By empty (5/18/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Tajik Border Committee head Nuralisho Nazarov told Interfax on 18 May that Tajikistan has developed a program for the removal of land mines left over from the country\'s 1992-97 civil war and those laid by the Uzbek military on the border between the two countries to stop incursions by Muslim militants. He added, however, that the country does not have the $13 million needed to implement the program. Nazarov noted that 70 Tajik citizens have stepped on land mines in the last three years and that 50 of them were killed.

By empty (5/19/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Turkmen Prosecutor-General Kurbanbibi Atadjanova has said that Moscow Oblast\'s Zarai Raion court has issued an arrest warrant for the former head of Turkmenistan\'s Central Bank, Khudaiberdy Orazov. Orazov fled to Russia in early 2002 and joined the Turkmen opposition in exile. The Turkmen authorities subsequently accused him of embezzling $72 million during his tenure at the Central Bank.

By empty (5/19/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Kazakh parliament approved a vote of confidence on 19 May in the government of Kazakh Prime Minister Imanghaliy Tasmaghambetov. The vote had been scheduled for 16 May, but was postponed. Fifty-five deputies of the Mazhilis (lower house) voted against the government and 18 for it, while three senators voted against the government and 34 voted for it, according to the report.