By empty (7/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The anticorruption council set up last month by President Robert Kocharian held its first meeting on 2 July, at which members decided to set up a \"monitoring commission\" tasked with studying the issue and drafting relevant proposals, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported on 5 July. Council chairman Bagrat Yesayan told RFE/RL he would welcome the participation in the council of opposition representatives, arguing that their refusal to do so would be tantamount to \"plunging into populism.\" But Artashes Geghamian, chairman of the opposition National Accord Party, dismissed the council outright as a \"farce,\" saying that the present authorities are themselves mired in corruption and any attempt to combat corruption should begin with the election of a new leadership.

By empty (7/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Magomed-hadji Albogachiev announced on 5 July at a specially convened meeting of Ingushetia\'s Muslim clergy that he has submitted his resignation as chief mufti to protest the \"anti-Islamic\" policies of President Murat Zyazikov, ingushetiya.ru reported. Albogachiev noted that the increase in corruption, abductions and other crimes, and the worsening economic situation are a source of concern and indignation to the republic\'s population, but even the coordinated attacks on Interior Ministry facilities on 21-22 June did not impel the Ingushetian leadership to abandon its policies, which Albogachiev branded as \"aimed at splitting society.

By empty (7/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Deputy Interior Minister Ivan Otto announced in Astana on 7 July that 30,000 policemen will be on duty to keep the peace during 19 September elections to Kazakhstan\'s lower chamber of parliament. Otto also noted that 11,000 Interior Ministry employees are currently checking and bar-coding voter rolls. Thus far, the Central Electoral Commission has submitted rolls with 7.