More election irregularities noted

Evidence continues to mount that the October 5 election was massively rigged. BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg participated in an election day tour of Chechnya that was organized and closely controlled by the Russian authorities. He reported on October 11 that at a polling station in Achkhoi-Martan "there seemed to be more troops hanging around than voters. In fact, I could not see anyone taking part in the ballot at all. Still, that did not stop the local election chief boasting that the turnout was high. 'But where is everybody?' I asked, slightly puzzled. He did not know, he said, a little embarrassed, and scurried away."

Mainat Abdulaeva reported in the October 9 issue of Novaya gazeta her own observations on election day. She visited about twenty polling places in various districts. The first was Grozny's polling place No. 187, where she arrived as soon as it opened. "The first voters were the members of the [local] election commission. So far there were no local residents at all. I waited for them for half an hour. Not one arrived...." In the town of Samashki in western Chechnya, the head of the local administration told her that by noon turnout had reached 30 percent. Abdulaeva observed a young woman voting repeatedly, having arrived with seven passports. The local election officials told the reporter that the woman was simply voting on behalf of her elderly relatives, who were physically unable to come to the polls.

Abdulla Bugaev, one of the minor candidates against Kadyrov, was quoted in Russky kurier on October 10 as stating that "in the Shali district [southeast of Grozny], all the ballot boxes were transported via armored personnel carrier to the administration building. Our observers were not admitted to watch the counting of the votes. They were also not allowed to be present at the polling places in the Urus-Martan district. There are polling places for which was reported a turnout of 100 percent--and a 100 percent vote for Kadyrov. For example, of the 1,016 ballots cast in polling place No. 66, 1016 turned out to have been marked for Kadyrov. In polling place No. 95, 1,371 ballots were cast and all of them were for Kadyrov."

Usam Baisaev of the Moscow-based Memorial human-rights center, who spent much of election day observing Chechen refugees in Ingushetia, challenged official claims that 1,200 of these refugees cast ballots in polling places especially prepared for them along the Chechen-Ingush border. "Several comfortable buses were provided for them," said Baisaev, "but only forty went off to vote." One of the attractions was apparently the opportunity "to cruise past Russian checkpoints in a luxurious Mercedes."

At an October 8 press conference, the Moscow Helsinki Group reported the election day experiences of its own unofficial monitors. Like many others, they were struck by the deserted streets of Grozny on that day; also like others, they were told by the residents they found that many others had fled the city in fear of terrorist attacks. When they asked who would be left to cast ballots, a typical answer was: "What's the point of voting? Everything is already clear, the president has already been chosen--only not by us voters."

As reported by the Russian "Marketing and Consulting" website, www.iamik.ru <http://www.iamik.ru/>, the Moscow Helsinki Group monitors told the press conference that they had noted "how the mood of the Chechen electorate changed as election day drew nearer. When they [the monitors] asked people a month before the election...whom they intended to vote for, the answer was that they intended to vote either for one of the three candidates who later were removed from the ballot, or that they did not plan to vote at all. But now [on election day] people simply were afraid to answer that question, and even more to specify just whom they intended to vote for."

Tatiana Lokshina, executive director of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said that all the polling places that she visited were deserted. Lyudmila Alekseeva, the group's president, had a similar experience. As reported by the Marketing and Consulting website, "When various groups of monitors asked the election officials in various polling places to explain the huge percentage figures of early turnout that they were reporting, the latter answered, 'You simply came at the wrong time; you should have visited an hour ago, when we were simply being knocked off our feet, but now the voters have left....' Representatives of the Moscow Helsinki Group visited one village at 10:30, another at 11:30, and so on until the evening--but each time the moment that they chose turned out to be the 'wrong' one....In desperation, one of the group stood like a pillar for half an hour at one polling place, counting all the voters who came: a total of five."

Alekseeva concluded, as reported by Russky kurier on October 10, that "not more than 30 percent of the voters took part in the election."

All of the group's monitors reported having observed violations such as the presence of two or even three people at the same time inside one voting booth, or the casting of multiple ballots by one person who had brought with him the passports of other citizens. Lokshina noted, according to Russky kurier, that the blank ballots did not include any indication of how many of them had been printed.

