From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Oct 05 2000 - 09:46:23 EDT
MASSOUD'S UNITS TO BE LET IN TAJIKISTAN IF DUSHANBE TAKES POLITICAL
DECISION - RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS
MOSCOW. Oct 5 (Interfax) - Russian border guards stationed on the
Tajik-Afghan frontier will allow units under Ahmad Shah Massoud into
Tajikistan if a political decision is taken by the Tajik authorities.
"We will allow these people enter the republic in conformity with
the rules," Lt. Gen. Vladimir Makarov, chief of the Federal Border
Service Staff's Operational Department, has said.
"Ahmad Shah Massoud has pulled the units back in an effort to
preserve their potential. So far he has managed to control strategic
positions despite major setbacks," the general said in an interview
published in Thursday's edition of Rossiiskiye Vesti newspaper.
The current situation in Afghanistan "proves that the Taliban will
hardly venture an armed foray" to the adjoining countries of the CIS in
the near future, the general said.
Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Maxim Peshkov has said
that the lands "controlled by the Taliban in Afghanistan have turned
into a center of international terrorism" with bases for extremists
"from Chechnya and a number of Central Asian republics, which seriously
threatens regional stability."
It is not the Taliban itself but the forces "that sustain and
finance it" that pose the danger, Peshkov noted. "It is primarily
religious extremism and international terrorism, which have built a
sturdy nest in Afghanistan," Peshkov said in an interview published in
Thursday's edition of Trud newspaper.
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