Tajikistan: Fallout From Failed Protest Plan
Émigré opposition group unable to persuade people to take to the streets.
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Tajik Protest Plan Squashed Before it Starts
Authorities denounce opposition group and take down websites after internet appeal for street demos.
Tajikistan: Fallout From Failed Protest Plan
Émigré opposition group unable to persuade people to take to the streets.
Experts say an internet-planned demonstration in the capital Dushanbe failed because the 1992-97 civil war began with street protests.
An opposition organisation called Group 24 issued a call on Facebook for an anti-government rally on October 10, but no one turned up.
“Unlike other countries, Tajikistan has a clearly-defined immunity to rallies because our civil war began with that – protests by demonstrators,” Abdughani Mamadazimov, head of the Association of Independent Political Scientists, told IWPR.
The authorities responded by banning Group 24 on the grounds that it was an extremist organisation seeking to overthrow the government, deploying police on the streets of Dushanbe, and blocking numerous websites.
Galim Faskhutdinov is an IWPR contributor in Tajikistan.
This audio programme went out in Russian and Tajik on national radio stations in Tajikistan. It was produced under two IWPR projects: Empowering Media and Civil Society Activists to Support Democratic Reforms in Tajikistan, funded by the European Union, and Strengthening Capacities, Bridging Divides in Central Asia, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of IWPR and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of either the European Union or the Norwegian foreign ministry.
