#massacre_prisoners_Khujand

On the evening of November 7, 2018, the day after celebrating the Constitution Day, one of the bloodiest crimes took place in Tajikistan against the mankind.
In the CLC-3/3 of Khujand, mass execution of unarmed prisoners was committed by the OMON special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the “Alpha” group of the SCNS of Tajikistan.
As a result at least 53 prisoners were shot and 186 other prisoners were wounded.
Anonymous sources in state structures justify the mass execution of prisoners by the necessity of suppressing a prison riot, “pacifying” prisoners who attacked guards using the word “shootout”.
However, there is no information about the employees of the Ministry of Justice, OMON special forces and "Alpha" being wounded and shot with firearms. Unfortunately, as a result of beatings two employees of the colony died. Their relatives testify that they died from beatings by prisoners.
Therefore, it is nothing but the shooting of unarmed, mass extrajudicial execution, inadequate, unjustified and unacceptable excess of the use of force in a legal state.
Nevertheless, till today, 14th of November, official sources have not yet reported about what took place 7 days ago. Izatullo Sharipov, the head of the Department for the Execution of Criminal Sentences of the Ministry of Justice of Tajikistan, several days after the emergency told Radio Ozodi (the Tajik service of Radio Liberty) that he is in Dushanbe and is not aware of what took place.
The deputy head of the Centre for Strategic Studies under President Saifullo Safarov told Radio Ozodi that it is not worth to show that event on television, as it might cast a shadow over the launch of the first turbine of the Rogun hydropower plant.
A spokesman of Ministry of Internal Affairs said that he did not know about the shooting and noted that to pacify prison riots there are other adequate and effective ways.
In its turn, on the website of the Committee of Religious Affairs under the government an article was published justifying the mass executions. What the article says is that convicts have no right to life and are worthy of death.

We remind that Tajikistan joined the moratorium on the death penalty and joined the “Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” adopted by General Assembly resolution 39/46, which entered into force on June 26, 1987. However, torture and abuse of prisoners continues. It has become the norm in Tajik prisons. According to staff, it is committed with the encouragement and direction of Izatullo Sharipov. Surely, higher rank officials have knowledge about it.
The UN Human Rights Committee also pointed to the Tajik authorities the inadmissibility of torture and called for the release of illegally convicted political prisoners, mainly Mahmadali Haitov and Zayd Saidov. The International Red Cross and the OSCE were again denied inspection of places of detention and meetings with convicts.
According to independent sources with reference to the employees of the colony, the revolt on November 7, 2018 in CLC-3/3 in Khujand was provoked by the violation of the prisoners' rights, torture and harassment by guards. According to various sources, prisoners attacked the guard after one of the convicts had been stripped naked and taken out under a rain for several hours.
We demand the publication of a complete list of the dead and wounded. We want to know who gave the order to kill our citizens and is responsible for this crime against humanity.
We also demand that the General Prosecutor’s Office of Tajikistan initiate criminal proceedings:
1) on the fact of torture against convicted citizens in CLC-3/3, which provoked retaliatory violence;
2) upon the organization of a riot and intelligence services emlloyees' complicity, since the electricity was disconnected by non-detainees;
3) on the fact of abuse of official power by employees of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the SCNS
4) upon the fact of the massacre of convicted citizens, protected by the Constitution and the state for correction after the crimes committed and the crimes not committed by them;
5) and also on the fact of concealing a massacre.
We call on governments of democratic countries, international institutions, right-wing organizations to start investigating the fact of mass extrajudicial execution of prisoners in Tajikistan and to demand from the government of Tajikistan to create a Commission to investigate this heinous crime involving the Ombudsman, other authorities, as well as representatives of Tajik and international human rights organizations, relatives of dead and injured and the media. The Tajik authorities must give a full account of the reasons, circumstances, perpetrators and punishment for the mass execution of our fellow citizens.
We believe that democratic countries and international institutions that provide loans and grants for the improvement and reform of the penitentiary system, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the strengthening of the security forces, do not provide these means for strengthening the violation of civil rights, torture and mass executions in Tajikistan. Your silence will be perceived as encouraging violence, which carries a serious threat to our citizens and our country.
We want to live in a truly legal, democratic and secular state, where such a thing would be unacceptable and impossible.