RECENT VIOLENCE AND ECONOMIC WOES SEND TAJIKS

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 003628

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/15/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR SOCI RS TI
SUBJECT: RECENT VIOLENCE AND ECONOMIC WOES SEND TAJIKS
PACKING IN DROVES

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Alice G. Wells; reason 1.4
(d)


1. (SBU) Summary: The recent murder and decapitation near
Moscow of an ethnic Tajik guest worker has added to the
insecurity among the ethnic Tajik community whose low-wage,
low-skill jobs have been the first casualties of the economic
downturn here. The leader of an NGO assisting the Tajik
community told us the number of Tajiks heading home has
increased and she expected a greater number of attacks on
this vulnerable group community in the coming months. End
Summary.


2. (SBU) An obscure nationalist group has claimed
responsibility for the December 5 murder and beheading of a
20-year old Tajik guest-worker whose head was subsequently
discovered December 10 in a dumpster near a metro station in
western Moscow. Assailants attacked the victim, identified
by the Kommersant newspaper as Salekh Azizov, as he and a
co-worker left their jobs at a food warehouse in the town of
Vidnoye south of Moscow. The co-worker escaped, but was
later hospitalized with injuries. A group calling itself the
Militant Organization of Russian Nationals sent e-mails with
a photograph of the victim's severed head to the Sova Center
and the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, two Russian
organizations that deal primarily with xenophobia and
ultra-nationalist violence against ethnic minorities.
According to a representative from Sova, the daily
Komsomolskaya Pravda also received the e-mail. There has
been little television coverage of the attack and its
gruesome aftermath, although some newspapers and the
independent radio Ekho-Moskviy have carried it.


3. (C) Ghokaev Zhurayeva, head of the NGO Tajikistan
Foundation told us on December 12 that the number of Tajiks
leaving Russia to go home is increasing and she does not
expect them to return. Zhurayeva, whose husband once ran for
president of Tajikistan, and the organization she heads
handles a 24/7 hotline for the Tajik community. Most of her
work focuses on labor migration issues, including
documentation problems and attacks on migrant workers from
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova. She also
warned that she expects the number of attacks and
ultra-nationalism/extremism in general to increase in the
coming months due to the worsening Russian economy. She said
that all reserved seats on trains leaving Moscow for
Tajikistan are fully booked through the end of December.

Comment
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4. (C) Zhurayeva and other mainstream human rights activists
with whom we spoke had never heard of the group that has
claimed responsibility for the murder. We will continue to
monitor this group and Russian law enforcement's
investigation of this crime.
BEYRLE