Russia, China and Central Asian States to Fight Against Terrorism

MOSCOW, Apr 21, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Interior ministers from Russia, China, and three Central Asian states began talks Friday in Moscow to develop a joint strategy for fighting international crime, terrorism and separatism.

Opening the one-day meeting of the Shanghai five -- grouping China, Russia and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said it was essential to agree "decisive joint measures."

"We have to join forces to combat the activities of terrorists, armed separatists and international extremist organizations which give them financial support," he said, in comments cited by ITAR-TASS news agency.

The extraordinary meeting's main purpose was to draft documents for a summit of the Shanghai Five in the Tajik capital Dushanbe slated for May.

The countries aim to exchange their experiences fighting terrorism and work more closely together to stop the flow of arms and narcotics smuggling across their borders.

Rushailo, flanked by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and head of the Federal Security Service (FSB, ex-KGB) Nikolai Patrushev among other top security officials, pointed to the spread of terrorism in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

"Separatist terrorist and international organizations are assisting the terrorists in Central Asia and the North Caucasus to destabilize the situation there," he said.

Russia invaded breakaway Chechnya on October 1 in a self-declared "anti-terrorist" operation against Chechen Islamists blamed for incursions into neighboring Dagestan and a series of deadly bomb blasts in Russia last year.

Last autumn, some 1,000 Islamic rebels invaded southern Kyrgyzstan and took four Japanese geologists hostage for two months before releasing them unharmed and retreating south into Afghanistan.

Muslim militants have also been blamed for a series of bomb attacks which killed 16 people in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in February 1999 and clashes with Uzbek troops in the Ferghana Valley in which 23 people were killed. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)