peoples. In Geneva the High Commissioner met Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine V. Durdinets and Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Arkady Demidenko. On 3 and 4 April 1996 the High Commissioner visited Kiyv. The aim of the visit was to discuss some aspects of the high Commissioner’s recommendations on the partial approval of the Crimean Constitution with Ukrainian officials. The High Commissioner had meetings with Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament O. Moroz, Minister of Foreign Affairs H. Udovenko, Minister of Justice S. Holovaty, Presidential Representative for Crimea D. Stepanyk and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the ARC A. Danelyan. FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA The High Commissioner visited the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 25-27 March. He had meetings with President Gligorov, Prime Minister Craenkovski, Foreign Minister Frckovski, Education Minister Mrs Todorova and Interior Minister Cokrevski. He also met with the Speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Petrovski, and the Presidents of the Albanian parties, Mr. Haliti of the PDP (Party for Democratic Prosperity), Mr. Xhaferi of the PDP-PAM (PDP - Party of Albanians in Macedonia) and Mr. Halimi of the NDP (People’s Democratic Party). The main topic of the discussions concerned interethnic relations. KYRGYZSTAN On 5-9 April the High Commissioner visited Kyrgyzstan. The chief objective of the visit was to study the interethnic situation in Southern Kyrgyzstan. To this end the High Commissioner travelled extensively to Osh and Djalal-Abad regions of Kyrgyzstan and had numerous meetings with local officials and NGO representatives. Among his interlocutors were Deputy Governor of Osh Region Mr R. Joldoshev, Chairman of the Uzbek Cultural Centre and MP Mr D. Sabirov, Rector of the UzbekKyrgyz Higher College in Osh Mr Beshimov, Governor of the Djalal-Abad Region Mr K. Bakiev. The High Commissioner also met with representatives of the Uzbek, Uigur, Slavic (Russian-speaking), Turkish, Tadjik and German National Culture Centres in the two regions. On 9 April the High Commissioner also visited the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, to share his impressions with government officials and to discuss future co-operation and assistance in the Assembly of the People of Kyrgyzstan. He met State Secretary Mr Ishenbay Abolurazakov, Deputy Prime Minister M. Djangaracheva, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affair T. Chinetov, and Chairman of the Assembly of People of Kyrgyzstan S. Begaliev. ESTONIA On 7-9 May the High Commissioner visited Tallinn where he had meetings with President Lennart Meri, Foreign Minister Siim Kallas, Vice President of the Riigikogu (parliament) Tunne Kelam and other officials. The aim of his visit was to discuss further developments regarding the naturalisation process for citizenship in Estonia, the language requirements set for non-Estonians as part of this process, and the kind of help other states can provide for Estonian language education. Among other issues discussed was the decision by President Meri in the early part of May to send back to parliament for reconsideration the new Law on Local Elections. The law set out, inter alia, requirements for citizens intending to stand as candidates in the local elections in October this year. OSCE ODIHR Bulletin Vol. 4 No. 3 39