Whoever is behind this monstrous crime, whatever purpose the organizers of the explosions in Madrid pursued, there aren’t and there cannot be any justifications for terror against innocent civilians. We decisively condemn this terrorist act, and we express our most sincere condolences to the people and the government of Spain.

On behalf and on the commission of the President and the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ahmed Zakayev, Vice-premier of the Chechen government, Special envoy of the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria to foreign countries. Chechenpress News Agency

RFE/RL Newsline March 11, 2004

Chechen displaced persons under pressure to return

By Liz Fuller Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

Over the past two months, Russian officials in Moscow, Grozny and the Ingushetian capital Magas have issued conflicting and contradictory statements about the status of the tent camps in Ingushetia that at the turn of the year still housed an estimated 4,000-7,000 displaced persons from Chechnya. Despite repeated official reassurances that none of those displaced persons will be constrained to return to Chechnya against their will, one of the three camps in Ingushetia has already been closed, and the remaining two could also be shut down by the end of this month.

The impetus for expediting the return from Ingushetia to Chechnya of the displaced Chechens currently housed in tent camps appears to have come from the pro-Moscow Chechen government, which argues that the apparently voluntary return of the displaced persons attests to the "normalization" of living conditions in Chechnya. On 12 January, Interfax quoted the Chechen government as saying that "after March 1 there must not be a single tent on the territory of Ingushetia." ITAR- TASS the same day quoted acting Chechen Prime Minister Eli Isaev as explaining the rationale for the closure in terms of the appalling conditions at the camps. He said the Chechen authorities will provide alternative accommodation in Grozny with electricity, heating, gas, and water in close proximity to schools.

But on 16 January, Ingushetian presidential press secretary Isa Mezhoev told Interfax the repatriation process will be "exclusively voluntary," and that the Ingushetian authorities would not set any deadline for shutting down the camps. Ingushetia's President Murat Zyazikov similarly told Interfax on 21 February that it is for the displaced persons to decide themselves whether to return to Chechnya, and that "we are not trying to accelerate this process. We do not set any deadlines." On 4 March, Ingushetian Deputy Prime Minister Magomed Markhiev implicitly rejected Isaev's criticism of conditions at the camps. Markhiev told Interfax that the camp residents "have heating, food, gas and electricity. Returning fugitives are given free transportation. There are no specific problems."

A senior UN official who visited Chechnya and Ingushetia in late January subsequently said he considered the 1 March deadline for closing the tent camps in Ingushetia unrealistic. Jan Egeland, who is UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told Reuters on 27 January that there is not enough accommodation available in Chechnya to house all the Chechens from the camps in Ingushetia. He added that the security situation in Chechnya is "still very difficult." Two days later, on 29 January, Egeland announced that the Russian authorities had rescinded the 1 March deadline. He said he pointed out to the Russian authorities that to impose such a deadline while insisting that the repatriation process will be purely voluntary is a contradiction in terms. But Reuters on 29 January quoted Ruslan Badalov of the Chechen Committee for National Salvation as implying that Egeland was naive to take at face value Russian officials' assurances that the 1 March deadline had been shelved. Badalov said that representatives of the pro-Moscow Chechen government were visiting the camps in Ingushetia to warn the inhabitants of the impending 1 March closure. On 13 February, chechenpress.com reported that water supplies to the three tent camps in Ingushetia had been cut off in a bid to force the inhabitants to leave.

On 27 January, Stanislav Ilyasov, who is the Russian minister for chechen affairs, said the 1 March date for closing the tent camps was only "a working deadline," the purpose of which was to pressure those engaged in building temporary accommodation in Chechnya for the prospective returnees to speed up that process. Ilyasov also suggested that the Ingush authorities should do more to make alternative accommodation available in that republic to those Chechens who do not want under any circumstances to return to Chechnya. An estimated 45,000 displaced persons from Chechnya now live in rented private accommodation in Ingushetia.

Meeting with Egeland on 26 January, Ilyasov assured him that the Russian government will provide funds to house the Chechen displaced persons who choose to remain in Ingushetia rather than return to Chechnya. Ilyasov estimated that of the total 49,000 displaced persons currently in Ingushetia, half would opt not to return to Chechnya. By 14 February, however, Ilyasov was affirming that "all the necessary conditions have been created in Chechnya" for those who do not want to remain in temporary accommodation in Chechnya, Interfax reported. Ilyasov claimed that "hundreds" of displaced persons had applied for permission to return to Chechnya. On 1 March, a Chechen government representatives in Ingushetia told Interfax that between 170-180 displaced persons were leaving the tent camps each day to return to Chechnya.

It was this reported exodus that served as the rationale for the 1 March closure of the Bart camp in Ingushetia, which, as of 29 February, still had 67 inhabitants. On 4 March, Mompash Machuev, first deputy chairman for the Chechen Committee for Refugees, said that the Sputnik camp, one of the two remaining camps in Ingushetia, will be closed by mid-March. Machuev too stressed that displaced persons are not being pressured to return to Chechnya, and that the reason for closing the camps is the unsatisfactory living conditions there.

Russian human rights activists, however, contend that at least some of the displaced persons evicted from Bart have no alternative accommodation to go to. Svetlana Gannushkina of the Moscow-based human rights group memorial told Interfax on 3 March that "neither Chechnya nor Ingushetia can offer accommodation to the people who are leaving the tent camps," and that consequently "scores of people will become homeless."

