By Najam Abbas

About the Author

Tajikistan - November 13, 1998 - Special for EurasiaNews

In an unprecedented display of candidness, the emergency session of the Tajikistan’s legislative assembly summoned to discuss what is now dubbed as the aborted military coup in Leninabad during November 4-9. The Tajik Minister for Security gave detailed accounts of attempts made by certain ousted military and political figures to de-stabilise the country with backing of Uzbekistan’s Security agencies. Tajikistan’s President Imomali Rakhmonov has taken up the case against "Uzbek Interference" in the country’s internal affairs both domestically and internationally. "This is an aggression which we can’t allow," Rakhmanov told the session. The Tajik parliament has announced approaching the Uzbek parliament and the Inter-republic Parliament of the Commonwealth of Independent States to draw their attention on "Uzbek Interference". Dushanbe is also writing to UNSG Kofi Annan and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to inform them about recent developments in the country.

Rakhmanov and top officials of his administration sharply reacted to denials by Uzbek Foreign Minister that the terrorists wanted by the Tajikistan’s authorities were hiding in Uzbekistan, enjoying tacit support of the Uzbek authorities. "It is just political speculation" on part of Tajik authorities, they claimed in a statement from the Uzbek Foreign Ministry in Tashkent shown on Moscow’s ORT channel on November 11. The charge sheet about Uzbekistan’s non-cooperation in turning in dissidents like ex- Premier Abdulmalik Abdullajanov, former presidential Guards Commander Colonel Mehmud Khudaiberdiev and their associates was cited in detail before the parliament by the Tajik Minister for Security. He offered to show all the correspondence addressed to Uzbek authorities in recent months requesting their co-operation for the arrest and indictment of elements conspiring against the Rakhmanov regime.

Facts made public at parliament’s session also pointed towards collaboration between Uzbek security personnel and former Afghan army Commander of Uzbek ethnicity General Abdurrashid Dostum. The following facts are taken from the presentation made by Tajikistan's Security Minister before the Parliament on November 12 in Dushanbe. Over the past two years each time Khudaiberdiev and his armed bands struck at Tajikistan’s economic or military interests, they crossed over the border into their hideouts in the Uzbek territory enjoying support from that side. His men were provided a military trainer who is an Afghan national and an ardent supporter of former General Dostum. These people received military training in the Afghan province of Jozjan for 7-8 months from August 1997 to April 1998. Following that, the bands crossed the Hairatan bridge into the Uzbek territory and were engaged in further exercises in Samarkand oblast. All these activities directly concerned the security interests of the country. Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry approached their Uzbek counterparts several times to take notice of these disturbing activities. The Uzbek authorities, however, rejected the claims that Khudaiberdiev and his men were present on Uzbek territory.

Prosecutor General Salamuddin Sharipov listed the crimes for which Khudaiberdiev is wanted. He reported to the parliament that he has approached his Uzbek counterparts four times requesting that they indict those wanted for committing serious crimes in Tajikistan. However, every time he has been told that no such persons were present on the Uzbek soil.

Najam Abbas, Ph.D.

Observer of Central Asian Affairs

Najam Abbas is a researcher who has been based in Central Asia for the past five years.

He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on Kazakstan’s Post-independence Russian Language Press while he was at the Kazakstan State University from 1994-97. He published numerous news reports and articles to The Globe, Almaty on events in and around Kazakstan as the Contributing Editor to the paper.

At present he is associated with an international organization’s Humanities project for Central Asia working out of Dushanbe in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.