Tajikistani Civil War

Tajikistani Civil War
Part of the post-Soviet conflicts and spillover of the Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)
Spetsnaz soldiers of the 15th Independent Special Forces Brigade during the Civil War
Date 5 May 1992 – 27 June 1997 (5 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 1 day) Location Tajikistan Result Ceasefire
Belligerents
/  Tajikistan Popular Front of Tajikistan [1] Communist Party of Tajikistan Socialist Party of Tajikistan /  Russia   Uzbekistan /  Kazakhstan /  Kyrgyzstan Supported by:   Belarus [2] (weapons supplies) UNMOT   Austria   Bangladesh   Bulgaria   Czech Republic   Denmark   Ghana   Hungary   Indonesia   Jordan   Nepal   Nigeria   Poland    Switzerland   Ukraine   Uruguay	United Tajik Opposition Islamic Renaissance Party Tajik Democratic Party Party of People's Unity Rastokhez Popular Movement Lali Badakhshan Afghanistan (until 1996) Jamiat-e Islami (until 1996) [3] Supported by:   al-Qaeda [4] Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Taliban   Iran (alleged, denied by Iran) [5] [6] [7] [8]
Commanders and leaders
/ Rahmon Nabiyev / Akbarsho Iskandrov Emomali Rahmon Islam Karimov / Boris Yeltsin / Nursultan Nazarbayev / Askar Akayev Hassan Abaza	Sayid Abdulloh Nuri (UTO) Mohammed Sharif Himmatzade (IRP) Ibn al-Khattab Shadman Youssof (Democratic Party)
Strength
/  Tajikistan 42,000–45,000 /  Russia 5,000–15,000 border troops 20,600 /  Kazakhstan 10,300 /  Kyrgyzstan 278 [9]	Estimated around 50,000–70,000
Casualties and losses
302 killed, 1583 wounded (only Russian casualties [10] )	Unknown
20,000 [11] –150,000 killed [12] 1.2 million displaced

The Tajikistani Civil War, ^{[pron 1]} also known as the Tajik Civil War, began in May 1992 and ended in June 1997. Regional groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan rose up against the newly formed government of President Rahmon Nabiyev, which was dominated by people from the Khujand and Kulob regions. The rebel groups were led by a combination of liberal democratic reformers ^[13] and Islamists, who would later organize under the banner of the United Tajik Opposition. The government was supported by Russian military and border guards. ^[14]

The main zone of conflict was in the country's south, although disturbances occurred nationwide. ^{[15] [16]} The civil war was at its peak during its first year and continued for five years, devastating the country. ^{[15] [17]} An estimated 20,000 ^[11] to 150,000 ^[12] people were killed in the conflict, and about 10 to 20 percent of the population of Tajikistan were internally displaced. ^[14] On 27 June 1997, Tajikistan president Emomali Rahmon, United Tajik Opposition (UTO) leader Sayid Abdulloh Nuri and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General Gerd Merrem signed the General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan and the Moscow Protocol in Moscow, Russia, ending the war. ^[18]

History

Background

1990 Dushanbe riots

See also: History of Tajikistan

There were numerous causes of civil war in Tajikistan, such as economic hardship, communal way of life of Tajiki people and their high religiosity. Under Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's 'Perestroika' policies, a Muslim-Democratic movement began to emerge in Tajiki SSR. The backbone of opposition were Party of Tajikistan Muslim Resurrection, Democratic party of Tajikistan and some other movements. The fight between the former communist elite and opposition shifted from the political sphere to an ethnic and clan based one.

Tensions began in the spring of 1992 after opposition members took to the streets in demonstrations against the results of the 1991 presidential election. President Rahmon Nabiyev and Speaker of the Supreme Soviet Safarali Kenjayev orchestrated the dispersal of weapons to pro-government militias, while the opposition turned to mujahideen in Afghanistan for military aid.