The Helsinki Group also told the press conference, according to Marketing and Consulting, that "most of the polling places were closed earlier than the official closing time. The counting of the ballots from those closed polling places did not take place on site [as required by the election rules]; instead, these ballots were brought in huge sacks to the district commission." Higher ranking officials received the ballots in a closed room "to which nobody else was admitted...just what they did there is unknowable."

Strangely, according to Russky kurier the state-controlled ORT television network announced that the Helsinki Group's president, Alekseeva, had given a "positive evaluation" of the election. Alekseeva told the newspaper that she had not had any interview with ORT.

As expected, observers from the Arab League gave their full endorsement to the election. According to the news agency Novosti, the League's chief observer, Said al-Barami, said in a meeting with Aleksandr Veshnyakov, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, that "we are happy with what we saw in Chechnya." He called the election "legitimate, free and democratic." Equally warm in his praise was Yury Yarov, executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States. As an official observer of the election he expressed his enthusiasm about the turnout. According to Russky kurier, Yarov observed that "sometimes two or three people went into a voting booth, which on the one hand is a violation of the law, but on the other testifies to the people's wish to take part in the election."

http://www.jamestown.org

16 October 2003, Volume IV, Issue 37 CHECHNYA WEEKLY: News and analysis on the crisis in Chechnya

Refugees in no rush to return to Chechnya

A visit to Georgia's Pankisi Gorge by officials of the Putin and Kadyrov administrations, which occurred just before the October 5 election, produced strikingly modest results. The visitors failed to persuade a single Chechen refugee to join them on their return flight. Some eleven families reportedly agreed to return later to their hometown of Sernovodsk in western Chechnya, but this is only a tiny fraction of the thousands of Chechens living in Georgia. (The official Russian estimate is 2,650; other sources have given higher estimates.)

The importance that Moscow attached to the trip was obvious from the ranks of the participants, who included Stanislav Ilyasov, head of the Russian Federation's Ministry for Chechen Affairs. Also present were the current administrative heads of specific local districts in Chechnya from which Pankisi Gorge refugees are known to have fled. The visitors brought with them some twenty tons of food and clothing, a bounty that many of the refugees saw as a bribe to lure them back to their unsafe homeland.

Observing the encounter was Yelena Milashina of Novaya gazeta, who wrote in an October 6 article for that newspaper that it had at first taken on the character of an anti-Moscow protest rally. A frustrated Yury Brazhnikov, the Russian Federation's deputy minister for emergency situations, found himself confronting a scarred Chechen who accused him of trying to drag the refugees back into a "meat grinder." Brazhnikov tried to assure the man that he would be safe under amnesty, but received the unwelcome reply "How can you amnesty me, if I don't consider myself a Russian? I am a free man, a citizen of the Chechen Republic!"

Brazhnikov, who has visited Pankisi many times in the last year and a half, confirmed to Milashina that the main purpose of the visit was to persuade Chechens to come home. His optimism about this, he said, was founded partly on the fact that hundreds of Pankisi Gorge refugees had already returned to Chechnya and then come back to the gorge, repeating this round trip more than once. Just in the last two months, he said, the number of those living in Pankisi had dropped by a few hundred. What the refugees are now being offered, Brazhnikov insisted, is a chance to return legally, to live not in an abandoned wasteland but in dormitories that have been made ready for them--and also to receive pensions, compensation for their lost housing and other social benefits.

According to Milashina's account, the refugees responded with "slogans"--demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops, independence for Chechnya, the restoration of President Maskhadov--but they also left open the possibility of a compromise agreement. One Aslambek Abdurazakov, who stepped forward as a self-appointed spokesman but whose words seemed to have broad support among his fellow refugees, said that he might be willing to return if a council of the refugees themselves should vote for that option.

Nevertheless, the refugees clearly remained profoundly suspicious. Despite the relief supplies, Milashina emphasized that they still lack reliable guarantees of their physical safety from "zachistki" security sweeps and other such practices. In effect they are being asked to risk their lives in return for a promise of federal subsidies.

The Jamestown Foundation

http://www.jamestown.org

2003-10-16 20:15    

Two explosions hit Chechnya

GROZNY, OCTOBER 16 (RIA NOVOSTI) - A weak explosive device went off close to a small restaurant in Chechnya's Achkhoi Martan district this afternoon as a police officer was going out. Captain Baudi Merzhoyev of the district police board and the restaurant manager received minor injuries. There is no danger for their lives, a district police officer told RIA Novosti.

