By empty (10/29/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Violence and intimidation are threatening efforts to draft a new Afghan constitution, Human Rights Watch says. In an open letter to President Hamid Karzai, the New York-based watchdog called on the Afghan Government to crack down on warlords. It said they were interfering with the selection of candidates to the loya jirga or grand council due to discuss the draft constitution in December.

By empty (10/29/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Despite Uzbek President Islam Karimov\'s declared intention to develop private farming in Uzbekistan, armers still do not have the right to decide for themselves what to grow, members of a national association of peasants and farmers who asked that their names not be used complained to Deutsche Welle. Karimov has told the Justice Ministry to prevent government agencies from interfering with the activities of farmers, but has also asserted that since land is allotted to farmers by commissions headed by oblast governors, farmers may grow only those crops specified in their contracts with the oblast administrations. Planting other crops is considered not only a misuse of the land, but constitutes a \"grave violation\" of the farmer\'s contract that would have legal consequences.

By empty (10/29/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Zviad Chokheli, a member of the opposition New Rightists who is running in the 2 November Georgian parliamentary elections in a single-mandate constituency, was shot at two times late on 29 October, surviving only thanks to a bulletproof vest, Georgian media reported. His car was destroyed by a bomb 30 minutes later, but Chokheli was not in the vehicle at the time. Also late on 29 October, Revival Union candidate Temur Goksadze was pulled from his car, beaten, and thrown into a river.