July 22, 2004

Highway robbery

Pamir Tales - Part 6

Khorog - Dushanbe, Tajikistan

After three hours sleep we're awoken at 7am by the hospitable owners blasting Tajik techno from a crappy boom-box, whilst simultaneously putting on the TV at a comfortably distorted volume. As we have breakfast one of the group asks them to turn the TV down a little, which the old man does. Then, a few minutes later, he thinks better of it and turns it right back up again.

And so we wake.

We head off again at eight o'clock. The scenery is not as dramatic now, more rolling hills. We pass a number of wrecked tanks. Remnants of the civil war in 1999. The whole region that I've just passed through wanted to separate from the rest of Tajikistan. They actually have more cultural affinity with Afghanistan. But, despite the area being mostly inhospitable desert the Tajik government was not in favour and war raged for several years. Things are pretty quiet now though. The ever present patrols seem more interested in drug smuggling than separatists.

The day passed mostly uneventfully. The military patrols were replaced by simple police checkpoints. At these the objective is not to check for drugs or terrorists, but just to shake down each driver for a couple of somoni (about $1). It's so commonplace as to be routine. The police stand on the side of the road and flag down the passing vehicle to stop. Commercial drivers such as taxis and minibuses are the most common targets. The driver fumbles around for some cash and his documents and gets out, placing the cash in his right hand. He shakes hands with the police officer, exchanging the money, who then makes some cursory inspection of the drivers licence. The officer makes a joke and the driver laughs. They're good buddies, so the officer thinks. After five minutes the driver gets back in the car and drives on, cursing the police.

Half-an-hour later this all happens again.

I've asked a couple of people what they think of this. Police openly extorting money on the side of the road. Literally highway robbery. Generally they just shrug their shoulders. It's just the way it is, they say. I would hate to live in a country where you feel so helpless to change something so clearly wrong.

We finally reach Dushanbe at about four in the afternoon. 26 hours after leaving Khorog. One of my fellow passengers, Serif, offers to help me find a hotel, Dushanbe being notoriously expensive. However the place he had in mind has inexplicably just jacked it's prices up from $5 a night to $20. Too much.

He asks a couple of friends to check some places they know while we sit down in a cafe for a well-earned beer. In the end no success on the hotel front but one of his friends offers that I can stay at his place. Serif even pays for the beer. What nice people.

Posted by David at July 22, 2004 04:38 PM