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17 November 2003 Chechen web site says Russian troops kidnap and kill civilians [BBC Monitoring] 16 November: Chechen human rights organizations have reported fresh crimes committed by Russian military formations in the occupied Chechen territory and in neighbouring Ingushetia. The information centre of the Council of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and the press service of the Chechen National Salvation Committee (CNSC) regional public movement reported that groups of Russian military bandits and military collaborators are continuing to kidnap and kill civilians in Chechnya. [Passage omitted: round-up of attacks] According to the same source, in the village of Alkhan-Yurt in Urus- Martanovskiy District of Chechnya, about 10 days ago, Russian bandits kidnapped four locals: Israilov, 23; Isayev, 17; Yahyayev and Magomadov, 18. Their relatives have failed to find the young men kidnapped by the occupiers. Residents of Alkhan-Yurt staged a mass protest action and blocked the Rostov-Baku highway. The residents are demanding that the hostages be released. It became clear later that several days after the kidnapping Isayev and Magomadov were freed by the bandit groups. However, the plight of Israilov and Yahyayev is still unknown. The press service of the CNSC also reported that on 9 November, a group of armed people dressed in camouflage kidnapped Ibragim Tovsultanov, a resident of Dzhokhar [Groznyy] and took him away in an unknown direction. Eyewitnesses said the kidnappers were in several cars. The kidnappers forced Tovsultanov into one car and drove away in an unknown direction. Nothing is known about his fate. On 10 November Russian military formations fired on the Satsita refugee camp on the outskirts of the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia's Sunzhenskiy District. Refugees said that a shell fired by the troops hit an area dozens of meters away from the gathering of people. Fearing that the shelling will continue, the refugees abandoned their tents and took children out. The Chechen refugees in the camp believe that the Russian troops fired on them and used other means to force them to abandon the camp. The report recalled that in August 2001, when the Russian authorities stepped up activities aimed at forcing the Chechen refugees to leave Ingushetia, the outskirts of the camp in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya were subjected to artillery strikes. "Obviously the Russian troops have now decided to apply the same method of fighting against the wayward Chechen refugees who are refusing to return home before the situation stabilizes fully," the source in Ingushetia said. IA Daymokh 2003-11-16 05:07
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia November 17, 2003 Associated Press Sergei Venyavsky-- Four Russian military officers charged with six killings in Chechnya went on trial Monday, only the second such high-profile case in a decade of war. The defense claims the soldiers were following orders. The officers, members of an elite military intelligence unit, are accused of killing the driver and five passengers of a truck in southern Chechnya on Jan. 11, 2002. According to defense lawyer Alexei Ulyanov, the driver of the suspicious-looking military-style truck ignored demands and warning shot to stop. Capt. Eduard Ulman then gave the order to open fire on the truck until it halted. Ulyanov said the soldiers discovered that they had killed one of the six people aboard and wounded two others. He claimed that they were then ordered by superiors in radio messages to kill the survivors and make it look like the truck was carrying rebels and had blown up on a mine. Ulman contacted superiors and reported that the orders had been carried out, but the four men were detained the next day and handed over to military prosecutors, Ulyanov said. He said the defendants were "scapegoats" who were punished because other civilians in the area quickly found out about the deaths. "I consider myself innocent, completely and categorically," one defendant, Lt. Alexander Kalagansky, said in televised comments. The court is the same one that tried Yuri Budanov, a colonel who was accused of kidnapping and murdering an 18-year-old Chechen woman and was the first Russian officer to be prosecuted for a crime against a civilian in Chechnya. Rights groups say killings of Chechen civilians by Russian soldiers are common and have called for more prosecutions.
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