| Kidnap Protest MAKHACHKALA (AP)DEC.16, 2004 -- Villagers blocked a major road in Dagestan on Thursday to express anger at what they said are frequent abductions of men from the area by federal forces based in Chechnya. About 200 residents of several villages blocked a federal highway about 10 kilometers from the city of Khasavyurt, near the Chechen border, for hours, Dagestani Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Musayev said. The villagers dispersed after a representative of the local government met with them and promised to look into the fate of the missing men, he said. Chechen Republic of Ickeria: UNHCHR Special Rapporteur on violence against women to visit Chechnya Yakin Ertürk, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights will visit the Russian Federation from 17 to 24 December 2004. The Special Rapporteur is scheduled to go to Moscow and the Republics of Ingushetia and Chechnya to gather first-hand information on the question of violence against women in times of conflict. She will meet with representatives of the Russian Government, non-governmental organizations, women's organizations and individuals engaged in human rights work, as well as with United Nations officials. After the visit, Ms. Ertürk will present a preliminary note containing her findings and recommendations to the sixty-first session of the Commission in the spring of 2005. Ms. Ertürk, Professor of Sociology at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, was appointed Special Rapporteur in 2003. For more information about her mandate and for copies of available reports, please consult the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.ohchr.ch/html/menu2/7/b/women/ 2004-12-16 17:50 Almost 1,000 abduction cases registered in Russia over 10 months MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti) - Almost 1,000 cases of abduction have been registered in Russia over the last 10 months, Yury Demidov, acting deputy head of the Russian Interior Ministry's department for combating organised crime and terrorism, said at Moscow's briefing on Thursday. "Over the 10 months of 2004 997 cases of kidnapping and 916 cases of illegal deprivation of freedom have been registered," Demidov said. The situation in this sphere remains rather complicated in spite of the fact that cases of abduction and illegal deprivation of freedom account for less than 0.1% of the total volume of crimes in Russia. The most vulnerable in this aspect are people of 20-30 years of age and their close relatives. Besides, sometimes criminals are aware of illegal incomes of their victims, Demidov remarked. There have been cases of collusion between victims and their kidnappers, but these account for only 3-5% of the total volume of abduction cases, the official pointed out. "In 2004 there have been less cases of kidnapping ending in murder, however 9 victims were killed," Demidov said regretfully. As a rule, this happens when relatives refrain from reporting to the police and pay ransoms. In this case criminals need their hostages no more and do away with them, the official specified. There have also been outrageous cases of foreigners' abduction in Russia. The Ministry of the Interior makes its best to resolve such cases. Demidov recalled that in May 2004 a Cypriote banker, Mikhalis Tukididis, was kidnapped in Krasnodar. Kidnappers demanded a ransom of $4 mln. "It took officers of Krasnodar's Main Interior Department 20 days to release him and arrest people involved in the crime," Demidov said. Joint measures by the FSB and the Ministry of the Interior resulted in the release a Slovak woman, Mariam Yevikova, who had been kidnapped in the North Caucasus in the summer of 2004. The criminals held her to a ransom of $1 mln. "Yevikova was saved and she left for Slovakia on November 26 after the investigation was over," Demidov elaborated. The official stressed that the Ministry of the Interior does its best to resolve each case of abduction and save the victim. Russian Lawmakers Approve FSB Initiative Restricting Rights During Terror Attacks Created: 17.12.2004 06:34 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 06:34 MSK, MosNews The lower house of the Russian parliament — the State Duma — gave first-reading approval to the draft bill "On Countering Terrorism" on Friday. The bill, harshly criticized by liberal politicians and rights activists, calls for the introduction of a regime of terror alerts, in addition to an emergency situation regime and a regime of counter-terrorist operations enforceable under the current anti-terror legislation, Gazeta.Ru reports. The terror alert regime would be enforced across the country "upon receipt of data on the possible preparation…of a terrorist act and in circumstances where such data cannot be verified". Thus, any time the country's security services think that the threat of a terrorist attack has increased, they will have the legal right to demand "a terror alert regime". Such a regime, according to the draft, could be declared at the request of security agencies either in certain areas or throughout the whole country. For citizens that will mean increased security measures, a ban on holding assemblies, meetings and other public events, more frequent ID checks, restrictions of movement of citizens and transport in the streets, and heightened security at environmentally hazardous production facilities. As for the regime of counter-terrorist operations, it will effectively mean an absolute ban on the receipt and dissemination of information. The State Duma passed the bill on Friday by 385 votes to 47 with 1 abstention. The bill still needs to pass two more readings in the lower house before being sent to the Federation Council. 