From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Aug 08 2000 - 10:32:49 EDT
DUSHANBE SAYS REBELS COULD NOT HAVE ENTERED UZBEKISTAN THROUGH
TAJIKISTAN
DUSHANBE. Aug 8 (Interfax) - Tajikistan says rebels could not have
accessed Uzbekistan through Tajikistan.
In an interview with Interfax on Tuesday, Major General Safarali
Sayfullayev, first deputy chairman of the State Border-Guard Committee
with the Tajik government, categorically ruled out the possibility that
an armed group numbering up to fifty people, "even having split into
smaller groups," could have gotten into Uzbekistan through the Tajik
mountains unnoticed. "No penetration of fighters through the Tajik-
Afghan border has been registered either," he said.
Yesterday, there were no considerable changes in the situation in
the Tajik frontier area in the regions bordering the Surkhan-Darya
district of Uzbekistan, and the situation is being fully controlled by
Tajik border-guards, the general said.
Sayfullayev noted that since August 4 the Tajik-Uzbek border has
been strengthened on both sides; Uzbek border guards are participating
in this process. The Uzbek frontier guards has not given the Tajik side
any information stating that it was from Tajikistan that the armed group
came into Uzbekistan with the purpose of destabilizing the military and
political situation in the Uzbek frontier region.
At the same time, the frontier troops in reserve, which have been
trained to fight high in the mountains, have been alerted in the
republic, Sayfullayev said. It will take the reserve from half an hour
to several hours to come to support the frontier guards should such help
become necessary, he said.
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