By Rustam Mukhamedov (9/11/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Uyghurs are one of the national minorities, who live in Kyrgyzstan. According to the last official statistics for 1999, there were 46,700 uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan, but unofficial sources say that the total is about 100,000, the difference arising since in Soviet time many Uyghurs were registered as Uzbek. Uyghurs are on the fifth place after the Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Russian and Dungan (Hui) minorities in Kyrgyzstan.

By Gulzina Karim kyzy (9/25/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The protest march to Bishkek, which began on September 4 and which involved some 1000 protestors, stopped on September 13 after a memorandum was signed as a compromise agreement between senior government officials and opposition parliamentarian Azimbek Beknazarov.  The halting of the march was in general perceived as a good sign, the main result of which is believed to be the avoidance of renewed bloodshed.  However, the way the memorandum was achieved is evoking different reactions among people and the fulfillment of the obligations listed in the agreement from the part of the government is already being put under question.

By Marat Yermukanov, Kazakhstan (9/25/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

To many in Kazakhstan, Islamic fundamentalism and global terrorism are something vague and ominous. Some political analysts, however, are convinced that the new geopolitical situation taking shape in the wake of the American-led war against Taliban in Afghanistan offers a rare chance to Kazakhstan to gain a leading position in Central Asia.

Hardly a week passes by in Kazakhstan without national television carrying images of gas-masked young soldiers of anti-terrorist detachments or special task forces bravely crushing their imaginary enemies on training fields.