| 14.7.2004 Protest Action in Chechnya CHECHNYA, Grozny (Informcenter ORChD [Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship] Information Centre) On July 12, a group of women residents blocked the road connecting The federal Rostov-Baku highway in the Suzhenski and Achkov-Martanovsky regions of Chechnya. *The large scale of the demonstration was a result of a wave of abductions which have swept through Assinovsky village. On July 4th, at four in the morning, in the village of Assinovsky, armed people abducted brothers Invar, Rustam, and Adlam Iliav, and Kazbek Bataev, refugees since the beginning of the way, living in the Ingush refugee camp, Altievo. After the 23rd of June, when Altievo underwent a harsh “cleansing”, and it’s inhabitants were placed under arrest, the Iliavs were forced to return to Chechnya and begin rebuilding their destroyed home. On the 10th of July, unknown armed people, speaking Russian and Chechen, beat Bax Mazaev, a resident of Sernovodsk, whose son was killed on the 16th of June by followers of Kadirov. Those who beat the senior Mazaev were interested in knowing how information about his son’s murder had reached legal experts and the State Duma. Also, according to preliminary data, on July 11th, at three in the morning, in Assinovsky, soldiers arrived on two armored troop carriers and abducted an eleven-year-old girl. More than one hundred people gathered at the protest action. In order to disperse the crowd, Russian soldiers shot in the air and towards people’s feet. Then they began to beat people with clubs. According to eyewitnesses, many people were detained and taken away. A woman who sustained serious injuries was taken to the hospital. Translated by Olya Kenney PRIMA News Agency [2004-07-12-Chech-06] eng. kavkaz.memo. ru 13/07/2004 Protest meeting dispersed in Sunzha district Law enforcement agencies detained the brothers Inalov and Kazbek Vitaev, high school students, in Assinovskaia, Sunzha district, Chechnya, on July 10. There is no knowing where they are kept or what is their further destiny. Yesterday, on July 12, residents of the neighboring villages of Assinovskaia, Sernovodsk, Achkhoi-Martan, Samashki and Shaami-Yurt conducted a protest action at a Russian checkpoint, blocking the Rostov-Baku federal highway and roads connecting the republic's district centers. The meeting involved over one thousand people. The demonstrators were throwing stones at the Russian checkpoint, according to some information. Officers of various law enforcement and security agencies, including the Federal Security Service, made an attempt to disperse the meeting, but all was in vain. They sent for backup, which resulted in security service and riot police officers coming to the scene and dispersing the meeting. Armored personnel carriers fired above the people's heads and under their feet, while the law enforcers beat them using batons and submachine gun butts. Those tragic events led to people wounded. About ten women were delivered to hospital, having sustained various wounds and injuries. The law enforcers detained several demonstrators, according to eyewitnesses. Source: Caucasian Knot Missing Slovak HR Worker Kidnapped for Ransom — Source Created: 15.07.2004 10:59 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:19 MSK, MosNews The prosecutor's office of the South Russia city of Pyatigorsk has instigated a criminal case into the abduction of Slovak citizen Miriam Jevikova, born 1976, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday citing a source in the city law enforcement bodies. The source went on to say that investigators possess information that Prague resident Miriam Jevikova, who worked for a Czech organization giving aid to refugees, arrived in Pyatigorsk on May 18 this year and settled in the city's Intourist hotel. Supposedly, on May 24 she moved to the house of her acquaintance, an ethnic Chechen, born 1953. According to operative data, in early June the Chechen sent the woman to the city of Nazran in Ingushetia, by car. Officially Jevikova is considered missing from June 1. On this day she sent a message from her mobile phone which said "They have been dragging me over a field for two hours." According to a Pyatigorsk law enforcer, also in early July an unidentified man called the wife of the director of the refugee aid organization and demanded a $1 million ransom for Jevikova's release. Investigation into the incident continues. Earlier reports said that Miriam Jevikova went missing on June 1 while on her way from Pyatigorsk to Vladikavkaz — a city in North Ossetia. The aid worker has been included in the Interpol search program. 2004-07-15 13:29 OPU REPRESENTATIVE GOES MISSING IN NORTH CAUCASUS PYATIGORSK, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - The prosecutors of Pyatigorsk (Stavropol territory, North Caucasus) have opened an inquiry into the disappearance of Miriam Evikova from Slovakia, a staff member of the Czech Organisation for Aid to Refugees (OPU). A source in the Pyatigorsk prosecutor's office said this to RIA Novosti. It has been established that Evikova arrived in Pyatigorsk in May and planned to take a car to Nazran, Ingushetia (a North Caucasus republic neighbouring Chechnya), on June 1. "However, an unidentified man phoned the Prague HQ of the organisation twice on July 1 and July 4 to say that the Slovakian citizen was on Chechen territory," the source said. He demanded a ransom of $1 million for the release of the woman. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Slovakian ambassador to Moscow, Augustin Cisar, had requested the Russian authorities' assistance in the search for the missing Slovakian citizen. In this connection, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Razov met the ambassador. According to the Slovakian media, the 28-year-old woman set off from Pyatigorsk to Ingushetia on May 26 to visit her acquaintances. The contact with Evikova was lost on June 1. Her Ingush acquaintances reported about her disappearance on June 8. The spokesman for the Slovakian embassy told the Slovak TASR agency that OPU where Evikova worked had asked the embassy for help in the search. http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/50n/n50n-s07.shtml(tr. by M.L.) BESIDES PUTIN THERE'S SIMPLY NO ONE TO SAVE THE CITIZEN OF SLOVAKIA A walk through the fields One-and-a-half month has passed from the day of the kidnapping of the female citizen of Slovakia, an employee of the humanitarian organization aiding refugees - Miriam Yevikova. On 1 June she left from Pyatigorsk for Nazran, where she had to meet her collegues, but she did not reach her rendezvous point. Some time after her abduction somehow she was able to sent to her friends an SMS-message: "They've already dragging me for two hours through the fields". As we were able to find out, the law enforment agencies of the Stavropol territory have not been conducting any effective work in search for Yevikova for one-and half month . Miriam's relatives and friends are getting desperate. I know from experience: if the government of Slovakias won't turn up for help personally to President of Russia Vladimir Putin, nobody will work effectively for the release of Yevikova. Especially as for a while back they totally dispersed this search group for missing in action, with the commission by the President of Russia for prisoners of war, interned and who disappeared without a trace. In April for a million euro - allegedly with some help of the veterans of foreign intelligence was freed Dutchmen Aryan Erkel,who had been a hostage in the Caucasus for 20 months. In Holland and Switzerland in regards to this case, a scandal broke out: to whom - money of their taxpayers was sent? But the veterans of our foreign intelligence keep silent. It appears that they did not find time to take a receipt from bandits for that payment for Erkel. Vyacheslav Izmailov 15.07.2004 |