Some 1,500 refugees remain in Ingushetia's last tent city

Interfax. Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2004, 7:37 PM Moscow Time

MOSCOW. April 28 (Interfax) - Some 1,500 people remain in Ingushetia's last tent city of Satsita,
which is located near the republic's capital of Ordzhonikidze. Over 300 people have left Satsita
over the past month, Igor Yunash, first deputy head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, told
Interfax on Wednesday. "From five to six families leave the tent city for Chechnya each day," he
said.

Refugees returning to Chechnya continue to receive humanitarian aid and social benefits, Yunash
said. He stressed that refugees are not being forced to return.

Commenting on the intention of the Chechen authorities to close the tent city by the end of April,
Yunash said: "We are not giving ourselves or the refugees any deadlines." "According to our
information, people will be leaving the tent city more actively at the end of May. This is for
objective human reasons: children will finish their school year, and it's also more convenient to
move in the summer," he said.

Commenting on human rights activists' criticism of the situation in the tent city, Yunash said: "We
are not avoiding human rights activists' visits. On the contrary, we welcome them. After visiting
the tent city in person, they often become convinced that their conclusions were based on incorrect
information."


Chechen Leaders and HR Activists Condemn Acquittal of Russian Troops

 Created: 30.04.2004 17:01 MSK
(GMT +3), Updated: 17:40 MSK,


MosNews

Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov condemned the acquittal of four Russian troops charged for murder
of Chechen residents.

He was quoted by Russian media as saying that he was "disappointed" by this verdict of the court of
jury. "I consider this verdict as unfair," he said. Kadyrov explained that such a verdict had
appeared because Chechnya and Chechen people "do not hold a proper place among other peoples and
regions of Russia. And those who pronounce such verdicts prevent us to [hold a proper place]."

Kadyrov quoted by the media said that Chechen people who "had already entered the constitutional
field of Russia" would react negatively at this verdict.

The mufti of Chechen republic, Akhmad Khadzhi Shamayev also criticized the verdict. "I am ashamed
when looking in the eyes of the relatives of the killed," Interfax news agency quoted him as
saying. "I know all the killed personally. They were purely decent people who never took arms,
lived and worked in very complicated conditions without leaving their villages although it was very
dangerous to live in the mountains."

Russian human rights activists also condemned the verdict. "We hoped that the court of jury would
be unbiased but it had turned to be very much connected with the public opinion that is formed by
the propaganda of the power structures," the leader of the movement For the Human Rights, Lev
Ponomarev, was quoted by the agency as saying. "The propaganda has formed an image of an enemy of a
Caucasus resident. Such attitude is in Moscow, and in Rostov [where the verdict was pronounced],
that is why there was no objective consideration of the case in the court." The leader of the Union
of Soldier's Mothers, Valentina Melnikova, quoted by the agency called the verdict "lawless." She
said that the only reason of such a verdict was xenophobia.

The four troops charged for murder of six residents of Chechnya were discharged by the court of
jury on Thursday. The court of jury seated in the North Caucasus district court martial in the city
of Rostov-on- Don decided that the troops had not exceeded their commissions. According to the
prosecution, the troops have come to the Chechen village of Dai in order to capture rebel commander
Hattab. While they were waiting in the ambush, a car appeared on the road. The troops ordered him
to stop but he did not obey, and Ullman gave an order to shoot. The prosecution declared that the
group led by Ullman had been guilty because they had not shoot at the wheels of the car but at the
people who sat in the car. A director of local school was killed during the fire.

Ullman's troops took other five people out of the car. Ullman called Major Perelevsky, and the
latter told him to kill the five people. Lieutenant Kalagansky and Ensign Voevodin opened fire at
them, the prosecution was quoted by the agency as saying.

After that, the bodies of the killed were put back in the car, and an explosive device was put
under it to imitate a blast, the prosecution declared. But the device did not work, and the troops
burned the car.


Russian Rights Group Wins U.N. Refugee Award

Created: 30.04.2004 17:23 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:23
MSK,


MosNews

Russian human rights group Memorial has won a U.N. award for its work helping migrants and
displaced Chechens, the Reuters news agency cited the United Nations as saying on Friday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said the Memorial Human Rights Centre had provided
legal counselling to more than 21,300 people last year including forced migrants, internally
displaced people and asylum seekers.

"It has carried out its work in often very difficult situations —- including in the North Caucasus
—- and has earned the respect of all of us in the international humanitarian community", Lubbers
said in a statement announcing the winner of the annual Nansen Refugee Award.

Russians topped the list of asylum seekers in 2003 as record numbers of Chechens fled insecurity,
according to a UNHCR report earlier this year.

Memorial, which emerged during the perestroika period, is one of the rights organisations operating
in Chechnya.

