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Tajikistan at a Crossroad: the Politics of Decentralization

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Tajikistan at a Crossroad: the Politics of Decentralization .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 ................................................cimera publications Luigi De Martino TAJIKISTAN AT A CROSSROAD: .................................................................................................................THE POLITICS OF DECENTRALIZATION January 2004 SITUATION REPORT 4 2 .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... cimera SITUATION REPORT 4 .................................................................................................................................................... We would like to thank the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Political Division IV for its support and encouragement. We also would like to give special thanks to Dr. Parviz Moullajanov, Executive Director of the Public Committee for Democratic Processes in Dushanbe for his constant support and friendship. .................................................................................................................................................... The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of CIMERA. Design: David Hakobyan, Andrey Izmalkov Photo: «Camels of Ronkul,GBAO», Albert Longy Printed by Premier Ltd. Print House, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan C copyright by CIMERA. All rights reserved. ISBN: 2-9700358-9-8 Geneva January 2004 .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 CONTENT 3 Foreword 7 Current Local Government Policy Situation in Tajikistan 16 Tajikistan local self-governance: a potential bridge between government and civil society? 25 Regional government in Tajikistan (centre and regions) 32 Economic aspects of the interrelation between centre and regions in Tajikistan 46 Economic Relations between Centre and Regions: the Case of Sughd Province 85 Regionalism and its perception by major political and social powers of Tajikistan. 119 From Ambivalence to Ambiguity? Some Paradigms of Policy Making in Tajikistan 151 Tajikistan at a Crossroad: Contradictory Forces at the Heart of the Tajik Political System. 4 ...............................................................................................................................TAJIKISTAN AT A CROSSROAD: THE POLITICS OF DECENTRALIZATION ........................................................................... Foreword ....................................................................................................................................... Reflections from the Praxis Civilian Peace Operations) and in sations who are currently dealing with 2002 the Ministry supported the two such topics as intergovernmental re- In mid-2000, two Tajik non-Govern- Tajik organisations and CIMERA, a lations and local governance. The mental Organisations, the Tajik Cen- Swiss private organisation based in meetings were chaired by a senior tre for Citizenship Education (TCCE) Geneva, in developing a project personality within the Presidential Ad- and the Public Committee for Dem- aimed at providing an informal plat- ministration or the Government. ocratic Processes (PC) approached form for political discussion on the the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs Three meetings have been carried issue of centre-regions relations in with a project proposal. Active sup- out during the period December 02 Tajikistan. The present paper tries to porters of the Inter-Tajik Dialogue - March 03. After this date the prep- retrace and assess some of the ex- Process1 created the TCCE in 1997 arations of the June 22 constitutional periences within the framework of and the PC in 2000. As the official referendum have disrupted some of that project. negotiations moved ahead and final- the projects activities including the ly lead to a peace agreement in The project had foreseen to estab- expert meetings. 1997, the TCCE and the members lish three main interlinked discus- Parallel to the Expert meetings the of the Inter-Tajik dialogue felt that it sion platforms: Expert meetings in project has launched several research was not enough to support the Tajik Dushanbe, «Public» Discussion Fo- activities on topics related to region- peace process through unofficial di- rums in Dushanbe and the regions alism and local governance: plomacy. The leaders of the organ- and a Study Tour to Switzerland. isations identified as a main new chal- A study on fiscal and budget- Starting from December 02, the lenge the need to broaden support ary relations conducted by Dr. project has started inviting on a reg- for peace by including wider circles Avezov at the Khujand State ular basis up to 15 experts2 within of citizens and government officials University the Tajik administration, the legisla- into the process and to begin to ad- tive power and international organi- A study on the legal and in- dress the root causes of the conflict. stitutional frame of the rela- Since they considered that «region- 1 The Inter-Tajik Dialogue is a track-two nego- tions between central gov- alism» was one of the main causes tiation process, which accompanied the official ernment and regions con- of the conflict, they started to con- Tajik peace negotiations. Participants were mid- ducted by Mr. Zafar Aliev, duct a series of workshops on this level leaders from the two sides; many of them newly appointed Chairman of topic in different regions of the coun- now in high-level official functions. The process the Constitutional Court. try. was initiated by the Kettering Foundation (USA, Dayton) and the Russian Strategic Research A study on the perceptions This concern was shared by the Swiss Center, Moscow, in the framework of the Dart- of regionalism conducted by Federal Department of Foreign Af- mouth Conference. Dr. Saodat Olimova, of the fairs, Political Division IV (Support to 2 Experts: those currently part of the different Sharq Centre. government / parliamentary initiatives aimed at reforming the present situation regulating lev- els of government and local self-governance. ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................FOREWORD 5 A study on the economic re- rums, the project should have ad- phase out the project by end of lations of Soghd Oblast con- dressed relevant topics trough se- August 03, no forum has been car- ducted by Dr. Boymatov in ries of round tables first in Dushanbe ried out. Khudjand as a case study of and then in the regions. The imple- As for the last platform, the study the economic relations be- mentation of the PDF has suffered tour to Switzerland, the project tween centre and regions. delays from the original schedule signed a Memorandum of Under- (foreseen for February 03). The main A study on the political cul- standing with the Institute for Feder- responsible for the delay was the is- ture of Tajikistan conducted alism at the University of Fribourg sue of finding the right «political» by Dr. of the French CNRS (IF). IF would organize and imple- moment when to organize such and Marc Bloch University in ment the study tour for a Tajik dele- meetings is a cumbersome process Strasbourg. gation to Switzerland. The tour was in Tajikistan. The preparations of the originally scheduled for October The role of these papers was two- 22 June 03 constitutional referendum 2002 but then postponed to April fold: on one hand they would rep- have once more caused problems 03. Unfortunately, in March 03 the resent one of the elements for the for the implementation of the Tajik Government has decided a trav- preparation of the other projects project. Many of the officials at all el ban for all high-ranking officials un- initiatives and would also give im- levels were unavailable for meetings til the completion of the June 03 ref- portant information for understand- and / or other activities not related erendum. As a consequence, the tour ing what is the «margin of manoeu- to the referendum. could not be implemented before vre» for decentralisation in the coun- At the same period, other interna- the conclusion of the project in Au- try. On the other hand, the second tional organisations such as the UI gust 03. paper would provide important in- were sending international experts to sights on the perception that politi- This represented a major blow for Tajikistan to work with the govern- cal and regional leaders have of the the project since we were planning ment WG on local governance in issue of regionalism in the country. to use the occasion of the travel to order to speed up the drafting of During the course of the project we Switzerland to: the new legislation. have decided to increase the num- Enlarge the discussion start- ber of research papers in order also Due to this situation and while dis- ed with the Experts Meetings to better consider the fiscal and cussing an eventual extension of the to a more political group of economical as well as the political project, the donor requested not to interlocutors. dimension. start this line of activity until the ref- erendum in June 03 and a decision
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