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

The Tajik government has approved a plan for the voluntary resettlement of inhabitants of mountain regions to the plains. The objective of the plan, which is to be implemented in 2003-07, is to provide jobs for the mountain dwellers and reduce poverty, according to the presidential press service. The Finance Ministry has been instructed to provide subsidized loans to families who want to resettle.

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

Eighteen hunger strikers are demanding a meeting with President Akaev to discuss the issue of punishment for the persons responsible for the deaths of their relatives who were shot by police during the March 2002 demonstration in Aksy Raion. The women were detained by police on 15 May when they tried to obtain a meeting with Akaev. They are demanding a written guarantee from the government that the president will receive them and that they will not be detained again.

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

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev met with the head of the Ministry of Transport\'s Aerospace Committee, Almas Kosunov, on 19 May to discuss the country\'s enhanced role running the Baikonur space complex. The two men also discussed the general development of Kazakhstan\'s aerospace industry. Kosunov reported that two Kazakhs who have been selected to take part in space missions, Aidyn Aimbetov and Mukhtar Aimakhanov, will be sent to the Russian cosmonaut-raining center outside of Moscow in July for two years of training.