Dushanbe demands explanations for freight delays in Uzbekistan.

24/3 Tass 113

DUSHANBE, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - The Tajik authorities have expressed
concern about its freight trains held up at railway stations on the border
with Uzbekistan.

The Tajik Foreign Ministry had notified official Tashkent
about the concerns and demanded explanations of the causes of freight
delays and soonest settlement of the problem, a source from the Tajik
Foreign Ministry told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The foreign ministry turned
over a protest note to Uzbek ambassador to Tajikistan Shouslam Shokarimov
on Tuesday.
Around 1,000 rail cars loaded with cargoes intended for Tajik
strategic enterprises such as the Tajik Aluminum company, the Rogunskaya
hydroelectric power plant under construction, lubricants for the agrarian
sector, have been held up on the way to Tajikistan for two months already,
the Tajik media reported. A number of Tajik independent experts are
inclined to believe that the blockade of trains bound for Tajikistan on
the Uzbek territory is one of the factors of Tashkent's opposition to the
construction of the Rogunskaya hydroelectric power plant. Uzbekistan
insists on an independent expert assessment of safety of the giant
hydroelectric power plant being built in Tajikistan, claiming that the
plant under construction poses a threat to safety and ecology of the whole
region.
Recently, Kazakhstan has backed Tashkent's protests. Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev, who spoke at a joint press conference with Uzbek
President Islam Karimov in Tashkent, has called to suspend the
construction of huge electric power plants until international experts
announced their conclusions.
-0-ere/gor


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