2004-09-12 17:39

Polish border guards deny entry to group of Chechens


WARSAW, September 12 (RIA Novosti's Leonid Sviridov) - Polish border guards have confirmed they denied entry to Poland from Belarus to a group of Russian citizens of Chechen descent.

Colonel Jaroslaw Zukovic, the press secretary of the Polish Border Guard, reported that on Saturday, September 11, the Polish border guards at the border between Poland from Belarus near Brest denied entry to about 100 Chechens.

Press secretary of the Nadbuze Division (the Polish-Belarussian border) of the Polish Border Guard Lieutenant Colonel Andrzej Wojcik said that "the recent story with the Chechens is nothing extraordinary." He said that a foreigner could be denied access to Poland if he/she lacks all appropriate documents (Russian citizens require a Polish visa), apparently lacks money to cover his/her expenses in Poland, or the goals of his/her trip appear to be inconsistent with what is specified in the visa.

"The Polish border guards acted in compliance with the current national legislation," Wojcik said, "the nationality of the foreigners did not count: they just produced Russian passports and failed to comply with one of conditions of entry to Poland."

Wojcik also said that in his area of responsibility about 1,400 foreigners have applied for asylum this year.

"Most applications came from Russian citizens of Chechen descent," he emphasized.

Press secretary of the Polish Foreign Ministry Boguslaw Majewski told RIA Novosti that the latest denial should not affect relations between Russia and Poland.

Previously the Russian consulate general in Brest had confirmed that 125 Chechens were detained on the border between Belarus and Poland on Saturday. Russian diplomats had told RIA Novosti over the telephone that the Chechens were "accommodated in hotels, the situation is calm and under control."

However, the consulate refused to give further comment.



Beslan school storming was planned on the very first day of the siege - claims Georgian journalists jailed by FSB

BY Tamar Melkadze, The Georgian Times

http://www.geotimes.ge/fullview1.php?id=9131&cat1=26

Georgian journalist from independent Rustavi 2 Station recently released from Beslan jail is receiving treatment in Tbilisi Radial Diagnostic Institute. Lezhava is stabilizing now but is still under careful supervision of doctors.

Georgian TV Station Rustavi -2's famous face Nana Lezhava and cameraman Levan Tetvadze were snatched by Russian Federal Security Bureau(FSB) at the Culture House, in North Ossetia's Beslan when they were covering the hostage release operation. Later the Rustavi-2 crew was charged with violating Georgian-Russian border and working illegally having no journalistic accreditation. The journalists were released thanks to the active involvement of international organizations and Georgia's President Saakashvili. On her return to Tbilisi Nana Lezhava said she had been poisoned by FSB officers.

"We were not allowed to get closer to the school as the terrorists were shooting in all directions. So being there was extremely dangerous. We had to work on the surrounding area of the school. People were shocked, we were jotting down the comments of the eyewitnesses, covering the situation on the spot as it was impossible to get closer to the school. Suddenly we saw representatives of North Ossetia Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local militiamen coming up. We were asked to leave with them as they claimed we had violated the laws working without accreditation and entering Russia without visas," Nana Lezhava recalls in a talk with the GT.

The administration of the Rustavi 2 TV Company as well as the released journalists claims that the arrest by Russian militiamen and the FSB officers was unlawful as the journalists had the right to enter Russia without visas. The thing is that Rustavi 2 contends the journalists had been registered as residents of Georgia's Kazbegi district(bordering Russia's North Ossetia) who are allowed to cross into Russia without visas, as provided by a special Georgian-Russian agreement.

The Georgian government also confirms that Lezhava and Tetvadze had been registered as residents of Kazbegi district. However, a trustworthy source who is in close terms with the Russian embassy representatives has told the GT that the Russian officers doubted the authenticity of the documents. They suspected the registration documents of the Rustavin 2 crew were false, as Nana Lezhava lives in Rustavi, just 20 kms away from Tbilisi.

