Tajik army, police leaders to hold talks with ex-field commanders.

15/9 Tass 264

DUSHANBE, September 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Tajik army, police and security
leaders urgently flew to the highland Rasht District on Wednesday for
holding talks with former field commanders of the Islamic opposition,
Itar-Tass learned from a reliable source in the Tajik security services.
It is known that the Tajik government will be represented at the talks
by Defence Minister Sherali Khairullayev, Interior Minister Abdurakhim
Kakharov and Mansur Umarov, first deputy chairman of the National Security
Committee. The former field commanders include Mirzokhudzha Akhmadov.
During the civil war he fought against the government troops. Later he
headed the department for organised crime control at the Interior Ministry
after the peace agreement was signed. Three years ago he was accused of
complicity in the murder of Oleg Zakharchenko, commander of the Tajik
Special Police Force (OMON). He was released, because the evidence against
him was not sufficient to prove his guilt. Criminal proceedings against
him were stopped, and he expressed the desire to take up farming.
Observers call attention to the fact that Mirzo Zieyev, former
commander of the opposition units in the eastern part of the Pamir Region,
who was removed from the post of emergencies minister by the decree of
President Emomali Rakhmon several years ago, also promised not to go in
for politics after his return home, but later he formed an anti-government
group made up of his former associates, who were displeased with the
authorities, and staged a rebellion in August 2009, which was suppressed.
Specialists believe that the trip of the army and police leaders to
the area, which was the epicentre of the civil war, reflects the concern
of the authorities over the situation in the eastern part of the country
and over the signals coming from there. According to some reports, the
former militants staged a military exercise in the Rasht District recently.
-0-rom/usn


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