By empty (4/27/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A group of about 80 demonstrators stormed the Kyrgyz Supreme Court building in Bishkek on 27 April. With another 100 picketers outside the building, the demonstrators threaten to set fire to the building unless the entire court resigns. Supreme Court Chairman Kurmanbek Osmonov had already submitted his resignation but it was not accepted by interim President Bakiev.

By empty (4/28/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Representatives of some 50 organizations and NGOs representing Georgia\'s ethnic minorities have addressed an open letter to President Mikheil Saakashvili criticizing the approach adopted by his administration to issues that impinge on the rights and sensitivities of national minorities, including revision of internal district borders, reform of the election process, and providing educational opportunities for members of ethnic minorities. Visiting Georgia on 27 April for the fifth time in three years, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rolf Ekeus met with Minister for Conflict Resolution Giorgi Khaindrava, OSCE Mission head Roy Reeve, and with Heidi Tagliavini, who is UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan\'s special representative for the Abkhaz conflict, to discuss the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts, the situation of the Greek and Armenian minorities, and the prospects for the repatriation to southern Georgia of the Meskhetians deported in 1944. Also on 27 April, Georgian Education Minister Kakha Lomaya announced to journalists the creation of a special school in Kutaisi to train 200-400 civil servants annually, primarily Armenians and Ossetians.

By empty (4/27/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

More than 400 workers at Uzbekistan\'s Shorsuv Metalworks were on the third day of a hunger strike on 27 April. The workers began their hunger strike as a protest against the plant\'s managers, who they say cheated them out of shares in the enterprise. Ferghana Province Governor Shermat Nurmatov had told the hunger strikers on 26 April that only a court could resolve the conflict, but the protestors replied that they have sought justice through the courts for eight months without result.