ajik Interior Ministry agencies have announced the arrest of another five members of the banned [Uzbek Islamic] Hezb-e Tahrir party. It should be said that this party has been stepping up its activities in the Central Asian countries, particularly in Uzbekistan and in certain Districts of Tajikistan lately.

Uzbekistan is known as the major centre of Hezb-e Tahrir in Central Asia. Tajik security agencies have detained over 100 members of Hezb-e Tahrir in the past year. Members of the party have been active in the north of Tajikistan, in the areas bordering on Uzbekistan, in Dushanbe (the capital of Tajikistan) and in western Districts of the country.

Most Hezb-e Tahrir members in Tajikistan are ethnic Uzbeks residing in Tajikistan. (Iranian radio from Mashhad, November 16)

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resident Islam Karimov met a visiting special assistant to the Japanese foreign minister, Sumio Edamura, at the Oqsaroy presidential residence on Wednesday.

Giving a sincere welcome to Mr Sumio Edamura, our president said that he was pleased with his visit to our country and that he highly rated the contribution Sumio Edamura had been making to cooperation between the two countries since Uzbekistan's independence.

Expressing his sincere gratitude for the reception, the special assistant to the Japanese foreign minister said that the aim of his visit was to express Japan's readiness to further expand bilateral relations.

During the talks the two exchanges opinions on a wide range of issues of Uzbek-Japanese relations. The meeting was also attended by the Japanese ambassador to Uzbekistan, Kyoko Nakayama.

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zbek President Islam Karimov is to undertake an official two-day visit to Italy next week, the president's spokesman said Wednesday.

Karimov, who will begin the trip Monday, will hold talks with Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and other senior Italian officials, the spokesman said. The two sides are expected to sign a range of bilateral documents aimed at boosting relations, including an agreement to fight organised crime and drug trafficking, he added.

Karimov visited Italy in 1996 and met then-president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro in Florence for the signing of a cooperation and partnership agreement. Scalfaro visited Uzbekistan in 1997. Italy is Uzbekistan's fifth largest trading partner among European Union countries and imports cotton and ferrous metals from the Central Asian state. It exports construction materials and electrical equipment to Uzbekistan. (AFP, November 16)

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regular meeting of the joint Tajik-Uzbek intergovernmental commission on border issues was held in Dushanbe recently.

The commission is expected to prepare an agreement on the delimitation and demarcation of the state borders. In August [2000], Uzbek servicemen started laying antipersonnel mines in border areas with Tajikistan in an attempt to prevent incursions by militants of the [banned opposition] Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan into Uzbek territory. The casualties, however, are civilians, mainly Tajik nationals. The Tajik authorities believe that mines are frequently being laid on the territory of Tajikistan. Meanwhile, Dushanbe officials, citing the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel mines, to which Uzbekistan is also a signatory, consider the laying of such mines illegal.

It is known that similar issues also exist in relations between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan, Erik Asanaliyev, told Asia-Plus news agency on 14th November that not only Kyrgyz citizens and their animals, but also Uzbek servicemen were blown up by the mines laid by Uzbek servicemen in the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border areas. Bishkek officials believe neither side has the right to declare that this or that part of the territory belongs to them before the complete settlement of the border issues, the delimitation and demarcation of frontiers. Kyrgyzstan remains committed to the obligations that it had assumed in accordance with the Ottawa Convention and has expressed the hope that the Uzbek side would also observe its [the Ottawa Convention] provisions.

The diplomat is convinced that it is impossible to tackle this issue just by laying mines. In addition, this issue impedes the consolidation of contacts between the two fraternal peoples. (Tajik news agency Asia-Plus)

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he trial of 12 men accused of organizing a number of terrorist acts continued in the Uzbek Supreme Court on Monday [13th November]. It has been going on for two weeks now. It has been reported that a number of people, the activists of the banned Erk Democratic Party of Uzbekistan who had been jailed after the February last year bomb explosions in Tashkent, gave evidence against leaders of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tohir Yoldosh and Jumaboy Namangoniy [Khojiyev], and the leader of the Erk Democratic Party, Mohammad Solih [Salay Madaminov], who are among the 12 defendants.

Observers who are familiar with the text of the indictment, published by the press controlled by the Uzbek government before the trial, say that the trial has become a political one and that the government has already decided what sentence the court will pass, and that the trial is an attempt to prove that the government's decision is legal.

We asked the first secretary of the Erk Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, Mr Otanazar Oripov: to what extent is it true that the activists of the Erk Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, who are now in jail, gave evidence against the party's leader.

[Oripov] BBC radio last week reported about the trial in Tashkent and said that 15 activists of Erk had given evidence against leaders of the Islamic Movement [of Uzbekistan]. This is wrong information. There is no-one from Erk there, neither among those in the court room, nor among the accused, nor among the convicts who gave evidence.

No-one, except journalists with special permission, is allowed into in the court room. They might have shown an old video of Erk activists, but there were no Erk members giving evidence in court. In my view, the trial as a whole is evidence of the fact that the Uzbek legal system has reached the highest level of crisis. It is not aimed at finding real criminals. We have spoken about this before. It looks like a show.

There are reports that the indictment consists of 145 volumes and 15,000 witnesses have been questioned. Let us leave witnesses alone. The accused should be familiarized with the text of the indictment, that is they should read and study it together with their defence lawyers before trial. Everyone can understand that this process takes several months, even years. If the trial is aimed at establishing the truth, then the accused should study the indictment.

In other words, this means that judges in Uzbekistan are not independent and the level of their professionalism is low. (Iranian radio from Mashhad, November 13)

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delegation of the former Afghan king, Mohammad Zaher, has arrived in the region. The delegation had visited Uzbekistan and had talks with the country's authorities and on Tuesday (14th November) arrived in Tajikistan for talks with Tajik officials on the Afghan problem.

Our correspondent, Rahmatkarim Davlat, interviewed the head of the delegation, (director of the king's Rome office) Dr Zalmai Rassoul. He said the following on the aims of his visit:

(Raasoul) At the decision of the decision-making council of the Loya Jerga (Grand Assembly) movement, we paid a series of visits to Central Asian and other neighbouring countries to discuss issues relating to convening an extraordinary Loya Jerga in the past and now we have started a new round of visits to these countries.

First, we visited Uzbekistan and now we have arrived in Tajikistan. Our visit to Uzbekistan was a very positive and successful one. We will go to Afghanistan soon to meet senior officials of the United Islamic Front (for the Salvation of Afghanistan). Then we will come back to Tajikistan and, God willing, after meeting relevant Tajik officials, we will leave for Rome.

(Q) Could you, please, tell about the meetings you had in Tashkent and their results?

(A) We had a meeting with Uzbek Foreign Minister (Abdulaziz Komilov) and told him about the purpose of the Joya Jirga. We said that a durable and just peace will come to Afghanistan only when the idea enjoys support of the majority of the Afghan people. They (Uzbek officials) had a positive view on the subject and the talks were also positive.

(Q) Are you going to meet Taleban officials as well?

(A) In August we visited Kandahar (southern Afghanistan) and had talks with the Taleban. Now we want to meet UIFSA officials to explain them why an extraordinary Loya Jirga should be convened and to ask them for cooperation.

(Q) The UIFSA has accepted your proposal to convene a Loya Jirga, at the same time they say that they cannot agree with certain points of the proposal. What do you think about this?

(A) We have not yet had official meetings with UIFSA officials and now we want to meet them and explain the goal of the Loya Jerga (two words indistinct). We are proposing to call an extraordinary Loya Jirga because it will give the majority of the Afghan people time to decide their destiny. (Iranian Radio From Mashhad, November 16)

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