By empty (3/19/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Uzbek government on 19 March issued a statement promising that the country\'s authorities will continue their efforts to end the torture of people in detention, Interfax reported the same day. The statement came in response to a draft report submitted to the UN Commission on Human Rights by Theo van Boven, the UN Special Rapporteur Against Torture. According to the report, the Uzbek statement acknowledged that \"gross violations of human rights are committed in prisons\" in Uzbekistan.

By empty (3/19/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Police and Interior Ministry troops armed with rubber truncheons and backed by water cannons prevented several thousand opposition protesters from approaching the presidential palace in Yerevan on 18 March, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau reported. The demonstrators were protesting the 15 March arrest, which they consider politically motivated, of businessman Armen Sargsian on suspicion of having commissioned the 28 December slaying of Armenian National Television and Radio head Tigran Naghdalian. Sargsian\'s lawyer, Robert Grigorian, told RFE/RL that the charges against Sargsian should be dropped because of a lack of evidence.

By empty (3/19/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In a statement released on 18 March, the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) has appealed to President Robert Kocharian to \"fully investigate all alleged violations of the election process and the rule of law\" during the recent presidential election, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Referring to the OSCE Election Observation Mission\'s criticisms of the ballot, the AAA statement said that \"restoration of the public\'s trust in the democratic process must now be the highest priority of the Kocharian Administration.\" In an undated statement posted on Groong on 19 March, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian sought to reassure diaspora Armenians who, he said, have \"not yet fully understood Armenia and its growing pains.