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November 14th 2003 · Prague Watchdog Over 80 percent of Chechen children suffer from illnesses Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – As many as 84 percent of children in the Chechen Republic have health problems, reported Hasan Gadayev, head of the Chechen Ministry of Health’s maternity and child health division. This information was revealed in an All-Russian Children’s Health Survey during which 320,000 children underwent routine checkups in Chechnya. According to Gadayev their problems are mainly neurological and psychological, yet many also suffer from anaemia and endocrinological and gastro-intestinal disorders. More than 40 percent of the children have pathological vision and hearing problems, while about 70 percent of those examined have tuberculosis, he added. “This is an extremely high rate of incidence,” he noted. “So of course we dispensed proper medication and also preventative treatment, such as placement in special rehabilitation centers for those who live in areas where tuberculosis is widespread.” From the long list of negative factors affecting the health of these youngsters, Gadayev singled out disruptions in their regular school routines, i.e. classes being taught in three shifts, overcrowded classrooms, and lack of warm meals and exercise. “All this is a result of the endless tension within the society, which causes permanent stress syndromes,” Gadayev remarked. “Sadly, the consequences of war will have a major impact on the health of our children for many years to come.” Grani.Ru shares happiness of the dear ones and friends of Nadezhda Pogosova and Aleksey Klimov. In her last video-recording, Nadezhda indicated that neither she nor her comrades in this misfortune were going to survive this winter, if help did not arrive on time. The help has arrived. But why there's no reports whatsoever about those, who were being kept in the captivity together with the prosecutors- hostages. Pogosova said that together with her in the captivity were also other people, some of them needed surgical help (possibly, the matter was about wounded soldiers). However, in the published information only two names of those who have been freed were mentioned. What is the fate of the others? Indeed, as they assert in the prosecutorship of Chechnya, there was no ransom. That means, that in the course of special operation probably not only Pogosova and Klimov have been freed... But, about the circumstances of this special operation so far only remains to guess. Second video-recording with Nadezhda Pogosova Today is the 15th of September of 2003. I, Pogosova Nadezhda Alekseyevna, the senior adviser of justice, worked from November of 2000 in the prosecutorship of the Chechen republic as senior assistant in the personnel department. At the end of December of 2002 I got captured together with a colleague of our prosecutorship, senior assistant of the Shatoy inter-district procuratorship Klimov Aleksey Nikolayevich. And till present day, for almost nine months we have been in the captivity on a territory, which is controlled by the armed forces of Ichkeria. I already had the possibility to appeal to you, Boris Abramovich, I appealed also to Malik Saydullayev, I was appealing for help to international organization for the human rights. Having today again the possiblity to address, I again appeal to you so that you would help us and would liberate us from the captivity, since we are located on the territory which is constantly under artillery shelling and air raids from the side of federal troops and there is a danger, that we can be killed. Here, in our captivity, it's not only me, I see here other prisoners, who today found to be also here in the need of help, medical help, there are some, who require also a surgical help. Therefore, I again appeal - help us and liberate us from the captivity. I honestly carried out my official duties and found to be here by the will of fate, I very much would like to return home. If there is this possibility, I again want you to ask to render assistance and to liberate us from the captivity. It's already autumn, it's cold, my health [condition] desires to be better. I very much want to appeal [to you] as to a compatriot, as to the leader of liberal party, as to a ordinary man - help us and free us from the captivity. I again want to appeal, again from the depth of my heart, I scream from my soul, I call for help all international organizations for human rights, you - Boris Abramovich Berezovsky, Malik Saydullayev, all candidates, who are now running [in the elections], help us and liberate us from our captivity. The treatment of us here is good. They feed us here well, the command proposes to exchange us for the Chechens soldiers, there's a lot prisoners here, servicemen, officers, whom the Russian side rejects to exchange. Therefore, I appeal to you for help as a woman, as the mother of my child as an officer: please, help us and free us from our captivity.
