Cluster munition coalition

03 May 2010

Countdown to Entry into Force - Week 2: Tajikistan

Mahmad Khudoiev sustained severe damage to his right leg during a cluster bomb strike during the civil conflict in Tajikistan in 1993. His injuries became infected and his leg was amputated in 1995. Mahmad was eventually able to return to his job as a taxi driver after adapting his car to be controlled by hand. Photo credit: Alison LockeAlthough Tajikistan was one of the first countries in Central Asia to support the call for a prohibition on cluster munitions and participated in meetings to negotiate the Convention on Cluster Munitions, it has not yet signed the Convention or given a public explanation for not doing so.Tajikistan is not believed to use or produce cluster munitions. The Tajikistan Mine Action Centre has found ShOAB and AO-2.5RT submunitions in the town of Gharm in the Rasht Valley, which were used by unknown forces during the country’s civil war in the 1990s. Given this contamination, Tajikistan should benefit from the Convention’s provisions on international cooperation and assistance to communities affected by these weapons. The CMC urges Tajikistan to show solidarity with other affected states by joining this crucial humanitarian treaty to prevent future injuries and deaths from cluster munitions."By signing and ratifying the Convention, Tajikistan can give its citizens the clear message that the government has the greatest respect for cluster munition victims and that it wants to give them the support they need," said Umarbek Pulodov, a cluster munition survivor from Tajikistan.The CMC urges all countries to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions as soon as possible, to prevent further suffering from the horrors of cluster bombs, and encourages widespread state participation in the upcoming First Meeting of States Parties, to be hosted in Vientiane, Lao PDR from 8-12 November 2010.??Download letters urging the Government of Tajikistan to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions:???

  • CMC letter to the President of the Republic of Tajikistan - May 2010
  • Template letter to the President of the Republic of Tajikistan - 1 May 2010
For more information on cluster munitions in the Republic of Tajikistan, please visit:
  • Tajikistan chapter in the May 2009 report, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice
  • Tajikistan chapter in Landmine Monitor 2009
  • "Tackling Tajikistan’s Cluster Bombs" (June 2007 BBC story)
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