Refugees die

TASHKENT (Reuter) - Tajik refugees trapped in freezing weather on the border with Afghanistan are dying every day, a Russian general said in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, yesterday.

General Vitaly Gritsan, regional border guard commander, said about 20,000 refugees fleeing civil war zones in their homeland had crossed into Afghanistan in the past two weeks. About 100,000 others remained stranded along the frontier with only Russian border guards to help them, General Gritsan said. He invited outside observers to witness the 'human misery'.