As a first-hand observer since 1997 of the United Nations Mission of Observers to Tajikistan (UNMOT), I witnessed the end of its mandate on May 15 with mixed feelings. UNMOT's withdrawal is unlikely to make a significant short-term difference in human rights protection -- testament to its success, and its irrelevance.
On their way to the polls on February 27, some residents of Tajikistan's capital passed an unprecedented variety of campaign posters, including those for the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), the most prominent alternative to President Imomali Rakhmonov's ruling party. But the posters appeared almost exclusively along the central boulevard, Rudaki, and there were no more than fifty of them.
