By Anna Kirey, American University-Kyrgyzstan student, department of Journalism (6/7/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Numerous news agencies have reported that three Kyrgyz protestors are taking the desperate act of self-immolation should the government refuse to release arrested opposition leader, Feliks Kulov, the chairman of Ar-Namys party and declare invalid the results of the February-March parliamentary elections. Since March 14, two days after the second round of elections were declared unfair by the OSCE and the other monitoring organization in the Kara-Buura district in Kyrgyzstan’s Talas region, protestors set out for Bishkek in quest of justice. The protestors have frequently faced arrest and have been moved to the city's Maksim Gorky Square, which is hidden by huge buildings away from view.

By Elnura Osmonalieva, Student, Department of Journalism, American University-Kyrgyzstan (6/21/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Bishkek branch of Amnesty International was established in September 1999. It involves about twenty students from American University in Kyrgyzstan along with other students from Bishkek University of Humanities and Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic University. The coordinator of the group, and also its founder is Ari Katz, a teacher and Coordinator of Student Affairs at American University--Kyrgyzstan.

By Anonymous, Tashkent (6/21/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)

There are many minority groups living in Uzbekistan including Russians, Jews and Koreans. But it is not widely known that Uzbekistan is also home to quite a considerable number of Greeks. Some of the Greek Uzbeks were brought to Central Asia in 1930s from the Black Sea region by order of Josef Stalin.