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eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 8/9/2004 NGO denies accusations brought against it Actions being taken by Ingush prosecutors against the Chechen National Rescue Committee may become a precedent for authorities' massive attack on freedom of speech in the region, head of the Regional Public Movement "Chechen National Rescue Committee" Ruslan Badalov thinks. "What is happening with our organization hasn't come as a surprise for anybody, and for me in particular. The heart of the problem is that it is a direct consequence of the tough policy carried out by the authorities against human rights activists and journalists," Ruslan Badalov said in his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent. "Such repressive actions have a single goal - to block information about human rights abuse coming from Chechnya and Ingushetia. I have no doubt that in case this undertaking is successful, other non-governmental organizations engaged in the monitoring of human rights abuse in the region will also suffer persecution." The Ingush Prosecutor's Office accuses the Chechen National Rescue Committee of extremist activity and has brought a number of accusations against this organization to the Nazran district court. In particular, it claims the Committee's materials do not represent the facts and discredit the activity of law enforcement agencies. "Some documents contain information suggesting readers an idea of mass crimes committed by Russian servicemen and law enforcers, which evokes an extremely negative attitude of the population to state officials and induces citizens to offer resistance to the authorities," reads the document. Source: Caucasian Knot http://www.ingushetiya.ru/news/4090.html Tens of Ingushes taken hostages on the Chermen cross-road Ingushetiya..Ru, 03.09.2004 18:20 Our correspondent reports that in the village Chermen of the Prigorodny district of RCO-Alania, also, on the so-called Chermen circle [krug] where the KPP of MVD of North Osetia is located, tens of people of Ingush nationality have been taken hostages and taken away in the unknown direction. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 3/9/2004 NGO activist abducted in Chechnya Fatima Gaziyeva, a representative of the interregional peacemaking organization Echo of War, and her husband Ilyas Atayev were abducted by officers of unknown security agencies in Chechnya's Naursky district in the morning of September 3. It is reportedly happened in the village of Kalinovskaya in the Naursky district early in the morning. A group of gunmen in masks and camouflage uniforms broke into the house on Kochubeya Street and took Fatima Gaziyeva and her husband away in an unknown direction without any explanations. "I don't know all details of the happening yet: who committed this abduction and with what purpose. Fatima Gaziyeva has been working for our organization for 9 years. I was given a call from Grozny in the morning today and was told that Fatima and her husband, Ilyas Atatyev, were abducted from their own house in the village of Kalinovskaya at about 5 a.m. No other details are available at the moment," Echo of War director Zaynap Gashayeva, who is in the town of Nalchik now, said to the Caucasian Knot correspondent via phone. Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent Source: Caucasian Knot [They have been freed short after. M.M.] http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/1,53621,2268883.html (my tr) Thirty relatives of Maskhadov taken away in unknown direction PAP (official Polish Press Agency, pi 04-09-2004, last update 04-09- 2004 19:11 Thirty relatives of leader of Chechen separatists Aslan Maskhadov have been taken away on Thursday in the uknown direction by masked men who came on APSc - said On Saturday Akhmed Zakayev to Ekho Moskvy radio station. According to him this action took place in Chechnya. "On 2nd of Sep. when I was negotiating with Aleksandr Dzakhosov (pres. of N.Ossetia) [http://www.echo.msk.ru/7news/archive/205057.html] and Ruslan Aushev on the subject of possible participation of Aslan Maskhadov to solve the crisis caused by hostage taking in Beslan, Maskhadov's relatives were detained" - said Zakayev. "Some 30 persons - women, children and elderly - was taken in uknown direction by men in balaclavas and camouflage battle dresses, who came on APCs - he added. "Up till now we don't have any information about their fate" - said Zakayev Aslan Maskhadov stated on Thursday his readyness in helping 'without any conditions attached' to peacefull solving of the crises caused by  hostage taking by a group of pro-Chechen terrorists. He also stressed that he doesn't have any links with people who took hostages in Beslan, North Ossetia. Zakayev denounced "continuation of policy" of president Putin and acknowledged that this disappearance of the leader of separatists relatives is "personalizing" the Russian-Chechen conflict and "it will radicalize the leagal leadership that's represented by Maskhadov". "This is a political conflict which should be regulated by civilized methods" - finished Zakayev Federal Forces Took Chechens Hostage During Beslan Crisis — Paper Created: 07.09.2004 16:37 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:37 MSK, 49 minutes ago MosNews Russian federal forces reportedly seized as many as 40 family members of top Chechen separatists as over 1,000 were being held hostage in a school in south Russia's Beslan, and held until Saturday, one day after the school was taken by storm and some of the hostages released. The Russian government said the families were held for their own protection. Separatist sympathizers, however, said the measures were meant to inspire terror among the terrorists, the Los Angeles Times reported. The detainees — which included children — were held for two days and reportedly beaten. They included the family of 67-year-old Khavazh Semiyev, whose daughter, Kusama, is the wife of separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Maskhadov, speaking out earlier on pro-separatist websites, twice denounced the hostage taking that claimed at least 335 lives. "There was a colonel who spoke very eloquently, and everybody was afraid of him. He said we should thank fate and God for them having taken us away on time," the Los Angeles Times quoted Semiyev. "Because Maskhadov and [separatist leader Shamil] Basayev supposedly issued an order to have us taken into the building [at Beslan] and executed with the hostages." Aslanbek Semiyev, Khavazh's nephew, who was one of the detainees, laughed at that notion. "If this was what he thought, he must be a total imbecile." Maskhadov's spokesman in London, Akhmad Zakayev, called the detentions tit-for-tat measures reminiscent of Stalinist times. "They were following the standard practice developed almost a century ago by the Bolsheviks and carried on by Stalin, who believed that every single act of terror should be responded to by an even bigger, more horrendous, more terrifying terrorist act," the newspaper quoted Zakayev as saying. "According to this practice, it is necessary to shock the terrorists, and let them know that under no condition will you agree to negotiate with them." [They have been freed too short after. M.M.] Concern grows over Russian press freedom Tuesday, September 7th, 2004 By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press LONDON (AP) - The detention of several journalists traveling to and from the deadly school siege in Russia is raising new concern about press freedom in the country, media watchdogs said Tuesday. There are also accusations that a prominent Russian journalist and critic of Moscow's campaign in Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya, was victim of a deliberate case of food poisoning. Politkovskaya fell critically ill last week with an acute intestinal infection and dehydration after drinking tea on a flight to Beslan, where militants seized a school in a standoff that left more than 350 people dead, many of them children. She has left intensive care but remains at home under medical supervision. