Yury Razgulyaev: Central Asia is preparing for possible terrorist attacks

A delegation of specialists from the Ministry for Emergency Situations came back to the republic of Kyrgyzia from Dushanbe – the capital of the republic of Tajikistan. The delegates participated in the session of the emergency ministers of the Central Asian countries. Spokesmen for Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzia discussed questions of coordination and mutual cooperation in terms of humanitarian aid to the countrie that suffer from international terrorists and from the military actions in Afghanistan.

In particular it was decided to prepare three corridors for rendering vital, urgent help to the refugees and the people who suffer from the war. One of them will go via the Osha region of Kyrgyzia. Two more are supposed to travel via the highways of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The efficient groups, which supervise the humanitarian aid will be stationed in Moscow, Dushanbe, and Osha.

The specialists from the emergency situations ministries were really concerned aboutthe security the condition of the numerous man-made objects located in different countries of the Central Asia. For example, the radioactive-waste burial grounds. There are such grounds in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, and Uzbekistan; their destruction may result in the contamination of a very large territory and, therefore, in numerous deaths.

The ministers have decided to set up a joint system for urgent medical and technical support in the case that acts of terrorism might be directed against such objects. There are a lot of hydraulic engineering constructions in that region – they also can be a potential target for terrorists; there are over 80 large water reservoirs. Some of them have impressive dams and the opportunity of a diversion against such objects is rather high.

Yury Razgulyaev PRAVDA.Ru Kyrgyzia

Reuters photo: Tajik children look through a fence in the village Hauzako, some 100kms from Dushanbe,Tajikistan October 25, 2001.