By empty (8/19/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Residents of the village of Akhali Samgori have staged a demonstration to focus attention on their opposition to routing the planned Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum pipelines through that village. The villagers warned they will prevent construction unless the village is provided with a mains water supply and decent roads. (Caucasus Press).

By empty (8/19/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Residents of the villages of Baghys and Turkestanets on the Kazakh-Uzbek border staged a demonstration on 19 August outside the government building in Astana to demand a meeting with either President Nursultan Nazarbaev or Prime Minister Imanghaliy Tasmagambetov. The villagers want to know whether the Kazakh government has reached an agreement with Tashkent on demarcation of the final sections of the two countries' shared border. Astana has reportedly agreed that Baghys should remain part of Kazakhstan, but that Turkestanets and the surrounding territory, including pastures, should be ceded to Uzbekistan, even though the population of Turkestanets is predominantly Kazakh.

By empty (8/19/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Rakhmonov has asked his Press Secretary Zafar Saidov to remind government officials and journalists of his aversion on principle to excessive adulation or similar manifestations of a cult of personality. The warning, Saidov said, is intended to forestall excessive attention to the president's upcoming 50th birthday, which he regards as a "purely family affair." Rakhmonov issued a similar warning late last year against extensive and fawning media coverage of his activities.