Dear Crit-geographers,
I am emailing you with an urgent request for assistance over a UK- and Canada-linked researcher in grave danger.
Alexander Sodiqov, a Tajik national doing a political science PhD out of Toronto and working with a UK group of geographers and political scientists (at Newcastle and Exeter Universities) has been arrested in Tajikistan whilst interviewing a civil society activist. He has apparently been accused of espionage and treason, and is being held incommunicado, his family not having been given access to him. Alexander was researching conflict handling mechanisms in Central Asia in a large ESRC-funded project. Other researchers unconnected to the project have been harassed in relation to this. The claims against Alexander are baseless, and we suspect that this action is more about internal power games in Tajikistan and sending a warning message to the UK diplomatic mission in the country, which has been vocal in raising concerns about human rights.
This arrest is thus a serious attack on academic freedom, as well being a terrible violation of the human rights of a young husband, father and citizen of Tajikistan, who has been advancing the cause of science and peace.
Working closely with Alexander's family and with human rights defenders in Tajikistan, we are running a campaign for his release. As part of our strategy, we believe that it will send an important message if scholars from around the world express their solidarity with Alexander and let the Tajik government know of our concerns.
Therefore please sign the petition below:
http://scholarsforsodiqov.blogspot.co.uk/
The Tajik government is aware of this petition, which forms one part of a multi-facetted approach to this issue.
If you are UK-based and would like to offer more help, then we are asking groups of academics to write to petition their university constituency MPs to ask William Hague, the foreign secretary, to raise the issue with the Tajik foreign minister who will be visiting Westminster next week (July 2nd). This will take more time - but if you'd like to do it, please see the sample at: http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/excas/2014/06/24/write-to-your-mp-about-alexander-sodiqov/ (NB one sentence is incomplete: it should read 'treason under article 305 of the Tajik criminal code is punishable by a maximum 20 year jail sentence.' Please let me know ([log in to unmask]) if you have done this.
Many thanks for your help,
Peace - Nick Megoran.
-
Dr Nick Megoran,
Lecturer in Political Geography,
GPS Office, 5th Floor, Claremont Tower, School of Geography, Politics
and Sociology,
Newcastle University,
United Kingdom NE1 7RU.
Tel: +44 191 222 6450
url: www.megoran.org
"In our time of wars, of national self-conceit, of national jealousies
and hatreds ably nourished by people who pursue their own egotistic,
personal or class interests, geography must be - in so far as the
school may do anything to counterbalance hostile influences - a means
of dissipating these prejudices and of creating other feelings more
worthy of humanity." Peter Kropotkin, 'What geography ought to be', 1885.
|