An Uzbek dies in Kyrgyz police custody. Officials deny wrongdoing, while human rights activists voice alarm. THEN WHAT? The cycle is all too familiar in southern Kyrgyzstan.
It may not be their preferred destination, but increasing numbers of Afghan refugees, seeking to escape the growing insecurity of their homeland, are making their way to Tajikistan. The former Soviet republic on Afghanistan’s northern border is seen as safer than Pakistan, less socially restrictive than Iran, and a more culturally familiar place, as many of the refugees speak a dialect of Tajik.
Fardin Saidulayev manages a newspaper kiosk in the Russian city of Novosibirsk, where he is one of the few Tajik laborers to hold a coveted work permit. Yet he faces an uncertain new year. As of January 1, new Russian legislation bans foreigners from working in trade. Saidulayev says he now lives in constant fear he will be fired, or even deported.
Officials in Tajikistan, apparently worried about a potential rise of militant activity in the economically embattled Central Asian state, are putting pressure on Tajiks studying abroad at Islamic universities and madrasas to return home.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon attended the groundbreaking ceremony on Tajikistan’s second-annual Flag Day on November 24. State television reported that the flagpole is part of a series of new monuments and renovations to existing sites in preparation for the twentieth anniversary of statehood in September 2011. Rakhmon congratulated his citizens and proposed renaming a region of Dushanbe after the Tajik flag.
US-based firm Trident Support will erect the prestige project, chosen, most likely, for having already broken pole records in both Baku and, previously, in Turkmenistan’s capital.
