Shannon is reporting on the departure of Tajik sportsmen to Beijing.

Judging by the deserted stands at the Tajikistan/Turkmenistan football match in the AFC Challenge Cup opening round, all eyes are already focused on the Beijing Olympics as the ultimate sporting and political event of the year. As with many other delegations, the Tajik Olympic team left for Beijing today.

Neweurasia is doubting that Tajik sportsmen can win any medal.

They are financed on leftovers by Sports Committee of Tajikistan and National Olympic Committee. I saw with my own eyes in what terrible conditions they got trained and prepared for the games. I can say for sure that their results are not on international level. Most probably they will bring no medals with them. But this is not their fault. Both of the committees allocated very little resources. Most of the sportsmen received invitation for participation in the Olympic Games very late and had not time for preparations.

Firuz revises an article in Financial Times and reports in Tajik about the bad ecological situation in Beijing and what the government is doing to manage the situation [tj].

According to Financial Times, despite the allocation of billions of dollars for improvement of ecological situation in Beijing, the results are barely seen. Even after removing almost 50 per cent of cars from the center of the city, the amount of exhaust fumes in the air is not decreasing.

But the Olympics is not only about games and entertainment it is also about the national security of China. Tterrorist attack before the Games was conducted near the border with Tajikistan. And according to some sources, the attackers were Tajik nationals. Certainly this does give a credit to Tajikistan at all.

Shannon reports on that.

News is beginning to spread of an attack in Kashgar, Xinjiang province of China that resulted in the deaths of 16 Chinese Border patrol officers. Some sources are reporting that the two attackers crossed over from Tajikistan, but the NYT and AFP aren’t yet making that assumption. The AP on the other hand identifies the men as Uighurs and ambiguously refers to their origin as “across the border.”

Also posted on neweurasia.net

Everybody is interested in getting information about this story. Tojvar says that Hasan is the most popular person in Tajiksitan [tj]:

Thousands of people everyday are looking for news about him and discuss his possible murder. Several media outlets are having ready articles with different opinions and various further scenarios, all counting the days when the rumors come true or false.

Ian at Beyond the River links the story of Hasan to his business, with the most lucrative part of it being Talco, the aluminum smelter factory:

RFE/RL quotes some loyal employees who claim that they saw him “just a half-hour ago” and that “thank god, he is in good health.” However, there’s no public sign of him and he didn’t accompany Rahmon to Kazakhstan, nor did Rahmon attend the Victory Day parade this year for the first time ever.

In another post Ian continues watching this story by translating excerpts of a post from from Tajik-language Andesha, and tries to show what kind of conversations might take place around kitchen tables all over Tajikistan:

I don’t believe these stories, but I have a few questions. Why didn’t Rahmon attend the May 9 celebration for the first time in history of our independent country. Why didn’t Hassan Sadullayev travel to Kazakhstan with Rahmon? Why is the state not trying to disprove the rumors by showing the healthy body of Sadullayev to the people?”

Srasov, a journalist from Kazakhstan reports [ru] in his blog that the news about possible murder of Hasan might be “fake” to discredit the visit of Rahmon to Kazakhstan.

As I was assured in the Embassy of Tajikistan [to Kazakhstan] it was a false information, disseminated on the Internet by the “enemies of the president” aiming to undermine his reputation. It has no relation to reality, they said.

neweurasia also says that most probably it was a “fake” aimed to destabilize political situation in the country. The author does not have clear evidences, but relies upon the discussions he had with his friends and colleagues.

I hope that Hasan is alive, because the death of such person does not remain without consequences. I think that this information was disseminated against the information about Talco and the legal fees for the proceedings in order to destabilize the political situation in the country. Since Hasan is one of the main actors in this process, the story about his death would be an excellent accelerator in political destabilization.

If the gossip comes out to be false, it would be the “top lie of the year”, cited by all media outlets in Tajikistan.

Also posted on neweurasia

Registan earlier linked to the article of John Helmer about this trial.

The High Court in London is considering a trial this year of claims to money, estimated to be as high as US$500 million per year, disappearing from the Tajikistan Aluminium Plant (TadAz, Talco), whose principal trading partner is Hydro Aluminium, the state-controlled Norwegian aluminum producer.

Then Joshua Foust goes on and comments on it.

In essence, several hundred million dollars are missing, possibly moved through Caribbean front companies, and everyone is suing or has sued everyone else to find out what really happened.

Ian at Beyond the River links to an article in Asia Times.

Herbert Smith, one of the largest-billing of British law firms, has been forced to reveal this month in the High Court in London that it is charging the Tajikistan government more than US$100 million for a three-year court claim ordered by Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov (Rahmon). Rahmon’s targets are a group of aluminum traders and managers, now based in London, who were ousted from the Tajikistan Aluminum Plant (TadAZ, Talco) after getting too close to the president’s interest in Tajikistan’s principal industry.

According to Ian,

This all has a lot to do with a) the best natural resource Tajikistan has, aluminum; and b) the deal between RusAL, the Russian aluminum company, and the Tajik government to build a new aluminum plant as well as to complete the Rogun Hydroelectic Dam. That dam that the Tajik government is now begging for private donations for.

Indeed, this trial astonishes everyone who sees the amount of legal fees and compares them to the GDP of Tajikistan. It exceeds more than ten times the amount that the mayor of Dushanbe wants to raise from the Tajik capital residents for construction of Rogun dam, which may give Tajikistan sufficient electricity supplies.

Tojvar is wondering [tj] where our officials are going to take this money from:

Seems like we need to slaughter all our horses, cows and sheeps to raise money, which will not be enough to cover even half of the fees. Now I’m wondering to what extent these officials are shameless that [they spend so much money for legal fees] and put their arms in pockets of poor people to get money for construction of Rogun. What should the poor people do?

The Tajik aluminum could be a great source of funneling money to the budget and get the country out of the severe economic crisis. Last year Talco reported on its profit, and it is quite huge. However, Central Asia thinks that corruption will minimize the profit, which will make no difference for the country.

It’s great to hear that Tajikistan has a commodity that could fund some serious domestic development, but, unfortunately, corruption and switched contracts are turning this potential cash cow into mincemeat. Talco continues to default on loans and contracts, and Tajikistan has asked the international community to forgive the debts–with a USD 1.2 billion annual income, it’s kind of hard to see why Talco can’t pay.

Tajikistan has enough resources, but endemic corruption makes revenue from these resources fill the pockets of only few people. If we could use our resources rationally, we could have already built both Sangtuda-1, 2, Rogun and many other vitally necessary energy projects, which would help us to have independent electricity and heating supply.

Finally, Ian at Beyond the River makes an excellent roundup about this trial and reports on the murder of one of the major persons involved in it.

Also posted on neweurasia.