Paul Goble
Staunton,
November 9 – As tensions rise in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous
Oblast and President Emomali Rakhmon appeals to allies to build defenses on
that border (tajikta.tj/ru/news/prezident-tadzhikistana-obratil-vnimanie-odkb-na-voprosy-ukrepleniya-tadzhiksko-afganskoy-granitsy),
an event in northern Tajikistan may be an even more serious threat to him.
That
was a revolt in a prison earlier this week in which 27 inmates died and more
than 130 prisoners and guards were wounded, with many still in hospital and facing
uncertain prospects. Observers say that
the prisoners revolted because of mistreatment by their jailors (tajikta.tj/ru/news/k-buntu-v-kolonii-tadzhikistana-priveli-izdevatelstva-nad-zaklyuchennym-smi,
akhbor-rus.com/-p1285-122.htm and
fergananews.com/news/33916).
The revolt was serious enough that
Dushanbe had to dispatch OMON troops to suppress it, and apparently it was their
actions that were responsible for most of the injuries and deaths. Not surprisingly, the Islamic State has
claimed responsibility but there is no obvious evidence that it rather than bad
conditions had anything to do with the revolt (tajikta.tj/ru/news/ig-vzyalo-na-sebya-otvetstvennost-za-bunt-v-kolonii-v-khudzhande).
Such
events appear to come out of nowhere in the case of Tajikistan largely because
the media in that Central Asian republic no longer fulfills its “fourth estate”
role, according to local commentators and because so few people beyond its
borders report anything there unless it involves violence or threats from
Afghanistan (tajikta.tj/ru/news/v-tadzhikistane-zhurnalistika-kak-chetvertaya-vlast-utratila-svoyu-rol-).
And
because that is so, there is a tendency to link the two together or accept the
arguments of those who do. In fact, Tajikistan’s problems are in almost all case
rooted in its domestic problems. Assuming otherwise gets in the way of understanding
that damning reality in a country many had high hopes for after it successfully
concluded its civil war.
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