Tajikistan: returning home from Gorno-Badakhshan
13-09-1995 News Release 37
In Tajikistan, 3,000 displaced persons have returned to their homes from the semi-autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan as a result of a government operation that began in March 1995. To facilitate their return and reintegration, the ICRC worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration to set up three temporary shelters along the road between Khorog, in Gorno-Badakhshan, and the Tajik capital Dushanbe. The operation was repeatedly delayed by precarious security conditions and bad weather in which mountain passes were closed by heavy snowfalls.
Tens of thousands of people fled the civil war in late 1992 and headed for the Garm valley, Gorno-Badakhshan and Afghanistan. Since 1993, the ICRC has been assisting displaced persons returning to their homes.
The ICRC is still hoping that the agreements reached under UN auspices in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in May 1995 will be implemented. These agreements mainly provide for the simultaneous release of persons detained in connection with the conflict, a measure that would serve to restore confidence between the parties concerned.