Yesterday, the United Nations Tajikistan Office of Peace-Building (UNTOP) lowered its flags and closed the doors after a ten-year presence in the republic. The UNTOP mission began in 2000, after the UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan monitored the cease-fire of the Civil War from 1996 to 2000.
It has been a decade since the end of the Tajikistan Civil War, and peace has been restored. Unlike many peace-keeping missions, Tajikistan has done much to re-unify the country, and this can be viewed as a great accomplishment.
Some of the vestiges of the war, however, remain.
The war put Tajikistan six-to-ten years behind the rest of Central Asia in terms of energy toward building new economic institutions. Violence also destroyed much of the existing infrastructure from which to build these new institutions. It looks like Tajikistan is moving forward from those problems and making progress: just check all the posts here under Tajikistan for great examples, or go to the ADB web site, or to NewEurasia.net-Tajikistan.
But one set of remainders still require international concern: there are still old weapons of the Civil War lying around and causing more casualties. In 2004, IRIN news reported that at least 330 people have been injured by extant land-mines. De-mining operations need to be completed.
Far more difficult, the removal of cluster bomb shells, which still threaten people in predominantly rural areas. Cluster bomb shells are round and somewhat attractive to curious children, many who are still being injured when they find one of these shells. Unlike landmines, which are planted with some forethought and stay where they’re put, cluster bomb shells spread widely and unpredictably through an area.
Further Reading:
Landmine Monitor Report, 2006 from the International Committee to Ban Landmines
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