The ruling Kulabis are reliant on Russian funding, and the resurrection of an Islamic mosque suggests the Islamists are yet again establishing a strong hold. A bus rumbles through the shimmering heat to a Russian checkpoint. Behind it, 1300 miles of barbed wire mark Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan. The bus contains anxious Garmis returning home from Afghan refugee camps. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were driven out by a vicious civil war between their own Islamic forces and the Soviet backed Kulabis. They now return, fearing reprisals from a new Kulabi government, but hoping after 4 years to resume normal life. In the south where the worst fighting took Place, villages are full of bombed out buildings and weary widows crouching in the dust. Starving hungry, they wait patiently for flour from the World Food Programme to be weighed out on antique scales and distributed. In the capital, Dushanbe, the Prime Minister claims stiffly that the economy is not collapsing and that "in the very near future we will be able to pay salaries". With Russia's financial support, Kulabis cling onto power, stationing their khaki tanks on every tree lined avenue. But the careful restoration of a blue mosaic mosque represents an Islamic renaissance. If Russia pulls out, Garmis in exile may storm the capital and transform Tajikistan into an Islamic state. Report on the aftermath of civil war and the suppression of ethnic/political differences. Includes archive footage of the civil war.

Produced by ABC Australia