From: TEX5HAD@CMS1.LEEDS.AC.UK (Haluk DEMIRBAG)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Russian military plays role in Tadzhikistan conflict (fwd)
Date: 9 Nov 1992 18:13:17 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

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>From: clarinews@clarinet.com (MARIA KOROLOV)
Subject: Russian military plays role in Tadzhikistan conflict
Date: 6 Nov 92 18:26:48 GMT


	DUSHANBE, Tadzhikistan (UPI) -- A provisional ruling council asserted
authority Friday in the strife-wracked Central Asian republic of
Tadzhikistan and Russian troops began playing an active role to prevent
more bloodshed.
	The Russian military commander in the Tadzhik capital Dushanbe made
an extraordinary appearance on local television to announce the creation
of a government council and to spell out a new role for Moscow's forces
in the ex-Soviet republic.
	The Russian army will act to ``normalize the situation in the
republic,'' Maj. Gen. Mukhriddin Ashurov, commander of the 201st Russian
division stationed in Tadzhikistan, declared on television, speaking in
Russian and Tadzhik.
	Ashurov announced that the acting president, Akbarsho Iskandarov, had
formed a special council to govern the republic.
	Iskandarov has ruled the poor newly independent Asian nation since
former Communist leader Rakhmon Nabiyev was forced to quit as president
two months ago, but Nabiyev's departure failed to bring an end to the
fighting.
	Iskandarov's shaky government has turned to Russian troops -- already
in the republic as border guards on the former Soviet Tadzhikistan-
Afghanistan frontier and at military installations created under Soviet
rule -- for help in regaining control.
	Iskandarov created the new ruling council with himself as chairman,
but the appearance of a Russian military commander on Tadzhik television
to announce the move seemed somewhat unusual. Moreover, Ashurov will
have a seat on the council and in his broadcast he issued public
pronouncements about the role of Russian troops patrolling the Tadzhik
capital.
	But both the Tadzhik president and the Russian commander said Russian
soldiers would remains neutral in the civil war dividing the southern
half of the republic and constantly threatening to spill over into the
capital.
	``Troops will act to defend the transport system,'' Ashurov said.
``Winter hunger is approaching. We will act to enable the delivery of
food, medicine and humanitarian aid'' to take place.
	Russian troops were assigned to enforce the nine-hour nightly curfew,
confiscate firearms, counteract terrorist activity, protect key economic
facilities, establish border checkpoints and defend the civilian
population in what Ashurov said was an effort to ``guarantee stability
in the republic.'' In the first three days of the curfew, 150 violators
have been arrested.
	``There is information that armed formations are gathering strength
to attack the city of Dushanbe,'' Ashurov said. ``I promise the citizens
of the city that I will not allow any armed formations to terrorize the
city.''
	Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev -- drawn to Dushanbe by the
conflict and Russia's interest in resolving it -- said Russian troops
``probably will become the nucleus of a peacekeeping force and act as a
disengaging and stabilizing factor.''
	The other neighboring former Soviet Central Asian republics bordering
Tadzhikistan have been more reluctant to commit peacekeeping troops than
Russia, which has no border with Tadzhikistan. Russia has been trying to
stem the flow of weapons across the border from Afghanistan into
Tadzhikistan.
	Meanwhile, an 11-member United Nations delegation also was in
Dushanbe and was met with Kozyrev, Iskandarov and others in an effort to
stop the fighting and start a program of humanitarian aid.
	``The mission is to try to assist the country in finding its way to a
peaceful solution,'' delegation leader Raymond Sommereyens said.
	Old Tadzhik clan hostilities are at the root of a conflict further
complicated by the recent violent rift between ex-President Nabiyev's
communist support and an opposition made up of a loose coalition of
democratic and Islamic groups.
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