The front issued a statement on 8 September denying having stockpiled arms in Keleki. The bombs, planted in districts adjoining the main route to the airport, went off within several minutes of one another. The Almaty committee of the Workers Movement on 9 September announced it is organizing a demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy on 12 September to protest NATO-sponsored military exercises, according to Kazakh Commercial Television and Reuters. The exercise is scheduled to take place in southern Kazakhstan and northern Uzbekistan from 14-21 September under NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Troops from U.S., Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan will be taking part.
Sheep are traditionally the most important, and least expensive, source of meat in Kyrgyzstan.
According to Akineyev, their number has dwindled in the last few years from some 10 million to 2-3 million. The minister blamed the overuse of easily accessible grazing lands and financial constraints on most herders preventing them from reaching remote, virtually untouched pastures. He added that there may be meat shortages and accompanying higher prices later this year. The growth of gross domestic product slowed to 1.4 percent from 5.8 percent in 1996, and industrial production fell by 2.9 percent, after increasing by 1.2 percent in 1996. Official unemployment rose to 10.6 percent in June from 10.1 percent in December 1996.