Washington Post - 04.14.2005

Washington Post

Tajikistan Tightens Control Over Contacts

By PARVINA KHAMIDOVA, The Associated Press 

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan - The Foreign Ministry on Thursday ordered foreign embassies and aid organizations working in Tajikistan to report their contacts with political and civic activists to authorities.

The move followed last month's overthrow of the president in neighboring Kyrgyzstan in a popular revolt that has agitated other Central Asian leaders. Kyrgyzstan was the third former Soviet republic in the past 18 months to have its Soviet-era leader ousted in a popular uprising.

Authorities in other former Soviet republics have responded by trying to tighten controls and cracking down on Western aid organizations, alleging they had prepared and funded the uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

Diplomatic missions and international organizations accredited in Tajikistan are now asked to notify authorities on their planned meetings with representatives of political parties and civic groups in advance, the Foreign Ministry said.

"Some representatives of political parties, civic groups and media use such meetings to distort the Tajik government's strategy and policies," the statement said.

President Emomali Rakhmonov, who has led this impoverished nation of 6 million since 1994, tolerates no dissent. In 2003, he pushed through constitutional changes that could allow him to stay in power until 2020.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe said Thursday the embassy "always works in close contact with the Foreign Ministry and informs it on all planned events."

Officials in tightly controlled Uzbekistan also have pressured foreign aid groups. Its authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, has alleged that Western organizations aided the Georgian and Ukrainian opposition, and Uzbekistan refused last year to register the Open Society Institute, which is funded by the George Soros Foundation.