What does UTO stand for?

It included former members of the United Tajik Opposition coming from Isfara.

In June 1997, the signing of the historic General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord between the rival factions of President Emamoli Rakhmonov and United Tajik Opposition (UTO) leader Said Abdullo Nuri put an end to the five-year-long civil war and laid the foundations for peace.

The men, who all belong to the ex-Soviet republic's official Islamic United Tajik Opposition (UTO) party, were convicted of murdering workers from Poland, Uruguay, Japan, and a Tajik interpreter.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 9 June, in a meeting with President Emomali Rakhmonov of Tajikistan at Headquarters, expressed serious concern at the recent decision of the Tajik Parliament to adopt an act which would effectively prohibit the Islamic Revival Party - the largest component of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) - from participation in the political life of the country, which would remove one of the main pillars of the General Peace Agreement - the legalization of banned political parties following the public declaration by the UTO of the disbandment of its armed forces.

The Security Council on 14 March extended the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) until 15 June 1997, subject to the proviso that the 1994 Tehran Agreement remained in force and the parties - the Government of Tajikistan and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) - demonstrated their commitment to the new agreements already reached.

An agreement to establish a Commission on National Reconciliation for the period of 12 to 18 months - within which the inter-Tajik talks and the implementation of the agreements reached during them must be completed - marked the 23 December 1996 Moscow meeting between President Emomali Rakhmonov of Tajikistan and the leader of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), Abdullo Nuri.