in the system of the Soviet era, the procurator general and his regional and local equivalents are both the state's chief prosecuting officials and the chief investigators of criminal cases, a configuration that limits the pretrial rights of defendants. Part I. Fundamental principles Chapter 1 - State Sovereignty - Article 1: Uzbekistan is a sovereign democratic republic. Both names of the state - the Republic of Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan - shall be equivalent. - Article 2: The state shall express the will of the people and serve their interests. State bodies and officials shall be accountable to the society and the citizens. - Article 3: The Republic of Uzbekistan shall determine its national-state and administrative-territorial structure, its structure of state authority and administration, and shall pursue independent home and foreign policies. The state frontier and the territory of Uzbekistan shall be inviolable and indivisible. - Article 4: The state language of the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be Uzbek. The Republic of Uzbekistan shall ensure a respectful attitude toward the languages, customs and traditions of all nationalities and ethnic groups living on its territory, and create the conditions necessary for their development. - Article 5: The Republic of Uzbekistan shall have its state symbols - the flag, the emblem, and the anthem-sanctioned by the law. - Article 6: The capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be the city of Tashkent. Chapter 2 - Democracy - Article 7: The people are the sole source of state power. State power in the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be exercised in the interests of the people and solely by the bodies empowered therefore by the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the laws passed on its basis. Any seizure of powers belonging to state authority, suspension or termination of activity of the bodies of state authority contrary to the procedure prescribed by the Constitution, as well as the formation of any new or parallel bodies of state authority shall be regarded as unconstitutional and punishable by law. - Article 8: The people of Uzbekistan consists of the citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan irrespective of their nationality. - Article 9: Major matters of public and state life shall be submitted for a nationwide discussion and put to a direct vote of the people (a referendum). The procedure for holding referendums shall be specified by law. - Article 10: Only the National Assembly (Oliy