By Ruth Ingram (11/21/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)

China’s "war on terrorism" at home could be threatening to bury "seeds for violence" according to an exiled Uyghur in America. The stepped-up "strike hard" campaign against what is termed fundamentalism and separatism in China’s Northwest since September 11^th has left at least three Uyghurs executed, three on suspended death row, and hundreds more detained and under suspicion.

While Uyghurs have been further grieved and frustrated, China could be storing up trouble for itself, claims Huji Tuerdi, Uyghur human rights campaigner and chairman of the Uyghur American Association.

By Marat Yermukanov, Kazakhstan (11/21/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)

"An Uzbek is my own brother", a common Kazakh saying goes. In reality, present- day Kazakh-Uzbek relations could be called anything but fraternal. The tension between the two ethnically close neighbors have manifested themselves in numerous border skirmishes during the last two years.

By Karim Sayid (11/21/2001 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Quite recently a group of intellectuals, writers and journalists of Kazakhstan addressed an open letter to the president of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev, in which they express their growing concern about the repeated attempts of law-enforcement bodies to limit the freedom of speech under invented pretexts. "Any media organization trying to advocate its own view is put under pressure. The absurdity has already reached the point when a court imposes a ban on a paper not earlier than a day before it comes out of print without explaining reasons.