Russia, Saudi Arabia Send Humanitarian Aid to Tajikistan

Excerpt from report by state-owned Tajik Television First Channel on 19 February

The international community is continuing to provide humanitarian aid to Tajikistan due to the energy crisis in the country. A ceremony took place at the capital’s [Dushanbe] airport today to present humanitarian aid arrived from the Russian Federation.

Twelve diesel power substations of various capacities were delivered by plane to Dushanbe. Another four diesel power substations and 168 sets of heating equipment will be airlifted from Russia on 21 February. The total cost of the humanitarian aid is over 22m Russian roubles [around 1m dollars].

[Passage omitted: the Russian ambassador to Tajikistan saying the aid will cover various spheres]

Saudi Arabia also provided humanitarian aid to Tajikistan today. Over 20 tonnes of humanitarian freight arrived in Tajikistan from this country.

The head of a department of the Finance Ministry of Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Darwesh [phonetic], said that the aid had been provided under an order by the king of his country. The freight consists of 1,500 boxes of foodstuffs, 2,000 tents and 4,000 heaters. Ibrahim Darwesh said that in addition, cargo aircraft of Saudi Arabia would deliver over 80 tonnes of humanitarian aid in the next few days.

[Video shows a plane of the Russian Ministry Emergency Situations; the plane being unloaded; the Russian ambassador speaking to camera]

Originally published by Tajik Television First Channel, Dushanbe, in Russian 1400 19 Feb 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.