By empty (1/10/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakh opposition figures warned that a 6 January court decision to liquidate the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) political party signifies the start of a political crackdown, even as the party planned to appeal the ruling, agencies and newspapers reported. Yevgenii Zhovtis, director of Kazakhstan\'s International Bureau for Human Rights and a legal consultant to DVK, told a news conference in Almaty on 7 January, \"We shall prove that the judge did not pay attention to all the documents that were submitted and request that the court annul the decision.\" But in a statement published on 7 January by the opposition newspaper \"Navigator,\" Zhovtis cast doubt on the hope of obtaining a fair decision from a Kazakh court.

By empty (1/9/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Seven Ukrainian peacekeepers and one Kazakh soldier serving in Iraq were killed when one of the aerial bombs Kazakh sapper unit servicemen were transferring from a truck to a depot went off, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry\'s press service told Interfax. The incident occurred in the province of Wasit on Sunday, the press service said. The explosion injured another seven Ukrainian and four Kazakh peacekeepers.

By empty (1/8/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A group of economists from Tbilisi State University have written to President Mikheil Saakashvili and the Georgian government warning against plans to privatize several major enterprises, including the Chiatura Manganese Plant, coal mines in Tkibuli, and the Georgian merchant fleet. The economists argued that, rather than selling those enterprises to foreign bidders, which would result in a one-time infusion of funds to the state budget, the government should have transformed them into joint-stock companies in which the population at large could purchase shares. (Caucasus Press).