DUSHANBE, June 2, 2014, Asia-Plus:

 

May 2                          - The National Council on Population and Development (Council) was established in Tajikistan by the initiative of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of the parliament.  The Council consists of members of the Majlisi Namoyandagon, top officials from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Committee for Family and Women’s Family Affairs under the Government, and other agencies.  The purpose of establishment of the Council is to strengthen cooperation on population and development issues between parliamentarians, government institutions, NGOs and civil society to further implement the Program of Actions of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD);

                                   - Tajik President Emomali received Dr. Abdullah Matouq Al-Matouq, the Adviser at the Council of Ministers of Kuwait.  The sides discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Kuwait.

 

May 3                          - The ninth meeting of the Tajik-Belarusian intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation took place in Minsk, Belarus.  Presided over by Tajik Minister of Agriculture Qosim Rahbar and Belarusian Minister of Agriculture and Food Leonid Zayats, the meeting discussed state and prospects of further expansion of economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Belarus;

                                   - The Isfara-Vorukh road was blocked by residents of the Kyrgyz village of Aksai.  They reportedly blocked the road because some 40 Tajik nationals prevented residents of Aksai village from driving their livestock to summer pastures.

 

May 5                          - The Isfara-Vorukh road was reopened to traffic after border representatives of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan reached an agreement that the Tajik side will provide unimpeded driving of livestock of Kyrgyz nationals to summer pastures;

                                   - An official opening of the memorial slab in honor of Tajik veterans of World War II took place at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in St. Petersburg.  Tajik delegation led by Tajik Ambassador to Russia Abdulmajid Dostiyev, representatives of the St. Petersburg Government and consular missions accredited to St. Petersburg as well as war veterans attended the ceremony;

                                   - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Dr. Adel Abdullah Al-Falah, Deputy Minister of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) and Islamic Affairs also Head of the International Al-Wasatiya Center, the State of Kuwait.  The sides discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Kuwait.  Dr. Adel Abdullah Al-Falah noted that the International Al-Wasatiya Center is ready to open its office in Tajikistan.

 

May 5-6            - Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov paid a visit to Tajikistan.  On May 5, he held talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.  They discussed a broad range of issues related to bilateral cooperation between their countries and exchanged views on a number of international and regional issues being of mutual interest.  On the same day, nine cooperation documents were signed by Tajik and Turkmen officials in Dushanbe.  Emomali Rahmon and Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov signed a joint communiqué. On May 6, the two presidents got acquainted with the pace of construction of the Takhti Navrouz (Throne of Navrouz) Cultural and Entertainment Center in Dushanbe.

 

May 6                          - A Tajik policeman from the northern region of Sughd was arrested in the southern city of Kulob for propagating a strict Salafi form of Islam banned in Tajikistan.  According to Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, Captain Sharif Mirov, 40, is facing a charge of inciting ethnic, racial, and religious hatred.  It is believed to be the first time that a Tajik police officer has been arrested for propagating the ideas of Salafi Islam.

 

May 7                          - Clashes between villages along the Tajik-Kyrgyz took place at around 5:00 pm.  At least 60 people from both sides were reportedly injured in the violence that broke out when an argument between residents of the Tajik exclave of Vorukh within Kyrgyzstan and the Kyrgyz village of Kuktash turned into stone-throwing battle.  According to the Sughd regional administration, clashes broke out after a group of young Kyrgyz men being in a state of drunkenness pelted a car of resident of the Tajik village of Vorukh with stones;

                                   - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received India’s Foreign Secretary, Ms. Sujatha Singh.  The two discussed state and prospects of further expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation between Tajikistan and India.  The sides also discussed cooperation documents that had been signed between Tajikistan in political, economical, cultural and educational spheres.  Tajik president and Indian foreign secretary also exchanged views on a number of international and regional issues being of mutual interest;

                                   - One Tajik national was killed and at least two others were wounded in the Krasnogorsk district, Moscow oblast after a group of unidentified persons fired at them.  According to the Tajik Embassy in Moscow, the incident took place in the Novo-Nikolsk settlement.

 

May 8                          - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon participated in an informal meeting of the presidents of member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).  The CSTO presidents discussed a number of issues being of mutual interests and Ukraine’s crisis.  They also attended what the Kremlin described a training exercise for Russian military forces;

                        - On the sidelines of the CSTO informal meeting, Emomali Rahmon met talks his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev.  The sides discussed the situation on the Kyrgyz-Tajik common border.  They reportedly agreed to solve the issue of demarcation and delimitation of the common border in order to avoid border incidents in the future;

                                   - The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry summoned Tajik Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Olim Rahimov to hand over an official note over the clashes that took place along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border on May 7.  According to information posted on the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry’s website, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldayev expressed concern about “illegal actions of Tajik nationals in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic.”  Kyrgyzstan reportedly demanded that comprehensive measures should be taken to find and punish those guilty of the clashes and repair damage caused to Kyrgyz nationals.

 

May 9                          - Tajikistan celebrated Vicotry Day.  On this occasion, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon laid a wreath at the Military Glory Memorial in Dushanbe’s Victory Park.  After him, heads of both chambers of the Tajik parliament, senior representatives of the government, Tajik power-wielding structures and diplomatic corps as well as the Russian military base in Tajikistan laid wreaths at the Military Glory Memorial in Dushanbe’s Victory Park.  The commemoration ceremony reportedly ended with a military parade. Servicemen of the Honor Guard of Tajikistan were on the military parade.

