HRW: Leninabad crackdown in the north

The report states that this April 1998 Human Rights Watch country report (Vol. 10, No. 2 (D)) documents a government campaign against the political opposition in Tajikistan’s northern Leninabad (Sughd) oblast following the June 1997 peace accord that ended five years of civil war. According to the report, the Leninabad-based opposition was excluded from the peace negotiations between the government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), and when Leninabadi political actors sought a role in the peace process, authorities responded by arresting and harassing activists, closing political parties, and censoring press coverage of the northern political movement. The report describes a wave of demonstrations in May 1996 demanding the removal of southern (Kulabi) officials from police and government posts, and states that organizers and participants were arrested in the year that followed, particularly after the April 1997 assassination attempt on President Emomali Rakhmonov. It also records that Tajik security forces massacred scores of prisoners in putting down an April 1997 prison riot in Khujand, and that the government obstructed investigation and covered up the true death toll. Journalists faced arrests, harassment and threats aimed at limiting coverage of northern events. The report is based on HRW missions to Leninabad in August and September 1997 and interviews conducted across Tajikistan from May to November 1997.