Tajik Government has Islamic Party in its Sights
Tajik Government has Islamic Party in its Sights
After years of coexistence with the authorities in Tajikistan, Central Asia’s only recognised Islamic party is under mounting pressure.
The Islamic Rebirth Party, IRP, launched an uncharacteristically public broadside against the government after a leading member, Hikmatullo Saifullozoda, was the victim of a serious assault in early February.
IWPR’s Tajikistan editor Lola Olimova comments on the case and looks at why official attitudes to the IRP appear to have shifted.
Was this assault an isolated incident, or is the Islamic party really right to claim it is under attack?
Right now the IRP is under severe pressure. It’s quite possible that the Tajik authorities have been shaken up by unrest across the Arab world and have stepped up pressure on all forms of opposition, using almost anything as a pretext for doing so.
Tell us about Saifullozoda, who he is and why he’s important.
Hikmatullo Saifullozoda is one of the party’s leaders, its press spokesman and chief editor of its newspaper, Najot. He often speaks to the media, both in his capacity as an expert on political affairs and to set out the party’s views.
He recently spoke about the death of Aloviddin Davlatov, aka Ali Bedaki, a militant accused of complicity in the September 2010 attack on an army convoy in eastern Tajikistan. Davlatov was supposed to have been killed in a firefight with government, but video footage later surfaced on the internet showing him alive and in custody, so there are suspicions he died when he was already in detention.
Is there any other evidence that points to a concerted campaign to damage the party?
Following the clashes in Rasht last autumn, government officials began hinting at links between the IRP and an outbreak of Islamic militancy in the area. A number of party members were charged with a range of offences, including Davlatov’s brother Husniddin, who is a member of the IRP.
Last month, government-run newspapers carried excerpts from an interview with leading poet Bozor Sobir, who called for the IRP to be banned because if it ever won an election, it would take the country backwards to a feudal state. Coming from a respected figure and one-time dissident who had only just returned to the country after many years in exile, Sobir’s remarks appear to have been seized on to suggest that the party has alienated even those who were once its natural allies.
There have been other forms of harassment, too, for example the closure of premises used as a mosque at the IRP’s offices in Dushanbe, as part of a government crackdown on unregistered prayer-houses.
Since it entered the political process following the civil war peace settlement of 1997, the IRP has been the most prominent of Tajikistan’s opposition parties, yet it has never been aggressively confrontational. What might have promoted the government to take a much more hostile view of the party?
The authorities are worried that the party’s popular standing is increasing. These concerns emerged after the February 2010 parliament election, in which the IRP won just two seats but – according to unofficial counts – got at least one third of the vote.
This ballot success made the authorities both jealous and alarmed that the IRP is becoming more popular among urban voters as well as in the Rasht valley and parts of Khatlon region. Although it has to be said urban support for the Islamic party is probably more a protest against current regime policies than a mark of its popularity.
Why do you think an Islamic party is gaining ground here?
Poverty, the lack of decently-paid work, declining social and economic conditions, unfair appointments policies, region-based favouritism, the increasing influence exerted by President Imomali Rahmonov’s party – all these things are fuelling public discontent.
There’s been a failure to institute political reforms, the economy is in a dire state, and a young generation is growing up that never experienced the civil war and is thus less prone to compromise for the sake of stability. That alarms the authorities, who seek to suppress any alternative to themselves. As the IRP grows into a viable opposition party on the back of widespread discontent, the authorities have begun viewing it as a serious opponent.
If the IRP is marginalised, how will that affect the future of political Islam in Tajikistan?
The IRP is the only legally-operating Islamic party in Central Asia, and IRP chairman Muhiddin Kabiri enjoys considerable respect internationally as a moderate, forward-thinking leader.
Many observers see the moderation espoused by the party as a bulwark against the extremist groups that are now a rising force in Tajikistan as elsewhere in Central Asia. Some young people are being driven into the arms of these radical groups out of disappointment and desperation.
