Press release No. 320, December 2, 2002

Assassination of former head of Alkhan-Kala administration Malika Umazheva, 17 teenagers were kidnapped in Grozny. New unlawful detentions in Urus-Martan district.

Report from the Chechen Republic Grozny Village district Assassination of former head of Alkhan-Kala administration Malika Umazheva According to correspondents of regional department of law-protecting center "Memorial" in Igushetia, on November 29, 2002 at night in the village Alkhan-Kala of Grozny Village district Malika Abumuslimovna Umazheva, former head of Alkhan-Kala administration, was assassinated.

It has been found out that about 24.00 four Russian soldiers in camouflage armed with sniper rifles with mufflers broke into her house where she lived with her two nieces (orphans). They ordered everybody to lie on the floor and searched the house, after that they asked Malika to go to a shed for further search. Having bad apprehensions, the girls pleaded them not to kill Malika. The soldiers promised that she would stay alive, but soon after they had taken her out the relatives heard the shot.

According to the relatives, on November 16 some servicemen came to their house and asked to identify a few "terrorists" who were detained in Khan-Kala, however, Imazheva refused saying that she was no longer the head of administration. Later it became known that nobody had been arrested in the village that evening. This fact gives serious grounds to think that federals has long wanted to get rid of Malika Umazheva, who did her best to make facts of war crimes committed by armed forces in her native place known by Russian and world public.

Malika Umazheva cooperated closely with Mass Media ("Novaya Gazeta"), regional department of The Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship, and other law-protecting organizations. For more details see materials of Information Center "Memorial" http://viktorpopkov.narod.ru

Grozny 17 teenagers were kidnapped in Grozny On November 27, 2002 about 8.00 a.m. at the bus-station "Novaya Ostanovka" in Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny 17 teenagers (local residents) were detained and driven away in the unknown direction. Relatives of the kidnapped gathered near Kadyrov"s administration and demanded to set free their sons and to stop lawlessness in the republic. (From our correspondent.)

Urus-Martan district New unlawful detentions in Urus-Martan district On November 26, 2002 in the village Goiskoe of Urus-Martan district a well-known in Chechnya religious leader Abdul-Vakhid Yusupov, who has great authority over residents, was detained by soldiers in his own house. Yusupov's relatives and neighbours managed to find out the place he was kept in. Residents of a number of villages of Urus-Martan district, including the village Goiskoe, organized a meeting against unlawful actions of federal forces near the block post where the detained was kept. In the evening under the pressure of inhabitants Yusupov was released.

As it became known, servicemen had been setting the dogs on him. According to local residents, very often federals take off the documents of the detained and only after that let them go. Lack of documents automatically leads to further detentions in the course of new operations. In case a man don't come to federals at once, he will be thrown into a silo pit and be kept there for a few days being subject to torture and beating. (From our correspondent.)

On November 27, 2002 in the village Goiskoe of Urus-Martan district federal forces representatives detained Yusupov brothers - Adam, born in 1982, and Bislan, born in 1986. The detained were kept on the outskirts of the village, in a small carriage at the watchtower. Bislan, dumb since childhood, was subject to beating in order to extract from him the needed evidence, in particular, that he had landed mines and helped terrorists. On the next day the brothers were released. (From our correspondent.)

Editor in chief Stanislav Dmitriyevsky. Editor of this edition Oksana Bazhina. This edition has been put out with the support of The National Endowment for Democracy, as part of their "Russian-Chechen Information Partnership".

The Society of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Prospekt Gagarina 28, room 27, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 603007 http://www.chechenpress.info/english/news/12_2002/07/1.htm