Interfax: 1660 people go
missing during Chechen zachistki
17:00 Feb. 26, 2003
A total of 1,178 criminal cases have been opened into cases involving missing
people in Chechnya since October 1, 1999. "Some 1,660 people are believed
missing. This includes civilians, law enforcement officials and servicemen,"
Chechnya's Prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko announced on Wednesday.
Kravchenko noted that "all these cases are being investigated. None of them have
been closed". "Work on each case continues until the whereabouts and the fate
of the missing people are established and until those responsible for these incidents
are found," the prosecutor noted.
"Twenty-nine cases with abduction charges filed against rebel group members have
already been sent to court," he said. Among them is the case opened into the kidnapping
of Medicines Sans Frontieres member Kenneth Gluck. "Two rebels will go on trial
in this case," he said. The prosecutor noted that police have also established
the suspects in the abduction of Druzhba (Friendship) humanitarian organization
head Nina Davidovich and in some other incidents that have received a
wide public response.