Terrorist attacks on U.S.: the international reaction (09/30/01)

Terrorist attacks on U.S.: the international reaction

Special from RFE/RL Newsline

U.S. accepts offer to use Kyrgyz airspace

BISHKEK - After consultation with fellow signatories to the CIS Collective Security Treaty of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Kyrgyzstan has offered to open its airspace to U.S. aircraft for use during a counter-terrorism strike against Afghanistan, President Askar Akaev announced in Bishkek on September 25. He said the offer was accepted.

Officials deny arrival of forces

DUSHANBE - Interfax-AVN on September 24 quoted unnamed officials from both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as continuing to deny Western media reports that the U.S. has already sent military aircraft or troops to either country in preparation for a strike against terrorist bases in Afghanistan. But addressing a congress that day of the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan which he heads, President Imomali Rakhmonov again expressed his willingness to cooperate with the U.S. government in hunting down the terrorists. Agence France Presse on September 24 quoted U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell as saying he has no knowledge of the arrival of U.S. electronic surveillance planes in Uzbekistan.

Ivanov: U.S. can use base in Tajikistan

MOSCOW - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on September 25 that Moscow has agreed that U.S. forces can use a Russian air base near Dushanbe, Tajikistan, to conduct retaliatory strikes, the RBK news service reported. But he repeated that Russia has no plans as yet to take part in those strikes. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Nikolai Staskov, the head of Russian paratroop forces, dismissed media reports that Moscow has increased its military presence in Tajikistan in order to repel any attack by Islamic extremists from Afghanistan, ITAR-TASS reported the same day.

Tajik leader meets with U.S. envoy

DUSHANBE - President Imomali Rakhmonov met on September 26 with the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Dushanbe, James Boughner, to discuss the situation in Central Asia in light of expected U.S. retaliatory strikes against terrorist bases in Afghanistan, Asia Plus-Blitz reported without giving any further details of those talks. Asia Plus-Blitz also quoted the Press Service of the Tajik Defense Ministry as denying reports that a U.S. aircraft carrying reconnaissance equipment and a special troop unit has landed at an air field in southern Tajikistan. It also quoted Tajik Security Council Secretary Amirqul Azimov as declining to confirm Western media reports that the Dushanbe airport is jointly controlled by the Tajik and Russian authorities. Implying that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov had no right to affirm on September 25 that Russia has agreed to the use of Tajik air fields by the United States (see above), Mr. Azimov said only that Tajikistan's leaders are empowered to take a decision on allowing the United States to use the airport.

Niyazov: troops cannot enter country

ASHGABAT - Speaking on national television on September 24, Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov said that during a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell agreement was reached that U.S. troops will not be permitted on Turkmen territory, but that Ashgabat will allow the transportation by rail and air of humanitarian cargos destined for the civilian population of Afghanistan, Interfax reported. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan's Mufti Nasrullah ibn Ibadullah advocated holding an international conference on the subject of "Islam Against Terrorism," ITAR-TASS reported.

Russian officials divided on response

MOSCOW - According to an article in Vremia MN on September 25, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Lebedev have urged President Vladimir Putin to back the Americans in any operation in Afghanistan and to allow the U.S. to use bases in Central Asia. But, the paper said, Gen. Anatolii Kvashnin, the chief of the General Staff, and at least some of his officers have argued against such support and have called for Moscow to put pressure on the Central Asian countries not to permit an American military presence there. In other developments, President Putin on September 25 instructed Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to remain in constant contact with the United States and other countries in the international coalition against terrorism.

Hungary OKs use of its airspace.

BUDAPEST - By a vote of 272-12, the Hungarian Parliament on September 24 approved a U.S. request to make Hungarian airspace and ground services available to aircraft taking part in military operations against terrorism. Only the extremist Hungarian Justice and Life Party refused to support the decision, arguing that it is not even known against whom the U.S. action might be directed. In presenting the resolution, Prime Minister Viktor Orban asked parliamentary parties to set aside party policy disputes in order for the broadest possible cohesion to be achieved in combating international terrorism, Hungarian media reported.

Bulgaria opens airspace to U.S. flights

SOFIA - Foreign Affairs Minister Solomon Pasi told journalists after a meeting of the Bulgarian State Security Council on September 25 that Sofia has received a request from Washington to open Bulgarian airspace to U.S. planes. Mr. Pasi said the request would be formally granted the next day. He said the U.S. request mentions only transport planes and helicopters but no landing rights, which makes it possible to grant the request without the Parliament's prior approval. President Petar Stoyanov, who chaired the council's meeting, said he was "happy" to grant access to U.S. aircraft.

Romanian president writes to Bush

BUCHAREST - In a letter addressed to U.S. President George W. Bush, Romanian President Ion Iliescu wrote that his country "stands by the U.S. and the other states that assumed the responsibility to firmly defend liberty, democracy, human rights, peace, and international stability," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Mr. Iliescu said that "six decades of totalitarianism" have taught Romania "the price for defending liberty is worth paying," and that Romania is "determined to participate for as long as it takes in the struggle against terrorism." On September 21 President Iliescu and Prime Minister Adrian Nastase received the new U.S. ambassador, Michael Guest.

