A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

308 A history of Inner Asia
as the leading Islamic cleric, however.The Tajik intelligentsia – like that
of the other Central Asian republics – turned out to be basically secular,
and suspicious of the implications of an organized Islamic intervention
in culture and politics.The international community, from Tashkent to
Moscow to Washington, was no less wary, and has become ever more so
since the victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan.The qozi himself endeavored
to allay any fears, but could not quite escape the contradictions
inherent in his cause.Although he paid homage to all the ideals of a
democratic state, he did not distance himself from the idea of an eventual
“Islamic Republic of Tajikistan.” This placed him at loggerheads
with secular nationalists no less than with nervous officials in the US
State Department, a situation that has been adroitly exploited by the
resilient post-Soviet Communist establishment headed by Imamali
Rakhmanov, now President of the republic.This paradox has been illustrated
by the following poignant incident: when in June 1996 a conference
sponsored by private civil rights groups convened in Washington,
D.C., Turajonzoda was invited as one of the star guests. The Tajik qozi,
however, was refused a visa.He by then resided primarily in Tehran as
a member of the far-flung diaspora of Tajik opposition leaders, some
there, some in Moscow, some in the West.Meanwhile unrest oscillating
between guerrilla ambushes to civil war continued to rage in Tajikistan.
With none of the adversaries able to prevail by force, negotiations
between the government and the opposition whose parties and factions
ultimately organized themselves in a common front called “United Tajik
Opposition” and led by another cleric, Said Abdullo Nuri (seconded by
Turajonzoda as deputy leader), have finally come to a successful conclusion.Brokered
by well-meaning outsiders and held in such capitals as
Tehran, Moscow, or Islamabad, they were crowned with success on 27
June 1997, when in Moscow the Tajik President Imamali Rakhmanov
and the United Tajik Opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri signed the
so-called Peace and National Reconciliation Accord.
In Uzbekistan, the most pressing problem may be the aformentioned
environmental crisis.If Karimov and his presidential neighbors are right
and their authoritarian rule will provide the necessary framework for the
so desperately needed economic recovery and ecological salvation of
Central Asia, history’s verdict may yet concede them an honorable
place.In order to succeed, however, they will need more than just a
greater dose of personal integrity and law and order in the land.A whole
infrastructure of efficient and reasonably honest officials, managers,
engineeers, bankers, businessmen, entrepreneurs, agriculturalists, and