Text of report by Iranian radio from Mashhad on 23rd October
The leader of the United Tajik Opposition, Sayed Abdullo Nuri,
met the US ambassador, Robert Finn, to discuss the presidential
election campaign in Tajikistan on 23rd October, Iranian radio
reported the same day. The US ambassador was quoted as saying
that people who have "created difficulties" in the election
process "were no friends of the leadership, particularly the
heads of Distrcit Administrations". Nuri was quoted as saying:
"We did not nominate our candidate in order to gain power," but
rather in order "to lay the first brick in the foundations of
democracy".

[Presenter] The chairman of the National Reconciliation of
Tajikistan [NRC], Sayed Abdullo Nuri, who is also the leader of
the United Tajik Opposition [UTO], had a meeting with the US
ambassador to Tajikistan, Robert Finn, on Friday afternoon
[23rd October]. A UTO spokesman, Hikmatullo Sayfulozoda, said
the following on the subject.

[Sayfullozoda] The main subject in the talks was the
disagreements that have recently arisen, and the US stance on
this matter.

The ambassador said: Our aim is to assist in holding free
and democratic elections and we think that through these
campaigns Tajikistan will be introduced [word indistinct] from
the scratch. The people who have created such difficulties in
the election process cannot be friends of the country's
leadership, particularly the heads of District administrations"

Mr Nuri said: I am a religious man, and I have never
broken the law or acted against democracy. We made many
concessions, and pinned great hopes on the elections. However,
the obstacles [word indistinct] that we are observing now have
disappointed us. The professor went on to say: "We demand that
they allow us to participate in the elections in accordance
with the law. Otherwise we do not want to be involved in such
an unjust campaign. We made certain mistakes in the referendum
[held on 26th September], for which we suffered, and if we
support these unjust elections, I think, we will suffer more
than the previous time.

Expressing satisfaction with the US department's
statement, Prof Nuri noted that it would in fact have an impact
on [the election campaign]. He said that if the world community
wants to step up democracy, it should exert more influence.
"We did not nominate our candidate in order to gain power.
It is obvious that it is very difficult to win at this point.
But we wanted to lay the first brick in the foundations of
democracy."

The US ambassador said that they wanted to know about our
economic programmes, and our views on the process of collecting
signatures, and other events which are taking plaec in
Tajikistan.

They noted that the government has been, in fact, working
under Soviet period standards. Although this does not hinder
the democratic process, it will delay it. The referendum and
the presidential elections are a test before the parliamentary
elections. We believe that we are not alone on the path chosen
by us, the path of maintaining justice and democracy, Prof
Sayed Abdullo Nuri said at the end.

Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mashhad, in
Persian 1600 gmt 23 Oct 99
BBC Mon CAU 241099/** KG/AS