| Tuesday, Apr. 13,
2004. Page 1 The Moscow Times
Mystery Shrouds Erkel's Release By Oksana Yablokova Staff Writer As freed Dutch aid worker Arjan Erkel was reunited with his family in the Netherlands on Monday, questions went unanswered about who had kidnapped him and the murky circumstances surrounding his release. Erkel, the North Caucasus coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, was freed after 20 months in captivity early Sunday in Dagestan. Local authorities described Erkel's release as a special operation conducted by law enforcement agencies. but an association of retired security service officers suggested it was more likely the result of an agreement with kidnappers. The Dagestani Interior Ministry refused to give further details Monday, saying that an official statement would be made from Moscow. But officials for the Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry in Moscow refused to comment on the case Monday, and newscasts on state television avoided mention of Erkel's release for a second straight day. A spokesman for Medicins Sans Frontieres, Mark Walsh, said Monday that many of the questions surrounding Erkel's kidnapping and release might never be answered. Walsh said there were a lot of discrepancies in the investigation into Erkel's abduction, and that MSF would decide over the next few weeks whether to resume work in Dagestan, where a spate of kidnappings has led to some humanitarian organizations scaling down their operations there in recent years. MSF suspended its operations in the North Caucasus on Aug. 12, 2002, the day Erkel was abducted by three gunmen on the outskirts of Makhachkala. The organization later resumed work in Ingushetia and Chechnya, giving medical aid to refugees fleeing Chechnya and helping to distribute medical supplies to local hospitals. "Now we will be analyzing what happened," Walsh said. "The situation is worrying for us. We have to figure out whether we can deliver aid to the region." Speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio on Monday afternoon, Dutch Ambassador to Russia Tiddo Hofstee shed little light on the case, confirming only that the Dutch government had paid no ransom for his release. "What I can say is that last week we received certain signals that a solution to this case might be possible," Hofstee said, adding that he had received similar signals in December. One of the main questions yet unanswered is why Erkel was abducted, since there was never any ransom demand from his abductors, who are unknown, Walsh said. On Monday, Kommersant newspaper reported without citing any sources that the kidnappers had initially demanded a ransom of $1.5 million, but had later scaled it down to $500,000. Prior to Erkel's release, the Russian government and law enforcement agencies had attracted growing international criticism, including harsh remarks from leading MSF officials who accused the local authorities in Dagestan of complicity in Erkel's abduction, especially after a key investigator on his case was himself arrested on suspicion of being involved in abductions. Both Walsh and Hofstee confirmed that over the course of the past 20 months they had been in contact with various individuals and organizations claiming knowledge of Erkel's whereabouts and offering to act as intermediaries. Until the involvement of the Veterans of Foreign Intelligence, an organization of former security service officers that helped free Erkel, no other intermediaries had proved they could do anything to facilitate his release. One intermediary, who was introduced to MSF representatives by Federal Security Service officials, was able to deliver Erkel's photograph in March 2003. This served as a "proof of life" for Erkel, of whom nothing had been heard of for eight months after his abduction, Walsh said. Last fall, MSF received a further indication that Erkel was alive when an intermediary delivered a list of responses to questions only Erkel would know the answers to, including who he had sat next to in high school. Then six months went by without any news of Erkel's condition, compounding the group's concern. Novaya Gazeta correspondent Vyacheslav Izmailov, a participant in efforts to release several hostages over the past decade, has written in a series of articles on Erkel's case that a Dagestani mobster was behind the kidnapping, but that the reasons for it were not clear. Izmailov could not be reached for comment Monday. Arriving in Rotterdam on Monday, Erkel was reunited with his family for homecoming festivities planned for later in the day in his hometown of Westdorpe, in the province of Zeeland. "I understand he will be staying home for several months and then will decide what his future is going to be," Hofstee said. Erkel's father flew to Moscow late Sunday and brought him back to Rotterdam where he underwent a medical examination. Doctors found him in relatively good health. The doctors in Rotterdam examined him and found him in good health as well, Hofstee said. He also said that he found Erkel very "forward looking," adding that he spoke little of his captivity. "One of the first questions he asked was whether the Dutch soccer team had qualified for Euro 2004 in Portugal. Nobody on the plane from Makhachkala to Moscow seemed to know anything about that," Hofstee said. The Dutch play their first European finals match against Germany on June 15, in Aveiro
Report: By Anatoly Medetsky Staff Writer AP PHOTO: The two Russian suspects, wearing white, standing Sunday in the Qatari courtroom at the start of their trial on charges of killing former Chechen President Yandarbiyev. A Qatari newspaper reported Monday that Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov personally ordered the assassination of former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar. Ivanov's spokesman denied the allegation. "Such reports cannot be called anything but absurd. That is why I don't consider it possible to comment on this nonsense," said the spokesman, Colonel Vyacheslav Sedov, according to Interfax. The newspaper Al-Rayah reported that Ivanov ordered a Russian security services officer in the Qatari capital, Doha, to prepare the attack together with the two Russian security services officers who are now on trial for the killing. Al-Rayah cited files from the case that have not been officially released. Qatar last month expelled the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Doha, Alexander Fetisov, who Moscow has acknowledged is a secret agent. A link might be made between Ivanov and killing if the suspects on trial are agents of the GRU, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the armed forces' General Staff, said Andrei Piontkovsky, an independent political analyst. The Foreign Ministry, which has acknowledged that the suspects are from the security services, might have told Qatari investigators which agency they work for in negotiations to secure their release, Piontkovsky said. "That could be the GRU, and Ivanov is officially in charge of the GRU," he said. Novaya Gazeta, citing sources close to Qatari security services, said last week the suspects might be GRU agents. A Defense Ministry spokesman refused to comment on the case Monday. "There will be no comments until after the trial is over," he said. Al-Rayah also reported that Russia used a satellite to spy on Yandarbiyev. But Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technology, told Ekho Moskvy radio on Monday that the intelligence satellites that Russia has in orbit cannot trace a person or a vehicle in other countries. At the start of the trial Sunday, Qatari authorities revealed the names of the defendants, which, converted from Arabic into Russian, sound roughly like Vladimir Belachyov and Vasily Bukchev. A Foreign Ministry spokesman could not confirm the names Monday. Yandarbiyev died when a bomb went off under his car as he was leaving a Doha mosque on Feb. 13. Yandarbiyev's 13-year-old son, Daud, was injured. The suspects are each charged on 10 counts, including murder, attempted murder, arms-smuggling, illegally entering Qatar and fraud, Russian media reported. The fraud charges stem from an allegation that the suspects rented a car using false ID papers. If found guilty, the suspects could be executed. They have maintained their innocence. After the hearing Sunday, the Qatari court adjourned the trial until May 9, according to a spokesman for the law firm Yegorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners, which is advising the suspects' Qatari lawyer.
Russia: Amid Evidence of New Atrocities, U.N. Human Rights Commission Must TakeAction (Moscow, April 13, 2004)—The bodies of nine men bearing the marks ofextrajudicial execution were found in Chechnya on Friday, Human RightsWatch said today. Eight of the men had been forcibly disappeared twoweeks ago after armed men, presumed to be Russian forces, took them fromtheir homes.The bodies were found a week before the U.N. Commission on Human Rightsis to vote on a resolution calling on Russia to address abuses inChechnya. “This latest incident of forced disappearances and extrajudicialexecutions should serve as a wake-up call to those who believe thatthings have improved in Chechnya,” said Rachel Denber, acting executivedirector of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division. “TheU.N. Human Rights Commission can help break this ongoing cycle of abuseand impunity by adopting the resolution introduced last week.” About ten days ago, Human Rights Watch researchers spoke with villagersfrom Duba-Yurt in southern Chechnya while they were still searching fortheir “disappeared” relatives. They told Human Rights Watch that ataround 2 a.m. on March 27, eight military vehicles bearing smudgednumber plates entered the village. Among the vehicles were armoredpersonnel carriers, used exclusively by Russian forces. A large group of masked men in camouflage uniforms, who had arrived inthese vehicles, raided 19 houses in Duba-Yurt and detained 11 menbetween the ages of 28 and 44. Several witnesses independently toldHuman Rights Watch that the armed men — who spoke Russian without aChechen accent — burst into the houses, forced the families to the floorat gunpoint, and took the men away without checking their documents orgiving them a chance to dress. The armed men released three of the detainees near the village the samenight, but the remaining eight subsequently “disappeared.” Among themwere Bai-Ali Elmurzaev (b.1968), Idris Elmurzaev (b. 1971), SharipElmurzaev (b.1974), Apti Murtazov (b.1964), Lechi Shoipov (b.1960),Zelimkhan Osmaev (b.1975), Khusim Khadzhimuradov (b.1975), and IsaKhadzhimuradov (b. 1965). The men’s relatives appealed to theprocuracy — a government agency responsible both for criminalinvestigation and prosecution — and other authorities for information ontheir whereabouts, but received no response. Unofficial sources toldrelatives that the eight men were being held at the Russian militarybase in Khankala, yet the procuracy denied they were held there. On Friday, local residents found nine bodies in a ravine outsideSerzhen-Yurt, a