http://regnum.ru/expnews/180545.html (my quick tr.) The house, where the soldiers of the Ingush OMON were blown up was equipped for keeping of hostages. A correspondent of internet-site Ingushetia.Ru located in the Cossack village of Troitskaya reports that the house in which during its inspection in the morning on the 14th of November OMON members of the MVD of Ingushetia were blown up, was equipped for keeping of hostages. In particular, in this house, kidnapped in Chechnya employees of the Russian prosecutorship Nadezhda Pogosova and Aleksey Klimov had been kept. The were freed on Friday in the course of operation in the village of Ali-Yurt of the Nazran district. Before the hostages were transported to Ali-Yourt, they were kept in the Cossack village of Troitskaya, in the basement of that house, in which today this explosion took place when it was being checked out [inspected]. -----------------------------
http://www.daymohk.info/rus/index.php?mode=1&element=4315 [BBC Monitoring] Chechen rebel site says Russian losses reports "extremely understated" A rebel web site has said that Moscow is "systematically publicizing extremely understated figures" on its losses in Chechnya. Quoting unidentified Russian analysts, Daymohk said that "the extent of the losses in Chechnya during the second campaign is absolutely comparable with those suffered by the Soviet army in Afghanistan". The web site added that there was "a major increase in the number of losses, precisely as a result of the successful combat operations of the mojahedin". It said that despite all their "combat experience", the Russian occupation forces are becoming more and more "demoralized". "The army has finally become nothing more than bandit groupings, trading in kidnapping and bartering with oil and even in their own ammunition," Daymohk noted.
The following is the text of a report by Chechen news agency Daymohk web site entitled "The occupation forces are again playing down their losses"; subheadings have been inserted editorially: By systematically publicizing extremely understated figures on the losses of the occupation formations in Chechnya, Russia's generals are, of course, trying to establish an "official" minimum figure of their losses in the war, whose many nightmare secrets, if exposed, will urge the Putin regime to answer, in particular, the despairing question of the Russian people: "What have our men being dying for out there?" The deputy commander-in-chief
of the Russian interior troops, Lt-Gen Vyacheslav Dadonov, told journalists
on Tuesday that since the beginning of the year 78 Russian interior
troops had been killed and 273 wounded in clashes with Chechen mojahedin.
"This is roughly half the number last year", he said adding that "the
reduction in losses in Chechnya shows that the commanders and the men
have learnt much from their experience and are now planning combat operations
with skill". Russian general names Chechen capital as "the toughest area" for troops Dadanov said that the toughest areas for the troops are still the Chechen capital [Groznyy], and Kurchaloevyskiy, Shalinskiy, Achkhoy- Martanovskiy, Vedenskiy and Nozhay-Yurtovskiy districts. For the umpteenth time he repeated what other Russian generals have been saying, namely that "as a result of the successful operations by the federal forces", the Chechen Resistance's "unified system has been destroyed", and the Chechen mojahedin, apparently, are now carrying out mainly a mine-and-sabotage type of struggle. It should be added that, despite all their "combat experience", the Russian occupation forces are becoming more and more demoralized. The army has finally become nothing more than bandit groupings, trading in kidnapping and bartering with oil and even in their own ammunition. As for the "skilful planning of combat operations", what we have seen is a major increase in the number of losses, precisely "as a result of the successful combat operations" of the mojahedin, whether or not they have been brought about by mines or acts of sabotage or other means whereby the Chechen Resistance, notwithstanding what the Russian generals say or would like, is proving that its "unified system" has by no means been destroyed. Russian losses in Chechen war are "greater" than Soviet losses in Afghanistan As far as Russian losses in Chechnya are concerned, at the beginning of the year undisclosed sources at the Russian Defence Ministry told a number of agencies that the number of Russian troops killed in the war in 2002 alone was about 4,500, in other words almost three times more than the official statistics showed. According to these same reports, by the same period about 15,000 occupation troops had been killed during the whole of the war. The figure shows that Russian losses in the war to date are greater than Soviet losses in Afghanistan. During the 10 years of the Soviet-Afghan war, although these are also official figures, over 14,000 Soviet troops lost their lives. At the