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Gunmen set free Kyrgyz Interior troops commander
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|  unmen set free Major General Anarbek Shamkayev, commander of the Kirghiz Interior
Ministry troops, and two Kirghiz soldiers in the north of Tajikistan on Monday. They had been kept hostage since August, the
Kyodo Tsushin news agency reported with reference to the sources, connected with the talks with terrorists.
According to their information, four Japanese geologists and an interpreter are the only hostages still kept by the gunmen. It is
believed here that they may be set free within the coming ten days.
According to the sources, General Shamkayev is gravely ill, and it was decided to set him free "because of humanitarian
considerations."
The sources reported, at the same time, that the gunmen who say they are from the so-called "Islamic movement of Uzbekistan,"
began to demand for themselves a safe passage to Afghanistan. According to some information, they are going to leave for one
of the bases of fundamentalists, created in the southern part of the country.
Previously commanders of the gunmen demanded a passage to Uzbekistan, where they intended to start fighting against the
administration of President Islam Karimov. Most gunmen changed their opinion in the course of the talks, however, and are now
demanding a passage to Afghanistan.
According to the information from Japanese sources, the talks with the gunmen have entered the decisive stage. Previously
Tursunbai Bakir Ulu, deputy to the Kirghiz parliament, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Kirghizia and human
rights champion, managed to persuade leaders of the "Islamic movement of Uzbekistan" to set free the first five hostages -- four
Kirghiz policemen and a soldier.
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Hostage-holding militants urging passage to Afganistan
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|  ilitants holding hostages since August 22
have demanded safe passage to Afganistan, the Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tsushin said on Monday citing sources close to negotiations with militants.
An armed group of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which invaded
southern Kyrgyzstan on August 22 and took 13 hostages including four
Japanese geologists, has crossed into Tajikistan.
Leaders of the militants earlier had demanded unobstructed passage to
Uzbekistan, but have changed their mind in the course of negotiations and urged
for a safe route to Afganistan, the sources said.
The militants are reportedly going to retreat to one of bases of fundamentalists in
southern Afganistan.
According to Japanese reports, the negotiations with the hostage-holding group
have entered a decisive phase.
An Itar-Tass correspondent reported from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that a
group of people, including an unnamed "deputy of the Kyrgyz parliament", had
recently crossed the border Kyrgyz-Tajik border. The group was said to include
a "known field commander of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan".
Informed sources said hostages "were released from guarding" on Saturday night
and taken to "one of valleys" of Tajikistan's Dzhirgitalsky district.
Kyrgyzstan's human rights commissioner, member of parliament Tursunbai
Bakir-uulu earleier has managed to persuade leaders of the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan to free five of the hostages - four Kyrgyz policemen and one army
serviceman.
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International conference on export promotion
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|  n international conference took place in Tashkent on Thursday. Conference participants discussed effective ways to promote export-oriented products, technology and services of local manufacturers on the international market.
In the last three years Uzbekistan has produced 250 types of export-oriented products in the aircraft and agricultural machinery manufacturing, chemical and textile industries. In 1997 the portion of the country's export made up 25% from the total manufactured products and grew to 34% a year later. This index gives Uzbekistan good chances to join the World Trade Organization.
The conference was attended by members of the International Trade Center, the WTO, international business leaders and local export-oriented manufacturers. The abolishment of export and import dues on export-oriented local products allows a greater trade with 80 countries. Conference participants noted that in addition to producing high-quality goods, it was also essential to conduct market research.
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Tashkent hosted tourism fair
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|  he fifth international tourism fair in Tashkent was entitled "Tourism Along the Silk Road".
200 tourist companies from 35 countries participated in the fair. The fair became a great chance for the National Company of Uzbek Tourism to make contacts for future partnership as well as to sign concrete documents on cooperation with some of them.
The Uzbek Tourism company displayed a single package of services for foreign tourist operators and individual travelers for their visit to Uzbekistan. A uniqueness and flexibility of this package is that transportation and other services are sold separately which can attract more tourists. Besides the package offers a 45% discount. In 1998 under a three-hundred thousand tourists visited Uzbekistan versus almost a hundred-thousand in 1993.
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Uzbek Foreign Ministry Note to their Kyrgyz counterparts
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|  n Thursday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan sent a note to the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry expressing a satisfaction in connection with the situation stabilizing in the south of Kyrgyzstan.
The Uzbek side once again condemned international terrorism and said it would further support Kyrgyzstan in its efforts to maintain peace. The Foreign Ministry also expressed a concern over the failure of the Tajik government to control the territory ruled by the United Tajik Opposition that gave safe heaven to the terrorists. The Uzbek Ministry supposes that a military aggression by terrorist groups in Tajikistan and supported by war lords in Afghanistan and other countries, may be renewed in spring.
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Cotton harvest campaign
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| he cotton harvesting campaign has made more than a half-way. Seems like Andijan province will be the first to fulfill the state order. This is expected to happen in five days. Other provinces like Bukhara, Navoi and Samarkand are also closer to the finish line than others. The overall national contribution is over 3 million tons, at a daily harvest of over 75 thousand tons. This is a million tons more than two weeks ago. The state order is four million tons.
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Tashkent to host Asian Championship
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| he 20th Asian Boxing Championship is due to begin next Saturday in Tashkent. It will last for a week. 210 athletes from 19 countries are expected to arrive in Tashkent. Teams will be accomodated at the Hotels Intercontinental and Uzbekistan. Around 100 local and international journalists will cover the tournament. The Asian championship is also an Olympic qualification tournament.