Conflict (1992–1993)

Fighting broke out on 5 May 1992 between old-guard supporters of the government and a loosely organized opposition composed of ethnic and regional groups from the Gharm and Gorno-Badakhshan areas (the latter were also known as Pamiris). Ideologically, the opposition included democratic liberal reformists and Islamists. The government, on the other hand, was dominated by people from the Leninabadi region, which had also made up most of the ruling elite during the entire Soviet period. It was also supported by people from the Kulob and Regar (Tursunzoda) region, who had held high posts in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Soviet times. After many clashes, the Leninabadis were forced to accept a compromise and a new coalition government was formed, incorporating members of the opposition and eventually dominated by them. ^[19] On 7 September 1992, Nabiyev was captured by opposition protesters and forced at gunpoint to resign his presidency. ^{[20] [21]} Chaos and fighting between the opposing factions reigned outside of the capital Dushanbe.

With the aid of the Russian military and Uzbekistan, the Regari-Kulobi Popular Front forces routed the opposition in early and late 1992. The coalition government in the capital was forced to resign. On 12 December 1992 the Supreme Soviet (parliament), where the coalition faction between Khujand and Kulob had held the majority of seats all along, convened and elected a new government under the leadership of Emomali Rahmon, representing a shift in power from the old power based in Leninabad to the militias from Kulob, from which Rahmon came.

The height of hostilities occurred from 1992 to 1993 and pitted Kulobi militias against an array of groups, including militants from the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRP) and ethnic minority Pamiris from Gorno-Badakhshan. In large part due to the foreign support they received, the Regari-Kulobi militias were able to soundly defeat opposition forces and went on what has been described by Human Rights Watch as an ethnic cleansing campaign against Pamiris and Garmis. ^[22] The campaign was concentrated in areas south of the capital and included the murder of prominent individuals, mass killings, the burning of villages and the expulsion of the Pamiri and Garmi population into Afghanistan. The violence was particularly concentrated in Qurghonteppa, the power base of the IRP and home to many Garmis. Tens of thousands were killed or fled to Afghanistan. ^{[23] [24] [25] [26]}

Ibodullo Boimatov and his units in coalition with Kulobi forces also played a crucial, decisive role to the victory against the opposition. Starting off with a few hundred men in Regar with support from Uzbekistan against the local oppositional juntas - who were discriminatively targeting Uzbeks of the region, too soon Boimatovs militia grew to few thousand units and aided heavily the Kulobi coalition against the opposition. His men seized the control of capital Dushanbe twice during the course of war from the opposition forces.

Continued conflict (1993–1997)

In Afghanistan, the opposition reorganized and rearmed with the aid of the Jamiat-i-Islami. The group's leader Ahmad Shah Masoud became a benefactor of the Tajik opposition. Later in the war the opposition organized under an umbrella group called the United Tajik Opposition, or UTO. Elements of the UTO, especially in the Tavildara region, became the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, while the leadership of the UTO was opposed to the formation of the organization. ^[27]

Other combatants and armed bands that flourished in this civil chaos simply reflected the breakdown of central authority rather than loyalty to a political faction. In response to the violence the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan was deployed. Most fighting in the early part of the war occurred in the southern part of the country, but by 1996 the rebels were battling Russian troops in the capital city of Dushanbe.

Armistice and aftermath

Holiday flags in Khujand in 2007 in honour of 'Day of National Unity', declared a work-free holiday in 1998.

A United Nations-sponsored armistice finally ended the war in 1997. This was in part fostered by the Inter-Tajik Dialogue, a Track II diplomacy initiative in which the main players were brought together by international actors, namely the United States and Russia. The peace agreement eliminated the Leninabad region (Khujand) from power. Presidential elections were held on 6 November 1999.

The UTO warned in letters to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on 23 June 1997 that it would not sign the proposed peace agreement on 27 June if prisoner exchanges and the allocation of jobs in the coalition government were not outlined in the agreement. Akbar Turajonzoda, second-in-command of the UTO, repeated this warning on 26 June, but said both sides were negotiating. President Rahmon, UTO leader Sayid Abdulloh Nuri and Russian President Boris Yeltsin met in the Kremlin in Moscow on 26 June to finish negotiating the peace agreement. The Tajik government had previously pushed for settling these issues after the two sides signed the agreement, with the posts in the coalition government decided by a joint commission for national reconciliation and prisoner exchanges by a future set of negotiations. Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov met with the Foreign Ministers of Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to discuss the proposed peace accord. ^{[28] [29]}