A police car was blown up in Grozny's Zavodskoi district to injure two policemen today, reports a republican Interior Ministry spokeswoman.

Still on Khachukayev's deportation

From Norbert Strade, Chechnya-sl moderator:

Dear list,

Here's a short description of what happened at Khachukayev's deportation from Belgium, from an eye-witness:

"From early this morning, a large crowd of Chechen refugees in Belgium picketed the detention center where he was being held. When the authorities tried to deport Khachukaev to Germany about 11. am., the Chechens managed to block the way so the authorities had to retreat. About 12.30 four police vehicles arrived and forcefully disrupted the blockade. Several Chechens got slight injuries. One woman, the president of the Chechen community in Belgium, had her armed injured and had to be taken to hospital, but now she feels ok. After this incident Khachukaev was deported to Germany."

Best regards, Norbert

Bella camp displaced persons to take legal action to render Federal agency 'close' order unlawful

INGUSHETIA, October 15, Caucasus Times - More than 100 families of the Chechen refugees relocated to 'Satsita' settlement from 'Bella' camp closed recently, are about to take a legal action to recognize the order of the Federal Migration service to close Bella refugee camp as unlawful.

As the order (01.08.03, #23/4449) of the Russian Interior Ministry Migration service prescribed due to "the danger of possible fire, destruction and infections in the camp» to have Bella refugee camp closed since September 1, 2003. After that the majority (over 160 families) of the camp residents were moved to 'Satsita' camp.

According to the Chechen displaced persons living in 'Satsita' camp the same conditions are found in their new settlement. Meanwhile, they say, the authorities are in pursuit to force them out of 'Satstita' camp bringing pressure on the refugees.

The people are convinced the main objective of the authorities "is not to bring a relief and care about the people, but the desire to reduce the number of camps in Ingushetia."

Malika Suleymenova, Caucasus Times, Ingushetia

A young local man detained in sweep of Sunzhensky district village

INGUSHETIA, October 16, Caucasus Times - The other day, Ibrahim Shamayev, 22, was seized in a private house of Troitskaya village in Ingushetia and abducted by unidentified servicemen.

At down, a group of uniformed masked gunmen swept into a house rented by the Shamayevs. There where seven persons in the house at that moment of detention, including Ibrahim's brother with his family.

"The gunmen pointed guns at the people, while two servicemen were searching in the house. They didn't find anything but grabbed Ibrahim, pushed him into a car and left the village," the relatives of the detainee told the Caucasus Times correspondent.

The abducted person's relatives affirm, the young man stayed in Ingushetia since the war in Chechnya had begun and had nothing to do with the rebels.

This very day, the enforcement agencies, presumably federal task forces, Chechen refugees said, had conducted "targeted sweeps" in several other private houses, rented by the displaced persons from Chechnya. According to locals, about 4 or 9 persons have been detained in the sweep and their whereabouts not know as yet.

The Interior Ministry of the republic declined to comment the militaries action.

Malika Suleymenova, Caucasus Times, Ingushetia

Father and son killed in Jokhar

In Zavodskoy District of Jokhar two locals (a father and a son) diedduring an armed attack. According to the Chechen police, about ten menpenetrated into their home and opened fire from assault rifles. Twowomen living next door were wounded, - Radio Liberty reported.

Kavkaz-Center News2003-10-15

Kidnappings and murders in Ingushetia and Chechnya

Council of Non-Governmental Organizations reported that during the dayon October 13 between the villages of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya,Sunzha District of Chechnya, the locals discovered a dead body of anunknown man with traces of violent death. The victim’s identity has not been established.

In the morning on October 12 on the outskirts of Nazran (in the villageof Nasyr-Yurt) in neighboring Ingushetia, unknown men kidnapped 2Armenian natives right from their houses. The Armenian victims(Alexander Pashayan and Arthur Petrosian) were living on the territoryof Ingushetia for the past five years. Arthur Petrosian was a pressphotographer for the «Ingushetia» newspaper. The cause of the kidnappingis unknown.

Kavkaz-Center News2003-10-15