20 July 2000
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
KamAZ To Sell Trucks To Syria
The KamAZ truck concern has signed a contract with the Syrian holding Sakal and Sons, which controls 70 percent of the automobile market of the country, on the delivery of 70 automobiles Tatar Radio reported. The holding is seeking to develop cooperation with automotive works in Russia and the CIS countries and intends to increase the number of Russian car exports to 3,000 a year. Company representatives have expressed an interest in cooperation with Tatarstan's enterprises and shipping their products on to Arabic countries.
POZIS Achieved Production Record
The Yeshel Uzen Sergo plant POZIS increased its production by 390 percent in the first half of this, achieving the best results among Tatarstan's defense industry enterprises, Tatar-inform reported on 19 July. So far this year, the company's work force has grown by 1,000 employees.
Shaimiev Presents Boat To Monastery
Tatarstan's President Mintimer Shaimiev has presented his motor boat "Amur" to the Uspensky monastery, located on the Island of Sviyazhsk, Tatar-inform reported on 19 July. Three years ago, Shaimiev gave the monastery a tractor. Pater Kirill told Tatar-inform that the boat will be used to ferry more than 60 monastery employees from the island across the Volga River.
Chechen Representative holds a press conference
The Chally branch of the TPC arranged a news conference by Aiza Abubakirova, the vice-president of the charity fund Feniks, created at the new Chechen government, Tatar Radio reported. Abubakirova told reporters that her mission is to seek help for Chechnya's civilians, whose current predicament is disastrous. She said women, children, and old people are totally isolated in the republic and lack soap and medicines. Khizir Israilov, the head of Tatarstan s Chechen community, who also participated in the news conference, said that Chechnya's civilians will die if they have to endure another winter without humanitarian aid in war conditions. Israilov informed that in 1991, the Chechen population totaled 1,700 thousand people, 200,000 people were killed during the first Chechen war and 20,000 during the second one. Some 700,000 people left the republic last few years. He said that currently the population of Chechnya totals some 600,000-700,000.
Rakhimov To Act Full Term
The Bashkortostan president's press secretary, Elfire Barbusova, has denied rumors of the pre-term resignation of President Murtaza Rakhimov, an RFE/RL correspondent reported on 19 July. Barbusova said that the both the president and the republican State Assembly will serve until the end of their terms in office. She reported that Rakhimov has good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the activities of the Bashkortostan president and parliament were very positively assessed by deputies of the presidential representative to Privolzhsky district during their visit to Ufa earlier this week.
By Gulnara Khasanova