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. Residents of the two villages staged demonstrations in December 2001 to focus attention on the need to demarcate the frontier between the two countries. (Interfax)