| | RFE/RL Newsline, 03-01-27 |
 | | Participants criticized the draft amendments to the Kyrgyz Constitution approved by an experts group convened by President Askar Akaev, arguing that the proposed changes serve to strengthen what they termed Akaev's "authoritarian rule." The amendments are to be put to a national referendum on 2 February. |
 | | It is hard to imagine that the Foreign Ministry under a strong and experienced minister would have failed to warn Niyazov of the probable international reaction to the decree, later adopted as law, that restricts marriages between citizens of Turkmenistan and foreigners by requiring that the foreigner deposit $50,000 with the state insurance agency. |
 | | As some members of the international community in Ashgabat have noted, in the future such marriages of convenience probably will continue; but they will not be registered with the authorities, thus depriving abandoned women of any legal recognition of their relationships. |
| www.hri.org /news/balkans/rferl/2003/03-01-27.rferl.html (12159 words) |