Tajikistan: With the start of the conscription campaign, human rights defenders again receive complaints about raids
In Tajikistan, 10 days have passed since the start of the spring conscription campaign, but human rights activists are already receiving complaints about the so-called raids – the illegal practice of forcibly bringing young people of military age to the military registration and enlistment office, from where, after completing some formalities, they are sent to military units.
Employees of the military registration and enlistment offices watch for the guys everywhere – at their place of residence, illegally breaking into houses and apartments; in public transport; near universities; and more recently near airports, as the labor migration season has begun and many young people fly to work in Russia.
The last such incident happened just a few days ago. A young man, who arrived at the airport of Dushanbe with luggage, was detained in broad daylight and pushed into a car, despite the fact that he shouted that he had already served in the army. A passer-by filmed the scene and posted it on social networks.
According to Dilrabo Samadova (Director of the NGO “Office of civil liberties”, which protects the rights of conscripts and military personnel), since the beginning of the spring conscription campaign they have received two complaints about the raids, and they are also studying 5 videos given to them, which show the facts of raids in various regions of the country.
Human rights activists note that young people are reluctant to serve in the army because of the rampant hazing. These humiliations, when old-timers practice their rituals of initiation into soldiers for new recruits, and beatings sometimes lead to the fact that a person remains permanently crippled or parents receive a coffin with the body of their son. For the period 2014-2019, the Office of civil liberties counted dozens of cases of bullying of recruits, including ten deaths of young soldiers as a result of hazing.
The authorities deny both the practice of raids and hazing in the army.
