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Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
Amnesty International September 2001
In June one such victim
27
told AI how he had been
severely beaten by tax enforcement police who came
to his shop in Dushanbe and who stated that his permit
to stay in Tajikistan as a refugee had expired. He was
detained on the spot and taken to the police station
where the officers brought him to a room, locked the
door, and began to beat him severely asking him to
give them money. He was kept in detention for several
days until somebody paid the police off.
AI is concerned that police appear to be
committing these acts of ill-treatment with impunity.
Although Tajikistani law guarantees refugees the right
to lodge a complaint without being subjected to
harassment, Afghans reportedly fear that lodging such
complaints will expose them to further police
harassment. AI has received several reports that
Afghans have been detained and ill-treated after they
have complained or have sought to complain against
police brutality. Furthermore, others have told the
organization that fear of police retaliation has stopped
eyewitnesses from giving testimony to relevant
authorities. This situation has created an atmosphere
of fear and anxiety among Afghans in Dushanbe.
Many Afghan men reportedly stay indoors to avoid
being arrested at random, ill-treated and made to pay
a bribe.
Official orders to remove refugees from a number
of areas in Tajikistan
Presidential decree No. 325, issued on 26 July 2000,
states that refugees are not permitted to live in a
number of towns and regions of Tajikistan to “ensure
security and public order in places of settlement of the
Republic of Tajikistan.” However, AI has not received
any evidence to suggest that refugees in Tajikistan,
including Afghan refugees, pose a security threat. The
organization therefore believes that the decree, if
implemented, violates the 1951 Refugee Convention,
to which Tajikistan is a party and which affords a
number of rights to refugees including the right to
freedom of movement and the right to chose a place
of residence.
Following Presidential decree No. 325, on 13
November 2000, Dushanbe’s mayor Makhmadsaid
Ubaydullayev ordered that those refugees whose
status had expired were to leave Dushanbe by 31
December 2000. The remaining refugees would have
to leave the city by 31 July 2001. They were required
to move to three areas: Leninsky (south of Dushanbe),
Shakhrinar or Gissar (both west of Dushanbe). There
are concerns that access to employment, education
and housing would be difficult for refugees resettled
to these places and that the government may not be
able to ensure their safety in areas reported to be
unsafe and rife with criminal activity. AI is concerned
that forcible resettlement of refugees to the designated
areas could lead to constructive refoulement.
According to the mayor’s order, those persons who
would not move to one of the three areas voluntarily,
would be deported out of the country.
AI is concerned that apparent impunity for law
enforcement officers who ill-treat Afghan refugees,
together with Presidential decree No. 325, and the
resolution by the mayor of Dushanbe, may have given
signals - not only to the police but to society as a whole
- that Afghan refugees are unwanted. AI is concerned
that this may result in them being more vulnerable to
police brutality and other human rights abuses.
Afghans still stranded on the Tajik-Afghan border
The Tajik authorities have continued to keep their
border closed for Afghan refugees fleeing fighting in
Northern Afghanistan, and who are stranded in
particularly harsh conditions on promontories in the
Panj river, which marks the Tajik-Afghan border and
is near the front line between the warring Afghan
Taleban and opposition Northern Alliance forces. The
area has on several occasions reportedly been shelled
from Taleban positions in Northern Afghanistan.
The Taleban, who reportedly control over 90% of
Afghanistan, are fighting for control of the rest of the
country with the anti-Taleban alliance - the Northern
Alliance - which is composed of former Mujahideen,
the Islamic guerillas who fought the occupying Soviet
army from 1979 to 1989.
Hostage taking and military attack on former
United Tajik Opposition (UTO) commanders
On 11 June former UTO commanders Rakhmon
Sanginov and Mansur Muakkalov reportedly captured
seven Tajik policemen and servicemen of the Ministry
of Defence in the village of Tepai Samarkandi, some
12 kilometres east of Dushanbe, demanding the
release of several former UTO supporters who had
been detained over recent months on charges
including murder and illegal possession of firearms.
Rakhmon Sanginov and Mansur Muakkalov
reportedly stated that criminal cases had been
fabricated against those former UTO supporters
whose release they were demanding. There are reports
alleging torture and ill-treatment in connection with
these cases. Supporters of the two commanders are
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The name of the refugee and
details of the case are
also reported to have alleged that the arrests were
manifestations of the government’s non-compliance
with the 1997 amnesty agreement which stipulates, for
example, that no criminal charges will be brought
against persons who participated in the civil war and
that convictions of those already sentenced will be
annulled. An exception was made regarding those
convicted of violent crimes (such as, for example,
terrorist acts, premeditated murder and rape in
connection with the civil war) and who were
reportedly given the opportunity to petition for a
review of their cases if they believed they had been
punished for political actions.
The hostage taking ended on 17 June, with no
known to AI, but withheld to protect his identity.