RUSSIAN BROOM IN TAJIKISTAN TOO.

Opposition guerrillas yesterday killed eight Tajik government soldiers and wounded three in an attack in the Kofarnikhon district, some 30 kilometers east of Dushanbe. Opposition forces continually infiltrate that district despite government operations to clean it out. Two days earlier an opposition attack had wounded nine Russian and/or Tajik airmen in Dushanbe itself.

In the Tajik capital yesterday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s new special representative to the inter-Tajik talks, Yevgeny Mikhailov, brought a proposal for a meeting in Moscow between Tajik president Imomali Rahmonov and opposition leaders to sign a ceasefire agreement. The proposal would seem to circumvent the UN framework of the inter-Tajik talks. However, Mikhailov and Rahmonov praised last month’s UN Security Council chairman’s statement which Moscow and Dushanbe see as justifying their current offensive in Tavildara.

Mikhailov announced that he will also function as "coordinator of the activities of Russian federal executive power bodies in Tajikistan." Moscow has created a similar office in Chechnya. However Tajikistan, unlike Chechnya, is not part of the Russian Federation. Mikhailov’s additional appointment implies that he will be residing in Dushanbe, rather than commuting between Moscow and the region in connection with successive rounds of inter-Tajik talks as his predecessors did. (Interfax, Itar-Tass, UPI, June 20)

The Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation. It is researched and written under the direction of senior analysts Jonas Bernstein, Vladimir Socor, Stephen Foye, and analysts Ilya Malyakin, Oleg Varfolomeyev and Ilias Bogatyrev. If you have any questions regarding the content of the Monitor, please contact the foundation. If you would like information on subscribing to the Monitor, or have any comments, suggestions or questions, please contact us by e-mail at pubs@jamestown.org, by fax at 301-562-8021, or by postal mail at The Jamestown Foundation, 4516 43rd Street NW, Washington DC 20016. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution of the Monitor is strictly prohibited by law. Copyright (c) 1983-2002 The Jamestown Foundation Site Maintenance by Johnny Flash Productions