By empty (12/4/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

More than 400 lawyers in Tashkent have declared a strike from 3 to 13 December to protest the interference of government agencies – the Interior Ministry, National Security Service, prosecutors, and judges -- in their work. The Initiative Group of the Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan reported that the striking lawyers were also protesting their low pay-- the average monthly wage of a lawyer as set by the government is 8,000 soms (about $8). The strikers said they were also angered by the constant flouting of the Criminal Procedural Code by prosecutors who question accused persons in the absence of their lawyers, by the falsification of investigation and court records, and by unjust sentences handed down in the courts.

By empty (12/4/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Parliament voted on 3 December to increase the minimum monthly legal wage from 5,000 drams ($9) to 13,000 drams beginning in January 2004, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau reported. Social Security Minister Aghvan Vartanian said the increase will in the first instance benefit some 35,000 public-sector workers who are currently paid 7,000-8,000 drams per month. The average salary in the public sector, which employs some 260,000 people, is 22,000 drams per month.

By empty (12/4/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

An explosion rocked the state television centre in Georgian capital Tbilisi on Wednesday, in what the new government said was an attempt to disrupt elections scheduled to replace the overthrown president. \"There are some forces in Georgia which are interested in bringing panic to this society, but I want to tell our society that we new leaders won\'t allow it,\" Georgia\'s interim president, Nino Burdzhanadze, told state television. \"We will be able to hold normal presidential elections in January.