Newsletter No. 1401
News-Analysis
July 4, 2009

 

The following newsletter has been contributed by Christopher Len (Shingetsu Member No. 82), who is the Coordinator of our Central Asia Contact Group. Len is based at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), Stockholm, Sweden.

TOKYO PROVIDES FUNDS FOR DEMINING IN TAJIKISTAN

In March, Japan contributed US$336,000 for demining operations in the Rushan district, Gorno Badakhshan, Tajikistan. According to Japan’s embassy in Dushanbe, the grant agreement was signed with the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) on March 13th. The Rushan Demining Operation Project will last nine months starting in spring, in the village of Vaznavd. Some 718,000 square meters of land will be cleared under the project.

The project includes the organization of a mission for instructing combat engineers in operating new advanced demining equipment. There is also be a campaign to raise awareness of mines and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) by teaching local people in affected areas some rules of safe conduct.

The mine-strewn areas in Tajikistan are a legacy of the country’s disastrous five-year civil war which ended in 1997. Additional mines were later laid along the Tajik-Uzbek border unilaterally by Uzbekistan in 2000, reportedly to stave off incursions by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) from Tajik territory. Over six hundred Tajik civilians have become victims of mine explosions since the 1990s. Demining teams have cleared more than 1.5 million square meters of land so far and they have to clear another twenty million square meters.

Tajikistan signed the Convention on the Prohibition on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction (the Ottawa Convention) in 2000. All signatory states undertook to ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel land mines they possess as soon as possible, but no later than ten years after signing the convention. In the case of Tajikistan, this means that the country is supposed to be mine-free by 2010.

NEWS BRIEFS

Dousti-Nizhny-Pyandzh Road Building: The second installment of aid worth US$14.7 million for the road-building project called “Project for the Improvement of Dousti-Nizhny-Pyandzh Road” was signed in Tajikistan on January 14th. Reconstruction of the Dousti-Nizhny-Pyandzh (23.7 km), which borders Afghanistan, is being implemented in two phases. The first phase during which 8.3 km of road were renovated has been completed. This aid project has been noted in Shingetsu Newsletter Nos. 841 and 1097.

Grant to Tajikistan Sciences Academy: Central Asian News Service reported on January 21st that Japan allocated US$88,000 to increase the storage capacity of exhibits at the Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography of the Tajikistan Sciences Academy. The fund was allocated as grant assistance. Back in 2003, Japan allocated nearly US$460,000 to purchase technical equipment for the National Museum of Antiquities, which stores more than 100,000 archaeological artifacts. Among the most valuable exhibits of the museum are findings from the Adzhina-Teppa Buddhist monastery, the most famous of which is the thirteen-meter statue “Nirvana Stone Buddha,” which dates from the 7th–8th century AD.

Karate Federation in Tajikistan: On March 12th, the Charge D’Affaires of the Japanese Embassy in Tajikistan Yoshihiro Nakayama and the President of the Shotokan Karate-do Federation in Tajikistan Boboali Tabarov signed a contract on grant assistance to a small-scale cultural project called “Improvement of Sports Equipment and Renovation of the Shotokan Karate-do Federation Facility,” providing US$78,684 to the project. The grant covers the purchase of sports equipment and partial costs for the renovation of the sport facility, including the roof. The sports complex “Samandar XXI” will also bear part of the cost for the renovation. After the renovation, the Samandar XXI sports complex will become the best-equipped sports facility in the Gissar Valley, suitable for major sporting events.

Japanese Concert in Dushanbe: The Japanese group “Tsuru to Kame” visited Dushanbe on June 20th-21st to hold a concert in the Tajik State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. The Tsuru to Kame concert was devoted to fifth anniversary of the “Central Asia Plus Japan” dialog. Tsuru to Kame is a unique group which performs folk songs using shamisen (the Japanese national three-stringed plucked instrument) and taiko (Japanese drums).