From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Apr 26 2000 - 11:29:39 EDT
TAJIK LEADERSHIP NEGOTIATES WITH UZBEK ISLAMIST LEADER
The Tajik leadership is seeking to persuade Djuma Namangani, one
of the leaders of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan,
and his estimated 400 armed supporters, to leave eastern
Tajikistan as he had pledged to do last October. Tajikistan's
minister for emergency situations, former opposition military
commander Mirzo Ziyoev, told RFE/RL's Tajik Service on 25
April that he recently met with Namangani, who promised to
leave Tajikistan but did not say where he would go. President
Imomali Rakhmonov has also charged Islamic Renaissance Party
leader Said Abdullo Nuri with studying the situation in
eastern Tajikistan, according to "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 25
April. On 24 April, Tajik Security Council secretary Amirkul
Azimov told ITAR-TASS that he had returned the previous day
from an inspection of the region and seen no evidence that
any illegal armed groups were based there. LF
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