Tajik President Creates Opposition-Free Government

Mahmadtohir Zokirov will head the newly created Emergency Situations and Civil Defense Committee that replaces the Emergency Situations Ministry Rakhmonov abolished on November 30.

Emergency Situations Minister Mirzo Ziyoev, the last remaining opposition representative in the postwar government, has not been assigned to another job.

Two other members of the Islamic coalition that had been holding government posts since the end of the 1992-97 conflict have also lost their jobs.

Those are Zokir Vazirov, whose labor and social-security portfolio was transferred to the Interior Ministry, and Industry Minister Zayd Saidov, whose administration was merged with the Energy Ministry.

Rakhmonov won a new, seven-year term on November 6, following a vote that international organizations say failed to meet democratic standards. He has been ruling Tajikistan since 1992.

(Asia-Plus, Avesta)