Khorog events (2012) - a special operation of Tajik government forces in eastern Tajikistan - in Khorog , the regional center of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region ( GBAO ) to detain and destroy the perpetrators of the murder of Tajik General Abdullo Nazarov and neutralize gangs in the city of Khorog.
Khorog events | |||
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Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast on the map of Tajikistan | |||
date | July 21-24 , 2012 (“hot phase” of the conflict) | ||
A place | Khorog and surroundings | ||
Cause | The assassination of Abdullo Nazarov | ||
Opponents | |||
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Commanders | |||
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Forces of the parties | |||
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Losses | |||
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Content
Background and beginning of the operation
The military operation was preceded by the assassination of Major General Abdullo Nazarov, Head of the Department of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of the Republic of Tajikistan in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. That July 21 “late in the evening was returning from a business trip from Ishkashim district when his car was stopped by unknown persons. They dragged the general out and inflicted several fatal stab wounds on him ” [2] . The authorities immediately accused people from the environment of Colonel Ishkashim border guard, a former field commander, who is still influential in Khorog, Tolib Ayembekov [3] . Law enforcement authorities demanded that he be extradited to the people involved in the murder, but the negotiations, according to the authorities, were unsuccessful. Although Ayeymbekov himself stated that it was agreed that the suspects in the assassination of the general themselves would appear in the investigating authorities on the morning of July 24 [4] . However, the Tajik military (according to some reports, the total number of government forces were more than 3 thousand people) were ahead of them, and on July 24 at 4 in the morning they started storming the city [5] . The fighting began in four areas of Khorog :
- UPD,
- Khorog Bar
- Bakery and
- Freedom.
The population was not evacuated. Only in the Bakery did the authorities warn people about a possible assault, and only some residents of the district left their homes then. The exchange of fire between the parties lasted 16 hours. At this time, there was no access to reliable information about what was happening in Khorog. In the Pamirs , telephone and mobile communications were disconnected. Accurate information on the death toll became known only the next day, when the president of Tajikistan announced a moratorium and a corridor was created so that local residents and the military could pick up the bodies of the dead and put them to the ground.
According to some sources, the number of victims among the residents of Khorog was 21 people. There is no information about the wounded, since people hid their wounds so as not to be attracted for participating in battles. Government forces, according to some reports, lost 23 fighters. The official figures of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) of Tajikistan are different. On July 24, this agency reported that as a result of a special operation in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, 41 people from the military and security forces were killed, another 23 were injured. 7 militants of illegal armed groups were killed; 1 more was detained, killed among civilians 14. Later, on July 9-10, 2013, during a hearing of the National Report of Tajikistan at the UN Human Rights Committee on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Tajik side admitted that in Khorog - in addition to 18 soldiers and government employees, 23 civilians were also killed [6] .
Consequences of the special operation
After a moratorium on firing was declared in the city, the inhabitants of Khorog, at the call of their spiritual leader Aga Khan , began to surrender their weapons. However, the situation in the city remained tense. After a lull, on August 10, near Khorog, at the Bidur post, government forces fired at a Mercedes car, killing two people and injuring two others. This incident was the occasion for a new rally in Khorog, at which the townspeople demanded the withdrawal of troops. Having received the promise, they parted, but the troops were not withdrawn. After 11 days, another resonant incident occurred. On the night of August 22, an informal leader of Badakhshan, Imumnazar Imumnazarov, was killed in his house [7] . Another rally began in the city, this time it was larger and even residents of other regions of GBAO came to Khorog. The protesters demanded the withdrawal of troops from the city and the removal of the chairman of the region. Through the representative of the Aga Khan Foundation, Yodgor Fayzov, the country's defense minister told the protesters that he was ready to sign an agreement on the withdrawal of troops if the rally was dissolved. To confirm his words, the minister removed the military from all positions in the mountains and inside the city. However, the military remained in the city. It was later reported that troops would be withdrawn from the region after the president’s September visit to GBAO [4] .
Versions of the parties regarding the objectives of the operation
The official reason for the large-scale special operation in Khorog was called by the authorities to capture the assassins of General Nazarov, however, a few days after the operation, the security forces demanded that they not be given the murderers of the general, but the informal leaders of the region, former field commanders Imumnazar Imumnazarov , Muhamadbokir Muhamadbokyom Aibsdogorov, Yodslobovarov, Yodslobovarov . Moreover: the prosecutor general and the minister of internal affairs later admitted that the purpose of the operation was precisely to eliminate the informal leaders of Badakhshan, as they tried to "deceive the government and seize power in the region." The Prosecutor General directly emphasized that “four of their leaders did not want to surrender their weapons. They attracted young people by fraud in order to take control of GBAO ” [8] . While still alive, Imumnazarov denied these allegations, although he admitted that they had received proposals to seize power and carry out a coup in the Pamirs more than once. Potential "customers" offered a lot of money. In his opinion, the authorities conducted a military operation in order to liquidate the main authorities of the Pamir, former field commanders who have great influence in Khorog and do not allow some officials to increase corruption in the region. He was sure that the authorities decided to launch a large-scale operation in order to bring fear to the population of the region at the same time [4] . Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic Studies of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sayfullo Safarov, says that the military operation in Khorog was connected with the fact that the armed groups of the city intended to create a country called Veliky Badakhshan as part of the GBAO of Tajikistan and Afghan Badakhshan. In his opinion, “this suggests that secret geopolitical games are being conducted” [6] .
