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Caucasian Knot 30/3/2004
Attack on antiwar picket in Saint Petersburg On March 28, an attack was committed on participants in the picket against the war in Chechnya that is held in Saint Petersburg, at the intersection of Nevsky Avenue and Malaya Konyushennaya Street, from 2 till 4 p.m. every Sunday. The organizer of the picket is the Antiwar Committee, which consists of anarchists, Bolshevik Trotskyists, as well as representatives of some liberal human rights groups (in particular, the Memorial Society, the Public Initiative For Peace in Chechnya and Recognition of the Chechen People's Right to Self-determination", and others). All these people are united by the demands that the Russian troops should be withdrawn from Chechnya, the Chechen people should be given an opportunity for self-determination, and people responsible for unleashing the Chechen war should be removed from power and brought to account. The number of attacks of various fascist-minded elements against the picket has increased recently. Over 40 people participated in the last picket. It ended quite calmly. However a few minutes later, unknown people unexpectedly assaulted a group of about 10 picketers, who were going home, in the pedestrian subway at the corner of Nevsky Avenue and Sadovaya Street. The attackers used pepper gas, baseball bats, and belts with sharpened buckles. The participants in the picket on Malaya Konyushennaya defended themselves vigorously and put the attackers to flight. The unknown militants left a baseball bat and a belt with the sharpened buckle at the scene of the clash. Author: Aleksandr Skobov Source: Public Initiative For Peace in Chechnya and Recognition of the Chechen People's Right to Self-determination Sputnik refugee camp dismantled in Ingushetia The tent camp Sputnik does not exist any longer, reported the Interfax news agency, referring to the interior ministry. The last tent has been dismantled in the camp and 137 refugees have left it today. They have retuned to Chechnya. Source: Ekho Moskvy Radio
Friday, Apr. 2, 2004. Page 4 The Moscow Times Sputnik Refugee Camp Closed By Yuri Bagrov The Associated Press Musa Sadulayev / AP Photo: Chechen refugees loading belongings onto a truck at the Sputnik camp on March 23. NAZRAN, Ingushetia -- Officials closed one of the last two Chechen refugee tent camps in neighboring Ingushetia on Thursday, pushing ahead with plans to encourage Chechens to return to their war-ravaged homeland. Russian officials have repeatedly said that no refugees will be forced to return to Chechnya, where fighting continues and residents widely complain that security forces abuse and abduct civilians. But tent camp residents who don't want to return have to seek private accommodations in a region with already poor housing. "The Sputnik tent camp is no more. The last tents were taken down today," Interfax quoted Ivan Pomeshchenko of the Federal Migration Service as saying. He said the last 137 people living in the camp -- which once housed more than 9,000 -- had returned to Chechnya. The Kremlin has long sought the closure of the sprawling camps, a highly visible contradiction to Moscow's claims that Chechnya is stabilizing. Akhmed Barakhoyev, an official with the Memorial human rights organization in Ingushetia, said that Sputnik was completely deserted Thursday. All water, natural gas and electricity supplies had been cut off since the beginning of March, he said. "The active expulsion of refugees started about a week ago," Barakhoyev said. "Police officers ... came to the camp and visited all the tents. They demanded the refugees leave the camps on the trucks provided." Barakhoyev said the refugees were forced to sign papers confirming that they were leaving. Later, many of the refugees told Memorial officials that they were leaving voluntarily, Barakhoyev said, but he noted the conversations took place in front of police officers and immigration officials. Ingushetia "has not changed its position that people have returned, are returning and will return to their land purely on a voluntary basis," Murat Zyazikov, president of the Ingush region, told Interfax. Sputnik and the nearby Satsita camp both lie just over the Chechnya- Ingushetia border. Satsita is expected to be closed by early May, Pomeshchenko was quoted as saying. Another large camp was closed March 1.
