| July 10-July 17, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tajiks says alleged Uzbek hardliners must leave
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|  ajikistan said on Friday it would make sure
that all Uzbek refugees living on its territory returned home under a deal with its
own opposition forces.
Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov noted at a news conference that the
government and Tajik Islamist opposition had signed a deal under which the
Uzbeks, many of whom are accused at home of being Islamist hardliners, should
leave the country.
"A commission is conducting a survey and these people will have to leave," he
said after meeting his Russian and Uzbek counterparts. The three nations last
year formed a group to tackle what they see as a rise in Islamist extremism.
"Soon, not a single foreigner will be left in Tajikistan," he added.
Uzbekistan, fighting to contain a surge of Islamic fundamentalism, says several
hundred of its citizens crossed over to neighbouring Tajikistan after a series of
bomb blasts which killed 16 people in February.
The desert nation says most of those who left were hardline Islamists, fleeing
government pressure after the attacks. It says they also aid armed gangs
opposing the Tajik government.
United Nations officials in Tajikistan on Thursday put the numbers of the Uzbeks
at between 1,600 to 1,700. They also said many wanted political asylum in
Tajikistan as they said they were afraid for their safety at home.
The agreement to send the Uzbeks home was struck between the Islamist
United Tajik Opposition and the secular pro-Moscow Tajik government, which
in 1997 agreed a power sharing deal that ended a five-year civil war.
The opposition promised to deport the Uzbeks from the territory it controlled in
return for more government posts. This was supposed to have happened by July
1 but has been delayed.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, visiting Central Asia this week, praised
Tajikistan for progress in implementing the 1997 peace deal.
He noted that the peace deal had allowed 700,000 Tajiks to return home,
although the country's economy is in tatters and violence between warlords and
drug traffickers is common.
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Tajik minister sees no problems in relations with Uzbekistan
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| ajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov said in Tashkent, where he was on a two-day working visit, on Friday that he didn't see any problems in Uzbek-Tajik relations as of now.
In an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass, Nazarov said "we have seen rather
good prospects for our bilateral relations in the last years. On the one hand, we
have much on common in the Central Asian region and we have to cooperate
fruitfully. It is with these considerations in mind that we constantly hold
consultations with our Uzbek colleagues. I personally have met my Uzbek
colleague Abdulaziz Kamilov several times and I have to say that our points of
view fully coincide on certain issues. We have built very good relations, both
politically and economically. If we take, for example, Tajik trade turnover,
Uzbekistan holds the lead in the balance of our trade. But I think that we have
not yet fully tapped the economic potential of our bilateral relations. We should
do everything possible to strengthen and expand our good-neighbourly relations
in all areas."
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has repeatedly pointed out that "Uzbeks and
Tajiks are one people that speaks different languages," Nazarov noted.
Speaking about political, economic and social stability in Tajikistan, Nazarov
called on mass media to be objective in covering the situation in his country.
"There has been no war in Tajikistan for two years. No one shoots here any
more and everybody is busy doing peaceful work, but the press, especially
television, including Russia's, for some reason shows more negative stuff in
Tajikistan than positive," the minister said.
"This will not work for stability and accord in my homeland. There is an active
process of construction under way in Tajikistan now. No one wants to fight any
more, either we or the opposition. Ho can the journalists, especially TV
reporters, fail to see this?" Nazarov said.
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Russian FM discusses problems of CIS with Uzbek President
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|  resident Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan on
Thursday met with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to discuss a
wide range of issues concerning the Commonwealth of Independent States or
the CIS.
Commenting on the results of the meeting, Ivanov said that "Russia and
Uzbekistan are interested in the further development of the CIS to have
evolution processes gaining in force."
"Our basic task is to analyze, after so many years of the CIS formation, its work,
and to outline main directions to unite the interests of all the CIS states around,"
the Russian foreign minister said.
In his words, his meeting with the Uzbekistan president, "which had been
originally planned to take one hour, lasted for over two hours." "This very fact
proves that President Islam Karimov and myself had something to talk about in
the context of the prospects for the Russian-Uzbekistan cooperation," he said.
The Russian foreign minister and the Uzbekistan president discussed
preparations for a meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission, during
which "there should be openly raised those problems that we have to resolve,
the problems which we have inherited and which there is no escaping,"
according to the Uzbekistan president. These problems should be settled with
due account of the both countries' interests, the Russian foreign minister added.
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CIS southern borders to become borders of stability, says Ivanov
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|  ussian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who
is currently on a two-day official visit to Uzbekistan, said on Thursday the CIS
southern borders should "be the borders of stability."
On Thursday afternoon, Ivanov had a two-hour meeting with Uzbekistan
President Islam Karimov.
"Our basic task is to analyze, after so many years of the Commonwealth's
formation, the work of the entire CIS, and to outline main directions for its
reforming," the Russian foreign minister said after the meeting. "This work should
obviously center round economic issues, including practical steps for the creation
of a free trade zone. Our states should focus their efforts on these key aspects."
