Tajik students are continuing to protest the presence of Tajik opposition and rights activists at the OSCE conference on human rights in Warsaw.

Today is the third day since pro-government university students in Tajikistan have carried out actions of protest against the presence of Tajik opposition and rights activists at the Warsaw conference.

As it had been reported earlier, about 50 representatives of the Tajik youth organization “Avangard” (Vanguard) gathered outside the building of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan on September 21 demanding response to their letter to the OSCE.

“In the letter that was sent to the OSCE on September 20, we expressed perplexity how supporters of the banned Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and Group 24 managed to enter the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw without difficulty,” one of “Avangard” leaders, Asliddin Khoushvakhtov, told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

Acting Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, Fabio Piana, received representatives of the Avangard organization.

He noted that their letter had been translated and sent to the OSCE Headquarters. 

Established in August 2015, the “Avangard” organization is tasked with preventing the spread of extremism ideas among the youth.      

On September 22, representatives of the “Avangard” carried out similar action in front of Tajik Teachers’ Training University in Dushanbe.

On the same day, students at the Teachers’ Training Institute in the Rasht district (eastern Tajikistan) supported them releasing a statement about the OSCE policy toward Tajikistan. 

On September 23, about 400 pro-government students gathered in conference hall of Tajik Medical University to protest the presence of Tajik opposition and rights activists at the OSCE conference on human rights in Warsaw.

On the same dame, similar action of protest took place at Tajik Technical University in Dushanbe. 

Recall that some 20 Tajik opposition and rights activists residing in Europe on September 19 entered the OSCE conference in Warsaw when the human rights situation in Tajikistan was being discussed.  They held a silent protest.  The protesters wore T-shirts with portraits of Tajik opposition politicians and lawyers who were jailed in the country in recent months.  Human rights groups have called the cases politically motivated.

The OSCE conference opened September 19 and ends on September 29.