Excerpt from report by the Kyrgyz newspaper 'Vecherniy Bishkek'

It is a paradox but true: Kyrgyzstan is geographically a Central Asian
state, but politically it is a member of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and all people in Kyrgyzstan are Europeans.
A few days ago the OSCE mission in Bishkek, which was set up in 1999, has
begun training observers for the forthcoming Kyrgyz parliamentary
elections, the mission's acting head, historian, Mikhail Mgeladze, told a
`Vecherniy Bishkek' correspondent.

"Recently, speaking at an OSCE summit in Istanbul, [Kyrgyz President] Askar
Akayev officially invited us to monitor the parliamentary elections in
Kyrgyzstan in February 2000. In this connection, our office has begun
corresponding preparations. We have trained special instructors in all
Kyrgyz regions and Bishkek. These instructors will train local observers
from various parties and nongovernmental organizations.

"A group of officers from the Warsaw headquarters of the Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will arrive in Bishkek in
mid-January 2000 to organize the monitoring of the elections."
[Passage to end omitted: on importance of OSCE's participation in elections;
on the organization's principles concerning elections] [p 3]

Source: 'Vecherniy Bishkek', Bishkek, in Russian 27 Dec 99 p*
BBC Mon CAU 120100/** BB/JF/MK