 

May 11                         - Torrential rain caused floods that caused damage to Vahdat, Yovon and Roudaki districts, according to the Committee on Emergency Situations and Civil Defense (CES) under the Government of Tajikistan.  No injured was reported;

                                   - A strong wind disrupted electricity supply to the water station in the Qumsangir district, Khatlon province.  As a result, Qumsangir Canal burst its banks and caused damage to the settlement of Dousti, the administrative center of the Qumsangir district.  Three residential buildings were destroyed completely by the flood and several other residential buildings were damaged partially.  No injured was reported.

 

May 12-13                    - Tajik and Kyrgyz delegations led by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister, Murodali Alimardon, and Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister, Abdyrahman Mamataliyev, gathered in Dushanbe to discuss issues related to demarcation and delimitation of the disputed areas of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.

 

May 13             - The Tajik-Belarusian business forum took place in Dushanbe;

- Tajik delegation, led by Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov, participated in the first Economic Forum and Arab Cooperation with Central Asia (CA) and Azerbaijan that took place in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.  The Forum participants adopted the Riyadh Declaration, in which they stressed their intention to work on the development of economic relations and partnership between the two parties to contribute to the development and well-being and contribute to the establishment of peace and stability in their regions.

 

May 14                         - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Ambassador Martin Dahinden, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).  The sides discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Switzerland;

                        - Tajik parliament passes law on Islamic banking in Tajikistan;

                                   - Tajik Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda received Chinese agrarian delegation, led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun.  The sides discussed issues related to agricultural cooperation between Tajikistan and China.  They, in particular, discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and China in the fields of seed growing, plant cultivation, animal husbandry, gardening, and rice growing with use of the latest technologies.  

 

May 14-15        - The first meeting of the Tajikistan-UAE commission for trade and economic cooperation took place in Abdu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  The meeting discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates in sectors like trade, energy, banking, industry, health care, education, culture, science, tourism, and transportation.

 

May 16                         - Tajik prison guards say they shot an Iranian citizen after he tried to escape from a penal colony in the Yovon Township, 54 kilometers south of Dushanbe.  Officials at Tajikistan''s Directorate to Monitor Penitentiaries say Mehdi Kambari was wounded and sent to a prison hospital.  Kambari has served eight months of a three-year prison term he received for illegally crossing the Tajik border.  Meanwhile, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports that an inmate, who asked not to be identified, told RFE/RL by phone that Kambari could not stand the penitentiary''s harsh conditions and decided to escape, with plans to reach the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe.

 

May 16-21        - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon visited China.  On May 21, he attended the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) that took place in Shanghai, China.  Tajik leader held a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the 4th CICA summit.

 

 

May 21                         - Two suspected drug traffickers were killed and one was wounded by police officers in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).  Besides, two persons were killed and at least seven people were wounded on the same day after police opened fire on a crowd that tried to storm a police station.  The fatalities occurred during a police offensive against suspected criminals and ensuing clashes between security forces and local residents upset with the police action;

                        - Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament introduced a new clause into the country''s Criminal Code, according to which Tajiks will face criminal persecution for taking part in military conflicts abroad.  According to the new amendment, Tajik citizens who participate in the activities of armed groups abroad would face trial and their punishment could not exceed that for similar crimes outlined by legislation in the countries they fought in.

 

May 22-28        - Baroness Vivien Stern, member of the British Parliament’s House of Lords visited Tajikistan.  According to the British Embassy in Dushanbe, the aim was to continue her dialogue on Prison Reform and Human Rights as well as to promote Parliamentary relations.

 

May 23                         - The wounded suspected drug trafficker died in the GBAO regional hospital in Khorog, sparking the march on the building of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office for GBAO in Khorog.  At least one person was killed and two wounded.  Witnesses reported that one of the protesters threw a grenade at the building of the SCNS’s office and some protesters opened fire on the facility.

 

May 24-25        - Several dozens of protesters in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region spent two nights in tents in Khorog, demanding an investigation into deadly clashes on May 21 and the resignations of the local governor, police chiefs, and prosecutor.  Protesters left the central square in Khorog after civil society activists and authorities agreed to investigate the May 21 incident.

 

May 24-26        - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon paid an official visit to the Republic of Belarus.

 

May 26-27        - Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the Speaker of the National Assembly (Pakistan’s lower house of parliament), paid an official visit to Tajikistan to discuss cooperation issues with high-ranking Tajik state officials.  

 

May 27                         - Residents of the Ishkashim districts in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) gathered outside the district administration’s building demanding the resignation of the chief of the Interior Ministry’s office in the Ishkashim district Bahodur Kholiqov.  They dispersed after a meeting with Deputy Interior Minister Abdullo Navjuvanov.  Navjuvanov promised to examine the situation concerning the chief of the Ishkashim police station Bahodur Kholiqov.

 

May 27-30        - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon started an official visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain.  On May 28, Emomali Rahmon was received by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in the presence of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa. Eight agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoU), including a MoU on bilateral consultation between the two countries were signed.   On the same day Rahmon met in Manama with His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.  On May 29, Tajik leader received a group of leading Bahrain bankers at his residence in Manama to discuss ways of bolstering economic cooperation and developing diversified investments.  On May 30, Emomali Rahmon held a number of bilateral meetings with high-ranking Bahraini state officials in the Bahrain capital Manama.

 

May 28-29        - Tajik delegation, led by Deputy Foreign Minister, Nizomiddin Zohidov, participated in the “Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) pragmatic cooperation Silk Road Forum” in Lanzhou, China’s Gansu province; 

                                   - Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov participated in the 17th Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that took place in Algiers, Algeria.

 

May 31                         - A protocol to an agreement on the settlement of the situation in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) was signed in Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan.