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13.3.2004 In Chechnya people continue to disappear CHECHNYA, Grozny. On March 10 in the Oktyabrysky neighborhood of Groznyduring an apartment raid by Special Troops (Spetsnaz), Russian securityforces seized local resident Dzambulat Dzambaev. According to Dzhambulat Dzhamaev’s relatives, he didn’t have anyconnection to rebel forces and had never done anything illegal. Hislocation and fate is as yet unknown. According to the Press-Center SNO, on the night of March 4 in thevillage of Goity in the Urus-Martan district of Chechnya, armed men inmasks and camouflage presenting themselves as part of Kadyrov’s securityforce, kidnapped Adam Dudayev, 51, and his wife Raisa, 48. According tothe testimony of their relatives, the kidnappers arrived in the villagein two cars without license plates. They looted the Dudayev home, forcedthem into one of the cars, and drove off in an unknown direction. Themotives for their capture and detention and their fate after being takenaway remains unknown. Translated by Rebecca Gould PRIMA News Agency [2004-03-11-Chech-12] The Caucasian Knot, 11/3/2004 Memorial: Magomed Khambiyev compelled to surrender by taking hostages The Memorial Human Rights Center denied the official version of the voluntarily surrender of Magomed Khambiyev, a known field commander from Aslan Maskhadov's closest circle and Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Magomed Khambiyev's surrender to Chechen security agencies controlled by the federal center came as a total surprise. At the end of February, both units formally under Akhmad Kadyrov's control and the battalion of the Russian Defense Ministry's special forces formed of Chechens were drawn up in Gudermes, Memorial reports. Then all these units made for the mountainous Nozhay-Yurt district. The column numbered over 100 cars supported by armored vehicles and helicopters. Mass detentions of relatives of Umar and Magomed Khambiyevs, who had occupied high positions in Aslan Maskhadov's government earlier, started on February 29 in the villages of Meskety, Benoy, and Turty- Khutor. Almost a half of Turty-Khutor residents were captured in such a way. Detentions of Khambiyev brothers' relatives went beyond the Nozhay-Yurt district. On March 1, two students of the Department of Medicine of the Chechen State University - Aslambek Khambiyev, a 19- year-old first-year student, and Shita Khambiyev, a sixth-year student, were taken away just from the class-room. Aslanbek Khambiyev was released on March 4. He was thrown away from a car in the village of Benoy. He was beaten and in a semiconscious state. The destiny of Shita Khambiyev remains unknown so far. "The practice unheard-of before - in other Chechen settlements, Kadyrov's people detained and took away women related to Khambiyev brothers who had married and left native villages," read the materials presented by the Memorial Human Rights Center. According to the reports by officers of the Chechen Interior Ministry, 16 people were detained and conveyed to official places of detention, 5 women being among them. However, according to relatives and locals, the number of the detained people was larger: 40-200 people. Then the special operation itself against Magomed Khambiyev started. He received a demand through intermediaries to surrender immediately otherwise he was threatened with violence against his relatives. After it Magomed Khambiyev surrendered. "Residents of Chechnya would not have understood and accepted if he had made the other choice - to pay for his freedom with freedom and life of his relatives would have meant to break unwritten laws and traditions. He was compelled to surrender. But the means look really embarrassing: hostage capture, threats, and blackmail. Such methods seem to be called terrorist", reads the statement by the organization. Editors note: See also the article "Chechen separatist leader surrenders", "Student Aslanbek Khanbiyev released". Source: Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Moscow, Russia) DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab television channel Al Jazeera broadcast a videotape on Saturday of the man it said was the leader of Arab fighters in Chechnya, vowing to stage a new wave of attacks inside Russia. Abu al-Waleed, said by the Kremlin of being among those behind last month's bombing on the Moscow underground, added that his campaign might depend on the outcome of Russia's coming presidential polls. "The enemies of God drop mines in the forests and, God willing, we will return them to the Russians and they will find them on their land and in the midst of their families," said the bearded man who was standing in a forest. "But perhaps we may wait a little to see the upcoming elections. If they elect someone who declares war on Chechnya, then the Russians are declaring war against the Chechens and by God we will send them these (mines)... Not only these but also things that did not cross their minds," he said. The man, wearing military fatigues and a beret and speaking in Arabic, was shown picking up a "butterfly" mine from foliage. He said his fighters had found hundreds of them. "We will return these to you (Russians)...You will, God willing, see hundreds of people crippled," he said. Officials at Qatar-based Al Jazeera were not immediately available to comment on when or how they received the videotape. Security has been tightened across Russia ahead of Sunday's elections and extra troops have been stationed along the border of Chechnya, where rebels have long been fighting Russian rule. The Kremlin blames Chechen rebels for a spate of attacks including a suicide bombing which killed close to 50 people on a train in southern Russia before last December's parliamentary polls and the attack on the underground, which killed around 40. The Kremlin believes Abu al-Waleed was also among those behind the 1999 apartment bombings across Russia that prompted President Vladimir Putin to send troops back into Chechnya.
Georgia tackles
Chechen conundrum Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appears determined to crack Georgia's Chechen conundrum. His efforts so far, however, have angered many, while leaving few satisfied. Chechen separatists remain active in Chechnya. Raids in the war- ravaged region March 10-11 left at least eight Russian soldiers and local police officers dead, according to media reports. During the 24- hour span Chechen separatists carried out up to 19 separate attacks against government facilities in the region. The presence of Chechen refugees in Georgia, mainly in the Pankisi Gorge near Georgia's frontier with Chechnya, has been a major source of friction between Moscow and Tbilisi in recent years. Russian authorities have long charged that Chechen militants have taken advantage of Georgia's political chaos to utilize the Pankisi Gorge as a safe haven. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Moscow also assailed former Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze for tolerating the Chechen separatist presence in Georgia. [For background information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Shortly after taking office in late January, Saakashvili characterized Shevardnadze's lack of action on the Chechen separatist question as "dangerous policy," and pledged to tighten border controls along the Georgian-Russian frontier. During Saakashvili's early February visit to Moscow, the Georgian president vowed to work with Russian leaders to improve security along the two countries' shared frontier, offering to form joint military patrols. He also indicated he would step up efforts to extradite suspected Islamic militants. Saakashvili reportedly admitted to Russian officials that Shevardnadze's administration had turned a blind eye to Chechen separatist activity in the Pankisi Gorge, an area that has long had a reputation for lawlessness. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. After returning to Georgia, Saakashvili told reporters on February 18 that the country needed to confront the threat of "Wahabbism" – a term that is commonly interchangeable in the parlance of the Commonwealth of Independent States with Islamic radicalism. He promised to undertake "severe actions" to drive Islamic radicals out of Georgia. "They should not expect any compromise on our part," the Georgian president said. Mysterious actions followed Saakashvili's tough words. On February 19, Russian authorities detained two Chechens – Beqkhan Mulkoyev and Hussein Alkhanov – at the Georgian-Russian border three days after the duo's unexplained disappearance in Tbilisi, Caucasus Press reported. Russian officials said Mulkoyev and Alkhanov were wanted on an Interpol warrant for suspected terrorist activity. The pair was among a group of 13 Chechens who had been detained in 2002 on suspicion of entering Georgia illegally. Just under two weeks before being taken into custody by Russian authorities, Mulkoyev and Alkhanov had been acquitted by a Tbilisi court of the illegal border- crossing charge. Georgian officials denied any involvement in either the disappearance of the two Chechens, or their subsequent arrest. But a leader of the Chechen community in Georgia, Khizri Aldamov, disputed the Georgian official account. "No one would believe that they [Mulkoyev and Alkhanov] went to the Russian border themselves," Aldamov told the Civil Georgia web site. "They did not intend to leave Georgia." In moving to crack down on suspected Islamic radicals, Saakashvili is striving to accomplish several political aims in one stroke: If successful, the crackdown would go a long way towards reestablishing central authority in the Pankisi Gorge; it also would serve to demonstrate that Saakashvili's administration is serious about cooperating with Russia, thus raising the odds that solutions could be found to a host of bilateral problems, including Abkhazia's political status; and it would reassure the United States on Georgia's commitment to fight international terrorism. The shift in Georgian government policy has alarmed thousands of Chechen refugees in Georgia, most of whom are concentrated in the Pankisi Gorge. It also has caused concern among Kists, ethnic Chechens who are indigenous to the Pankisi Gorge. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Some observers suggest the crackdown could result in violations of the civil rights of both refugees and local residents. According to Civil Georgia, many Chechen refugees worry that Georgian-Russian cooperation "might threaten their security." One Chechen advocate in Georgia, Dzhokola Acheshvili, said the Georgian government's campaign was not distinguishing between radicals and mainstream believers of Islam. He went on to suggest there was a religious motive to the crackdown, in which Saakashvili, as leader of Christian Georgia, was seeking to curb the practice of Islam in the country: "The Georgian president has said he is beginning a struggle against so-called `Wahabbism,'" Acheshvili said in a statement posted on the Chechen web site Kavkaz-Tsentr on February 19. "In fact, this is nothing other than a struggle against Islam." Acheshvili accused Saakashvili of trying to "isolate Kist children" from their cultural heritage, and alleged that authorities had condoned attacks against Islamic cutural sites in Pankisi, including the desecration of a mosque in Duisi, the regional center. "The fact that Saakashvili has decided to attack religion will bring nothing good to Georgian society," Acheshvili added. Other reports posted by Kavkaz Tsentr have made vague references to possible retaliation if what it portrays as the harassment of Chechen refugees does not cease. "Chechens are not responsible for future problems in relations that most probably could arise," said a March 7 commentary on the arrest of an 18-year-old Chechen on the Georgian- Azerbaijani border. While Saakashvili's crackdown on Islamic militants has unsettled refugees in Georgia, it apparently has not satisfied some influential members of Russia's government. On March 6, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov complained in an interview with the French newspaper Figaro that separatists are continuing to use Georgian territory as a safe haven. Ivanov said Islamic militants from outside the former Soviet Union continued to use Georgia as a transit point on their way to fight in Chechnya. "Neither the [Georgian] army nor the police take any measures," Ivanov said. "We have eliminated dozens of foreign terrorists, including nationals from NATO member-states, mainly Turkey. Georgian visas have always been found in their passports." According to a British Broadcasting System report March 9, Russian officials had found documentation on separatists killed in action that indicates some Islamic militants are being recruited in Britain. Saakashvili vigorously denied Ivanov's allegations, according to an Itar-Tass report March 8. Saakashvili reiterated Georgia's offer to conduct joint patrols with Russia in an attempt to seal the Georgian- Russian border. "Nothing has been done" by Moscow to follow up on the Georgian offer, Saakashvili said. Editor's Note: Daria Solovieva is an editorial associate at EurasiaNet. She is a political science major at Bard College. She is at work on a senior thesis that examines the impact of the Chechen conflict on Russian foreign policy.
Georgian special services abducted Chechens who had been acquitted by court From the reliable sources of the Kavkazcenter some details have became known of that kidnapping in Tbilisi of CHRI citizens - Mulkoyev and Alkhanov, who were freed by law court twodays before their abduction. It was explained that on the 16th of February they took a taxi, which was going to the center of Tbilisi, but on their route they were taken out it by the [agents] of Georgian secret services, among whom there was a representative of the Russian side. For the following next three days, the Chechens had been secretly kept in Tbilisi, in a secret apartment of the Georgian special services. On the 19th of February they took them to the Verkhnyi Lars border checkpoint and handed them over to the to Russians. This irrefutable evidence of the participation of Georgian special services to this abduction are to be found from the concerned persons. Meanwhile, the Strasbourg law court intends, following action of the attorneys of those who have disappeared, to get explanations to this question from Georgia and Russia. 2004-03-12 23:23:45
Kadyrovites continue to seize hostages The information centre of [CNO] the Council of Non-government Organizations http://www.livechechnya.org/ reports that bandit groups of Kadyrovites seem to have been seriously preparing to take hostage the relatives of Resistance members in order to apprehend the people they need. Local residents say that it is this method that was used by "siloviki" to seize Chechen Defence Minister Magomed Khambiyev, who "voluntarily pleaded guilty" on the 8th of March. Another incident of the sort took place in the village of Psedakh in Ingushetia's Malgobek district. Kadyrovite thugs carried out an "address zachistka" in this village on the 4th of March. "The law- enforcement agencies" [siloviki] broke into a house at 21 Pochtovaya Ulitsa [Street] and kidnapped Khozh-Akhmed Visaitov, 19. Later, it became known that "guardians of the law" were searching for his father, Sheykhi Visaitov, a native of Chechnya's Vedeno district and a member of the Resistance. It became known today that Visaitov has been taken to Chechnya and is currently held in Vedeno district - on territory controlled by a bandit group led by the former Security Service chief of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ibragim Khultygov. The relatives of the kidnapped man say that Visaitov will be released only if his father Sheykhi "turns himself in and pleads guilty". 13.03.04.
Anti-War Protesters Arrested in Moscow RUSSIA, Moscow. The traditional antiwar protest held every Thursday forfour years now by the Committee of Anti-War Action in Moscow’s PushkinSquare, was broken up today by Moscow police. Three protesters weretaken to the nearest police station. One of the protesters told PRIMA News that once the protest had begun,the police said that the permission to hold the protest given by theprefecture had been cancelled. Nevertheless, the 10-15 people who hadgathered by 19.00 took up their placards and continued the protest.About ten minutes later, the police arrested Yevgeny Frumkin, YelenaBatenkova and Mikkail Kriger and took them to the Tversky internalaffairs department (OVD). A duty policeman there confirmed to PRIMA that three protesters had beenarrested and explained that permission had been annulled by the MoscowCentral District Prefecture. He also said that the arrested would bequestioned and then released. The Russian Constitution and federal legislation guarantees the right ofcitizens to freely congregate and hold peaceful street protests, withprior notice given to local authorities. The issuing of any sort ofpermission for the holding of such protests is not stipulated inlegislation. Translated by Sue-Ann HardingInformation Agencs-22] |