The award is named after Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian who was the world's first international
refugee official. Laureates since 1954 have included Eleanor Roosevelt, Mozambique's Graca Machel
and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Last year's laureate, Annalena Tonelli, an Italian doctor praised for her humanitarian work in
Somalia, was shot and killed outside her hospital there several months later.



RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 80, Part I, 29 April 2004

Former Chechen Minister's whereabouts a mystery.

On 28 April, chechenpress.com quoted respected Chechen field commander Rizvan Chitigov as saying
that former Chechen Defense Minister Magomed Khambiev, who surrendered to the pro-Moscow Chechen
authorities last month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 and 11 March 2004) was killed several days
earlier in a shootout with members of the armed guard of pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad-hadji
Kadyrov's son Ramzan. Chitigov claimed that Khambiev opened fire on Ramzan Kadyrov, wounding him in
the head, whereupon Kadyrov's guards shot Khambiev dead. A correspondent for RFE/RL's North
Caucasus Service reported on 28 April that footage of Ramzan Kadyrov was shown on Chechen
television the previous day, suggesting that Kadyrov is alive and unharmed. That RFE/RL
correspondent was informed by a member of the Chechen government that Khambiev, who told the Grozny
paper "Vesti republiky" in March he is ready "to work honestly," has been named to head the local
police in Nozhai-Yurt, southeast of Grozny, but all attempts to contact him at police headquarters
in Nozhai-Yurt have failed. LF



Russian soldiers cleared of Chechen murders

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow The Independent, 01 May 2004

Efforts to bring the Russian army to book for its atrocities in Chechnya have suffered their
biggest setback yet after a court cleared four special forces soldiers of murdering six civilians
in cold blood despite the men's own confessions.

The "Ulman case" is one of a handful that has made it to the Russian courts in the past decade and
its harrowing nature has made it a cause célèbre for human rights groups.

But a Russian jury in the city of Rostov-on-Don has shocked Chechens, human rights activists, the
Moscow-backed Chechen administration and Russia's legal profession by acquitting all of the
accused.

The four men - Captain Eduard Ulman, Ensign Vladimir Voevodin, Lieutenant Alexander Kalagansky and
Major Aleksei Perelevsky - were all accused of murder. The events, which took place in Chechnya on
11 January 2002, were not disputed by the accused.

Captain Ulman and his team, all members of Russia's "Spetsnaz" - special forces - were parachuted
into a remote area thought to contain Chechen rebels. They were authorised to use "targeted force"
and did so when a Jeep carrying six people refused to pull over.

The captain and his men sprayed the Jeep with machine- gun fire, killing one of its occupants and
wounding two others. When the dust had settled, however, the Russian troops realised the vehicle's
occupants were civilians, including at least one female invalid. The troops bandaged the Chechens'
wounds and radioed their superiors for instructions. Three hours later an order came from Major
Perelevskyto "liquidate" the survivors.

The Chechens were executed and their vehicle doused with petrol and set on fire to make it look as
if it had been blown up by a mine. But there had been witnesses to the events, and the four men
were brought to trail on murder charges.

However, the Rostov court ruled that the men were following orders and that, although the orders
might have been criminal, it was not clear who ultimately gave them.

Ludmila Tikhomorova, a lawyer for the victims' relatives, said it was an outrage. "[The message is
that] it's possible to kill anyone in Chechnya without reprisal. It's practically a licence to kill
civilians." Unusually, Russia's military prosecutor agreed: he has said he will appeal against the
jury's decision.



30/4/2004

Prosecutor to appeal acquittal of servicemen charged with killing civilians in Chechnya

The public prosecutor will appeal against the verdict of not guilty returned by the jury in the
case of Captain Eduard Ulman and his subordinates in the North Caucasian District Court Martial in
Rostov- on-Don on April 29.

The statement by Russian Deputy Prosecutor General, Chief Military Prosecutor Colonel-General of
Justice Aleksandr Savenkov, the text of which was received by the Interfax agency on the night of
April 30, reads: "It has been proved unconditionally that the killed citizens of Russia (Editor's
note: There were six civilians in the car shot down in the Shatoy district of Chechnya on January
11, 2002.) did not belong to illegal armed units and the servicemen had enough time and
opportunities to make sure of it. Nevertheless all the six were killed, and the defendants
themselves, Ulman and his subordinates - Kalagansky and Voevodin, do not deny it."

In spite of the evidence and validity of the crime, the jury found all the defendants to be not
guilty, stated the colonel-general.

Source: Interfax News Agency



“Inner Slave” Restricting Press Freedom — Russian Journalists

29.04.2004 MosNews

The U.S.-based human rights organization Freedom Watch released a study document press freedom
decline in many countries including Russia in 2003.

After being downgraded from Partly Free to Not Free in 2002, Russia continued on a course of press
freedom restriction, according to the study’s evaluation. In 2003, the Kremlin consolidated its
near total control over the broadcast media, Freedom House said. Authorities also used legislation
and financial pressure to further restrict critical coverage, particularly on sensitive topics such
as the war in Chechnya.

