Bishkek

     I had received detailed messages about the meeting in Bishkek. They confirm this account from Margaret MacKenzie, wife of David Hooson. She writes:


     The meeting was ostensibly to reconfirm cooperation along borders, but that it was really a discussion of the perceived threat of Islamic Fundamentalism in Central Asia, extending from Zinjiang province right across the former Soviet republics.
     I attributed such importance to it because the meeting was attended by Yeltsin himself,as well as by Zhang Zemin, and the Leaders of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and of course Kyrgyzstan, and I think, notably not by representatives from Zhinjian province. I know that the Central Asian leaders are themselves Islamic, but not fundamentalist--as (my husband) David (also concerned by the situation) points out.
     At the same time, there was some sort of hostage crisis in Bishkek I believe, because guerillas, claimed to have been aided by some Tajiks, had seized four Japanese geologists.

Ronald Hilton - 09/09/99