Compare this press release
with this one and this
one. Judge by yourself.
Remains of 10 people found outside Grozny
Jan 19, 2003 Posted: 17:00 Moscow time (13:00 GMT)
VLADIKAVKAZ - Authorities launched an investigation after discovering the
remains of 10 people on the outskirts of the Chechen capital, an official
said Saturday.
The remains were discovered in Petropavlovskoye, a desolate suburb of Grozny
dotted by bombed-out factory buildings and oil rigs, an official in the
Moscow-backed Chechen administration said.
The Chechen Prosecutor's Office has taken charge of the investigation, and
the bodies have been sent to the city of Mozdok in the neighboring region
of North Ossetia for identification, said the official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity.
An official at Grozny's Zavodskoi district police department said the bodies
were found a week ago and that authorities had been unable to identify most
of them because they were damaged by an explosion. The official, also speaking
on condition of anonymity, said two bodies were identified - that of a man last
seen when he was detained by Russian troops during a security sweep in the town
of Argun in late December and a state farm director who was seized by gunmen around
the same time.
Residents in Argun this week protested against alleged abuses by Russian troops,
claiming that eight young men had gone missing during a military sweep last week
and were feared dead.
In Grozny, hundreds of people protested throughout the week, saying arbitrary
detentions and disappearances continue.
Stanislav Ilyasov, Russia's minister for Chechnya affairs, on Saturday repeated
officials' claims that Russian troops have scaled down their operations.
The troops "are in their barracks, and for the most part they conduct only
targeted work based on tip-offs," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as
saying.
However, the administration official said large-scale security sweeps continued,
with at least 180 people detained throughout Chechnya in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, an explosion tore through the Grozny's four-story medical college on
Friday evening, Chechnya's deputy prime minister, Movsar Khamidov, told
ITAR-Tass. No one was hurt.
In other action, rebels clashed with Russian troops Friday in Grozny's Zavodskoi
district, killing one serviceman and wounding one, the administration official
said. One rebel was killed. In a separate attack in the city's Leninsky
district, one serviceman was killed and one wounded.
Rebels fired on Russian positions 17 times in the past 24 hours, killing four
servicemen and wounding three, the official said. Another two troops were
killed when their car was blown up by a land mine near the town of Kurchaloi.
Ilyasov warned Saturday that rebels were planning more attacks against civilians
in Moscow and in Chechnya, where last month suicide bombers attacked the
government headquarters, killing at least 70 people. Defense Ministry spokesman
Nikolai Baranov said Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov had channeled
money to fighters in Chechnya to carry out terrorist attacks at schools,
hospitals, markets and other public places, according to ITAR-Tass. Baranov
did give details about the alleged transfer of funds.