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Tajikistan
Human Rights
Under the extension of emergency powers justified by the government
in response to opposition in 1993 and 1994, numerous human rights
violations were alleged on both sides of the civil war. A wave
of executions and "disappearances" of opposition figures began
after antireformist forces captured Dushanbe in December 1992.
The People's Front of Tajikistan, a paramilitary group supported
by the government, was responsible in many such cases. In 1993
and 1994, a number of journalists were arrested, and prisoners
of conscience were tortured for alleged antigovernment activities.
In 1994 some prisoners of conscience and political prisoners were
released in prisoner exchanges with opposition forces. The death
sentence, applicable by Tajikistani law to eighteen peacetime
offenses, was officially applied in six cases in both 1993 and
1994, but only one person, a political prisoner, is known to have
been executed in 1994. No state executions were reported in 1995.
Afghanistan-based oppositionist forces, who labeled themselves
a government in exile, were accused by the Dushanbe government
of killing a large number of civilians and some government soldiers
near the Afghan border. These accusations had not been confirmed
by impartial observers as of early 1996. Amnesty International
appealed to both sides to desist, without apparent effect.
Data as of March 1996
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