| Anti-Terrorist Officers Shot Dead in
Dagestan Created: 17.08.2004 14:00 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:30 MSK, MosNews Two senior officers of the anti-terrorist directorate of the Dagestani Interior Ministry were shot dead in the town of Kaspiysk on Tuesday, the Interfax news agency reports. The agency quoted the press service of the Dagestani Interior Ministry as saying that gunmen opened fire at the car carrying two policemen at about 11:45 Moscow time on Tuesday. Head of a department of the anti-terrorist directorate of the Interior Ministry Gadji Abdurazakov and officer of the anti-terrorist directorate of the Russian Interior Ministry Major Aleksander Groshev were killed in the attack. The assailants fled in the victims' car. The incident took place about one hour after the Russian president's plenipotentiary Aleksander Yakovlev completed his visit to Kaspiysk. While in town, Yakovlev was received by the leaders of Dagestan. A search for the attackers is under way. RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 155, Part I, 16 August 2004 Chechen election candidate alleges discrimination Former Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Abdulla Bugaev, one of seven candidates registered to contest the 29 August ballot to elect a successor to murdered pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad-hadji Kadyrov, has rescinded his signature to the 27 July declaration under which candidates pledged to abjure illegal electioneering, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 12 August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 July 2004). Bugaev complained that he was not permitted his full quota of free airtime on the state-controlled media and alleged that one of his rival candidates -- meaning Interior Minister Major General Alu Alkhanov, widely regarded as the Kremlin's preferred candidate -- enjoys special privileges. According to Interfax on 2 August, all seven candidates are entitled to four minutes and 15 seconds of free airtime on Chechen state television and radio and an unspecified amount of free airtime on Grozny radio. On 13 August, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported that some representatives of the Russian military are campaigning to have the 29 August ballot postponed and for the imposition of a state of emergency in Chechnya for a minimum of two years, during which the republic would be governed by a special representative of President Putin. LF 50 thousand Chechen refugees according to migration control service stay in Ingushetia INGUSHETIA, August 17, Caucasus Times - According to the latest report there are over 46 thousand of internally displaced persons from Chechnya still reside in Ingushetia, Caucasus Times correspondent citing the Department of migration control of the republic. "For now, we have 46.677 citizens of the Chechen Republic in Ingushetia registered by our department as internally displaced persons. Largely, 32.425 of them, staying in the republic rent private houses, the remainder, 14.252 of refugees live elsewhere in the places of compact residence and different temporary settlements in Ingushetia," said the migration control service. Roughly the same figure registered Danish Council on refugees, an influential international organization providing refugees with food and facilities. In August there were 48 250 Chechen citizens in Ingushetia according to the organization report. "Meanwhile, the number has reduced recently because the people keep on leaving Ingushetia and moving back home almost every day. For the past month, at least 3 thousand of them have left Ingushetia", the refugee Council office in Ingushetia said. "It's true, many refugees were leaving Ingushetia after the late attack of insurgents in Ingushetia. Partly, the migration of people was caused by local authorities, the police, migration control service tough measures who were in their turn trying to take a chance to force as many as possible Chechen refugees out from Ingushetia," said an executive of Memorial human rights office in Nazran in his interview with Caucasus Times correspondent. "As of now, the number of refugees fleeing to Chechnya reduced lately. Probably, it is due to normalization of the situation in Ingushetia and the presidential election in Chechnya" the rights activist said. Malika Suleymanova, Caucasus Times. |