On 6 March, Russian presidential human rights commission chairwoman Ella Pamfilova traveled to Ingushetia to inspect conditions at the two remaining tent camps and to discuss the displaced persons' plight with Zyazikov and Merzhoev. Pamfilova told Interfax that she resolutely opposes setting any deadline for the closure of the Sputnik and Satsita camps, which still house an estimated 3,000 displaced persons, and that to insist that those displaced persons leave the two camps by the end of March would constitute a violation of their basic rights. She said those two camps could remain open until May. Pamfilova also praised the measures undertaken by the administration of Ingushetia to assist those displaced persons who choose to return to Chechnya. But at the same time, she admitted that unnamed officials are pressuring the displaced persons to leave the tent camps. And on 10 March, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported that four days earlier Chechen Interior Ministry troops descended on the Satsita camp in Ingushetia and conducted a search of several tents. In what the camp residents termed a clear attempt at intimidation, the Chechen forces tried to detain eight men, but were prevented from doing so.

March 12th 2004 · Prague Watchdog / Timur Aliyev

Medical students protest another classmate‘s abduction in Grozny

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus - Students at the Medical College of Groznytoday staged a rally in protest against the abduction of their classmate.

About a hundred young people marched through the center of the Chechencapital, holding banners and chanting "Set the student free!"

The students were demanding the release of a dental student at theMedical College, who, according to them, had been taken from the schoolby unknown armed men on March 11.

When the march ended, the students met with the Moscow-backed Chechenleader Akhmad Kadyrov, who assured them that he would "personally lookinto this."

Acts of protest by students appear to be gaining momentum in Chechnya.In late February, students at the Medical Faculty of Grozny StateUniversity picketed the building of the Moscow-backed Chechen governmentfor three days, demanding the release of their classmate.

The TimesMarch 12, 2004

Qatar bombers 'were Russian special forces'

Moscow faces a diplomatic crisis over an exiled Chechen's death

By Michael Binyon and Jeremy Page

TWO Russians who are being held in Qatar in connection with the bombingthat killed an exiled Chechen militant have confessed that they aremembers of Russia’s special security forces, according to diplomaticsources.

Under interrogation, the men also told the Qataris that the bomb used tokill Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev last month was smuggled into the tiny Gulfstate after being sent from Moscow through the diplomatic bag into SaudiArabia.

Qatar has promised to put the two men on trial but has come underenormous pressure from Russia to release them instead.

Moscow would be hugely embarrassed by any trial if it revealed that itsagents were instructed to assassinate Mr Yandarbiyev, and even more soif it were shown that the bomb had been brought in through thediplomatic bag. Russia’s appeal for joint international action againstChechen terrorism would be severely compromised as a result.

So desperate is the Kremlin to forestall any trial that it is understoodto have threatened to send special forces to mount an operation tospring the men from prison and take them back to Russia.

Pressure on Qatar has also been increased by the arrest of two Qataricitizens who are being held by the FSB security service in Russia.

The two men have been identified as Nasser Ibrahim Saad al-Madhihiki, anofficial with the Qatari greco-roman wrestling team, and Ibrahim AhmadNasser Ahmad. A third man, Ibad Akhmedov, is a Belarussian whoapparently has Qatari citizenship and was detained at the Sheremetyevo-2international airport in Moscow but later released.

The Russians are clearly hoping to swap the two men for the detainedsecurity officials held in Qatar.

The Qataris appear embarrassed by the affair, and have refused tocomment further on the case. But Western diplomats say that theauthorities appear determined to go ahead with a trial.

The Qataris have been outraged by the killing of Mr Yandarbiyev, whomthe Russians hold responsible for masterminding the Moscow theatre siegewhich killed around 120 hostages and several Chechen rebels on 23October, 2002.

Most victims died after Russian special forces stormed the building tofree about 800 people who had been held hostage for more than two days.

Mr Yandarbiyev briefly took over as Chechen president in 1996 after thedeath of Dzhokhar Dudayev in an explosion. He was also seen as a keyfigure behind the 1999 incursion by Chechen rebels into the neighbouringRussian region of Dagestan.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official yesterday denied that there had beenan escalation of the dispute between Russia and Qatar. He told TheTimes: “I haven’t heard of any such threatening language.”

A spokesman for the FSB, the KGB’s successor, declined to commentyesterday. But this month Sergei Ivanov, Russia’s Defence Minister, madeit clear that Russia would do everything in its power to get itsdetained citizens back.

He told reporters in Paris: “The State will use all availableinstruments to release the Russian citizens illegally detained in Qatar.”

Mr Ivanov did not elaborate, but last October he announced that Moscowwould use preventive military force in case of a “direct threat” toRussian citizens. Sergei Lavrov,Russia’s new Foreign Minister, said onWednesday that Moscow’s position remained unchanged.

“We are expecting an appropriate response from Qatar. No evidence hasbeen received so far proving the guilt of these two Russian citizens,”he said.

The dispute has fanned conspiracy theories and nationalist rhetoric inthe run-up to the presidential elections in Russia on Sunday.

Some media reports have suggested that the security services had thetacit approval of the CIA to assassinate Mr Yandarbiyev. Others haveaccused the CIA of tipping off Qatari Intelligence about Russianinvolvement in the killing.

Dmitry Rogozin, co-leader of the nationalist Rodina bloc, and deputySpeaker of parliament, has called openly for the use of military forceto persuade Qatar to free the Russian agents.