For the past two weeks, NPR's Mike Shuster has been travelling through the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, following the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road... from Iran through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and now Tadjikistan, which has been embroiled in a civil war since 1992. He spoke with Robert Siegel from the town of Garm, about 100 miles east of Tadjikistan's capital, Dushanbe. He says that the people in Garm are proud of their new-found independence, but are struggling to rebuild a city that has essentially collapsed with the departure of the Soviets and a four year civil war.
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