Commenting on his meeting with the Uzbekistan president, Ivanov said: "we
naturally discussed a number of pressing international problems. First of all,
issues of the intra-Tajik settlement that will be in the focus of attention" at a
meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on July 16.
According to the Russian foreign minister, they also touched upon the Afghan
settlement problems.
"Our stances here, if not coincide completely, then are very close. We are
interested in a closest cooperation in order to try to solve emerging problems
through political negotiations, to further our joint efforts in the interests of the
intra-Tajik settlement, to have the CIS' southern borders become the borders of
stability. We agreed to cooperate actively in this direction," Ivanov stressed.
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Russian Foreign Minister to meet Uzbek and Tajik colleagues
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| ussian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will
meet his colleagues from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on Friday to discuss the
development of the declaration on the tripartite cooperation signed on October
12, 1998, in Tashkent by Boris Yeltsin, Islam Karimov and Emomali
Rakhmonov. Ivanov will end the visit to Uzbekistan on Friday afternoon and
leave for Ashgabat on an official visit.
On Thursday Ivanov was received by Uzbek President Islam Karimov. "The
conversation with the President of Uzbekistan focused on a set of problems
related to the CIS. Russia and Uzbekistan are interested in the further
development of the CIS, the strengthening of evolution processes, but our key
task is to critically analyze the work of the CIS after all these years and to outline
the key areas on which interests of all the states shall be centered," Ivanov said.
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Locusts invade Uzbekistan from Kazakhstan
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|  ocusts have invaded the former Soviet
republic of Uzbekistan, mainly from northern neighbour Kazakhstan, damaging
crops over an area of 330,000 hectares, the official press reported on Monday.
"Locusts are crossing over to us from neighbouring countries, and the most
difficult conditions are in regions bordering Kazakhstan," the Narodnoye Slovo
newspaper quoted an agriculture ministry statement as saying.
Locusts have already crossed north from Kazakhstan into southern Russia,
causing the Siberian region of Novosibirsk to declare a state of emergency last
week.
And Kazakhstan''s northern Pavlodar region said on Monday that 600,000
hectares of fields were covered by the pests.
Uzbek officials declined to comment on the likely losses to this year''s grain
harvest, targeted at 4.6 million tonnes in 1999 from a total area sown of 1.46
million hectares.
The harvesting campaign is due to be completed by the end of July in the Central
Asian republic of 24 million.
Kazakhstan''s agriculture ministry, under fire locally for failing to prevent the
spread of locusts, has played down the impact of the problem on this year''s
grain campaign, expected to yield nine to 11 million tonnes.
The spread of locusts this year has been aided by the warm, dry weather as well
as the lack of chemicals used by cash-strapped farmers. Locusts have moved to
the east of the vast, resource-rich state, close to the border with China.
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20 to stand trial for attempt to stage coup in Uzbekistan
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|  group of people accessorial to an
attempt to stage a coup in Uzbekistan will be put on trial here on Wednesday.
Court hearings start under the chairmanship of member of the Uzbek Supreme
Court Rustam Akbarov. Members of the group are also charged with terrorism.
An informed source at the Supreme Court of the republic told Tass that about
20 people would stand the trial for the acts of terrorism committed in Tashkent
on February 16 when 16 people had been killed and over a hundred had been
severely injured. The group is also charged with an attempt upon the life of the
president and other leaders of the Uzbek state, as well as with an attempt to
overthrow the constitutional order in the republic.
The trial is expected to last about three weeks.
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Russia Foreign Minister to visit Uzbekistan
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| ussian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov flew to
Uzbekistan on an official visit July 14, and he will later go on an official visit
to Turkmenistan on July 16-17.
The Russian minister and his Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov will hold
talks on Uzbek-Russian bilateral relations.
The two ministers are also expected to discuss other questions, including issues
of regional security and the situation in Afghanistan bordering Uzbekistan,
Itar-Tass was told by a reliable source at the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.
Itar-Tass learnt from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin
in Moscow on Wednesday that during his Tashkent visit, Ivanov will also
participate in a meeting of the Uzbek, Russian and Tajik foreign ministers in the
framework of the Declaration on comprehensive cooperation, which was signed
by the presidents of the three states in October 1998.
"Moscow invariably attaches much importance to the stable and progressive
development of relations with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as well of course as
with other Central Asian states," the diplomat stressed.
"We proceed from a premise that the coming talks by Igor Ivanov in Tashkent
and Ashkhabad will help to discuss fruitfully urgent issues of deepening
diversified cooperation between Russia and those countries, regional and
international questions of mutual interest."
"As for the coming meeting of Russian, Tajik and Uzbek foreign ministers, as we
see it, it should launch joint practical work on fulfilling the above-mentioned
tripartite declaration in order to concert efforts to ensure security and stability in
the Central Asian region," Rakhmanin emphasised.
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