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The Deputy Minister of MVD of Ingushetia was shot down by the Russian occupiers As was reported to the agency Ingushetiya.Ru in the prosecutorship of the Sunzhen district of Ingush republic, the murder of the deputy minister of internal affairs RI Apti Khakiyev was committed by soldiers of the sentry of military occupational commendatura of the Avtorkhanov district of Dzhokhar [Grozny], temporarily stationed in the village of Dattykh of the Sunzhen district of Ingushetia. Those soldiers for some unknown reason fired at VAZ-21099 car of the deputy minister, when he drove on the road, not far from that sentry near the village of Alkhasty. At the present time, all soldiers from this sentry were delivered to the Sunzhen prosecutorship, their weapons have been taken away. To the Cossack village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya also have arrived the representatives of the military prosecutor's office. It is hard to know, why this unit of occupational commendatura from Dzhokhar is placed on the territory of the Sunzhen district of Ingushetia. One more unit is also stationing in the village of Alkun. This unit of occupiers is assigned to the commendatura of the Staropromyslovskiy district of Dzhokhar. Sources in the procuratorship of the Sunzhen district of Ingushetia report that in the criminal case on the murder of the deputy minister of internal affairs RI Apti Khakiyev a forensic expertise of the weapon, taken from the Russian soldiers is being conducted. According to a version of investigation, one of the soldiers shot at the VAZ-21099 car, in which drove Khakiyev. A bullet pierced the right door of the car and wounded the Deputy Minister. The wound was fatal, and Khakiyev passed away from the loss of blood. 2003-12-29 14:36:23 Ingush Shooting VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia (AP) -- Ingush authorities on Monday were investigating allegations that federal troops were responsible for killing a senior police official. Ingush Deputy Interior Minister Apti Khakiyev died Sunday after his car came under fire in a forested gorge near the village of Alkhasty, in an area where clashes have broken out between soldiers and Chechen rebels. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Madina Khadziyeva said Monday that the shooting had apparently come from a nearby federal military checkpoint. Authorities have confiscated the troops' weapons and are now performing ballistic tests to check the allegations, Khadziyeva said. There was no immediate
comment from military officials NTV [BBC Monitoring]
29 December 2003 Russian TV: [Presenter] More trouble in the Caucasus. The deputy Ingush interior minister was killed [on 28 December]. We have just received statements from officials, and the strange circumstances of the killing stand out. [Murad Zurabov, press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, speaking to camera in a police building] The VAZ-2109 car, in which Lt-Col Apti Khakiyev - the deputy interior minister of Ingushetia responsible for support services - was travelling, came under fire. Khakiyev died of his wounds in a hospital in Sunzha. [Presenter] Those investigating the Ingush deputy interior minister's murder are looking at various theories. The main theory is that he was killed by rebels. That theory is not very pleasant for the authorities because it leads to an assumption that another detachment of rebels managed to cross over from Chechnya into Ingushetia to carry out a terrorist attack. But there is a second theory which is maybe even worse: that fire was opened by people on the deputy minister's own side. [Zurabov] The second theory is that the shooting came from a checkpoint. [Unidentified correspondent] What checkpoint? Who mans the checkpoint? [Zurabov] From a defence ministry checkpoint. [Presenter] News agencies have no details about this theory. And these reports from Ingushetia for now are the only suggestion that fire on the republic's deputy interior minister could have been opened by representatives of the federal troops. [Video: spokesman speaking to camera inside a police building; exterior shots of a police building and of armed men in uniform checking vehicles at a checkpoint.] Dec.29, 2003 [BBC Monitoring] Nazran, Itar-Tass, 30 December: A soldier from one of the military units stationed at Alkhasty in Sunzhenskiy District of Ingushetia has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Ingushetia's deputy interior minister. An ITAR-TASS correspondent has been informed of this by the republican prosecutor's office. Pte Fedor Voronin, 33, a sniper working under contract, has been remanded in custody. During the investigation ballistics experts established that the bullet extracted from the body of the 36-year-old deputy minister, Apti Khakiyev, was fired from a sniper's rifle that belonged to Fedor Voronin. [Passage omitted: recapping original shooting, which occurred when the deputy minister was driving home after work.]
Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus Chechen media will inform the public about the problems of landmines in the republic, according to an agreement made at a meeting between representatives of the Chechen press and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Grozny on December 24. The aim of our meeting today is to work out a strategy for mine risk education in the media, said organizer Luiza Khazhgeriyeva, coordinator of ICRC's mine awareness programme in the Northern Caucasus. According to Khazhgeriyeva, ICRC registers some 3,000 5,000 people who suffered from the explosion of a landmine or unexploded ordnance in Chechnya. People are being injured or killed when picking fire-wood, for example. They go to the forest although they are aware of the danger, because otherwise they can't heat up their homes. The Ottawa Convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines was ratified by most countries. Unfortunately, such states as Russia, the United States, Turkey and China are not among the signatories, Khazhgeriyeva noted. According to her, there are five aspects of demining: clearance, marking and post-clearance documentation of mined areas; mine risk education; community involvement; explosive ordnance disposal; and assistance to victims and people living in mined areas. "Journalists need to know this to be able to cover the issue correctly," she added. The ICRC has been involved in the mine issue in Chechnya since 2002. Over this period it has published mine awareness books and leaflets and even staged a puppet theater show on the issue. The ICRC is also going to cooperate with the Chechen Education Ministry in order to include Mine Risk Education into the Chechen school curriculum. Fires in Chechen refugee camps Monday December 15, 2003. Quarters designed for a kindergarten were burned on the premises of Altiyevo temporary placement facility. This facility is under the patronage of international humanitarian organization Caritas Internationalis (Czech Republic). Equipment and things including gifts for the children prepared for the New Year celebration were all burned in the fire that broke out at 3 o clock in the morning. The firemen who arrived at the scene stated that the fire was caused by a short circuit, even though the refugees have their own version of what had happened: there are reasons to believe that this was an act committed by malefactors. Saturday December 20, 2003. Late at night in the same temporary placement facility a gas hose was ripped out, which caught on fire after the gas started leaking. The fire totally destroyed the room of the family of Oktai Mirzoyev, a father of four. The fire destroyed all property belonging to the Mirzoyevs, including documents and clothes. Only by a lucky chance none of the people got hurt because no one was inside. Oktai Alik Mirzoyev is a brother-in-law of international master of Greco-Roman wrestling Adam Limayev, a police officer who was killed by Russian invaders during the previous war campaign, - Press Service of Chechen Committee for National Rescue (CCNR) reported. Kavkaz-Center News
Russia: Police Seize Books Implicating FSB Moscow, 29 December 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Thousands of copies of a book implicating Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in a series of deadly Moscow apartment blasts have been seized by Russian authorities. Aleksandr Podrabinek, head of the Prima news agency, said about 4,000 copies of "The FSB Blows Up Russia" were seized today after the truck carrying them from Latvia was stopped by Russian police. Podrabinek said police reported the find to the FSB and then seized the books as "anti-state propaganda." The book is co-authored by a former FSB agent, Aleksandr Litvinenko, who says he was ordered to kill self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovskii. He also accuses the FSB of carrying out a series of apartment-building bombings blamed on Chechen rebels that killed more than 300 people in 1999. © 1995-2003 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org
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