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was alarmed at reports Politkovskaya may have been poisoned. Soria Blatmann, of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, called for an investigation. Politkovskaya negotiated with Chechen rebels who took hundreds of Russians hostage in a Moscow theater in 2002 and had offered to play the same role in Beslan. Russian authorities have not commented on Politkovskaya's case, but her newspaper, the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta, considers the case suspicious. "Ten minutes after drinking it, she lost consciousness, having managed to call for the stewardess," Novaya Gazeta said, adding that she had eaten nothing else that day. The newspaper said it couldn't draw a conclusion until "circumstances were cleared up." But the fact that another journalist was taken off a flight from the same airport - Moscow's Vnukovo - "forces one to suggest that there was an attempt to prevent a number of journalists who are authoritative in Chechnya from covering the tragedy," it added in its Sept. 6-8 issue. The detention of four reporters has also caused alarm. Andrei Babitsky, a correspondent for the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, was detained last week at a Moscow airport on suspicion of carrying explosives and prevented from flying to southern Russia, said Vladimir Baburin, an editor in the station's Moscow bureau. No explosives were found in his bag but he was held again after two men provoked him into a fight, Baburin said. The men later identified themselves as airport security officers who had been ordered to create trouble for the reporter, Baburin said. Reporters Without Borders said two Georgian television journalists had been held by police in Beslan since Saturday and prevented from covering the aftermath of the siege. On Monday, Russian authorities detained the Moscow bureau chief of the satellite TV channel Al Arabiya on his way to Moscow from Beslan, a producer at the bureau said. He remains in custody, colleagues say. It is not clear if the three others have been released. Some analysts fear the Russian government may tighten its grip further following the school siege and other attacks in recent days blamed on Chechen separatists. "The fear of the Russian population will be used to justify further restrictions on the media," said Luitgard Hammerer, of Article 19, a London-based free speech group. Hammerer said government control over the press was often exercised less directly, with officials using Russia's complex tax code to accuse media organizations of financial improprieties or suing for defamation. "This creates an atmosphere in which journalists don't feel free to report critically any more, so it has a strong chilling effect on the media," she said. Chechnya is the most taboo subject, watchdogs say. "There is a complete blackout of information on what's happening in Chechnya," Blatmann, of Reporters Without Borders, said. "In this critical moment, the Russian population has the right to receive independent and complete information." "This is the right moment for (President Vladimir) Putin to let go a little bit, let journalists do their job freely," Blatmann said. Press freedom organizations say that in recent years Putin has been exercising strict control over much of the media, particularly broadcasters. They say Russia's print media are far freer than broadcasters, which are now almost all directly or indirectly controlled by the government following the takeover of the NTV network in 2001 by the state-connected natural gas monopoly Gazprom. Most television networks were cautious in covering the Beslan school siege, shying away from any criticism of the government's handling of the crisis. However, some fear the resignation Monday of the respected editor of the Izvestia daily could be a sign that print media are also coming under increasing scrutiny. Raf Shakirov said in an interview with Radio Liberty that he stepped down because the paper's publisher disliked Izvestia's coverage of the hostage crisis, which included large, graphic photographs of wounded and dead children. "We'll see now if it's an isolated case or not, if journalists are under more and more pressure now," Blatmann said. Beslan Hostage Was Denied Asylum in Sweden — Newspaper Created: 08.09.2004 13:54 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:54 MSK, MosNews A six-year-old boy who survived the hostage drama in a school in southern Russia was deported from Sweden in June after his family was refused asylum by immigration authorities, the Reuters news agency reported from Stockholm on Wednesday. Sweden's Migration Board said on Wednesday that Amiran Duguyev, his mother Angela and his father Mukharbek were put on a plane to Moscow on June 14, 2-1/2 months before the attack. "Deported to Terror" ran a headline in tabloid Aftonbladet, describing his deportation as a journey "from a safe haven in Hofors (refugee camp in Sweden) to Hell on Earth". Amiran was one of more than 1,000 children and parents taken hostage in the town of Beslan by Chechen separatists. Some got out through windows when police stormed the building but at least 335 died. It was not immediately clear how Amiran escaped. "We regret this event took place but it will not affect our decision- making for now or lead to any change in our decision," Migration Board spokeswoman Berit Olsson said. Family friend Stefan Udovic told Reuters that the family's troubles were not yet over as they had fled Beslan fearing reprisals by Christian Ossetians against Muslims. The boy's father is *Muslim and his mother is Christian —- one reason they had originally sought asylum in Sweden, Udovic said. About 200 Chechens are currently seeking asylum in Sweden. Most applications processed have been turned down but Sweden has decided to grant two-year residency permits to ethnic Chechens coming directly from the conflict zone. Amiran's father had been in Sweden since 1999 and his wife and son joined him to live in an asylum-seekers' camps in 2001.