Criticism
The Pamir diaspora, which lives in many countries, immediately condemned the actions of the Tajik authorities. In particular, on July 31, 2012 in Moscow, a large group of immigrants from the Pamirs gathered at the Tajik embassy. They addressed the President of the country Emomali Rahmon and demanded to stop the hostilities in the Pamirs and restore mobile communications [9] . The Pamiri organized similar pickets at the missions of the Tajik embassies in Bishkek and Washington. A small rally was held in St. Petersburg [10] .
The operation was also condemned by some Tajik experts. According to the well-known Tajik political scientist Parviz Mullodzhonov , the operation was erroneous, because after it, instead of small groups of rebels, the country would receive a large opposition force. Sultoni Hamad, another Tajik expert, said that security forces ignored the ethnic values of the Khorog population during the operation, and local characteristics were not taken into account [11] . The OSCE also expressed its concern about the events in Khorog. The chairman of this organization, Amon Gilmore, called on both sides to exercise restraint.
Russia's position was pro-Dushanbe. A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the Khorog events says that Russia "is alarmed by acts of violence against representatives of the state’s government that led to a special operation in the south-east of the country." The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that "the leadership of friendly Tajikistan will be able to put the situation under reliable control, restore public order and the rule of law in this region" [12] .
Event Investigation
The investigation of the bloody events in Khorog, according to the Tajik authorities, continues. So they said at the hearing of the National Report of Tajikistan at the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which took place on July 9, 2013. In particular, the Tajik Prosecutor General’s Office has officially announced that the results of the investigation of the incident at Bidur’s post showed that there were no violations in the actions of the military, who were then in that position, and they opened fire under the law. Attorney General Sherkhon Salimzoda promised to find those involved in the murder of I. Imumnazarov. At the moment, only two residents of Khorog have been convicted of participating in those events [13] . On September 10, 2013, a number of human rights organizations [14] made a presentation on independent monitoring of the Khorog events. Human rights activists noted a violation of the rights and freedoms of the residents of Khorog, both during the special operation and after its completion. Thus, in an interview with monitoring group members, injured citizens and relatives of the deceased indicated a lack of information on the progress of the investigation into the deaths of civilians during the July 2012 events. According to them, the authorities did not conduct any expert examinations of the corpses. There have even been cases where the facts of death of people have not been documented. The families of the victims were not issued death certificates. The monitoring results showed that to date, not a single effective investigation has been conducted into the deaths of victims of the July 2012 events. Relatives of the victims have no information whether a criminal case has been opened and whether a criminal investigation is being conducted into these cases [15] [16] .
Notes
- ↑ Khorog, 2012. A year later
- ↑ Special services general killed in Tajikistan, RIA Novosti, http://ria.ru/incidents/20120722/705931455.html#14133753567993&message=resize&relto=register&action=addClass&value=registration
- ↑ Wahid Moja, War on the “Roof of the World” -Who is Ayeybekov? http://afghanistan.ru/doc/23459.html
- ↑ 1 2 3 Ramziya Mirzobekova. “Khorog, 2012. A year later”, Asia plus 2013. http://www2.asiaplus.tj/ru/node/162907 (unavailable link)
- ↑ Special operation in the Pamirs: a fragile world at stake, Deutsche Welle. http://www.dw.de/special operation- on- in the Pamirs- fragile- peace- under the threat/a-16123439
- ↑ 1 2 Akhliddin Salimov, Military operation in Khorog: opinions of authorities, politicians and experts (video), Asia-Plus, http://news.tj/ru/node/162564
- ↑ Tajikistan: Imomnazar Imomnazarov, accused of the assassination of General Nazarov, killed in his own house, http://www.fergananews.com/news/19296
- ↑ Sherkhon Salimzoda: “Commanders” of Badakhshan wanted to take control of the region, Ozodagon, http://catoday.org/centrasia/tjru/9556-sherhon-salimzoda-komandiry-badahshana-hoteli-vzyat-upravlenie-regiona.html Archived from 4 March 2016 at Wayback Machine
- ↑ Pamiri’s appeal to Emomali Rahmon, video on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlndUc0nzwo
- ↑ Migrants from Tajikistan who came to a rally in St. Petersburg call themselves Pamiri. http://www.rosbalt.ru/piter/2012/07/25/1015058.html
- ↑ Why is the operation in Badakhshan “special”? https://khorog2012.wordpress.com/category/sacrifices/
- ↑ The Russian Foreign Ministry hopes that the Tajik authorities will restore public order, RBC 07/25/2012 http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20120725114018.shtml
- ↑ UN asked Tajikistan about torture, investigation of Khorog events and the abolition of the death penalty, Asia-Plus, http://news.tj/ru/news/oon-sprosil-u-tadzhikistana-pro-pytki-rassledovanie-khorogskikh-sobytii- i-otmenu-smertnoi-kazni
- ↑ Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Independent Center for the Protection of Human Rights, Center for Human Rights, Center for Children's Rights and Public Foundation “Notabene”, Pamir Bar Association
- ↑ Khorog - 2012. Report on human rights defenders, http://www.notorture.tj/analytics/horog-2012-otchet-pravozashchitnikov
- ↑ Khorog events in NGO reports, Ozodagon, http://catoday.org/centrasia/tjru/10261-horogskie-sobytiya-po-otchetam-nepravitelstvennyh-organizaciy.html (link not available)
Links
- Khorog - 2012. Report on human rights defenders (inaccessible link from 04/14/2018 [488 days])
- Explainer: What's Going On In Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan?
- Tajikistan: Accused Warlord Speaks Out on Gorno-Badakhshan Violence