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Tajikistan
National Security
In the years following independence, Tajikistan has made some
efforts to establish independent national security institutions
and forces. At the same time, in the mid-1990s a contingent of
CIS troops remain in place under a Russian-dominated command.
At least until resolution of its internal conflict, Tajikistan
seems assured that more powerful countries will exert substantial
influence on its national security affairs.
Russia's Role in the Early 1990s
Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991,
Tajikistan had no army of its own. Administratively, the republic
was part of the Soviet Union's Turkestan Military District, which
was abolished in June 1992. By the end of the Soviet era, the
old military system, which commonly (although not exclusively)
assigned draftees from Tajikistan to noncombat units in the Soviet
army, had begun to break down, and draft evasion became a common
occurrence in Tajikistan. Reform plans for Tajikistan's conscription
system were overtaken by the breakup of the union.
Following independence, the Nabiyev government made repeated
efforts between December 1991 and June 1992 to organize a national
guard. Those efforts met strong opposition from factions fearing
that an antireformist president would use the guard as a tool
of repression. When his national guard plans failed, Nabiyev turned
to private armies of his political supporters to kill or intimidate
political opponents. In 1992 additional armed bands were organized
in Tajikistan, some associated with opposition political groups
and others simply reflecting the breakdown of central authority
in the country rather than loyalty to a political faction.
The main regular military force in Tajikistan at independence
was the former Soviet 201st Motorized Rifle Division, headquartered
in Dushanbe. This division, whose personnel are ethnically heterogeneous,
came under jurisdiction of the Russian Federation in 1992 and
remained under Russian command in early 1996. Officially neutral
in the civil war, Russian and Uzbekistani forces, including armored
vehicles of the 201st Division and armored vehicles, jets, and
helicopters from Uzbekistan, provided significant assistance in
antireformist assaults on the province of Qurghonteppa and on
Dushanbe. The 201st Division failed to warn the inhabitants of
Dushanbe that neo-Soviet forces had entered the city, nor did
it interfere with the victors' wave of violence against opposition
supporters in Dushanbe. In the ensuing months, the 201st Division
was involved in some battles against opposition holdouts. Russian
troops stationed in Tajikistan were a major source of weapons
for various factions in the civil war. Combatants on both sides
frequently were able to buy or confiscate Russian military hardware,
including armored vehicles.
In January 1993, a Russian, Colonel (later Major General) Aleksandr
Shishlyannikov, was appointed minister of defense of Tajikistan
(a post he held until 1995, when he was replaced by Major General
Sherali Khayrulloyev, a Tajik), and many positions in the Tajikistani
high command were assumed by Russians in 1993. Meanwhile, in mid-1993
the joint CIS peacekeeping force was created. The force, which
remained by far the largest armed presence in Tajikistan through
1995, included elements of the 201st Division, units of Russian
border troops, and some Kazakstani, Kyrgyzstani, and Uzbekistani
units. By 1995 the officially stated mission of the 201st Division
in Tajikistan included artillery and rocket support for the border
troops. Included in the division's weaponry in 1995 were 180 M-72
main battle tanks; 185 pieces of artillery, including sixty-five
pieces of towed artillery; fifty self-propelled guns; fifteen
rocket launchers; and fifty-five mortars.
Border security is a key part of Russia's continued military
role in Tajikistan. In June 1992, the formerly Soviet border guards
stationed in Tajikistan came under the direct authority of Russia;
in 1993 a reorganization put all Russian border troops under the
Russian Federal Border Service. By 1995 an estimated 16,500 troops
of that force were in Tajikistan, but about 12,500 of the rank-and-file
and noncommissioned officers were drawn from the inhabitants of
Tajikistan.
Data as of March 1996
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