The following is a brief roundup of recent notable events in Tajikistan.

French Jet Fighters

Like India and Russia, France has a military presence in Tajikistan, and is redeploying three Mirage fighters for about three months. An RIA Novosti article stipulates that the French embassy did not give a reason for this deployment, but another article says that they will be used against the Taliban.

France was the only country beside the US to have flown bombing missions over Afghanistan in direct support of American troops. The Taliban remain a scourge in neighboring Afghanistan, and according to some reports the ex-government is on the rise, so no wonder coalition forces seem to be preparing a new offensive.

Working with China

Continuing with the theme of Tajikistan doing a marvelous job of being everybody’s best friend, China and Tajikistan have agreed “to intensify cooperation in fighting the ‘three evil forces’ of terrorism, separatism and extremism.” This rhetoric suits both countries quite well, albiet for somewhat different reasons.

Opposition Parties Unite (or not)

The Tajik opposition can not seem to get along; attempts to forge a coalition platform already seem to be failing. Practically, this does not really make much of a difference as President Rakhmanov has already made it clear that the poll will not be fair. However, a united opposition could have at least made him get creative to justify his victory to the outside world.

Few observers believe there is much chance that Rahmonov will be defeated, but most opposition parties want to make a point by offering voters a credible political agenda.

On the other hand, the opposition parties that would have had to unite include: the Communist Rebirth Party, the Islamic Rebirth Party, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan, and the Socialist Party. The last two have agreed to the suggested coalition.

Many of these minor parties are a bit extreme in ideology, and it would take a pretty creative platform to unify them. They would have little in common except their opposition to the status quo, and in the case of the communists even that much is not completely true.

“All parties except for the ruling one are currently in deep crisis, and there is only one real candidate, the incumbent president,” said Mamadazimov.

“I am sure that the [opposition] parties taken together will not win even 10 per cent of the vote, while the PDPT will get 65 to 70 per cent even if the executive authorities do not intervene [to back the Rahmonov campaign]. And since they definitely will be intervene, their vote will rise as high as 90 per cent.”

Incursion

Tajikistan is increasing its border guards along the Kyrgyz frontier. Last Friday, an unknown armed group of militants raided border posts. Some of them were rounded up and “destroyed,” but for some reason it remains unknown who they were exactly. Because some of them did escape, Tajikistan is increasing its military presence along the border.