“Crackdowns in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan’s Autonomous Regions Devastate Civil Society”
Last year, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan carried out deadly crackdowns to quash protests in their autonomous regions, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests. However, civil society has been the main casualty of the crackdowns, with human rights activists, journalists, and local leaders being targeted in the authoritarian nations. Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, a journalist and rights activist from the Pamiri ethnic minority, was one of the most prominent figures caught up in Tajikistan’s crackdown on protests over local grievances in the Gorno-Badakhshan region. Mamadshoeva was sentenced to 21 years in prison on extremism charges in December. Her case was fueled by her regular posts about the 2021 killing of a young Pamiri man by Tajik security forces. The conflict in Gorno-Badakhshan and mutual mistrust between the local population and the central government date back to the country’s 1992-97 civil war. Space for civil society is rapidly shrinking in Tajikistan, and protests in the autonomous region have been suppressed. Uzbekistan has also targeted prominent civic leaders, and Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, a Karakalpak lawyer and journalist, was handed a 16-year prison term over the unprecedented anti-government protests in Uzbekistan’s autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan last year. Despite Karakalpakstan’s special status, space for activism was arguably even more limited than elsewhere in Uzbekistan. The crackdowns show that both governments are committed to eliminating any potential civil activism or agency that could threaten their regimes.
