In a background paper released today, Human Rights Watch described fraudulent elections, media censorship, religious persecution, and abuses by security forces, among the country's most serious human rights problems. The Human Rights Watch backgrounder also outlines Tajikistan's complex regional politics, its 1992-1997 civil war, and its ties to Uzbekistan and Russia.
"There's a great deal of political chaos in Tajikistan," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "But whatever the Tajikistan government can control, it controls with an iron fist."
The war, fought between a communist-led government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), a mix of Islamic and other political groupings, killed up to 50,000 people, crippled the economy, and left a legacy of political violence and chaos. The war and its political aftermath have dominated Tajikistan's ties to its neighbors, particularly Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
During the war, the UTO was based in northern Afghanistan and enjoyed the support of Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud, who until his death last month led the United Front opposition to the Taliban.
When the UTO and the government reached a peace agreement in 1997, some disgruntled UTO fighters joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
U.S. President George W. Bush has linked the IMU to Osama bin Laden, suggesting that the IMU may be a target of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The IMU seeks to establish an Islamic law in Uzbekistan. It is based primarily in Afghanistan and is closely connected with the Taliban, but has also had bases in areas of Tajikistan that the government does not control.