2004-12-17 18:35 Victims of Beslan terrorist act hold rally BESLAN, December 17 (RIA Novosti's Albina Olisayeva) - About 100 victims of the terrorist attack on Beslan and members of their families rallied near school No. 1 on Friday demanding an objective and transparent investigation of the tragedy. "Those who lost their folks in Beslan held a rally near the Government House in November. The Republic's president promised them that representatives of the prosecutor's office, former North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev and former FSB head in North Ossetia Andreyev would meet with us and answer our questions," chairman of the Beslan public council Mairbek Tuayev who took part in the rally told RIA Novosti. "We were promised an honest and open investigation but this promise was not fulfilled," he said. "There was a horrible tragedy but it turns out that nobody is responsible for this. We demand information about the course of investigation in mass media or at private meetings. At the moment there is no information at all," Mairbek Tuayev continued. According to him, renowned athletes who are carrying out a humanitarian program in Beslan (Vyacheslav Fetisov, Irina Rodnina, Alexander Karelin, Sergei Makarov, Yegor Titov, etc.) should be informed about the events. Their program includes laying of wreaths to the tombs of the terrorist act victims, visits to several Beslan schools and handing of sporting equipment to them and master-classes to young Beslan athletes. FSB detains woman with her baby! Aset Havazhbaudinovna Chuchayeva, born 1985, a native of Chechen-Aul (Grozny district), was detained by FSB officers on her return to Azerbaijan on 12 December, 2004, at a passport control point of the Russian customs service. Her two-year old child is together with the young mother. The Russian special services didn't produce any substantiated charges against Chuchayeva at her arrest. The young mother, who has lost her husband as a result of an accident, lived in Baku together with her mother-in-law, Lyuda El'murzayeva, raising her young son. When she received news from Chechnya that her mother was ill, Aset left immediately for her native country on 30 November. After she had stayed with her mother for a little more than 10 days, Aset Chuchayeva returned to Azerbaijan together with some compatriots, where she was arrested on the border. Already for the fifth day the Russian special services haven't explained to her relatives the reasons for Chuchayeva's arrest or the place where she is kept. The relatives and friends are turning to all humanitarian and human rights organizations with a request to contribute to finding out the place where Aset Chuchayeva is detained, as well as to her immediate release, since not only the life of the young woman is in danger, but the life of her baby, too. Chechen Human Rights Center. 17 December 2004. Chechenpress, Department of Letters, 17.12.04 http://www.chechenpress.com/news/2004/12/17/10.shtml [Translation by N.S.] Captures of civilians continue in Chechnya Kavkazky Uzel, citing the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, reported on December 14 that a brother and sister were being treated in Grozny's Hospital No. 9 for serious wounds they received on December 3, when a helicopter gunship fired a rocket into their home in the Vedeno district village of Tazen-Kala. Their 14-year-old younger brother was killed in the attack, the website reported. Earlier, a group of invaders captured a disabled man – Rasul Khamzatovich Mukayev (b. in 1979) in the village of Duba-Yurt , Shaly district of Chechnya. According to the relatives of the captured man, on 3 December at about 5 o'clock , a group of Russian chastisers (about 8-10 people) broke in Mukayev's home. The aggressors were in camouflage and masks . They spoke Russian . At the moment of attack the Mukayevs were at home – the head of the family Khamzat Mukayev, his wife Rosa and their two sons – Rasul and Rustam (b. in 1982). Having captured the elder brother, the aggressors put handcuffs on him and dragged him out of the house. Rasul Mukayev has epilepsy and because of complicated disease, it is hard to him to move and he does not even go out of house. Nothing is known about the reason of his detention. The family knows nothing about his whereabouts. Three bodies of unidentified men with bullet wounds have been found in the Nadterechny district. According to the Russian sites referring to the source in puppet militia, the bodies were found a day before in the area of the Village Zebir-Yurt in the territory of the “Mineralny” state farm. The local inhabitants suppose that those three men were kidnapped and then killed by the invaders and their accomplices. Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said on December 10 that 1,700 criminal cases involving disappearances of people in Chechnya have been launched since the start of the year, and that 50 of the cases have gone to court, RIA Novosti reported. Kidnapping, he said, remains the republic's main problem in the human rights sphere. Meanwhile the more than 1,000 liberal and human rights activists who gathered on December 12 for an All-Russia Civil Congress in Moscow under the slogan "Russia For Democracy, Against Dictatorship," issued a statement declaring the war in Chechnya "disgraceful." The congress's participants said in the statement that the Russian government's policies, not international terrorism, were to blame for what is happening in Chechnya, Grani.ru reported on December 12. They also called for peace talks with Chechen president Maskhadov, and noted the efforts in that direction by the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees, which plans to meet with Aslan Maskhadov's representative in Europe, Akhmed Zakaev. The participants also called for an international conference on Chechnya. Kavkaz Center 2004-12-17 00:07:16 eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 17/12/2004 Military deny bombing Chechen village In the evening of December 3, a Russian combat helicopter launched several missiles at the village of Tevzen-Kale, Chechnya's Vedeno district. One of the missiles hit the house of the Suleymanov family. Zareta and Said Suleymanovs, who were in the house, received missile wounds of different severity, and their younger brother, Saydan, was killed at the scene. The Russian military refuse to recognize the fact itself of making the bombing attack against the village of Tevzen-Kale and impede investigation by all means, a source in the Chechen Interior Ministry told the Caucasian Knot correspondent. Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent |