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Apr 10 2004 11:03AM Nine bodies of civilians found in Chechnya MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax) - The bodies of nine people, who went missing in Chechnya in late March, have been found in the Shali district. "The bodies with numerous gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos were discovered in a ravine outside the village of Serzhen-Yurt on Friday evening. The body of a man, who supposedly lived in Stariye Atagi in the Grozny rural district, was also found there," deputy chief of the Shali district administration Abdula Sapiyev told Interfax on the phone. The eight people were seized by unidentified armed men and taken out of Duba-Yurt in an unknown direction on March 27. A search launched by the Chechen law enforcement agencies proved fruitless. "Neither the place where the abducted people were taken nor those responsible for the incident have been determined," Sapiyev said. The police and other law enforcement and security agencies are continuing to investigate the crime, he said. Bodies of 9 Chechens Found in Ditch VOA News 10 Apr 2004, 14:27 UTC The gunshot-riddled bodies of nine Chechen men have been found in a ditch near the southeastern Chechen village of Serjen-Yurt. The victims included eight male villagers from Duba-Yurt, 25 kilometers away, who had been missing since being kidnapped on March 27. Regional authorities say the ninth man was from Stariye-Atagi, outside the capital of Grozny. Authorities have been unable to identify the men's kidnappers. Thursday, four human rights groups issued a statement documenting attacks on civilians, random executions and civilian disappearances in Chechnya and Ingushetia. The groups say Russian troops, pro-Moscow Chechens and Chechen rebels are responsible. They called on Russia to take immediate steps to halt the abuses. They also urged the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to adopt a resolution it is considering on Chechen rights. The Russian government has dismissed the resolution drafted by the European Union as politically motivated. The groups releasing the statement Thursday were Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Memorial Human Rights Center and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.
Mass poisoning of children in Grozny CHECHNYA. (Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship). On April 5 fivechildren arrived in Grozny Hospital #3, which sever food poisoning. Theycame from temporary settlement camp (PVR) #119, located in theStaropromyslovsky neighborhood of Grozny. At present, the children arein the hospital and their condition is severe. In conversation with a correspondent from the Society of Russian-ChechenFriendship, the mother of one of the poisoned children stated thatresidents of the PVR regularly receive spoiled and rotten food from theauthorities. The woman said that the source of her child’s poisoning wasrotten meat. Translated by Rebecca GouldPRIMA News Agency [2004-04-08-Chech-06] A young woman kidnapped in the Grozny region CHECHNYA. (SNO Press Center) On the night of April 9 in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt in the Grozny region armed forces in masks and camouflage kidnapped a young woman. The kidnapping occurred late at night in the home of residents of the village of Tamara Khasbulatov. Close to ten people were involved in the action. They arrived in the village in several cars. Threatening physical force, they pulled the daughter of the mistress of the house, 29 year old Zara, out onto the street and forcibly placed her inside one of the cars and drove off in an unknown direction. The motives of the crime are unknown. The fate of the woman had yet to be ascertained. Translated by Rebecca Gould PRIMA News Agency [2004-04-09-Chech-12].
eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot Anna Neistat expects no UN sanctions against Russia for policy in Chechnya The press conference titled "The Situation in Chechnya and Ingushetia Is Worsening: New Evidence of Abductions, Torture, Rapes, and Extrajudicial Executions" took place at the Moscow Institute of Press Development on April 8. It was arranged by the Independent Press Center and timed to the submission of a draft resolution on Chechnya to the UN Commission on Human Rights. The participants in the press conference were Anna Neistat, Moscow director for Human Rights Watch; Aleksandr Petrov, deputy Moscow director for Human Rights Watch; Tatyana Kasatkina, executive director of the Human Rights Center Memorial; and Kim Wiesener, Russia Researcher at Amnesty International (via phone from London). Anna Neistat, a specialist in international law and Moscow director for Human Rights Watch, agreed to give her comments to the Caucasian Knot agency concerning the submission of the draft resolution to the UN commission. - If the UN resolution on Chechnya is passed, what concrete results it will have? - It's difficult to say since the resolution will hardly be passed. One shouldn't expect such drastic political steps from the international community, especially in the situation when Russia tries to represent itself as a main partner in the global struggle against terrorism. But, on one hand, the fact itself of putting the resolution to the vote prevents the substantial worsening of the situation in many respects. While the Russian authorities feel that there are people in the world who care about the Chechen problem, the worst thing doesn't happen. And this is the main. On the other hand, being under certain pressure, the power will likely agree to let international observers in Chechnya. Now they are not present in the republic mainly because the international community has completely turned away from this problem. - What real steps the international community will take in case the UN Commission still votes for the resolution? - I can say with confidence there will be no sanctions. The resolution contains recommendations. Though the situation that our country went through a few years ago can recur. The resolutions on Chechnya passed in 2000 and 2001 also contained recommendations. But Russia has not met them so far. First of all, those recommendations concerned the creation of a national commission to investigate crimes in Chechnya and invitation of UN special rapporteurs on torture and extrajudicial executions to the region. Following it, Russia invited UN special rapporteurs on violence against women, but their visit have never come about. The authorities still plead they are not able to provide due security for international experts. - And what will happen if Russia doesn't meet recommendations again? - Let's not be idealists. We understand well that there is no force which can make a sovereign state change its internal policy, except for international tribunal, of course. But there are some diplomatic, political, and financial mechanisms that are used to put pressure on a county. These mechanisms are exactly what we count on. I believe it must also be in the interests of the international community to resolve this situation. Author: Ksenia Ladygina Source: Own correspondent
Russia Says EU Chechnya Resolution Helps Terrorism Fri Apr 9, 2004 08:37 AM ET By Oliver Bullough The EU presented a draft resolution to the U.N. Human Rights Commission on Thursday calling for condemnation of abuses in Chechnya as well as "terrorist acts" elsewhere in the country. "This is encouragement for terrorists and contradicts the uncompromising fight against international terrorism," Interfax news agency quoted deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov as saying. Russia has fended off similar resolutions at the 53-member commission for the past two years with the help of countries that dislike individual states being singled out for criticism. "The current draft is politicized and we hope it will not be passed," Fedotov said. Russia has fought Chechen separatists for a decade. Moscow says the region is normalizing and is pressing on with a unilateral peace plan although troops still die daily. "What the EU is doing with this resolution shows that they are calling into question the process of political regulation in the North Caucasus," Fedotov said. The EU draft resolution also condemns rebel attacks across Russia such as a string of suicide bombings last years as "terrorist acts," but pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov said the resolution aimed to aid the rebels. "The very authors of these declarations are halting the process of political regulation in Chechnya," he told Interfax. Human rights groups have called on the U.N. body to adopt the text, and say kidnappings, murders and disappearances perpetrated by pro- Moscow forces are increasing. Rebel leaders criticize the world for failing to condemn Russian army actions. © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved. Russia Objects to EU Chechnya Rights Draft VOA News 09 Apr 2004, 17:15 UTC Russia has objected to a draft resolution on Chechen rights offered by the European Union at a United Nations human rights meeting. The resolution submitted Thursday in Geneva condemns human rights violations in the republic, as well as terrorist attacks. It also reportedly expresses concern about the failure of local authorities to investigate the abuses. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told the Russian Interfax news agency Friday in Moscow that the resolution is "politicized". He said Russia hopes it will not be adopted. Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov said Friday the draft gives moral support to the rebels. Thursday, four human rights groups called on Russia to end abuses being committed in the war-torn Russian republic and in its neighbor, Ingushetia. In a joint statement, the groups documented a number of civilian attacks, random executions, and civilian disappearances in the two republics. They said those committing the abuses are not being punished. The groups called on Russia to take immediate steps to halt the abuses. They also urged the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to adopt a resolution addressing the situation. The groups releasing the statement were Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Memorial Human Rights Center and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. `EU politicised resolution on Chechnya' The Associated Press, April 10, 2003 MOSCOW, (AP) Russia raised a chorus of complaint Friday over a draft UN human rights resolution on Chechnya that was tabled by the European Union. "The given draft is politicised and we hope it does not pass," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. "The fact that the EU countries have resorted to submitting a resolution shows that they are putting the political process in the North Caucasus region in doubt. Moreover, it is a kind of encouragement to terrorists and runs counter to the uncompromising struggle against international terrorism." The EU draft, submitted on Thursday, condemns human rights violations in Chechnya, including abductions, extra-judicial killings and torture and expresses concern over civilians' difficulties in getting authorities to investigate alleged rights abuses. It also calls on Russia to provide better access to Chechnya for humanitarian aid groups and to cooperate with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe, including help in publishing a UN report on torture in the war- scarred region. Fedotov said the draft should not be accorded too much significance, since positive developments in Chechnya "are gathering force", Interfax reported. But he complained that the European Union had not accepted Russia's explanations about what it considers the real situation in Chechnya. Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the Kremlin-backed Chechen government, said the draft resolution amounted to "moral support for the fighters", Interfax reported. His security council chief, Rudnik Dudayev, said that the EU was using "two or three-year-old arguments", Interfax reported. No foreign help is needed to solve Chechnya's problems, either from the EU or human rights organisations, "from which there have been only words and no action", Dudayev was quoted as saying. |