By empty (5/7/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Azimbek Beknazarov, whose arrest and trial earlier this year sparked the nationwide protests that culminated in the clashes on 17-18 March between police and demonstrators in Djalalabad Oblast\'s Aksy Raion, told RFE/RL\'s Bishkek bureau on 6 May that he has begun collecting the 31 signatures required to establish a special parliament commission charged with launching impeachment proceedings against President Askar Akaev. Beknazarov argued that several grounds exist for impeachment: he claimed Akaev violated the constitution by ceding Kyrgyz territory to China; by violating human rights; by being elected three times, in 1991, 1995 and 2000, although the constitution allows one individual to serve only for two presidential terms; and by giving the order to police to open fire on demonstrators in Aksy on 17 March. (RFE/RL).The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.
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