“Economic pressures can lead to an increase in self-censorship among journalists,” Freedom House
Executive Director Jennifer Windsor has said in a press release. “Unfortunately these factors are
often overlooked when examining levels of press freedom.”

Russian media experts, meanwhile, have a different take on why the media is subservient. Pavel
Gutiontov, the secretary of Russia’s Journalist Union, told MosNews that there’s not so much
pressure from the top as there is a desire on the part of the media to please authorities.

“It’s not that authorities are implementing total control,” he told MosNews in an interview. “The
sad thing is that it’s the press that’s readily guessing what the authorities would want it to
print.” Adding that that he couldn’t name many outright repressions on the part of the government
last year, Gutiontov said that “the internal censor is once again becoming the main censor. The
press is tame, just as it was up until 1985-86,” when perestroika began.

For Gutiontov, new laws and liberal reforms will not solve the problem. “We have to do a lot of
work in eradicating our inner slave — from ourselves, from our editing rooms, from television,” he
told MosNews.

In the meantime, Gutiontov remains pessimistic, saying that he doubts Russia will see a revival any
time soon of the media exuberance that the nation witnessed ten years ago. “First of all, society
needs to change.”



30.4.2004

Moscow court revokes right to demonstrate

RUSSIA, Moscow. 29 April Moscow City Court considered the appeal by Nikolai Khramov against the
decision by Meschanskiy District Court who found Russian Radicals movement’s secretary guilty of
breaching "the proscribed procedure of organising and holding the rally". The decision of the lower
court to fine Khramov 1,500 roubles remains in force.

23 February Moscow militia dispersed peaceful demonstration in memory of Chechens victims of
Stalin’s genocide and of the last two wars with Russia. The organisers of the demonstration,
Nikolai Khramov being one of them, as well as the most active participants, were detained.

Meschanskiy Court’s decision comes into legal force which gives the convicted man the right to
appeal in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The appeal to the Strasbourg court, as
Khramov stated, will be prepared and forwarded as soon as the ruling by Moscow City Court has been
received in writing.

Translated by Olga Sharp PRIMA-News Agency [2004-04-29-Rus-36]



30.4.2004

Marsho Newspaper Threatened

CHECHNYA, Grozny. (SNO Information Centre) On the morning of 26 April in the town of Urus-Martan,
armed persons in masks and camouflage broke into the house of Mr Itslaev, deputy editor of the
regional newspaper Marsho. The intruders demanded that the editors stop publishing material
containing negative information about the course of compensation payments for lost housing and
property to Chechen citizens.

Recently the newspaper Marsho has been paying particular attention to the process of compensation
payments to victims living in the republic. According to journalists, the incident is the first
case of an armed attack on the local press in Chechnya.

Translated by Sue-Ann Harding PRIMA News Agency [2004-04-29-Chech-25]



eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 30/4/2004

Stavropol district court denies registration to youth charitable organization

On April 29, the Promishlenny District Court of Stavropol denied a complaint by the chairman of the
interregional charitable organization Caucasian Youth Human Rights League, Maksim Abrakhimov,
against an illegal decision by the Department of the Russian Ministry of Justice in Stavropol
Territory. Commenting on the court decision, Roman Gushchin, a co-founder and coordinating board
member of the organization, said, "We are going to use all legal mechanisms to protect our rights.
If it is necessary, we will turn to the Supreme Court of Russia and the European Court of Human
Rights."

The regional department of justice refused to register the Caucasian Youth Human Rights League on
March 1. Activists of the organization decided to appeal the illegal decision in court.

The Caucasian Youth Human Rights League was created in the spring of 2003. It has two branch
offices - in the Republic of North Osetia-Alania and in the Chechen Republic. The organization
protects human rights and carries out charitable projects.

Source: Caucasian Youth Human Rights League



RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 81, Part I, 30 April 2004

Russia signals readiness to allow Council of Europe visit to Chechnya.

State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev (Unified Russia) was quoted by
ITAR-TASS on 28 April as saying Moscow is prepared to facilitate a visit to Chechnya by a
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) delegation to study the situation there.
Kosachev said such a delegation could determine whether the situation is improving in the wake of
last year's referendum on a new constitution and the election of a new republican head. Swiss
parliamentarian Andreas Gross, who was named PACE special rapporteur on Chechnya in July 2003 (see
"RFE/RL Caucasus Report," 25 July 2003), told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service on 29 April that
since his appointment he has not been permitted to travel to Chechnya, which is why no report on
Chechen developments was submitted to the current PACE spring session. Gross reaffirmed his support
for the beleaguered Chechen population. He said he continues to formulate possible settlement plans
for Chechnya and hopes that as President Putin has now successfully been re-elected, he will be
willing to take "the most courageous steps" toward resolving the conflict. LF