Think Tajikistan’s officials don’t care how their country is viewed abroad? Well, the release of a BBC reporter detained for one month on dubious charges of collusion with a radical group seems to have worried President Emomali Rakhmon. Journalist Urunboy Usmonov was released on July 14 just hours after Rakhmon’s advisor tried to distance the president from the arrest. (Usmonov is out, but still faces charges of not tattling on his alleged sources, members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and cannot leave the country.)
Suhrob Sharipov, head of the Strategic Research Centre under the Tajik President, was quoted by Asia-Plus as saying:
“Rakhmon recently visited Europe, where he had very important meetings with the leadership of various countries and bodies. [He] was trying to improve the republic’s image in Europe. Then he returns and this happens. So the displeasure of European bodies with which the president had just met followed immediately thereafter.”
(They were already displeased, actually, and told him so.)
According to Sharipov, the arrest – which brought widespread international condemnation -- was the fault of the overzealous security services, who may need to weed out incompetent officers from their ranks.
"They should think before taking action. Weigh [the matter] thoroughly and think over whom they are dealing with and what consequences there could be. [They] must take into account the reaction of the world community after such actions. … What kind of personnel work there that make such serious mistakes and bring all the president’s efforts to naught?”
Sharipov said the KGB’s successor agency, the GKNB, “overdid it” with Usmonov, and added a little rebuke for the Foreign Ministry: “The [Western] ambassadors should have been gathered quickly and had the essence of the issue explained to them. If the ambassadors had gotten a prompt explanation about what’s what, the matter would not have come to this.”
Anyways, a round of hand clapping to Dushanbe for releasing Usmonov.