time the Russian law-enforcement organizations said that the figures published were a proper reflection of the situation. "Our calculations show that during the war over 11,000 men were killed in battle, or died from their injuries, and another 25,000 were wounded," the head of the committee of mothers of the Russian troops, Valentina Melnikova, said, adding: "I believe that these figures are perfectly accurate and include those who died in hospital." Over 20,000 civilians killed - law-enforcement figures Official Moscow representatives do not give the numbers of casualties among the Chechen civilian population as a result of the armed aggression in the North Caucasus. According to law-enforcement figures, the number of dead civilians in Chechnya is over 20,000. At the same time, regarding Russia's published information of troop losses in Chechnya, competent sources at the leadership of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria told journalists that in actual fact the Chechen mojahedin had wiped out no less than 35,000 enemy officers and men during fighting in Chechnya and Dagestan. These same figures record that the Chechen troops lost 4,500 - 5,000 men killed and over 11,000 wounded in fighting since 1 September 1999. Commenting on the leakage of information from the defence ministry, Russian observers point out that even if you go by the number of Russian losses in Chechnya claimed by the Kremlin, according to which the losses among all Russian power structures since the occupation forces first set foot on Chechen territory up to the end of December 2002 amounted to 4,572 dead and 15,549 wounded - a total of 20,121 - then this is the equivalent of two fully equipped motor-rifle divisions. Chechen fighters smashed them in just over three years of war which, in view of Russia's overwhelming superiority in men and equipment amounts to excessively heavy losses. Yet Moscow fails to disclose these overall figures of Russian losses during the two wars in Chechnya. "If you recall the official statements that 'the army has fulfilled its task ', and that its sub-units have not carried out major operations in Chechnya for more than a year, then it must be acknowledged that the fighters are opposing the federal forces very effectively and continue to inflict casualties on the interior ministry troops and sub-units," the Russian analysts say. "The extent of the losses in Chechnya during the second campaign is absolutely comparable with those suffered by the Soviet army in Afghanistan." "There has never been a war as intense as the one in Chechnya" - Russian soldier It cannot be argued that war always presupposes biased appraisals of the losses of the belligerents, which means a continuation of the propaganda war. In this sense, even allowing for the fact that official Chechen statistics on Russian losses could be inflated, just as Russian official data on their losses is played down, the Russian army has sustained such losses in Chechnya which the people of Russia today cannot imagine. The innumerable testimonies of Russian troops who took part in the war in Afghanistan and caused the war in Chechnya point to the extremely high level of tension in the Chechen-Russian war. "There has never been a war as intense as the one in Chechnya," a Russian soldier, who, before being sent to Chechnya "fought in all the local post-Soviet wars" and before that in Afghanistan, told Russian television. Russian society today is inclined to accept rather easily the whole tragedy of the war for which they are to blame. Even the worst exposures of the Kremlin's crimes will scarcely alter the position of the Russian people who harbour chauvinistic ambitions or "thoughts of empire". Future Russian generations will undoubtedly experience for themselves - and then realize - the whole scale of the crimes committed by their country and the fatal consequences of them. Ramzan Khalidov, IA Daymohk. 2003-11-12 08:10
November 27th 2003 · Prague Watchdog $50,000 ransom demanded for kidnapped Chechen teenager Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus - Magomed Akhayev, a 17-year-old from theAlkhan-Yurt village in the Urus-Martanovsky district, was kidnapped from his home a month ago and his family is convinced the operation wascarried out by members of one of the Chechen power bodies. Although the assailants wore masks and arrived in unlicensed cars,Akhayev’s relatives eventually managed to contact them; after lengthytalks, the kidnappers asked for a $50,000 payment for his release. Four years ago the youth lost his leg after stepping on a mine, and hisfamily believes that the Chechen power bodies apparently interpretdisability as a sign of having taken part in the resistance, even though Magomed was only 13 at the time of the accident. http://www.grani.ru/War/Chechnya/m.50650.html (my quick tr.)
http://www.daymohk.info/rus/index.php?mode=1&element=4315 [BBC Monitoring]
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