RIZVON SODIROV R.I.P.

Tajikistan’s Security Ministry announced on December 1 that Rizvon Sodirov was killed that day, and that about half of his estimated 80 fighters were killed or captured. They were netted in an operation conducted by army, security, and interior ministry troops in and near Dushanbe. Rizvon’s two younger brothers are still at large with part of the detachment, their whereabouts unknown. They hold some 14 Tajik hostages, including two sons of the country’s Mufti, Amonullo Negmatzoda, the highest Muslim clergyman. (International and Russian agencies, December 2)

Formerly commander in chief of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) forces, Rizvon Sodirov was dismissed from that post in 1995 for insubordination to the political leadership. Rizvon then defected to the government side with his elder brother, Bahrom Sodirov, and a group of followers, appeared on television with President Imomali Rahmonov, and propagandized to opposition forces to switch sides. The Dushanbe government armed the Sodirovs’ detachment and used it to wreak havoc in opposition-controlled areas in Tajikistan and neighboring Afghanistan.

However, the government earlier this year moved toward a political compromise with the opposition and abandoned the Sodirovs. Last February, the renegade group received world attention by seizing a group of UN and Red Cross personnel and Russian journalists, in a protracted and still murky hostage drama that seemed to evidence residual collusion with the government. Although ostensibly pursued by government forces into inaccessible mountain areas, Rizvon recently reemerged with replenished strength in the very capital Dushanbe and its environs. His detachment is suspected of having seized last month in Dushanbe a French couple employed by relief agencies. The French woman was killed on November 30 during a botched rescue attempt by government forces. Rizvon was seeking to trade the couple for Bahrom, who has been detained in Dushanbe since February.

Between March and now, the government had repeatedly claimed to have liquidated the Sodirovs’ detachment, only to be confronted with it again and again. The opposition for its part strongly urged the government to take more serious action against the Sodirovs and to accept participation of UTO forces in those operations. With Rizvon and Bahrom now finally out of action, their two brothers may well be bent on revenge, and the remaining part of their detachment still has its cards to play. However, as long as the government pursues a genuine political accommodation with the opposition, it will shrink from using again the renegade force as a lever against the UTO.

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