By empty (4/25/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A court in Tajikistan\'s Sughd Province on 22 April sentenced Davron Jabborov to a 10-year prison term and confiscation of his property for membership in the banned Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir and bigamy, RFE/RL\'s Tajik Service reported. Jabborov had worked in the counterterrorism section of the security services in Sughd Province from 1995 to 1998 before he was dismissed for a firearm mishap that led to the death of a colleague. Although Jabborov admitted to membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir, he denied any guilt, saying, \"The sentence is unjust, since it was not proven that I broke the law, because Hizb ut-Tahrir does not set the goal of overthrowing the government by force.

By empty (4/26/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Georgian border guards found 12 anti-personnel mines dating from Soviet times on the border with Turkey, a spokesman for the Georgian Border Service told Interfax on Tuesday. \"It was common practice in Soviet times to plant mines along the border to prevent border violations, but Russian frontier guards should have left their Georgian colleagues mine maps, something they failed to do. Today we face the threat of potential mine explosions because we don\'t know where these mines are located,\" the spokesman said.

By empty (4/26/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Progress made recently at Russian- Georgian negotiations on the withdrawal of Russian military bases from that country is due to the fact that Tbilisi has taken a more realistic attitude towards this issue, a Moscow-based diplomatic source told Interfax on Tuesday. \"When Russia talks about a convergence between Moscow\'s and Tbilisi\'s positions concerning the time and conditions of the presence of the Russian military bases on Georgian territory, it is implied that Georgia has begun to discuss more realistic dates for their withdrawal,\" the source said. (Interfax).