TAJIKISTAN: A RARE GLIMPSE INTO BADAKHSHAN.

In an unprecedented Russian television interview, the commander of Tajik united opposition forces in Badakhshan region and his chief of staff said yesterday that their mojahedins’ main goal is to end Tajikistan’s status as a "Russian colony." Their model figure, they said, is the (commonly believed to be Chechen) Imam Shamil who led the North Caucasus peoples’ 30-year war against Russian conquest in the last century. The two commanders, identified as Salam Muhambatov and Vladimir Oshurmamadov, were interviewed in Vanch district whose Dushanbe-appointed leadership together with its police and security units switched sides to the opposition earlier this year. Badakhshan, which has the status of an autonomous region in Tajikistan, is largely an opposition fief. (NTV, June 27)

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