CENTRAL ASIA. ACTIVISTS CAMPAIGN TO END DEATH PENALTY

human rights activists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan met to plan a two-year campaign to abolish the death penalty in Central Asia.
The project, which was co-financed by the European Union, would involve international experts and enjoyed the backing of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF). Brigitte Dufour of the IHF said the campaign was being launched at a time when, it was feared, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan could end their moratoria on capital punishment. She added that the death penalty was "frequently" imposed in Uzbekistan. The fifth post-Soviet Central Asian republic, Turkmenistan, abolished the death penalty outright in 1999. IHF said the campaign would involve the dissemination of information and national and regional meetings.