DUSHANBE, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A senior member of a Tajik opposition party that fought a civil war against the government in the 1990s, has died in prison after a long illness, his colleagues said on Thursday.

The Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) said Shamsiddin Shamsiddinov, jailed in 2004, died of cancer on Wednesday.

The impoverished nation north of Afghanistan is still haunted by the 1992-97 war which pitted President Imomali Rakhmon's forces against an alliance of Islamists. More than 100,000 people died on both sides.

The IRP mended relations with the government after a 1997 peace accord but continued to criticise Rakhmon, who has ruled Tajikistan with an iron fist since 1992.

"He became ill while in prison but he could not get the necessary treatment despite all our appeals," said Khikmatullo Saifullozoda, a senior IRP official, of Shamsiddinov.

Justice and prison officials could not be reached for comment.

Shamsiddinov, deputy head of the IPR, was sentenced in 2004 for a host of violations including illegal border crossing and polygamy. The IRP said at the time the case was falsified and aimed at silencing the once-powerful party.

Tajikistan is a Muslim ex-Soviet country whose infrastructure and economy remain in tatters after the war. (Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Maria Golovnina)

AlertNet news is provided by