VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia November 20, 2003 Associated Press-Yuri Bagrov-

Rebel attacks and land-mine blasts in Chechnya have killed four Russian soldiers, two Chechen policemen, and wounded 17 people in the past 24 hours, an official in the region's Moscow-backed administration said Thursday.

Two girls, aged 14 and 15, were wounded when an explosive went off along the road in Makhkety in the southern Vedeno region, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Interfax-Military News Agency reported the girls were going home from school when a radio-controlled land mine exploded, lashing them with shrapnel and stones. Their condition was not immediately available.

Elsewhere, rebels attacked federal military outposts 19 times in the past 24 hours, killing four soldiers and wounding 10 others, the Chechen official said.

Three soldiers and one rebel, who was detained, were wounded in fighting in Bamut in the Achkhoi-Martan region, the official said.

In the capital of Grozny, rebels shelled a police car, wounding two police officers Wednesday. Two other officers were killed when they stepped on a land mine, the Chechen official said.

Meanwhile, Russian forces targeted suspected rebel positions in southern Chechnya with artillery and detained at least 200 people during security sweeps, the official said. Human rights groups have charged the military's daily sweeps are rife with abuses, including murder, rape and torture of civilians.

Russian forces returned to Chechnya in 1999 in the second attempt in a decade to crush separatist rebels. Federal forces had withdrawn from the mostly Muslim region in southern Russia after a 1994-96 war that killed tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians and ended with the separatists in control.

Friday, Nov. 21, 2003. Page 9 The Moscow Times

Reporters Without Borders Calls for Action

Letters Editor,

As journalists who have all been held hostage, we are extremely concerned about the fate of our colleague Ali Astamirov, Agence France Presse correspondent in Chechnya and Ingushetia, who was abducted July 4 by a group of armed men in the village of Altievo, 3 kilometers from Nazran, the main city in Ingushetia, in front of fellow journalists.

We were taken hostage in Lebanon, the Philippines or Colombia, so we know the feeling of abandonment and isolation, the fear that we will never see our loved ones again, the constant uncertainty about what awaits us.

Aged 34, Chechen and the father of two children, Ali had been working for AFP for a year. Previously, he worked for a privately owned radio station in Grozny and, from 1998 to Oct. 1, 1999 (the date of the start of military operations), for the Chechen branch of the then- independent Russian television station NTV.

In the months prior to his abduction, he received anonymous threats and changed his place of residence out of concern for his security.

The investigators in charge of the case in Moscow and the Nazran prosecutor's office in Ingushetia have learned nothing of any significance. Three weeks after the kidnapping, Ali's family felt sure he was still alive, but today they are no longer so sure. If no one knows the identity of his abductors, one thing is nonetheless certain: A journalist who was covering a terrible war and its accompanying atrocities has today been silenced.

We call on Ali Astamirov's abductors to make themselves known and to release him as soon as possible. We also call on President Vladimir Putin to do everything possible to find Ali and obtain his release without putting his life in danger.

Roger Auque, journalist, hostage in Lebanon in 1987; Maryse Burgot, journalist, hostage in Jolo, the Philippines, in 2000; Scott Dalton, journalist, hostage in Colombia in 2003; Jean-Jacques Le Garrec, journalist, hostage in Jolo, the Philippines, in 2000; Jean-Paul Kauffmann, journalist, hostage in Lebanon from 1985 to 1988; Andreas Lorenz, journalist, hostage in Jolo, the Philippines, in 2003; Roland Madura, journalist, hostage in Jolo, the Philippines, in 2000; Ruth Morris, journalist, hostage in Colombia in 2003; Jean-Louis Normandin, journalist, hostage in Lebanon from 1986 to 1987; Philippe Rochot, journalist, hostage in Lebanon in 1986 -- Reporters Without Borders

Two girls wounded by a bomb blast in the village of Makhkety

http://www.kavkaz.org.uk/russ/article.php?id=13779 (tr. by M.L.)

Russian occupiers from the unfamous 45-th airborne regiment, stationed in the vicinity of the villages of Khattuni-Makhkety carried out an explosion of two Chechen girls in the settlement of Makhkety last Wednesday. As a result of this blast both girls were seriously wounded.

Later the occupiers declared, that they took as a prisoner some16 year old local inhabitant, who "confessed" that he placed a fougasse [contact mine] against the innocent civilians on the order of amir Supyan. Local residents however declare, that the bomb was exploded precisely by the airborne force members from the 45-th regiment, since this is not the first similar case. The inhabitants of Makhkety want from the occupiers to end these terrorist provocations and to let go the adolescent who's guilty of nothing and whom they keep in a special pit on the premises of the 45- th regiment. In the same pit, by the same 45-th regiment, some time ago was kept journalist Politkovskaya.

2003-11-20 14:40:57

The head of Salambek Maigov's election team abducted in Chechnya

CHECHNYA, November 20, Caucasus Times - Abuyadig Sahayev, the head of the election team headquarters of Salambek Maigov, running for a Russian Duma seat has been abducted lately.

Some unidentified gunmen pushed Mr. Sahayev into a car just as he went out of Maigov's headquarters office and left the scene right away, the Interior Ministry of Chechnya said in an interview with the Caucasus Times correspondent.

According to all accounts, the abductors arrived in several vehicles with shaded windshields, a police officer said. At the moment the law-enforcement agencies of the republic are conducting special operative measures to find Mr. Sahayev's whereabouts to release him.

The activists of Salambek Maigov's election headquarters declined to comment the incident, just telling they were shocked by the abduction and expressed their hope for soon release of Mr. Sahayev.

Ruslan Adayev, Caucasus Times, Chechnya

20.11.2003

Purge in refugee camps

CHECHNYA. Chechen Committee for National Salvation press service reportsthat on the night of 18 November Russian security apparatus officialstogether with the officials from Ingushetia’s Interior Ministry carriedout a purge in Chechen refugee camps of Alina, Satsita and Sputniksituated in the outskirts of Ordzhonikidzevskaya village in SounzhenskiyDistrict in Ingushetia. 15 young men were arrested.

According to the refugees, the arrested men were taken to SounzhenskiyDistrict militia department. Next day two of them were released, therest are still kept in remand prison. The reason for the young men’sarrest remains unknown. Their names are to be confirmed. According tothe Committee’s information, one of the men had come from Kazakhstan notlong before the arrest to visit his sick mother.