Russia's top security envoy warned the United States yesterday against breaking international law in its planned attack on suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan.
"There must be a response to terrorist acts, of course... but this response should be carried out within the framework of international law," said Russia's Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo while on a tour of Central Asia.
"Peaceful and innocent people should not suffer" in a US reprisal attack, Rushailo stressed.
Yesterday Rushailo met Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarabayev and Defence Minister Sat Tokpakbayev after being dispatched to the region by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said the aim of the visit, which comes amid speculation about possible US retaliatory strikes against Osama bin Laden in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, was intended to help exchange opinions, evaluate the situation and co-ordinate joint efforts.
A senior Kazakh official earlier this week promised that Kazakhstan would "give everything that is necessary and needed to punish terrorists."
Uzbekistan, which shares a 170-kilometre border with Afghanistan, indicated on Monday that it was ready to allow its territory to be used by the United States for an Afghan strike.
Russia has been very cautious in allowing NATO troops to be stationed in former Soviet republics, and Rushailo was yesterday due to fly for meetings with Uzbek officials.
"The situation in Central Asia was never easy, I mean in terms of the confrontation with international terrorism and after the September 11 events and terrorism acts in the US, it naturally concerns the president of Russia," he said.
(China Daily 09/19/2001)