village about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast ofDuba-Yurt. The bodies bore gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos, aswell as numerous signs of torture. Villagers who discovered the corpsessaid the men had been shot very recently. A medical doctor reportedlyfound that they were killed two days before. Eight of the bodies wereidentified as belonging to the men seized from Duba-Yurt. The ninth bodybelonged to another Duba-Yurt resident who had also been detainedpreviously. Chechen law enforcement authorities have allegedly launched aninvestigation, but to date have been unable to determine either theperpetrators or the place were the men had been held. Also on Friday, a Russian court issued a ruling liquidating theoperations in Russia of the Danish Refugee Counsel, a humanitarianorganization that had been one of the major sources of humanitarianassistance to internally displaced persons since the renewal of theconflict in 1999. According to the court ruling, the Danish organizationmust cease its activity in Russia and close its offices in Stavropol,Nazran and Moscow. The liquidation hearing was initiated by the Ministryof Justice on the grounds that the organization had failed “to reportthe changes in the organization’s leadership and its legal address.” These incidents took place just as the European Union on Thursdayintroduced a resolution on Chechnya at the U.N. Commission on HumanRights during its annual session in Geneva. The resolution expressesconcern about continued human rights violations in Chechnya and calls onthe Russian government to take urgent measures to address them. Russiaresponded by accusing the European Union of “putting the politicalprocess in the North Caucasus region in doubt” and “providing moralsupport for terrorists.” “The U.N. Human Rights Commission should not allow Russia to dictate theterms of debate,” said Denber. “It is Russia’s failure to stop abusesand impunity for them that’s putting the political process in the regionin doubt. Russia is taking for granted that the international communitywill just turn a blind eye to atrocities, and the Commission must dispelthis perception.” Human Rights Watch also urged the European Union to use the EU-Russiaministerial meeting, set for April 14, to raise the need for urgentmeasures to stop abuses in Chechnya. During the Chechnya conflict, now in its fifth year, tens of thousandsof civilians have fallen victim to abuses perpetrated by both Russianforces and Chechen rebels. These abuses include indiscriminate bombingsand several massacres, extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances,rape, torture and arbitrary detentions. The overwhelming majority ofthese crimes remained uninvestigated and unpunished. Nevertheless, Russian authorities claim that the situation in Chechnyahas been “normalized.” Meanwhile, they have persistently restrictedaccess to the region for journalists and for international humanitarianand human rights agencies, and have coerced thousands of the internallydisplaced to return back to Chechnya, with blatant disregard for theirsecurity. In both 2000 and 2001, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights passedresolutions calling on the Russian government to stop abuses, establisha meaningful accountability process and invite the U.N. monitoringmechanisms to the region. Russia defied the resolutions and failed tocomply with most of their recommendations. “For too long, the world has been indulging Russia in its claims thatthe situation has been ‘normalized’,” said Denber. “It’s time for theworld to send an unequivocal message that Russia must take real measuresto stop the abuses in Chechnya.” New evidence of torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicialexecutions perpetrated over the last three months in Chechnya andneighboring Ingushetia was presented on April 8 in a joint statement byHuman Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Medical Foundation forthe Care of Victims of Torture, and Memorial Human Rights Center. Thefour organizations called on the international community to takeimmediate action to address the situation, and urged the U.N. Commissionon Human Rights to adopt a strong resolution on Chechnya and Ingushetia. Woman, 5 Children Killed in Chechnya Air Attack Created: 13.04.2004 17:14 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:25 MSK, MosNews
A woman and five children were killed in Chechen village of Rigakhoi, Interfax news agency reported Tuesday citing the Memorial human rights center. It is not yet clear on what day the incident took place. The villagers told Memorial officials that the bombing had happened on April 8. They were sure that it had been done by the Russian troops, an official of Memorial office in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, Fatima Murzayeva, told MosNews. She added however that an official of the center in Grozny, the capital of Checnhya, had told that the incident had taken place on April 9. The woman Marit Tsintsayeva and her five children were killed when a bomb hit their house. The oldest child was seven years old. The press office of Russian air forces said that front jet bombers had not taken off in the air on April 9. Rigakhoi is situated very high in the mountains and is difficult to access, Murzayeva said. Physicians, journalists or law enforcement officials were unable to get there. To phone Memorial, the villagers had to go to the center of the Vedeno region, she added.
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