GROZNY. May 18 (Interfax) - International humanitarian organizations will continue to carry out programs for Chechnya for 2004 and 2005 approved by the Russian government, the Chechen Security Council secretary said Tuesday, explaining that he had offered security guarantees for their staff.

The secretary, Rudnik Dudayev, had a meeting in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Tuesday with security coordinators for UN staff in Russia.

"They were interested in real security conditions for further work, something I convinced them of. The humanitarian organizations will continue to implement their programs for 2004-2005 that have been approved by the government of the Russian Federation," Dudayev told Interfax.

www.unpo.org

2004-05-18

Chechen Republic of Ichkeria: Russia and the Council of Europe resume discussing Chechnya

Moscow.Within the framework of the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe, an agreement on resuming the dialogue on Chechnya between Russia and PACE has been reached. State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachyov told journalists today. This decision was made at a regular PACE meeting, which took place in April. The dialogue was suspended after the working group Duma-PACE for the Chechen issue had stopped working.

According to Kosachyov, three committees with PACE (the Political Affairs Committee, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population) were commissioned to monitor aspects regarding Chechnya. In addition, three reporters on this issue were appointed. They will arrive in Moscow and visit Chechnya on May 31 to June 5, Kosachyov said. In Chechnya and Ingushetia, the reporters will be able to visit all facilities they may need to prepare their reports.

Source: RBC News

European Commission to spend EUR16.5m on Chechnya

RBC, 18.05.2004, Moscow 17:39:41.

The European Commission (EC) has approved the allocation of EUR16.5m for humanitarian aid to victims of the Chechen conflict, the press service of the Russian representative office of the EC reported. Internally displaced people and vulnerable groups of the population of the central and southern regions of Chechnya as well as internally displayed people in Ingushetia and Dagestan will receive aid. The humanitarian aid will be delivered via the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO).

       People affected by the conflict will receive humanitarian assistance in food, health care, shelter, drinking water and sanitation, education, legal protection, etc. International agencies that are present in the region will carry out these programs.

ECHO has spent about $120m on humanitarian aid to victims of the Chechen conflict since it resumed in 1999.

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 18/5/2004

Authorities blackmail refugees in Ingushetia

A group of refugees from the camp situated in the village of Yandare went to the Ingush Interior Ministry's Migration Department in Nazran on May 15 to get certificates of their registration as internally displaced persons (IDPs). As one of the refugees reported, in one of the rooms of the migration service, a police officer, whom the refugees did not know, offered them one after another to sign a document that they had allegedly found two self-made explosive devices on the territory of their camp and delivered them to the police. In case of their refusal, the police officer promised serious problems with registration to the refugees. Such an offer was received in particular by Husein Islamov, Akhmad Kharipov, Umar Ezhiev, Kazbek Abaev, and Vakha Vangaev. Only Vakha Vangaev gave in to the blackmail and signed the document. After it, he was given the registration certificate out of order. The other refugees did not get necessary documents. The lack of the registration certificate threatens a refugee with sizeable fines and the revocation of the right to get humanitarian aid.

Chairman of the Chechen-Ingush regional branch of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship Imran Ezhiev, who himself lives in the above-mentioned refugee camp, has commented on the situation: "We deal with a cynical and quite crude provocation on the part of security agencies. In my opinion, the authors of this forgery tried to achieve two goals. The first one is to continue intimidating refugees who don't want to return to Chechnya by obtaining a pretext to conduct a "special operation" in our camp. The second one is to put pressure on our pubic organization in order to hamper its legal activity. The camp in Yandare has been under the patronage of the Society for Russian-Chechen friendship since 2000, you know. Many employees and activists of the society live in it. We are waiting for new provocations now."

The refugee camp in Yandare was created by activists of the Society for Russian-Chechen friendship in the end of 1999. Approximately 700 refugees from Chechnya live here in tents and reequipped cow-sheds now.

Source: Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 18/5/2004

Galina Gubina: Situation in Ingushetia looks like prewar developments in Chechnya

An explosive device went off in the office car of Galina Gubina, deputy head of Ingushetia's Sunzha district administration, in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya on May 17. The state of Ms Gubina and her driver, Magomed Vakhloev, does not cause doctors' alarm now.

Galina Gubina gave a correspondent of the Information Center of the Society for Russian-Chechen friendship her comments on the incident: "Who tried to kill me? I can't even imagine. I have no enemies. I can't assume that it was a terrorist act committed by the Chechen resistance either. I've never crossed their way. But there is something that frightens me. Developments in Ingushetia today closely resemble that which took place in Chechnya both before the first and the second wars. Explosions, skirmishes, and kidnappings. According to my information, about 25 people have been kidnapped in Ingushetia for the last three months. I'm afraid that the war going in Chechnya can extend to Ingushetia and other republics of the North Caucasus. I think that those interested in both the today's explosion and other violent acts in Ingushetia are forces to which the extension of the armed conflict is advantageous."

Source: Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 18/5/2004

Abducted schoolboys released in Chechnya

Three schoolboys abducted by officers of federal security agencies in the village of Dyshni-Vedeno, Chechnya's Vedeno district, were released on May 15. Mus Hajji Baskhaev, a local resident abducted by Russian servicemen on May 14, i.e. the next day after the disappearance of the three local schoolboys, was set free together with the boys.

The schoolboys' names have become known. They proved to be Azgiev, Gaziev, and Kulumov.

Source: Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship