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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 10, 2002 1)GEORGIAN DEFENSE MINISTER VISITS AZERBAIJAN Visiting Georgian Defense Minister Lieutenant General David Tevzadze and his Azerbaijani counterpart Colonel General Safar Abiev signed a protocol in Baku on 9 April on bilateral military cooperation, Turan and ITAR-TASS reported. The two ministers discussed regional security, their two countries' cooperation with NATO, combating terrorism and "aggressive separatism," and various aspects of bilateral cooperation, including protecting oil- and gas-export pipelines that transit the two countries. They also discussed, and in remarks to journalists stressed the importance of, strengthening their respective air-defense systems. Tevzadze assured journalists that military intervention by Georgia in Abkhazia is not on the agenda "at this stage," ITAR-TASS reported. But he added that Tbilisi will not tolerate indefinitely the abuse of the rights of Georgian and other residents of the breakaway unrecognized republic. Caucasus Press on 10 April reported that Tevzadze also met with President Aliev and Prime Minister Artur Rasizade. LF 2)MOSCOW'S ENVOY FOR ABKHAZIA BLAMES ATTACK ON CIS PEACEKEEPERS ON GEORGIA... Speaking in Moscow on 9 April, Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Valerii Loschinin, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin recently named his special envoy for talks on resolving the Abkhaz conflict (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 April 2002), assessed the prospects for a settlement of that conflict, Interfax and Caucasus Press reported. He noted that neither the Georgian nor the Abkhaz leadership is happy with the wording of the UN draft document on the "Basic Principles for the Distribution of Competencies between Tbilisi and Sukhumi," and that the incursion into the Kodori Gorge last October of Chechen militants led by field commander Ruslan Gelaev aggravated tensions between the two sides. Echoing the statement released on 8 April by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Loshchinin said the multiple attacks on CIS peacekeepers in the Abkhaz conflict zone during the night of 6-7 April could not have taken place without the permission of the Georgian government, Caucasus Press reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 April 2002). Also on 9 April, the commander of the Russian ground forces, Lieutenant General Valerii Yevnevich, warned that the peacekeepers will return fire if they are subjected to further attack, ITAR-TASS reported. LF 3)PENTAGON: NO DATE SET FOR ARRIVAL OF U.S. MILITARY INSTRUCTORS IN GEORGIA ITAR-TASS on 9 April quoted a spokesman for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff as telling journalists that Washington has not yet decided how many military instructors to send to Georgia or when. President Shevardnadze and Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili have both said the instructors will arrive in Georgia before the end of this month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 April 2002). LF 4)WORLD BANK PRESIDENT VISITS KYRGYZSTAN James Wolfensohn met in Bishkek on 9 April with President Akaev and Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev to discuss the poverty reduction program sponsored by the bank and its subsidies for Kyrgyz agriculture, Interfax and RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. LF UZBEKISTAN FEARS AIDS EPIDEMIC Uzbekistan is "at the early stages of an AIDS epidemic," Interfax quoted the country's chief epidemiologist, Bakhtiyar Niyazmatov, as telling journalists in Tashkent on 9 April. He gave the number of AIDS patients as 779 (of a population of 25 million), two-thirds of them intravenous drug users, but added if the incidence of HIV infection continues to grow at the present rate it may result in an epidemic. He said over 200 medical stations have been opened at which drug addicts may seek advice and exchanges used syringes for new ones. In an interview with the National Information Agency of Uzbekistan on 9 April, First Deputy Minister of Health Damin Asadov said that as part of a sweeping reform of the country's medical facilities, a new network of 2,800 first aid posts is to be created nationwide by 2005; 1,600 such facilities have been opened to date. LF __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
