The following was in the news today:
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 45, Part I, 10 March 2003
KYRGYZSTAN SEEKS SOLUTION FOR EXCLAVE. Kyrgyzstan's Prime Minister
Nikolai Tanaev told an expanded session of the parliamentary
Committee on Law and State Order on 7 March that the problem of the
Barak exclave should be settled by 15 March, Interfax reported. The
southern exclave is surrounded by Uzbek territory, and last month
Tanaev met with Barak residents to discuss their demands that they
should either have free access to Kyrgyzstan via Uzbekistan or the
village should be resettled inside Kyrgyzstan (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
24 February 2003). Uzbekistan closed the border at the beginning of
the year. Tanaev was quoted as telling the committee that there are
two options for Barak: either the Uzbek authorities must be persuaded
to open a border crossing on preferential terms for Kyrgyz citizens
or the village must be moved. He said that requesting free transit
across Uzbek territory was not an option, because Uzbekistan might
request a free-transit corridor to the Uzbek exclave of Sokh in
Kyrgyzstan. Barak, a relic of Soviet-era border drawing, covers 200
hectares and has a population of 1,500. BB
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Christian Berghänel
Sweden
christian.berghanel@...