By the end of the war, Tajikistan was in a state of complete devastation. Around 1.2 million people were refugees inside and outside the country. Tajikistan's physical infrastructure, government services and economy were in disarray and much of the population was surviving on subsistence handouts from international aid organizations. The United Nations established a Mission of Observers in December 1994, maintaining peace negotiations until the warring sides signed a comprehensive peace agreement in 1997. ^[30]

Targeting of journalists

See also: List of journalists killed in Tajikistan

Journalists were particularly targeted for assassination and at least 40 Tajik journalists were killed. ^[31] Many more fled the country, leading to a brain drain. Notable individuals murdered include journalist and politician Otakhon Latifi, journalist and Jewish leader Meirkhaim Gavrielov, politician Safarali Kenjayev and four members of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan: Yutaka Akino, a noted Japanese scholar of Central Asian history; Maj. Ryszard Szewczyk from Poland; Maj. Adolfo Scharpegge from Uruguay; and Jourajon Mahramov from Tajikistan; ^[32] and documentary filmmaker Arcady Ruderman, from Belarus.

Gallery

• 
  Satellite photograph of Tajikistan
• 
  Destroyed turret of a T-72
• 
  Tajikistan factions in civil war: Leading clans: Northern Sughd Region (red), Southern Khatlon Region (blue), Pamir (Gorno-Badakhshan) (green)
• 
  The most important cities involved in the conflict. 1) Khujand 2) Dushanbe 3) Gharm 4) Qurghonteppa 5) Kulob

See also

• Tajikistan-Uzbekistan relations
• United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan
• 1992 Tajikistan protests
• Post-Soviet conflicts
• List of civil wars

References

1. Tajik: Ҷанги шаҳрвандии Тоҷикистон, romanized: Jangi shahrvandiyi Tojikiston, IPA: [ˈdʒaŋɡɪʃɐɦɾʋɐnˈdijɪtʰɔdʒikʰɪsˈtʰɔn] ; Russian:Гражданская война в Таджикистане, romanized:Graždanskaja vojna v Tadžikistane, IPA: [ɡrɐʐˈdanskəjəvɐjˈnaf‿tədʐ(ː)ɨkʲɪˈstanʲe]

1. "Tajikistan: President Meets With Popular Front Commanders". Radio Liberty Archives. 9 July 1997. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
2. "Американцы боятся белорусских танков. Белоруссия американских санкций не боится" [Americans are afraid of Belarusian tanks. Belarus is not afraid of American sanctions]. Lenta.ru (in Russian). 1 March 2002. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021.
3. Jonson, Lena (25 August 2006). Tajikistan in the New Central Asia. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   9781845112936. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
4. Inside Al Qaeda: global network of terror, by Rohan Gunaratna, pg. 169
5. "Iran dismisses Tajik civil war claims as attempt to damage ties". Reuters. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
6. "A Thaw Between Tajikistan and Iran, But Challenges Remain". Jamestown. Retrieved 10 July 2019. Fearing a continuity of Soviet-era policies, Iran supported the Islamic and nationalist opposition during the civil war.
7. Abdulfattoh, Shafiev (February 2016). "Iran and Tajikistan: A Story of Love and Hate" (PDF). Central Asia Policy Brief. 34. At the end of 1992, Tajikistan entered into a bloody civil war. Tehran gave refuge and support to the leaders of the Democratic-Islamic coalition of the Tajik opposition, and was therefore considered to be a pro-Islamic actor. However, it also contributed a critical role in helping peace discussions: Tehran hosted several rounds of the Tajik peace negotiations in 1994, 1995, and 1997, bringing both sides to the discussion table. President Rahmon paid an official visit to Tehran in 1995 and opened an embassy there. But seen from Dushanbe, Moscow was a more reliable ally than Tehran, and any kind of pan-Persian nationalism was rapidly shut down by the authorities.
8. Ahmad, Majidyar. "Tajikistan Accuses Iran of Sponsoring Terrorism, Restricts Iranian Organizations' Activities". Middle East Institute . Retrieved 9 August 2017. Tajikistan has accused Iran of having played a subversive role in the country's civil war in the 1990s by sending terrorists to the Central Asian republic, the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries.
9. "Боевые действия на таджикско-афганской границе (начало 1990–х гг.)". Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
10. Krivosheev 2001.
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12. "The Peace Deal That Ended Tajikistan's Bloody Civil War". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 27 June 2021. Archived from the original on 31 August 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
13. Dubovitsky, Viktor (February 2003). "Features of the ethnic and confessional situation in the Republic of Tajikistan" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 11 April 2008.
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18. Tajikistan Civil War Archived 14 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine Global Security
19. "Department Sozialwissenschaften : Institut für Politische Wissenschaft : Arbeits- und Forschungsstellen : Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kriegsursachenforschung : Kriege-Archiv : ... VMO: 208 Tadschikistan (BK) – Bewaffneter Konflikt in Tadschikistan 1992–1998 und 1998–2001 (Universität Hamburg)". Archived from the original on 16 November 2002. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
20. Political Construction Sites: Nation-building in Russia and the Post-Soviet States Archived 16 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine , page 76
21. "Tajikistan – Government". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
22. Human Rights Watch Press Backgrounder on Tajikistan Archived 19 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine Human Rights Watch
23. Between Marx and Muhammad. Dilip Hiro.
24. The Resurgence of Central Asia. Ahmed Rashid
25. Tajikistan: Refugee reintegration and conflict prevention Archived 3 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Open Society Institute
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30. Tajikistan: rising from the ashes of civil war Archived 18 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine United Nations
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Further reading

