From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Apr 27 2000 - 11:48:59 EDT
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS AIM TO SEIZE POWER IN CENTRAL ASIAN STATES -
BISHKEK OFFICIAL
BISHKEK. April 27 (Interfax) - International terrorists and
religious extremists intend to boost their activity aimed at
overthrowing the constitutional system and legitimate powers in
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Security Council Chairman
Bolot Dzhanuzakov said Thursday while addressing the conference
"Democracy and religion" in Bishkek.
Militant rebels are now acting in close connection with religious
extremists, Dzhanuzakov said. To build their Islamic state, religious
extremists and terrorists "will use every means available, including
distributing leaflets and literature fomenting ethnic and religious
strife and performing terrorist acts," he said.
Numerous cases of leaflet distribution calling for the overthrow of
the legitimately elected authorities have been registered in Kyrgyzstan,
the Security Council chairman said. "They also propose to turn
Kyrgyzstan into an Islamic fundamentalist state within the Fergana
caliphate," the Security Council chairman said.
As a rule, the militants in Afghanistan are "people with a criminal
record who arrive at international terrorist training camps from
different CIS countries as well as from Pakistan and India," Dzhanuzakov
said.
"The militants act in a close contact with Mafia drug structures.
They pray by day and ship drugs by night," Dzhanuzakov said.
Kyrgyz law enforcement bodies seized 9 kilos of heroin and some 500
kilos of opium of Afghan origin over the first three months of 2000
alone, he said. The money made from drug trafficking is spent on
terrorist activities that "pose threat not only to the Central Asian
region, but to the world as a whole," he said.
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