Itar-Tass quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying that Russia was seriously concerned because the rebels, who fled to neighboring Afghanistan after losing a civil war, were seeking power by force.
"Armed confrontation can only complicate the peacekeeping efforts and is in the interests of those who do not want a normalization but link their political future to ... a second civil war in Tajikistan," the statement said. Tajik rebels were driven into Afghanistan in 1992.
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