Tajikistan: Prominent members of Pamiri minority arbitrarily detained, tortured and unfairly convicted

The international community should speak out against human rights violations in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) targeting the Pamiri minority, Amnesty International said today. The organization called for the immediate and unconditional release of Pamiri civil society activists and others arbitrarily detained and unfairly convicted as part of an ongoing crackdown by the Tajikistani authorities on the Pamiri minority.

“Authorities in Tajikistan must immediately and unconditionally release the Pamiri activists and human rights defenders who have been detained and imprisoned solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. They must stop denying the Pamiris the rights to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, and to use their own languages,” said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Since May 2022, authorities in Tajikistan have stepped up their efforts to crackdown on civil society in GBAO, violently dispersing peaceful protests and detaining local leaders and other respected community figures, including civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders and religious leaders.

Amnesty International’s researchers spoke with a number of individuals who were briefly detained, including for interrogation, by members of security agencies around the May 2022 crackdown. Most of these individuals have since May 2022 left the country. Many alleged being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during their interrogation, including beating with fists, batons and metallic devices, electric shocks and sleep deprivation. Nearly all said they experienced verbal abuse, including that directed at their female relatives and other members of their ethnic and religious community.

“All allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of people in custody must be effectively investigated, and all those responsible must be brought to account in fair trial proceedings. All victims of human rights violations in Tajikistan should receive full and adequate reparations for the damage suffered,” said Denis Krivosheev.

“Pamiri individuals from Tajikistan seeking international protection abroad must not be forcibly returned to Tajikistan, or transferred to third countries, including Russia, where they would be at risk of forcible transfer to their country of origin. In Tajikistan, particularly in GBAO, they would be at risk of human rights violations including arbitrary arrest, torture and unfair trials.”

Background

GBAO is a high mountain region in the east of Tajikistan and officially had a population of 236,000 in 2018. Most of its population identify as ethnic Pamiris and adhere to the Ismaili branch of Shia Islam. Although they form an ethnic and linguistic minority, they are not recognized as such by the state. Instead, authorities in Tajikistan have been increasingly suppressing the use of Pamiri languages and the assertion of Pamiri identity in state institutions, schools, the media, artistic performances and public spaces.