We, too would like to welcome Ambassador Buhoara’s report, and to say that the U.S. is pleased to be associated with his creative efforts to use his Mission and the tools of the OSCE to further our mutual goals with the Government and people of Tajikistan. We are also pleased with the news of what looks like real progress in the implementation of the Moscow Agreement of June 1997.

This progress, we believe, has cleared the way for presidential and parliamentary elections.

To ensure that these elections are as free and fair as possible, we must secure the fullest possible participation of Tajikistan’s various regions and political groupings.

It will also be vital to ensure that parties contesting the elections have access to their potential constituents through the mass media.

We strongly encourage rapid work on an election law so that it can be implemented in a timely fashion and in a way that creates the conditions that would allow effective OSCE monitoring and oversight of the electoral process.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to close by reiterating our hope that the Mission will soon be able to open a field office in the city of Khojent. As the United Nations has reopened its office there, there is no reason to deny that opportunity to the OSCE. One can hardly ask the OSCE to assist with one breath while denying it the tools and access it needs with the one that follows.