From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Apr 12 2000 - 09:29:36 EDT
Kazakhs say Uzbek were "hasty" in their reaction to seized "radioactive"
cargo
Excerpt from report by the Kazakh news agency Interfax-Kazakhstan on 10th
April
Astana, 10th April: Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrisov said it was
unfortunate that the Uzbek side had taken such "hasty actions" over the
seized radioactive cargo in late March en route to Pakistan from
Kazakhstan.
Idrisov told a briefing on Monday [10th April] in Astana that [the Uzbek
capital] has Tashkent circulated a report in the media and through the
Internet about seizing the cargo "without additional inspection and without
clarifying the case" with Kazakhstan.
An additional inspection has shown, the minister said, that "there was
nothing serious in this cargo", which was also confirmed by Uzbek
physicists and nuclear experts.
The minister said they were carrying an "ordinary cargo of scrap metal
partially used at uranium mines and for that reason the cargo showed some
radioactive emissions", the minister said.
The head of Kazakh Foreign Ministry thinks the seizure of the Kazakh cargo
by the Uzbek customs check point "has not affected Kazakhstan's image which
is striving to reinforce its system of export control". The republic is
"successively observing its obligations in this direction", Idrisov said.
[passage to end omitted: report from the Uzbek side said 10 containers of
radioactive substances were confiscated - repeat]
Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 1241 gmt 10 Apr
00
BBC Mon CAU 110400/** AJBA/AM
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