DUSHANBE. Dec 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The Tajik leadership has not considered the question of making its military contingent part of a UN peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, deputy prime minister Saidamir Zukhurov, who is in charge of law enforcement agencies in Tajikistan, told Interfax on Tuesday.
He explained that "the position of Tajikistan on the issue is identical with the Russian leadership's view" that "the problems of Afghanistan can be solved peacefully exclusively through massive humanitarian relief to that country."
Tajikistan contains no servicemen of the foreign states whose units are planned for deployment in Afghanistan as an UN- sponsored peacekeeping force. Nor has Dushanbe been asked to provide Tajikistan's territory for peacekeepers to cross into Afghanistan, the deputy premier explained. The Tajik government, he added, "has sanctioned air corridors and airports only for the massive delivery into Afghanistan of international humanitarian aid, and has allowed transit traffic for186 French servicemen to Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan for rescue, search, and security operations there."
"There has been no change whatsoever in the nature of cooperation with the leadership of the countries making up the international anti-terror coalition," stated the deputy prime minister.