TAJIK OPPOSITION’S RECAPTURE OF TAVILDARA CONFIRMED; RUSSIA WARNS AFGHANISTAN.

Tajik president Imomali Rahmonov’s military and security adviser, Zafar Ikromov, admitted at a Dushanbe briefing yesterday that the opposition recaptured Tavildara along with a number of villages August 16. The government had until yesterday attempted to cover up that serious defeat. (See Monitor, August 19) Military officials admitted yesterday to the loss of 30 killed in Tavildara on May 16 alone.

Also yesterday the government accepted to release from prison two brothers of noted resistance commander Rahmon, after the latter’s detachment had captured a group of Tajik security officers and Russian soldiers in Yavan district southeast of Dushanbe.

Reacting to the latest military setbacks, Rahmonov appointed a new deputy prime minister in charge of "power" ministries and a new secretary of the Security Council and tasked them to submit a plan for reform of military and security agencies.

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