TAJIK SYNAGOGUE AND ORTHODOX CHURCH SUFFERS ANOTHER MOLOTOV

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 001720 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/18/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KIRF TI SUBJECT: TAJIK SYNAGOGUE AND ORTHODOX CHURCH SUFFERS ANOTHER MOLOTOV COCKTAIL ATTACK REF: DUSHANBE 1621 CLASSIFIED BY: Tracey Jacobson, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy Dushanbe, STATE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (U) Assailants threw Molotov cocktails onto the premises of the Jewish synagogue and Russian Orthodox Church September 14. The assailants and their motives are unknown but synagogue members verified that two young Tajik men ages 17-20 threw three Molotov cocktails into the synagogue. Two Molotov cocktails landed in the courtyard in the interior of the building and one outside the perimeter wall. Synagogue members quickly extinguished small fires from two of the bottles. A third bottle did not break. No one was injured. Synagogue members and the security guard hired after the Molotov cocktail attack two weeks ago (reftel) chased after the assailants, through the central park and past the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but could not catch them. ¶2. (SBU) Neighbors alerted police immediately and investigators arrived on the scene within five minutes. EmbOff witnessed mishandling of evidence as people were allowed to touch the glass bottles and contaminate the scene. When Poloff visited the synagogue September 15 for a meeting at an unannounced time, MOI officials were sitting in the center of the synagogue. They were not actively investigating the scene or talking to witnesses. Within five minutes after PolOff's arrival, an additional two MOI employees arrived. The MOI lingered by the door during PolOff's meeting with synagogue officials and within a few minutes of the conversation proceeded to sit in on the meeting. ¶3. (SBU) MOI officials claimed they are investigating the incident, but have no strong leads. In an effort to identify the attackers, they will ask synagogue members and neighborhood residents to point them out in a photo line-up. One MOI official did not even know about the previous synagogue attack (reftel) and officials said the MOI is investigating the two incidents separately with two different teams. PolOff pointed out that there is a strong likelihood the incidents are related and perhaps the teams should work together, but received no reply from the MOI officials at the scene. One of the broken bottles still lay by the outer wall and the MOI had not yet collected it. ¶4. (C) An MOI major said the government is treating this as a very politically sensitive case. He believes the attackers were acting on behalf of "foreign enemies" aiming to destabilize Tajikistan. Another MOI official said the attackers are probably allies of an ostracized Jewish community member out for revenge. The official stance at present is that simple hooligans were behind the attack. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church commented that he too believes the attackers are hooligans out to cause some trouble. No concrete evidence clearly indicates who the attackers are or their objective. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: Theories on the attackers' motives abound, from foreign agents angry over recent events in the Middle East to local Muslim youth carrying out anti-Semitic acts. One looming conflict is the government's long-term clash with the synagogue over the land dispute. Some say the government could be behind the attacks in an attempt to force the synagogue out or that someone within the government could be using the attacks to justify a greater clamp-down on terrorist or extremist activity. If the government truly deems the synagogue incidents politically important it will elevate the cases to the Ministry of Security level. It is even more unclear why the Russian Orthodox Church was a target. The Church does not have a DUSHANBE 00001720 002 OF 002 history of dispute with the government or local population. It is supported by wealthy Russians and is currently undergoing building renovations. The near simultaneous nature of these attacks indicates they were coordinated. ¶6. (C) The Molotov cocktail attacks cause concern for the safety of the religious institutions in Dushanbe and their members. The MOI's mishandling of evidence and apparent lack of enthusiasm to pursue the cases either due to incompetence or deliberate planning, is troublesome. It clearly shows that the MOI needs professional training in crime-scene investigation. END COMMENT. JACOBSON