"At about 13-14pm we were taken to the office of Ministry of Internal Affairs in Beslan. In about an hour we shifted to the Security Ministry. At 12 at night we had to move to the Vladikavkaz office of the  Ministry of Internal Affairs where we were interrogated. They asked us whom we had met, who we had talked to, where we were when the Russian forces started storming the school, what hostages had told us. We spent two days and nights in an Interior Ministry isolation ward and were waiting for the trial. No one, even our lawyers were not allowed to see us in those days," Lezhava has told the GT.

The Beslan court sentenced from 10 days to 2 months pre-trial incarceration to Lezhava and Tetvadze. Although a state-funded lawyer was present at the trial as the private lawyers hired by Rustavi 2 TV company and the representatives of Georgia's embassy to Russia were not allowed to defend the Rustavi 2 journalists.

In a talk with the GT Lezhava noted that during their detention in the Security Ministry cell they underwent medical examination. Later they were offered coffee with some cognac, as she had been hungry all day long. In a few minutes she fell unconscious and came to sense only in the next evening.

"I don't remember what happened then, how we were taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs," Lezhava said.

Lezhava stressed that Ossetian or Russian law-enforcers did not use physical abuse or torture during questioning. But she felt an overtly displayed aggression from the Ossetian doctors who tagged the Georgian journalist as a terrorist and contemptuously noted that Georgians befriend with Chechens.

Investigator of their case Anatoly Chebotev admitted the detention of the Rustavi 2 crew was unlawful but he had to carry out his superintendents' instructions.

Why were Russian law-enforcers interested in the arrest of the Georgian journalist? Tbilisi-based Independent Association of Georgian Journalists (IAGJ) believes that the Russian government tried to contain the spread of information about the tragedy. The Russian security officers took away cameras and tapes from all the journalists covering the Beslan siege.

Nana Lezhava says they had recorded the comments of the local population who mostly condemned President of North Ossetia Zasokhov. The journalists taped several residents who blamed Zasokhov for dooming innocent children to death saying their president misled people. An hour before the Russian Special Forces stormed the school, Zasokhov met the relatives of the hostages in Culture Palace, where journalists were denied entry, and promised the crisis would end without bloodshed. In an hour a bloody operation was launched in which hundreds of people were killed.

Lezhava says that the Russian government and FSB were lying all the time during the crisis.

"The fact is that the Russian special services were trying to obstruct journalists to provide truthful coverage of the events. All the tapes and comments were strictly filtrated by the Kremlin. The Russian media was certainly lying when reporting the terrorists took 350 children hostage in the school while their number was over 1200. The Special Forces were certainly uncoordinated. I can definitely say that it were Russian forces who provoked the storming of the school. Overnight Alfa special unit came to Beslan and thoroughly cleaned the surrounding territory of the school. The local law-enforcers were informed of the presence of Alfa officers on the scene," said Lezhava.





Sep 12 2004 2:23PM

Policemen involved in incident with Hero of Russia will go unpunished

MOSCOW. Sept 12 (Interfax) - The Moscow police officials have announced that policemen of Moscow's eastern police district did not exceed their powers while "dealing" with retired air force colonel, Hero of Russia Magomed Tolboyev, the Moscow police's public relations department said on Sunday.

It said Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin on Sunday "heard reports by the chiefs of the personnel and internal security departments concerning checks on the facts cited in Alexander Khinshtein's article, published by the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets on September 10, 2004.

"The materials gathered suggest that allegations concerning Tolboyev's brutal treatment were untrue. The policemen did not possess weapons, and Tolboyev was neither beaten up, nor kicked," the Public Relations Department said in a release.

"It was established that the policemen had stopped Tolboyev for a passport check with due reason, while the use of force within the limits admissible in such situations, was provoked by Tolboyev's refusal to obey, and by his aggressive conduct," it said.

"Gen. Pronin confirmed the police officials' conclusions that no disciplinary measures should be applied against the policemen," the release says.

The materials of the checks have been passed over to the Moscow Prosecutor's Office.

"Copies of these documents have also been sent to the State Duma speaker, to the Rusian human rights commissioner, to the interior minister and to the Moscow mayor, and replies have been sent to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, to State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein and to Magomed Tolboyev," the Public Relations Department said.