Punches Thrown As Tajik Officials, Activists Scuffle In Poland

There were violent scenes on the sidelines of an OSCE rights conference in Warsaw on September 11 after a scuffle broke out between Tajik opposition activists and government officials. The altercation started after one of the activists gave a poster reading "Free Political Prisoners" to Ayomiddin Sattorov, a former member of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party turned pro-government cleric, who was attending the event. When one of Sattorov's entourage snatched the paper away, words were exchanged before another Tajik official threw a punch at the activist, sparking a confrontation that had to be broken up by security staff. Polish police are investigating the incident.