Mass meeting in Grozny Over 200 residents of Chechnya are staging a meeting at the complex of government buildings in the Staropromislovsky district of Grozny today, March 31. People came from different districts and towns of the republic. They demand that the authorities should find their relatives and friends abducted by "security officers" recently and should put an end to the arbitrariness of officers of both Russian and local security structures. Most of the protesters are women. "In spite of the assurances given by Russian and local authorities, the situation in Chechnya has not become more peaceful," Zareta, a 43-year-old resident of Grozny, says. "People are murdered, abducted, and tortured every day here. We want to know where our brothers, fathers, and husbands taken by the military are. What are they taken for? Where are they now? If a man is guilty, let he undergo trial. We don't mind. But let it be open and in conformity with the law. We have the only demand to the authorities to stop genocide, to stop extrajudicial punishments and torture." Author: Sultan Abubakarov Source: Own correspondent Chechnya war sees rise of Russian ultranationalism By Olga Nedbayeva MOSCOW: Fed by the war in Chechnya, nationalist sentiment has been on the rise in Russia, manifested in neo-Nazi marches, racially-motivated crime and anti-Caucasus sentiment. A demonstration last week was a case in point - sanctioned by Moscow authorities, it was organized by ultranationalists ostensibly held to honour the victims of a February 6 blast in the Moscow metro, which has been blamed on Chechen rebels. But the protest in Gorky Park turned into a railing against foreign "invasion of Russia," with teenagers chanting "Moscow is a Russian city. Russia for Russians. Moscow for Muscovites," and holding up a banner that read: "Say no to registration (for foreigners), says yes to deportation." The subway blast, the last in a series of increasing suicide attacks in Russia blamed on Chechen rebels, prompted anti-Caucasian leaflets calling for protection of the "white race." The Chechen rebels have not claimed responsibility for the blast. (*) Activists such as Lev Ponomaryov of the "For Human Rights" group say that Moscow's four-year-plus war in Chechnya is at the root of the problem, sparking "hatred against an ethnic group (which) automatically becomes racism." "Public opinion had taken up President Vladimir Putin's harsh formulas" - the most famous of which came at the start of the war in 1999, when he said "we'll wipe them (terrorists) out in the shithouse" - and thus confusing Chechens and bandits, sociologist Yury Levada warned. "The greatest concern is that there are no people who feel shame for this," Levada said. "Xenophobia, which was part of new Russia's history, was so far latent. Now it is legitimized," Ponomaryov said. An example of this was the unexpected success of the nationalist Motherland (Rodina) bloc in the December elections. Another are television series showing brave Russian troopers fighting Chechen "bandits" - the latest vogue on Russia's national channels. Other Russian ethnic groups have also been identified with Chechens, forging what police call a "Caucasian individual," Levada said. -AFP Crime in a camp for Chechen refugees INGUSHETIA, Nazran. (SNO Press Center). Around 10 in the morning onMarch 28 at a temporary settlement point (also known as a PVR) forChechen refugees, located in the village of Ordzhonikidzhevskaya in theSunzha region of Ingushetia, several representatives of Russian securityforces arrived in lightly armored cars. Several armed “security guards”in masks robbed the residence of Chechen refugee Iman Khaletova and hertwo young children. The security forces demanded that the woman tell them where they couldfind her brother in law. According to available information,Khalevtova’s brother in law, living at the time in the Achkoi-Martanregion, was blown up by a mine on the outskirts of a village. Theexplosion tore off his leg. He spent several months in the hospital ofAchkoi-Martan and then was transported abroad by his relatives in orderto continue recovery. When the woman answered that she didn’t know where her brother in lawwas, the security forces started to beat her up. One of them leftseveral knife wounds on her body. Others put a knife to the children’s’throats and said there would cut them apart if Iman didn’t give them theinformation they wanted. They tortured and then laughed at her sufferingfor around an hour and a half. According to the victim, one of thesecurity forces suggested to another as they left, “Let’s get rid of thevictims”. Most likely, he was suggesting that they kill the woman andher children. Residents of the PVR have confirmed that the security forces spokeRussian and Chechen. The locals believe that they were representative ofthe “Special Forces” of Russia and the Chechen Republic. Translated by Rebecca GouldPRIMA News Agency [2004-03-30-Chech-06] |