CIS military experts on the possibility of Central Asian soldiers joining the operation in Afghanistan

Military specialists from the Commonwealth of Independent States say servicemen from Central Asia may eventually join in the counter-terrorist operation in Afghanistan. At least, that was what Army General Vladimir Yakovlev, the head of the headquarters for coordinating military cooperation in the CIS, said at the opening of a military-and-scientific conference on settlement of conflicts on the territory of the CIS.

"It is possible that CIS member states will preventively develop their military contingents," said Yakovlev.

According to his words, the tasks facing peacekeepers from CIS members include prevention and settlement of conflicts, as well as post-conflict peace processes. In the CIS, conflict-preventing measures are effected only on approval from the United Nations Security Council, stressed the general, adding that none of the peacekeeping operations conducted in the CIS were compulsory.

Further on, Russia's Army General Anatoly Kulikov took up the word to stress the importance of setting up a "world center for combating terrorism and international crime." In his opinion, a center of this kind could be set up on the basis of the Interpol. Ultimately, the center's tasks must include measures to stop financing of international crime, he said.