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News article: Albright Praises Uzbek Customs' Seizure ofRadioactive Materials



Colleagues -

The following article appears in today's edition of "Russia Today".

Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us 

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Albright Praises Uzbek Customs' Seizure of Radioactive Materials

TASHKENT, Apr 19, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Wednesday praised Uzbekistan's training college for customs officers, who in March seized radioactive material they said was bound for Pakistan.

"This was important news in the United States and it was good news," Albright said on a visit to Uzbekistan's Customs College that President Islam Karimov established in 1998 in the capital, Tashkent.

"I can't say I get good news everyday, but this was very good news for us," Albright said.

Albright visited the college on the final day of a five-day Central Asian tour which also included stops in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and was aimed at boosting US influence in the oil-rich region.

Washington has identified Uzbekistan as a potential route for weapons of mass destruction in 1998 and has supplied various equipment, including a radiation pager that Albright said was used to detect the material seized in March.

The radioactive materials were valued at more than 18,000 dollars (euros) and were 250 times more radioactive than legal limits, Uzbek officials said.

Earlier this month, Islamabad denied that the materials were bound for Pakistan and Kazakhstan has claimed the contents were not radioactive. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse) 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
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