• Akiner, Shirin (2001). Tajikistan: disintegration or reconciliation?. Central Asian and Caucasian prospects. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs. ISBN   978-1-86203-061-9.
• Akbarzadeh, Shahram (1996). "Why did nationalism fail in Tajikistan?". Europe-Asia Studies . 48 (7): 1105–1129. doi:10.1080/09668139608412402. ISSN   0966-8136.
• Djalili, Mohammad-Reza; Grare, Frédéric; Akiner, Shirin (1997). Djalili, Mohammad-Reza (ed.). Tajikistan: the trials of independence (1. publ ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN   978-0-312-16143-9.
• Mullojonov, Parviz (2022). The history of the Tajik civil war, 1992-1997. Contemporary Central Asia. Lanham (Md.): Lexington books. ISBN   978-1-7936-1286-1.
• Rashid, Ahmed (2002). Jihad: the rise of militant Islam in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-09345-2.
• Roy, Olivier; Roy, Olivier (2000). The new Central Asia: the creation of nations. The library of international relations. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN   978-1-86064-279-1.
• Whitlock, Monica (2003). Land beyond the river: the untold story of Central Asia (1st U.S. ed.). New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN   978-0-312-27727-7. OCLC   53180954.
• Таҷрибаи таърихии сулҳи Тоҷикистон. Маҷмӯи тезисҳои Симпозиуми байналмиллалӣ. Душанбе, 26-27 апрели соли 2001 (in Tajik). Душ. 2001.
• Усмон И. (2001). Сулҳнома (in Tajik). Dushanbe.
• Нури С. А. (2001). Оштинома (in Tajik). Dushanbe. p. 360.
• Саъдиев Ш. С. (2002). Тоҷикистон: роҳи сулҳ ва ризоияти милли (in Tajik). Dushanbe.
• Перепелиця Г. М. [in Ukrainian] (2004). "Громадянська війна в Таджикистані". In Hubersʹkyj, Leonid Vasylʹovyč (ed.). Українська дипломатична енциклопедія (in Ukrainian). Vol. 1. Kyïv: Znannja Ukraïny. p. 760. ISBN   978-966-316-039-9.
• Krivosheev, Grigori (2001). Россия и СССР в войнах XX столетия. Потери вооружённых сил [Russia and the USSR in the wars of the XX century. Losses of the armed forces] (in Russian).

External links

• (in Russian and English) Key texts and agreements in the Tajikistan peace process Archived 18 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine
• Tajikistan: Opposition criticizes Dushanbe's plan for Commission
• Tajikistan: Two Russian military personnel killed
• Tajikistan: Secular – not Shari'a – law prevails in eastern mountains
• Tajikistan Civil War 1992–1994