TAJIK PACIFICATION PROCESS UNRAVELING.

The Contact Group of countries and international organizations supervising pacification in Tajikistan failed this week to remove the latest stumbling block Dushanbe threw against the political settlement. In violation of earlier agreements, the Tajik parliament invalidated the appointment of opposition leaders Akbar Turajonzoda and Dovlat Usmon as First Deputy Prime Minister and as Minister of Economics and Foreign Trade, respectively. The Contact Group also failed to meet the opposition’s request to convene a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group’s member countries in order to discuss the unraveling of the political settlement in Tajikistan. The Russian representative on the Group publicly hinted that Moscow opposed such a meeting. (Itar-Tass and other Russian agencies, May 27)

President Imomali Rahmonov had made those two appointments as part of the agreement to allot the opposition 30 percent of government posts. The first deputy prime ministership had been reserved specifically for Turajonzoda. However, the appointments were made before Russia and Uzbekistan had moved to undermine the peace settlement in Tajikistan on the rationale of combating “Islamic fundamentalism.” Rahmonov, who on the whole controls the parliament, failed to protest its move. The rescinding of those appointments, like the ban on religiously-based parties and related measures by Dushanbe, represent the immediate effect of the hardening line in Moscow and Tashkent. The trend threatens to undo the pacification process. –VS

KAZAKHSTAN’S MINISTER OF INTERIOR SPEAKS ON ORGANIZED CRIME AND POLICE CORRUPTION.