SENIOR TAJIK OFFICIAL ASSASSINATED.

Tajik Socialist Party leader Safarali Kenjaev was assassinated yesterday in broad daylight in the capital city of Dushanbe. At least one of his bodyguards was also killed by the unidentified gunmen, who absconded without difficulty. The attack conformed to a pattern which highlights the ineffectiveness of government security forces in the capital itself, not to mention the provinces. Kenjaev, 57, had since 1991 held successively the posts of chairman of parliament, chairman of the State Security Committee (KGB), and–until his death yesterday–chairman of the parliament’s committee for legislation and human rights (Itar-Tass, March 30). The progression from KGB chief to parliamentary human rights overseer seems to have been considered an unobjectionable career path in President Imomali Rahmonov’s regime.

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