Belarus fears influx of Afghan refugees

MIENSK - President Alyaksandr Lukashenka told journalists that Belarusian authorities are preparing to counter a possible huge influx of Afghan refugees should the U.S. conduct retaliatory strikes in Afghanistan. "You are aware of this illegal migration, and that we have been detaining hosts of people on the Polish border, deporting them - but they keep coming there. As of today, there are about 100,000 such migrants in Belarus. Thank God, they still behave decently. But their number can increase. So we are preparing to thwart the influx of illegal migrants here, but Western Europe should understand that they will not escape this surge. A road, a wide road through Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic countries has already been paved," Belarusian Television quoted Mr. Lukashenka as saying.

Armenia affirms readiness to cooperate

YEREVAN - Speaking in Yerevan on September 24 at a meeting with visiting officials of the European Union, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian again said Yerevan is ready to cooperate with the United States and the international community to fight international terrorist groups thought to be responsible for the September 11 attacks in the U.S., RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. But he declined to specify what form Armenia's support for such military action might take.

Shevardnadze offers support to U.S.

TBILISI - It is doubtful whether Georgia's military bases are of a suitable standard for use during the expected U.S. retaliatory strikes against international terrorists in Afghanistan, President Eduard Shevardnadze told journalists in Tbilisi on September 24. He pledged that Georgia will nonetheless offer any support that it can for such an operation. Interfax on September 21 quoted Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Kakha Sikharulidze as saying that the U.S. had not requested the use of either Georgian airspace or military facilities as of that time.

Ivanov likens Chechnya to Afghanistan

MOSCOW - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on September 24 that "Afghanistan and Chechnya are two branches of one tree," adding that "the roots of the tree are in Afghanistan," RIA-Novosti reported. Mr. Ivanov said that terrorism grows most easily in places no one controls, such as Afghanistan and parts of the Philippines. Mr. Ivanov also said that the solution to the problem of terrorism requires more than military strikes. He said Russia has no plans to participate in any U.S. raid on Afghanistan. The same day, representatives of Russian special services said they have arrested a man in Chechnya who was carrying plans for the strikes on the World Trade Center, Interfax reported.

Kazakstan offers use of airfields

ASTANA - Speaking at a press conference in Astana on September 24, President Nursultan Nazarbaev said Kazakstan is ready "to support an action against terrorism with all the means at its disposal," Reuters and RFE/RL's Kazak Service reported. Asked whether Astana would make its military bases available to the United States, he replied in the affirmative, but added that the U.S. has not yet made any specific request for aid of any kind.

Kyiv: U.S. response must be purposeful

KYIV - Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Serhii Borodenkov on September 18 said the U.S. response to the September 11 terrorist attacks should be "purposeful and well-founded," Interfax reported. Mr. Borodenkov noted that a possible military action by the United States should avoid causing civilian casualties or religious confrontation. Simultaneously, he stressed that those standing behind the attacks "must be dealt their due punishment," the Associated Press reported. Earlier that same day, the ministry advised Ukrainian citizens to leave Afghanistan and the regions of Pakistan close to the Afghan border and refrain from traveling to these areas for fear of U.S. retaliatory strikes.

Seleznev: Bush may be impeached

MOSCOW - Russian Duma Chairman Gennadii Seleznev said in an interview published in Vek on September 14 that the failure of the government to ward off the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on September 11 may prompt the U.S. Congress to begin considering impeachment of President George W. Bush, Interfax reported. Mr. Seleznev also said that "the West has underestimated the fact that terrorism is becoming a source of money-making."

Chechen president offers condolences

GROZNY - The Chechenpress website on September 13 carried the text of a letter from Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov expressing his condolences to the American people and government. He said that Chechens are "sincerely and deeply mourning together" with Americans because "America is the only country in the world today which has a tradition of protecting oppressed peoples from enslavement." Mr. Maskhadov said that Chechnya is "deeply indignant" at Russian efforts to link Chechnya to the terrorists or to try to exploit the tragedy in order to "justify their own policy of state terror in Chechnya." Mr. Maskhadov's comments coincided with a suggestion by Russian Defense Minister Ivanov that such links exist, and with predictions by a variety of Russian commentators and officials that Washington will now show greater understanding of the threat Russian forces face in Chechnya, Russian and Western agencies reported.

Kazak and Turkmen leaders react

ASTANA - Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his Turkmen counterpart, Saparmurat Nizayov, on September 12 sent messages of condolence to U.S. President George W. Bush following the previous day's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Mr. Nazarbaev expressed concern lest those attacks spark a global confrontation between Christians and Muslims, according to Interfax-Kazakstan. Kazak Foreign Affairs Minister Erlan Idrisov and Zharmakhan Tuyaqbaev, speaker of the lower chamber of Parliament, both said Kazakstan must join the global fight against terrorism, RFE/RL's Kazak Service reported.

Croatia announces day of mourning

ZAGREB - Prime Minister Ivica Racan said in Zagreb on September 13 that the following day will be an official day of mourning for the victims of the "insane terrorist attacks" in the United States, the DPA news agency reported. He added that "democratic Croatia is willing to make its contribution to the international struggle against terrorism."

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