By empty (8/31/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Russian Orthodox Church has criticized a French law banning public school students from wearing religious attire, including headscarves, a measure that led to the abduction of two French journalists in Iraq. \"At the very beginning, when this law was being drafted, we voiced our concern over this ban on expressing one\'s religious sentiments,\" Father Mikhail Dudko, spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, told Interfax on Monday. Apart from headscarves, the law forbids school students from wearing any conspicuous signs showing their religious affiliation, including large Christian crosses.

By empty (8/31/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

President Askar Akaev lauded his country\'s achievements at a 30 August ceremony in Bishkek on the eve of Kyrgyzstan\'s Independence Day. \"We live as free people in a free country and serve for the world as an example of the peaceful coexistence of dozens of ethnic groups, various cultures, and religions,\" Akaev said. He announced that his country\'s main achievement since gaining its independence on 31 August 1991 is that it has taken shape as an independent state and that its people have become a self-sufficient nation.

By empty (8/31/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, co-chairman of the coordination council for the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan\'s (DVK) election bloc, told a news conference on 31 August that the bloc has not ruled out boycotting 19 September parliamentary elections. Khozhakhmetov stressed that political parties can decide to boycott elections up to a week before voting begins without suffering legal or financial sanctions. He noted that the two parties, as well as the moderate opposition party Ak Zhol, have previously announced that they might boycott elections unless the government limited electronic voting to an experiment affecting no more than 2-3 percent of the population, released and exonerated imprisoned DVK leader Ghalymzhan Zhaqiyanov, and provided equal access to the media for all candidates in their election campaigns.