Interfax Sunday, May. 16, 2004, 12:38 PM Moscow Time

GROZNY. May 16 (Interfax) - A woman sold three newborn babies to unidentified people in Grozny, police sources in Grozny told Interfax Sunday.

The woman was educated in medicine and often assisted during childbirth. From October to December 2003 she sold three newborn babies after lying to their mothers that they had died in childbirth.

The police are working to identify the buyers and find out whether the mothers were involved in the criminal scheme.

Home childbirth is quite common in Grozny and in other parts of Chechnya, because it is dangerous to transport women to maternity wards at night, the police said. Chechenpress

Journalist Adlan Hasanov was killed by automatic gunfire

Some details have emerged about the loss of journalist Adlan Hasanov as a result of the explosion in the Dynamo stadium on 9 May. According to a report from our correspondent in Grozny, Hasanov didn't die from the explosion, but as a result of chaotic firing of automatic guns by Kadyrov's guard, because they were the only ones shooting there.

Our correspondent also reports that the 8-year-old girl who passed away in City Hospital No. 9 wasn't hurt at the stadium and had come to the hospital already on 4 May.

14.05.04

http://chechenpress.com/news/2004/05/14/14.shtml [translation by N.S.]

15/5/2004

Chechnya Bomb fragment, not bullet killed journalist Adlan Khasanov, medics say

Adlan Khasanov, a Chechen journalist and Reuters correspondent, died because fragments of the bomb that exploded at the Dynamo stadium hit him, and not from a gunshot wound, a source at the Chechen Health Ministry told the Caucasian Knot correspondent on May 15. Altogether 86 people were given medical assistance in republican hospitals after the tragedy, according to the source "It is true that the blast at the central stand of the Dynamo stadium caused panic. It happens in such situations. That is why some people were injured. Officers of different security agencies, mainly Kadyrov's guard, opened chaotic fire in the air for some reason, but no people died as a result of it," the man said. "As for journalist Adlan Khasanov, according to my data, he was shooting right in front of the central stand when the blast occurred and died because scattering bomb fragments and a blast wave hit him."

A close friend of the killed journalist, who attended his funeral, told the Caucasian Knot correspondent that Adlan died at the scene from a severe wound in the head. In his opinion, it was most likely a bomb fragment not a bullet fired from automatic weapons.

Author: Sultan Abubakarov Source: Own correspondent

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 14/5/2004

Chemical storage facilities serve as refugee center

Chechen refugees living in the Satsita tent camp on the outskirts of the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia's Sunzha district, are being resettled to the sadly known temporary accommodation center in the so called "Oskanovskiye garages". As of today, four families have moved there. This center is situated on the territory of former chemical storage facilities in Ordzhonikidzevskaya. Several dozens of refugee families from the liquidated Bella tent camp were lodged there last year. But the health of many children deteriorated almost the very first evening, they felt giddy, and their bodies covered with a rash. It was established later that the most likely reason of it was that chemical storage facilities had been situated in the "Oskanovskiye garages" earlier. In a few days, all the refugees resettled from the Bella camp were evicted from this center by the Ingush special police force.

Source: Infromation Center of the Council of NGOs

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 14/5/2004

Memorial, Caucasian Knot conduct PR-campaign in Ryazan devoted to problems of Chechen war

Approximately 18 thousand Russian servicemen have been killed, died from wounds, and went missing during the war in the Chechen Republic, i.e. since 1994, according to human rights organizations. A number of civilians who have been killed and gone missing is about 70 thousand people. Russians, Chechens, and people of other nationalities are among them. Independent experts have repeatedly caught government officials in their attempts to understate data about the number of soldiers killed in Chechnya. Moreover, Russian state structures have made no real attempts to register losses among civilians during both the first and the second Chechen wars. Thus official reliable data on the losses among soldiers, civilians and the number of killed rebels for the period from 1994 to the present time are unknown.

Many attempts have also been made to clear up the cost of the war in Chechnya. It has been established that this expenditure does not provided for in the state budget at all, and it is unknown how much money have been spent on the Chechen campaign.

If the functionaries apply so many energies to build up a whole system of tangled and lying calculations, it means they have what to be afraid of and true figures can shock society.

In view of it, the Russian public, led by the human rights community, ask the Russian government: "How many more innocent people will have to die so that the war in Chechnya will end? For how many more years Russian mothers will dread to send their sons to the Russian army? How many more Russian families will lose their close people in Chechnya? How many more children will not be born because of this war? And how much do we pay so that people continue dying in the Chechen Republic?"

The Caucasian Knot Internet agency provides informational support to the PR-campaign "How Many?" conducted in Ryazan by the International Society Memorial jointly with Ryazan human rights activists.

Chechnya

Dyshne-Vedeno residents accuse Vostok special operations soldiers of abducting schoolboys

Local residents have been staging a mass meeting in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, Chechnya's Vedeno district, for several days. The action was caused by the abduction of 3 youths by officers of security agencies which occurred in the morning of May 13. No reliable information on the happening has been obtained so far. According to one version, the officers arrived at the village in several cars without number plates and took the young men from their home. Another version is that the 15-year-old youths were abducted on their way to school.

Lom-Ali Khadzhiyev, a resident of the Vedeno district, has told the Caucasian Knot correspondent locals are convinced Yamadayev's people (the Russian Defense Ministry's special operations battalion Vostok stationed in the town of Gudermes, which is under command of Sulim Yamadayev, a former brigadier general of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) are behind this abduction. "The overwhelming majority of "zachistkas" and special actions in our district are conducted exactly by Yamadayev's people. They often do it themselves and sometimes jointly with Russian servicemen. They take the abducted people to their location in Gudermes. Locals believe Yamadayev's people were those who abducted the schoolboys in Dyshne-Vedeno. I can't say what is the ground for this belief but they rarely make mistakes in such questions," he said.

The Chechen Interior Ministry has refused to give any comments on the matter.

The Caucasian Knot Author: Sultan Abubakarov <>

2004-05-15 10:54    

Council of Europe set to monitor Chechen presidential elections

MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - The Council of Europe is ready to send its observers to Chechnya for monitoring the forthcoming republican presidential elections. This was disclosed here today by CE Secretary- General Walter Schwimmer, who is now visiting the Russian capital.

True, we should receive an invitation from Russian authorities, as well as the appropriate security guarantees, before sending our observers, Mr. Schwimmer noted.

The decision to send observers to Chechnya will also depend on the pace of the election campaign and specific presidential candidates, Mr. Schwimmer added.

For its own part, the Council of Europe is ready to send its observers to Chechnya, Walter Schwimmer went on to say.

Chechnya is to hold early presidential elections on September 5 in connection with the May 9 assassination of president Akhmad Kadyrov. Quite possibly, the Kremlin will prefer the late Chechen president's son Ramzan Kadyrov, 28, who ran his father's security service. Ramzan Kadyrov was appointed to the post of first deputy republican prime minister right after the Grozny terrorist act. Ramzan Kadyrov claims that he lacks any presidential ambitions whatsoever. Besides, the republican constitution states expressly that all presidential candidates must be at least 30 years old. Nonetheless, analysts believe that Ramzan Kadyrov will become Chechnya's next president.