Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 09:41:23 EST
From: <OMARS@auvm.american.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.afghanistan
Subject: Tajikistan News #3

From: clarinews@clarinet.com (MARIA KOROLOV)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 10:29:16 PST


        KHODZENT, Tadzhikistan (UPI) -- Tadzhikistan's Parliament removed the
acting president by an overwhelming vote Thursday and replaced him with
the country's third leader since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
        The Parliament also requested help from Russian troops and
neighboring Central Asian republics in bringing a halt to the civil war
tearing the republic apart.
        Imoli Rakhmonov, leader of one of the factions in the sharply divided
republic, was named Parliament chairman -- and de facto president -- by a
186-11 vote.
        Booted from his dual post of acting president and Parliament chairman
by a vote of 141-54 was Akbarsho Iskandarov, who spent two stormy months
as head of the ex-Soviet republic after President Rakhmon Nabiyev quit
at gunpoint.
        The Parliament session took place in the northern city of Khodzent,
formerly Leninabad, Nabiyev's home base and a Communist stronghold, with
hammer-and-sickle flags and other trappings of communism in ample
evidence.
        The session was transferred out of the capital Dushanbe, which was in
disorder and under virtual martial law with numerous armed groups
threatening to disrupt the legislature.
        Gunmen in Dushanbe killed the republic's deputy secutity minister,
Dzhurabek Aminov, firing grenade launchers and submachine guns at his
car as he drove home just before midnight Wednesday. He was the third
high-ranking official to be gunned down recently.
        The change of government brought mixed opinion about whether it would
worsen Tadzhikistan's problems or help solve them.
        ``Our main goal is to stop the bloodshed,'' Rakhmonov said after his
selection.
        Rakhmonov was chairman of the Kulyab provincial council, which
opposed the Iskandarov government coalition of democratic and Islamic
parties. Even though he was leader of one faction and one region in the
country, he said, ``All regions will be represented in the new
government and will be represented equally.''
        Iskandarov, who will remain a member of Parliament, offered to help
the new government, but the lopsided vote and his rocky rule made that
appear unlikely.
        Ousted President Nabiyev played no role in the legislature's decision
to get rid of his replacement and choose a new leader.
        Deputy Prime Minister Asliddin Sokhibnazarov said things had
deteriorated so much in Tadzhikistan that it did not seem to really
matter who was named to run the country. He told the Interfax news
agency that any political leader would end up being ``a general without
an army, a commander without subordinates, because all structures of
state power are actually paralyzed.''
        Parliament called on the Russian 201st army to take an active
peacemaking role in the country and urged that Russia and Tadzhikistan's
Central Asian neighbors -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan -- come
to the republic's assistance. Parliament invited troops under the
command of the Commonwealth of Independent States to help restore order.
        Wars have been raging in the south between clans that have been
enemies since long before the country was freed from Kremlin rule.
Fighting has spilled over into the capital and other areas as arms have
poured across the Tadzhikistan-Afghanistan border.
        Nabiyev, a former Communist Party leader who was overwhelmingly
elected about a year ago, was ousted under pressure from a loose
coalition of democrats and Islamic groups.
        But none of the problems in Tadzhikistan abated during Iskandarov's
rule, and some of Nabiyev's old support rallied to install the new
leader.