Islamic Party Reduces Tension in Tajikistan by Moderating Stance on Upcoming Referendum

The Islamic Renaissance Party has modified its stance on the country's upcoming constitutional referendum, easing tension between the country's leading opposition party and government. The referendum, scheduled for June 22, will ask voters to approve an array of constitutional amendments, including a controversial provision that would allow President Imomali Rahmonov to run for re-election.

The IRP initially opposed changing the constitution's Article 65, under which President Rahomov would be barred from running for re-election. IRP leaders warned that the referendum could destabilize Tajik society. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. However, on June 10, IRP chief Said Abdullo Nuri announced that the IRP had decided against joining other opposition parties in issuing a statement "against the holding of the referendum." Nuri said the IRP leadership's decision was based on concern over the potential for instability. "Ill-considered actions could lead to a new confrontation," Nuri said.

At the same time the IRP leader reiterated his opposition to the referendum. "The holding of the referendum is not a priority," the Asia-Plus news agency quoted Nuri as saying. "The immediate task of the Tajik leadership ought to be poverty reduction."

In the days preceding Nuri's comments, it appeared that IRP-government tension was on the rise, driven in part by the arrest of IRP deputy chairman Shamsiddin Shamsiddinov. Military prosecutors charged Shamsiddinov with organizing an armed group supposedly responsible for a variety of crimes, including murders. Nuri described the charges against Shamsiddinov as "unfounded."

Nuri's announcement on the IRP's referendum stance followed a meeting with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lynn Pascoe, who was in Dushanbe on diplomatic business. The previous day, Pascoe discussed the referendum with Rahmonov. In comments broadcast by Tajik state television, Pascoe stressed that the referendum should be held "in accordance with international standards."

Rahmonov has maintained that the constitution needs amending to better reflect post-civil war circumstances. "I have been and I am still against being an all-powerful leader. The constitution is not just for Rahmonov," he said in April, according to the Tajikistan Times, a Moscow-based web site.

A recent report that citizens inside Tajikistan are unable to access the Tajikistan Times on the internet indicates civil society development in Tajikistan remains uneven. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based advocacy group, appealed on May 29 to stop authorities from blocking access to the Tajikistan Times, which is operated in Moscow by an opposition-aligned journalist, Dodojon Atovulloyev. In a letter to Rahmonov, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Menard effectively accused authorities of persecuting the reporter, who has a history of criticizing the government.

"In view of the prior harassment of Atovulloyev for several years because of his publications, and the obstacles to the emergence of independent news media," Bernard wrote, "we have every reason to believe that tajikistantimes.ru is being deliberately