov, met in Dushanbe with Mr. Henri Weber, a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France.  The sides discussed a broad range of issues related to state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and France.  They also discussed regional cooperation, cooperation between Tajikistan and the European Union as well as the current situation in Afghanistan.  On the same day, Mr. Weber conducted a conference on history of the European construction at Bactria Cultural Center in Dushanbe.

 

April 8                          - Reporters Without Borders (RWB) called on Tajikistan’s justice system to overturn a ruling against the newspaper Asia Plus and its editor, Olga Tutubalina, in a case brought against them by three intellectuals over an article quoting Lenin’s criticism of the intelligentsia.

 

April 9                          - Interior Ministry spokesman Jaloliddin Sadriddinov told journalists in Dushanbe that a criminal group that planned a large explosion at the Tajik aluminum smelter was detained with explosives in their possession.  No further details were released.  An employee of the facility, who asked not to be named, told RFE/RL that four members of the group were the plant employees;

                                   - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented in Dushanbe the final report of the Election Observation Mission for the November 2013 presidential election at an event co-organized with the OSCE Office in Tajikistan.

 

April 10                        - President Emomali Rahmon visited the Fayzobod district (eastern Tajikistan), where he gave start to laying out a new large garden and held meeting with district administrators.  The new fruit garden will be planted in the Dashti Mizo area, Qalai Dasht jamoat.  The garden will have a total area of 120 hectares and 20 farming units will be engaged in laying out this garden. 

 

April 13                        - Torrential rain caused a series of landslides and floods in Khatlon’s districts of Shouroobod, Vose, Kulob and Hamadoni.  15 people were killed and dozens of residential buildings were destroyed by those landslides and floods.

 

April 14                        - The trial of two alleged members of an Islamist group began in Khujand.  The trial is being held behind closed doors in a local detention center.  Investigators say Firouz Qurbonov and Fathullo Rajabov are members of the Lashkar-i-Islam (Army of Islam) group, a militant Islamist organization established in Pakistan in 2004.  The two men were reportedly members of a local criminal group involved in money extortion. No more details were available.  Qurbonov and Rajabov were arrested in January on their arrival from the United Arab Emirates, where they were hiding after several of their alleged associates had been detained in summer last year.  Three alleged members of the group were sentenced to prison terms between 10 and 11 years in December.

 

April 15                        - President Rahmon gave start to construction of a cement plant with capacity of 500,000 tons and laid foundation bricks of four 26-story apartment buildings in Vahdat Township;

                                   - A Regional Conference “Towards the Full Abolition of Death Penalty in Tajikistan: Experience of Central Asian Countries” took place in Dushanbe.  Organized by NGO League of Women Lawyers of Tajikistan under support of Penal Reform International (PRI), the Swiss Cooperation Office in Tajikistan and the Tajik Branch Office of the Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation (OSI/AF-Tajikistan), the conference brought together international experts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan as well as representatives from the Executive Office of the President of Tajikistan, Tajikistan Ombudsman Office, civil society and international organizations.

 

April 17                        - Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met in Dushanbe to discuss regional security in the wake of the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.  The meeting members included secretaries of the Security Councils of SCO member states China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.  The sides also discussed joint efforts against separatism, terrorism, religious extremism, illegal drugs trafficking, and cross-border organized crime.  The meeting resulted in signing of a protocol on cooperation.

 

April 21                        - By ruling handed down by the Tursunzoda city court Tursunzoda’s market Sakhovat was taken away from the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) leader Muhiddin Kabiri and a plot of land in which the market is located was given back to the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism Affairs under the Government of Tajikistan.  The court also ruled that 836,000 somoni must be reimbursed to IRP leader Muhiddin Kabiri.  According to official documents, the market is owned by Mastoura Rahmatulloyeva, the wife of IRP leader Muhiddin Kabiri.  The anticorruption agency claims that the previous owner of the market, Ms. Lutfiya Nematova, had constructed the market in the place of school stadium illegally and it asked the Tursunzoda city court to demolish the market as illegal.

 

April 22                        - Resident of the Tajik northern city of Isfara, Masrour Ibrohimov, who was fighting on the side of antigovernment forces in Syria, was killed, according to the Interior ministry’s website.  In a statement released in December last year, Syrian mufti noted that more than 190 Tajik are fighting in Syria on the side of rebel forces.  Last year, there were reports that several Tajik nationals were killed in fighting in Syria;

- Tajik businessman and martial arts expert, Shuhrat Yakhshimuradov, 47 was killed in Moscow.  Unknown attackers reportedly shot and killed Yakhshimuradov near his house in the Russian capital.  According to media reports, Yakhshimuradov was the general manager of the Polish company Fair Play International.  In 1995, Yakhshimuradov was arrested in Moscow and charged with involvement in two murders.  The charges were dropped later and he was eventually released.

 

April 23                        - President Emomali Rahmon addressed a joint meeting of both chambers of the parliament.  In his address to the nation, Rahmon called on citizens “to be vigilant and ready to answer the world''s current complex geopolitical challenges.”  He called Tajikistan''s political and economic ties with Russia a "priority," adding that Tajikistan also has to further develop relations with China, South Asia, and the United States.  Rahmon vowed to continue construction of the Roghun Dam.  

 

April 25                        - Floods caused by recent torrential rains killed five people in the Hisor Valley (central Tajikistan), bringing the total number of people killed by natural disasters in the country this month to 23.

 

April 28                        - The Deputy head of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP), Saidumar Husaini, who is also member of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament), said that he was beaten in Khorog 28.  He said that about 15 unknown individuals attacked him, his son, and the IRP supreme council member Shonaim Karimi on April 28.  According to him, Shonaim Karimi also sustained slight injuries.  Husaini said he did not plan to ask local authorities for help because he thinks the attackers included local police.  Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry says the brawl that occurred in IRP’s office in Khorog was organized by IRP members themselves.

 

April 29                        - On his way from Kabul to Moscow, Zamir Kabulov, Russia’ Special Representative for Afghanistan, made stopover in Dushanbe.  He met with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov to discuss changes that may take place in the neighboring country in the wake of the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan.