Opposition Appeal Against the Kyrgyz-Chinese Border Agreement To Be Considered By Constitutional Court Next Week

BISHKEK. An appeal by a group of opposition lawmakers over the ratified Kyrgyz-Chinese agreement will be considered by the Constitutional Court next week. Ishenbay Kadyrbekov, one of the authors of the appeal, told RFE/RL today that the Court hearing will start at the beginning of next week. The hearing was first scheduled for January 27, 2003. However, the illness of the deputy of the Legislative Assembly (lower chamber) of the Kyrgyz Parliament, Kadyrbekov, was the main reason for postponing the hearing. Eleven deputies of the parliament chamber had appealed to the Constitutional Court in May 2002, urging it to reject the Kyrgyz-Chinese border agreements as illegal. The opposition says that there were some jurisdictional irregularities during the ratification processes. However, the Government is praising the agreements as a big diplomatic victory of the young post-Soviet state to deal with the disputed issues that were not resolved by the Tzarist Russia and Communist Soviet Union.