Excerpts from report by Tajik radio on 3rd February

[Presenter] As we reported earlier, President Emomali Rahmonov of Tajikistan
received the OSCE secretary-general, Jan Kubis, today.
[passage omitted: Kubis formerly UN secretary-general's special envoy to
Tajikistan]

After the meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov, the OSCE
secretary-general, Mr Jan Kubis, said the following in response to
questions from domestic and foreign journalists:
[Kubis] As you see, our one-to-one conversation continued for two hours. We
discussed all the issues. On the basis of my previous post I was,
naturally, interested in the progress of the peace process and all the
reforms that had taken place here. Naturally, great attention was paid to
preparations for the [parliamentary] elections which are to be conducted in
February [26th February].

I gave him my views on what the international community was expecting from
the elections and the election campaign and on the factors which can really
guarantee equal opportunities for every candidate.
Confirming what he has said in previous statements, the president reiterated
that the utmost would be done to hold open elections here so as to advance
further towards building [a democratic society] and democratic reforms. We
will really pay great attention to certain specific problems of the
elections, the president said.

Naturally, I was interested in the progress of the implementation of the
peace agreement [signed by President Rahmonov and the leader of the United
Tajik Opposition, Sayed Abdullo Nuri, in Moscow in June 1997] and was
briefed in detail on this subject. We also discussed the situation in the
region, a region which involves not only Central Asian states. Naturally
due attention was paid to the Afghan problem. It was a constructive
discussion, because what is taking place there in fact affects the
situation throughout the region.

This was my first visit both as secretary-general, and as special envoy of
the OSCE chairman-in-office to Central Asia.

Source: Tajik Radio first programme, Dushanbe, in Tajik 1100 gmt 03 Feb 00
BBC Mon CAU 030200/** VA/AS