TAJIK PRISON MASSACRE HAD POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS.

The opposition National Revival Alliance yesterday accused the Dushanbe government of responsibility for the death of scores of inmates in the prison of Hojent, capital of the northern Leninabad region. The inmates had rioted in protest against a plan to move them to camps in Kulob, the southern fiefdom of the clan in power in Dushanbe; and they also demanded shorter sentences. Most of them had been sentenced for participating in last year’s unauthorized rallies in Hojent against the government and in support of the National Revival Alliance, a secular opposition movement based in Leninabad region and led by former prime minister Abdumalik Abdullajonov. The Islamic opposition was the first to report the prisoners’ protest and the April 17 prison massacre. The authorities then acknowledged killing 18 and wounding "dozens" of inmates. (Interfax, April 21; Voice of Free Tajikistan, April 17-18; AP, April 18)

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