Field Reports

Since the news of President Heydar Aliyev’ worsening health condition reached Baku, a great outflow of foreign currency began. Though officials deny it has any relations with the President’s illness, the fact that an almost equal amount of currency was traded in June and July as in the entire first six months of the year seems to be no coincidence.

On the initiative of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior and the OSCE, a program to support law enforcement bodies of Kyrgyzstan was worked out. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is going to allocate 3.6 million euros to reform the law enforcement bodies of Kyrgyzstan. The plan prepared by the Kyrgyz side has been submitted to the OSCE and will be implemented as soon as the parties sign a memorandum.

As elections to local parliaments (maslikhats) scheduled for September 20 draw closer, political parties and NGOs in Kazakhstan step up their demands for fair and open voting procedures. They have good reasons for doing so. Parliamentary elections of 1999 came under fire both from the opposition and international human rights organizations.

The Third Investment Summit, and the 23rd meeting of the CIS Electric Power Council were held in the state residence in Cholpon-Ata, on the coast of Issyk-Kul lake in early July. The Investment summit gathered President of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akaev, state officials along with international financial organizations representatives, and important foreign businessmen, strategic investors, around the discussion table.

On July 9, 2003, the European Council as a joint action appointed a special representative to the South Caucasus, confirming the willingness of the EU to play a more active role in the region and a need to establish clear lines of responsibility.

On July 3, the most influential leader of the Azerbaijan population of Iran and head of the Movement of National Revival of Southern Azerbaijan (MNRSA) Mahmudali Chehregani arrived in Baku. He is a supporter of reforms in Iran with the use of strong American backing.

The past week in Azerbaijan was characterized with another wave of tensions between the authorities and opposition parties. Local analysts predict that, as the elections near, these tensions will increase even more due to the disagreements between the ruling and opposition parties over the conduct of the election campaign.

Azerbaijan’s relations with the Council of Europe experienced another test last week. The summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) included the situation of the political prisoners in Azerbaijan into its agenda. This created the possibility of sanctions for official Baku.

As the presidential elections in Azerbaijan heat up, the political scene becomes more and more interesting. Last week, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party created a controversy, which many domestic observers characterized as a \"pathetic situation\". On June 28, an “initiative group” gathered in Nakhichevan, the home of President Aliyev, and nominated his son Ilham Aliyev for the presidency. The current election code allows candidates to be nominated not only from political parties and blocks of political parties, but also from initiative groups numbering one hundred or more people.

Speaking before journalists on June 25, the deputy chairman of the anti-drug committee of the Justice Ministry Yerlan Saparov admitted that efforts in fighting drug abuse among young people fell far short of expectations. “The situation is very complicated” he said laconically answering awkward questions from the media. Available statistics have more to say.