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Customs Committee reports
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|  alcon smuggling is a profitable business unless you are noticed by law enforcement forces.
A person trying to smuggle 11 of them was stopped at the Tashkent airport. There are two type of falcons in Uzbekistan. Falcons are great hunters and one of endangered species in the world. A resident of Pakistan was detained with 11 falcons at the Tashkent airport while awaiting his flight to Sharjah. Officers of the State Customs Committee also detained several vehicles and trucks. The drivers attempted to take out vegetable oil, cattle and gasoline in large amounts to neighboring countries.
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Uzbekistan's Karimov puts off visit to neighbour state
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|  zbek President Islam Karimov has put off his visit to the capital of neighbouring
Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, because of an "overtightened working schedule", a source in the Foreign Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. Karimov has paid two visits in the past week alone -- to South Korea on October 4 to 6 and to Ukraine on October 7 and 8, the source said. A Kyrgyzstan visit might take place in November or December.
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Uzbek party proposes rival for presidential vote
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| party in the former Soviet Central Asian state of Uzbekistan on Monday formally proposed
its candidate for a presidential election next year, the only rival so far to incumbent Islam Karimov to come forward.
A spokesman for the National Democratic Party of Uzbekistan told Reuters that Abdulkhafiz Dzhalalov, 52, had been chosen as
candidate at a meeting of the party.
Three other parties have supported Karimov for re-election. Another party was due on Tuesday to decide on whether it would
put forward a candidate.
Karimov was Uzbek Communist Party leader and was elected president in 1991 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
He had his term extended to 2000 in a 1995 referendum.
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Uzbek president to begin visit to Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday
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|  resident Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan begins a visit to Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, an
official in the Kirghiz President's administration has told Itar-Tass.
The official said the Uzbek leader intends to meet President Askar Akayev to discuss matters connected with the developments
in Kyrgyzstan's south, where guerrilla groups intruded into from the direction of Tajikistan on August 22.
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Uzbek party proposes rival for presidential vote
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| party in the former Soviet Central Asian state of Uzbekistan on Monday formally proposed
its candidate for a presidential election next year, the only rival so far to incumbent Islam Karimov to come forward.
A spokesman for the National Democratic Party of Uzbekistan told Reuters that Abdulkhafiz Dzhalalov, 52, had been chosen as
candidate at a meeting of the party.
Three other parties have supported Karimov for re-election. Another party was due on Tuesday to decide on whether it would
put forward a candidate.
Karimov was Uzbek Communist Party leader and was elected president in 1991 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
He had his term extended to 2000 in a 1995 referendum.
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Uzbekistan's Karimov puts off visit to neighbour state
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| zbek President Islam Karimov has put off his visit to the capital of neighbouring
Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, because of an "overtightened working schedule", a source in the Foreign Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. Karimov has paid two visits in the past week alone -- to South Korea on October 4 to 6 and to Ukraine on October 7 and 8, the source said. A Kyrgyzstan visit might take place in November or December.
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Election campaign in Uzbekistan
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| ll political parties in Uzbekistan as well as initiatives groups, created to promote independent candidates, have begun election campaign for parliamentary seats and a presidential post. The former Soviet republic will hold parliamentary election on December 5 this year and presidential polls on January 9 next year.
This will be the first presidential election since 1991. Current president Islam Karimov has been in power since 1989. In 1991, after Uzbekistan gained Independence from the Soviet Union, he enjoyed an overwhelming victory over his only rival, poet Mukhammad Solikh, who has been lately on an Interpol wanted list for organizing a series of blasts this February in an attempt to assassinate President Karimov. Five explosions in the center of the capital city Tashkent had killed 16 people and injured over a hundred.
In 1995 President Karimov's authority was extended for another five years at a national referendum. During the upcoming election he will face his former party-mate and the leader of the People's Democratic Party, 52-year-old Abdulhafiz Jalolov.
Four of five political parties in Uzbekistan have nominated Islam Karimov for his last five-year presidential term. They are the National Democratic Party of Patriots, "Fidokorlar", the Social-Democratic Party of Justice, "Adolat", and the Party of Progress of Motherland, "Vatan Taraqqiyoti". The Democratic Party of National Revival, "Milliy Tiklanish" couldn't collect necessary 125 thousand signatures to nominate their chairman Ibrohim Gofurov as a presidential candidate and decided to support Islam Karimov in the election. Which party the current president will go to the election with is the matter of time.
Meanwhile, all the parties and initiative groups have nominated their candidates to the 250-seat Parliament, the Oliy Majlis. For the parliament, this is the second election as well. The Central Electoral Commission is meeting with the press once a week to update them about the election processes. All parties are guaranteed 30-minute weekly airtime on the National Television for the campaign.
Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission Najmiddin Komilov believes that this election will be fair and transparent enough because all parties and candidates will have equal possibilities, including publicity and financing. The election will be fully financed by the Government. The political parties are allowed to receive donations from outside, but through the Central Electoral Commission, which will distribute the donations evenly to all parties creating a balance.
Some members of the diplomatic corpus in Uzbekistan agreed to be observers during the election.
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Kyrgyz deputy says Japanese hostages released
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|  aturday four Japanese hostages held by gunmen in Kyrgyzstan's southern hills had been released, a statement which was
immediately denied by another high-ranking Kyrgyz official. "They have been freed as I said. This is the result of my work,"
Tursunbay Bakir-uulu told Reuters. Bakir-uulu had taken part in earlier talks with the gunmen, believed to be radical Uzbek
Moslems. Bolot Dzhanuzakov, secretary of the republic's Security Council, immediately denied the report.
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