The Movement “Reforms and Development of Tajikistan” expresses its resolute and uncompromising condemnation of the mass repressions, killings, and ethnic persecution carried out by the regime of Emomali Rahmon against the peaceful population of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) from May 2022 to the present day.
On May 18–19, 2022, under the pretext of an “anti-terrorist operation,” the security forces of Tajikistan conducted a large-scale punitive campaign against peaceful protesters in Khorog and Rushan. According to confirmed reports, at least 38 people were killed — many were shot on the spot, and some were tortured and killed after being detained. Three years have passed since these events, yet no independent or international investigation has been conducted to this day, despite numerous appeals by human rights defenders and the families of the victims.
However, the tragedy was not limited to those two days. From 2022 to 2025, the regime has conducted a planned and systematic campaign of terror against the Pamiri population:
• Over 500 individuals were unlawfully detained, subjected to torture, and sentenced to long prison terms in closed trials without access to lawyers or international monitoring.
• Dozens of human rights defenders, journalists, and members of the intelligentsia, including Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov and Ulfatkhanum Mammadshoeva, were sentenced on politically motivated charges to prison terms ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment.
• There were documented cases of infiltration by agents, abductions, and forced extraditions of activists from third countries, including Russia and Turkey — actions that violate international law and the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees.
All these actions bear the hallmarks of crimes against humanity, including extrajudicial executions, mass arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, ethnic persecution, and the destruction of the social and political identity of the Pamiri people.
Gorno-Badakhshan has become the “second Bucha” in the heart of Central Asia — a place where, under the guise of state rhetoric about the “fight against terrorism,” genuine terror was unleashed against peaceful civilians, comparable to the war crimes documented in Ukraine.
We emphasize: the crimes committed in GBAO are not an internal affair of Tajikistan. They are a threat to regional security, a systematic violation of international law, and a signal of impunity that undermines the foundations of legal order in Eurasia.
The inaction of the international community merely encourages further crimes. We demand justice for the victims, the release of all political prisoners, and an end to repressions against the residents of Badakhshan and other regions of the country.
In this regard, the Movement “Reforms and Development of Tajikistan” declares:
1. We demand that the international community — the UN, the European Union, the OSCE, human rights mechanisms, and democratic states — initiate an international investigation into the crimes of the Emomali Rahmon regime in GBAO.
2. We call for the imposition of personal sanctions against all representatives of the authorities and security forces involved in the killings, torture, abductions, and prosecution of peaceful Pamiri citizens.
3. We insist on the immediate release of all political prisoners and victims of ethnically motivated repressions.
4. We affirm: the Emomali Rahmon regime must be held accountable under international law. The impunity for these crimes will only lead to new acts of violence and destruction.
We will continue to fight for the truth, for the freedom of all prisoners of conscience, for an end to ethnic discrimination, and for a future in which no region of Tajikistan becomes the site of punitive operations.
May 19, 2025
Movement “Reforms and Development of Tajikistan”
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
