| July 24-July 31, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CIS working groups meet in Minsk with Uzbekistan absent
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|  joint session of working groups of the special
interstate forum opened in the CIS headquarters here on Thursday with
Uzbekistan absent. It is going to discuss problems connected with the
improvement of functioning of the Commonwealth and its reforming. Two
important documents -- regulations on the CIS Economic Council and
regulations on the CIS Executive Committee -- are expected to be finally
coordinated at the session.
According to Chairman of the Executive Committee Yuri Yarov, a message
from Uzbekistan saying that it could not attend the session came on Wednesday.
Tashkent explained that the officials of the cabinet of ministers and the foreign
ministry, who were to attend the conference, had too much work to do. Aside
from it, the message said, the observations and suggestions of Uzbekistan on the
problems to be discussed were forwarded to the CIS Executive Committee in
advance.
It is worth mentioning in this connection that the Uzbek suggestions are the most
important ones. Uzbekistan together with Ukraine suggested that the Executive
Committee should not be regarded as an international organisations. Some
countries suggest that there should be 12 deputy chairpersons of the Executive
Committee -- as many as there are CIS member countries. It is quite probable
that neither the working groups, not the interstate forum will be able to reach
agreement on all the observations and suggestions of the CIS countries. In this
case, the controversial problems may be submitted for the consideration of the
CIS Council of Heads of Government, planned to be held on October 8 in
Ukraine.
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President awards Solijon Sharipov a state order
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|  resident Karimov gave one of Uzbekistan's highest awards - The Order "For Great Merits" - to cosmonaut of Uzbek nationality from Kyrgyzstan, Solijon Sharipov for his courage during the space expedition on board of U.S. shuttle "Endeavour" and for promoting the honor and glory of the Uzbek nation. As a member of the Endeavour shuttle,
33-year-old Solijon Sharipov made his
first flight to space to rendezvous and
dock with Russia's Mir Space Station.
The shuttle carried more than 7000
pounds of experiments, supplies, and
hardware for the Mir. As a mission
specialist and expert in the Mir complex
system, he looked after the life support
system, performed some maintenance
tasks on board, took observations of the
Earth, and participated in crew transfer
procedures. As an engineer and
ecologist, he also observed the Earth,
made photo and video recordings, and
interacted with the crew members of
the Mir and became better acquainted
with the orbital complex. He had studied long
before he was selected for the mission:
in 1987 he graduated from the Air
Force Pilot School and worked as a
pilot-instructor. He has logged over 950
hours flying time. In 1994 he graduated
from Moscow State University with a
degree in cartography. STS-89 became
Endeavour's twelfth flight in space. It
was the eighty-ninth shuttle flight in
the program's history.
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President names former energy minister as deputy prime minister
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| resident Karimov appointed Valeriy Ataev a deputy prime minister and released him from his position of the minister of energy as of July 28, 1999.
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Tajikistan concerned over warlike fefugees from Uzbekistan
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| high-ranking Tajik official voiced concern
on Wednesday over the presence of about 1,000 people from the neighbouring
Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, who call themselves refugees.
"The further illegal presence in eastern Tajikistan of a considerable number of
Uzbek citizens is creating an inflammable situation and threatening not only the
peace process in the republic, but also the country's national security," Security
Council secretary Amirkul Azimov said.
Azimov, who is also chairman of a joint commission which is trying to find out
the reasons of the Uzbeks' presence in Tajikistan, was speaking at a session of
the Co-ordinative Council on the implementation of the peace agreement
between government and opposition.
Most of the self-styled refugees are "people aged 18 to 40 who can bear arms",
he said, adding they are openly speaking about their fundamentalist mood.
"They are overtly doing special training for fighting in mountainous conditions and
are not concealing their very negative attitude to Uzbekistan's current
leadership," he said.
Azimov said he was also concerned by the presence in the central Tavildara
region of a 150-strong paramilitary group headed by Juma Namangani, who has
reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks in both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Most members of the Coordinative Council spoke out in favour of disarming
those groups and expelling them from Tajikistan immediately. Otherwise, they
are to be destroyed.
Having signed an agreement with Uzbekistan and a trilateral declaration with
Uzbekistan and Russia, Tajikistan "has committed itself to waging a joint struggle
against political, religious, and other forms of extremism" on the territory of each
of the signatories, he said.
The council decided to convey the information available to Tashkent and
international organisations through diplomatic channels.
"We must solve this problem jointly, but according to the law of our country," he
said.
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Uzbekistan and the United States sign concessional sales agreement
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|  n Thursday the United States and Uzbekistan signed a concessional sales agreement, under which the United States will supply approximately 36,900 metric tons of soybeans to Uzbekistan. The total value of the program is $10 million, of which $6.4 million covers the cost of the soybeans, and $3.6 million covers the cost of transportation. The terms of the sale are highly favorable: a 30-year credit, with a five-year grace period, at 2% annual interest. Under the terms of the agreement, Uzbekistan pledges to use the local-currency revenues generated by the sale of the soybeans to support its agricultural development program to improve food security, alleviate poverty and promote broad-based, equitable, and sustainable agriculture by promoting private farming and providing support services to farmers. U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Joseph Presel and Minister for Foreign Economic Relations of Uzbekistan Elyor Ganiev signed the agreement.
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Russian air company makes direct flights to Namangan
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|  he "East Line" Russian air company now has
a shuttle flight between Moscow and Namangan, Uzbekistan, sources at the air
company's press service told Itar- Tass on Friday.
That will be the first direct route between Moscow and the Fergana valley.
Before that one could get to Namangan only from towns of western Uzbekistan.
The air company plans cargo shipments as well to deliver Uzbek melons and
water-melons to the Russian capital.
The passenger flights of the economy class will be made every Thursday on
board a Tu-154 or an Il-62.
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Uzbek grain harvest 80% of plan
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|  zbekistan has harvested 3.1 million tonnes
of grain or nearly 80 percent of its 1999 target of 4.0 million tonnes with four
days of the harvest season remaining, an agriculture ministry spokesman said on
Tuesday.
He did not say whether Uzbekistan would meet its 1999 harvest target by the
end of the season on August 1.
The spokesman said the grain had been harvested from a sown area of 1.22
million hectares out of a total cultivated area of 1.4 million hectares. Of this,
310,000 hectares are non-irrigated land.
Farms in the largely desert Central Asian nation are expected to produce 3.84
million tonnes of wheat and 160,000 tonnes of barley.
The figures do not include production by households which are expected to
produce an additional 600,000 tonnes of grain.
It was unclear if the harvest had been affected by locusts which had infested
upto 300,000 hectares of sown land near the Kazakh border.
Last year's grain harvest stood at 3.8 million tonnes falling short of the 4.2 million
tonne target. This included 3.7 million tonnes of wheat and 100,000 tonnes of
barley.
According to traders, the country of 24 million inhabitants requires about 4.5
million tonnes of grain annually.
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Drug smuggling attempt prevented in Tashkent
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| n attempt to smuggle 3.5 kilograms of
morphine from Tashkent to Moscow was prevented by customs officers of
Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
A female resident of Samarkand was stopped at the Tashkent airport when
boarding the plane for Moscow. She had the morphine under the clothing,
Chairman of the Uzbek Customs Committee Utkur Komilov told Itar-Tass. The
drug's black market cost is some 300,000 dollars.
That is the first time an attempt to transit so much morphine was prevented at the
Tashkent airport, he said.
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