DUSHANBE, Tajikistan -- Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov has signed a Mutual Forgiveness Act that forgives all participants in Tajikistan's recent civil war and calls for the release of prisoners of war.
The act, already signed by opposition leader Sayid Abdullo Nuri, was drafted by the new national reconciliation commission, which Nuri chairs, Interfax reported late Monday.
Rakhmonov and Nuri signed a peace treaty late last month that brought a formal end to five years of civil war in the Central Asian nation.
In a setback Tuesday, the United Nations said an exchange of Tajik prisoners of war and detainees had been delayed.
"They [Tajik government and armed Islamic opposition] agreed to carry out the exchange on 18 and 19 July 1997 in order to allow effective finalization of necessary organizational [matters]," UN military observers based in Dushanbe said in a statement. The first batch of 50 prisoners was scheduled to be swapped before Tuesday. ()
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