ADC Memorial: Repressions against Pamiris

Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) Memorial, in a speech by Rustamjon Joniev published 5 October 2022 on adcmemorial.org, reports on repression against the Pamiri people of Tajikistan’s Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region (BMAR). The report states that on 18 May 2022 an event took place in the town of Vamar (administrative centre of the Rushansky district) which the press dubbed the “Rushan Bucha”, by analogy with the bloody events in Ukraine. The report states that on 17 May 2022, several hundred residents of the Rushan district in Vamar took part in a civil rally against the Tajik authorities’ decision to conduct a military operation in Khorog. The report names four friends from Derzud village — including Ardasher Munosibov, Shukhrat Rushtov, and Edgor Amrihudoev — who were subjected to savage torture and beatings before death; the report states Rushtov had his tongue and genitals cut off for attempting to defend himself verbally, and that special forces stabbed naked bodies with knives. The report states more than 40 people were killed during the so-called counter-terrorist operation in Wamara, and that President Rahmon said he personally gave the order to start “cleaning up” the region. The report states that from 2012 to the present day at least 100 people have died at the hands of Tajik security forces, many through extrajudicial executions, with no murder case prosecuted. The report states the Pamiris are Ismaili Shiites, contrasting with the Sunni majority, and that a prosecutor in Khorog, Mukhtor Akhrorzoda, openly wrote on social networks that he would rape all Pamiris aged 7 to 70. The report states hundreds of BMAR residents have been arrested over six months without lawyers, with trials held behind closed doors, and that most Tajik lawyers refuse Pamiri cases for fear of losing their licence. Internal sources: speaker’s testimony at an OSCE-related meeting.