DUSHANBE SENTENCES LENINABAD OPPONENTS TO DEATH.

The Supreme Court of Tajikistan yesterday handed down six death sentences and nine prison sentences from one to fourteen years against an opposition group from Leninabad region. Five other members of the group died during the arrest, according to the authorities. The death sentences are unappealable, but President Imomali Rahmonov has the right to commute them. The group was accused of committing high treason and terrorist acts, including the April 1997 assassination attempt against Rahmonov in Leninabad region’s city of Hujand. The authorities identified the principal defendant as Abdulhafiz Abdullajonov, brother of former Prime Minister Abdumalik Abdullajonov. (Russian agencies, March 12)

The former prime minister ran for president in 1994 against Rahmonov, lost the race, and went into exile at first in Moscow and later in Uzbekistan. While abroad he set up a National Revival Bloc, representing the interests of Leninabad region and acting as a secular opposition to the Dushanbe authorities. In 1996 and 1997, NRB supporters staged mass demonstrations in Leninabad region against the central government, in which the Kulob clan held — and still holds — a disproportionate share of power to the detriment of Leninabad. That region constitutes Tajikistan’s economic and demographic center of gravity, yet Dushanbe continues virtually to exclude it from the political arrangements toward national reconciliation. The Islamic opposition has sought in vain to include Abdullajonov’s NRB in the transition government.

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