Aid, Insurgencies and Conflict Transformation: When Greed Is Good by Rob Kevlihan

Author:Rob Kevlihan [Kevlihan, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Freedom, Peace, Political Science, Terrorism
ISBN: 9781136157394
Google: RaR9lNWC_-wC
Goodreads: 17578147
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

6 Tajikistan

Introduction

The Tajik civil war lasted from 1992 to 1997, pitting forces initially aligned to previous Soviet governing elites (pro-establishment forces) against a coalition of opposition forces that mainly drew support from groups that had connections to two parts of the country – Gharm and the Pamir Mountains. The civil war was at its most intense in late 1992 before settling down into a low intensity conflict for five more years. The country was divided throughout with segmented zones of control, rival armed actors and cross border issues that make it similar in many respects to the other two cases studied. As discussed in Chapter 3, social-service providers enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in the delivery of services for much of the conflict, making this case a useful addition to the two previously examined conflicts.

This chapter will follow the pattern established in the previous two chapters, beginning with a “case within a case” that examines the impact of social services during the Tajik civil war. The case within a case selected relates to the experience of the isolated region of Gorno-Badakhshon, located in the remote east of the country. The chapter then explores the broader dynamics of social-service provision in the rest of Tajikistan, with a particular focus on areas where the fighting was most intense, including southern regions and neighboring areas of northern Afghanistan. This chapter differs from the other two cases in the extent to which insurgent efforts to exploit social-service systems were limited by the presence of other actors. As such it provides a useful study of ways in which insurgent appropriation of social services can be protected from insurgent greed while also contributing to conflict transformation.

The limits of insurgent exploitation: Gorno-Badakhshon

The remote eastern Pamir Mountains along the border with China and Afghanistan was first annexed by the Soviet Union to the territory of the Tajik autonomous region in 1925 under the name Gornyi (Mountainous) Badakhshon (Atkin 1997). Residents of this region (typically referred to as Pamiris) have been designated for statistical purposes as ethnically Tajik since the Soviet period, but can be distinguished from other Tajiks on linguistic and religious grounds. Pamiris, while speaking languages of Iranian origin, do not speak dialects of Tajik/Farsi/Dari as their first language. Instead, languages spoken in the Pamir region derive from distinct east Iranian roots. Pamiris also differ from the rest of the country because the majority are Ismaili rather than Sunni Muslims.

The story of Gorno-Badakhshon’s experience of the Tajik civil war begins with the capture of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, by pro-establishment forces at the end of 1992. This led groups considered to be sympathetic to opposition forces, including ethnic Pamiris (and others, particularly those from the Gharm region) to flee from the capital. Hiro (1994) estimates that approximately 200,000 Pamiris migrated to Gorno Badakhshon during late 1992 and early 1993 because of the fighting. This mass movement was relatively well organized (Akhmedov 1998) and left Pamiri military capacity intact.

Located in remote and mountainous regions of eastern

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