TAJIKISTAN: OVERDUE RELEASE OF POLITICAL DETAINEES AND MILITARY PRISONERS BEGINS.

Tajikistan’s government today released 58 political detainees, some of them held since 1992. Opposition chairman Saidabdullo Nuri and the government’s chief delegate to the National Reconciliation Commission, Abdulmajid Dostiev, attended the releasing ceremony. The government still holds nearly 700 political detainees, eligible for release under the June mutual forgiveness agreement and the August amnesty act. Yesterday the opposition released to Russian troops some 80 government soldiers captured and held in Tavildara. (International agencies, October 20)

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