Ashgabat, 21 January 1997 (RFE/RL) - A Turkmen-language weekly says 47 police officers have recently been arrested in Turkmenistan on charges of criminal activities. Quoting the Interior Ministry, the weekly says that 11 Defense Ministry officials and five National Security Council officials were also arrested. Earlier President Saparmurad Niyazov publicly accused police of involvement in illegal activities.
According to the same weekly 59 people were sentenced to death for drug trafficking last year.
Thailand Steel Company To Sue Kazakhstan
Thailand's "Sahavirtiya Steel Industries" (SSI) is planning to sue Kazakh steel producers for price dumping, which has been financially damaging to SSI.
At a news conference SSI managing director Adizak Loudjin said that 50,000 to 100,000 tons of steel are being imported to Thailand annually from Kazakhstan. The amount is then sold at $260-$270 per ton. The normal SSI price per ton is $340.
In 1996, Thailand imported 1.4 to 1.5 million tons of steel. About 80 percent of the whole amount came from countries of the former Soviet Union.
Earlier, steel producers in Russia and Ukraine had also been accused of dumping. According to Loudjin this had forced Thailand's authorities to introduce a so-called anti-dumping tax of about 25-50 percent of the real market price.