From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Aug 15 2000 - 11:31:27 EDT
TAJIK AUTHORITIES CONTROL BORDER WITH UZBEKISTAN, KYRGYZSTAN - OFFICIALS
DUSHANBE. Aug 15 (Interfax) - The Tajik authorities are controlling
the situation on the border with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan near the area
in which fighting between government troops from neighboring states and
armed rebels from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is taking place,
Tajik Deputy Security Council Chief Nuralisho Nazarov told Interfax in
Dushanbe on Tuesday.
Nazarov said that reports about the concentration of rebels having
arrived from Kyrgyzstan in Tajik border areas have not been confirmed.
According to intelligence available to the Tajik military, the rebels
continue to concentrate in the small Kyrgyz mountain village of Zardaly
in the Batken district near the southeastern border with Tajikistan, he
said.
Nazarov denied assertions that former fighters from the United
Tajik Opposition, who have been reintegrated with the government forces,
are providing aid to the Uzbek extremists, who are fanning tension in
the east of Uzbekistan's Surkhandarya district and in the south of
Kyrgyzstan. He said that units comprised of former opposition fighters
are helping to ensure security in these areas of Tajikistan and have
sealed off all gorges and paths that may be used by rebel groups to
cross into Tajikistan.
According to Nazarov, since August 4, when security on the
northwestern stretches of the Tajik-Uzbek border was tightened, not a
single armed or suspicious person has managed to enter Tajikistan from
the fighting area. "All-out control has been established over all high-
mountain loopholes and areas bordering on the Kyrgyz Batken district,"
he said, adding that in Khodzhent, which is in the Northern Leninabad
Region of Tajikistan, combined headquarters comprising representatives
of the Tajik, Uzbek and Kyrgyz law-enforcement agencies have been
operating for two days now. A coordinated operation to restore law and
order is being carried out jointly, Nazarov said.
"The Tajik armed forces have not yet taken part in combat
operations in Uzbek and Kyrgyz border areas, but if the headquarters
find it necessary, they will join the military operation against the
rebels in the neighboring territories," Nazarov said.
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