TAJIKISTAN’S KYRGYZ DISTRICT RESTIVE.

Ethnic Kyrgyz residents of Tajikistan’s Murgab district rallied June 21 outside the district administration building to protest against the recent influx of Tajik refugees into Murgab from areas affected by the civil war. Accusing the administration of tacitly encouraging that migration in order to dilute the Kyrgyz share of the district’s population, the demonstrators demanded that the district leadership be replaced. The Murgab district, bordering on Kyrgyzstan’s Osh region, has a predominantly Kyrgyz population, but the district’s leadership is said to be monopolized by Tajiks. The leadership offered to review its personnel policy and to appoint an ethnic Kyrgyz to one of the posts of deputy head of the district administration. (Interfax, June 21, citing Vecherny Bishkek of the same date) The dispute adds to the series of protests in various areas of Tajikistan against the takeover of local administrations by Dushanbe-appointed outsiders.

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