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eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 20/2/2004 Gas and water supply to refugee accommodation centers cut off with view of safety, Ingush authorities say The first attempts to cut off the supply of gas and water to places of Chechen refugees' compact residence on the territory of Ingushetia are being made. The official version is non-observance of safety standards. Refugees believe they are simply being forced to leave Ingushetia by the deliberate worsening of their living conditions. Representatives of the Vodonadzor city service visited the temporary accommodation center for displaced persons from Chechnya "Kristall", which is in Nazran, on February 18. The workers tried to cut off the water pipe leading to the camp, asserting it was constructed "not in conformity with safety standards." They replied to indignant exclamations of center inhabitants that their actions were sanctioned by the city mayor's office. "First they made us leave tent camps in such a way, now they are doing the same things here, but with the only difference that we have choice no longer," say refugees. "We have nothing against the refugees themselves, we just press that their living here be safer," Vice Mayor of Nazran Boris Shadizhev said in a telephone interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent. "Numerous violations of safety standards made during the construction of communication lines have been revealed by planned checks of places of refugees' temporary accommodation in Nazran. They must be eliminated, and we inform owners of these centers and wardens about it. Otherwise we have to take extreme measures, right up to disconnections. Practically the same situation has arisen in some other places of Chechen refugees' temporary accommodation in Nazran. Author: Malika Suleymanova Source: Own correspondent GENEVA, Feb 20 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has raised concerns overrecent utilities cuts in Ingushetia's temporary settlements that haveleft more than 2,000 displaced Chechens in the bitter winter cold. Since February 13, UNHCR staff and their partners in non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs) have confirmed gas cuts in 10 temporary settlementshousing over 2,000 Chechens in Ingushetia. Many of the cuts were torooms recently rehabilitated by international NGOs as alternativeshelter for Chechens living in tented camps threatened with closure. There have also been reports of threats to disconnect water andelectricity supplies. This, despite repeated assurances by the Ingushauthorities that internally displaced persons (IDPs) would not suffercuts in basic utility services while enjoying the hospitality of Ingushetia. "UNHCR believes that whatever the pretext, it is unacceptable to cututilities – particularly heating gas – in mid-winter," said the agency'sspokesman Kris Janowski at a news briefing in Geneva Friday. "Theseunfortunate utility cuts exert pressure on the IDPs to go back toChechnya, and bring into question the voluntary nature of the return." He added that recent developments in the temporary settlements, togetherwith the ongoing closure of Bart tented camp, "deprive IDPs of a genuineoption for safe haven in Ingushetia," where more than 65,000 Chechenshave registered for assistance in three tented camps, temporarysettlements and private accommodation. Attempts to pressure Chechens into going home have been criticised bythe Russian President's Human Rights Commission, noted Janowski. Aftervisiting Ingushetia at the end of January, the commission recommendedthat no deadlines by imposed on the return to Chechnya, and thatinviting the IDPs to go back would be premature. The refugee agency spokesman said that UNHCR and other UN agencies arecurrently working with the authorities at both the federal and locallevels to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Copyright 2004 UNHCR. All Rights Reserved The Chechen Times18.02.2004
On February 9, 2004 at 7 am unidentified masked people in camouflageabducted a man living in a flat in 21 Kirov Street. It is Lenin districtof Grozny. The abductors tied up the man and put a bag over his head.They checked documents of other people living in the house and searchedflats the owners of which were absent. The abducted man’s family didn’tknow anything about his whereabouts all day long. A day after the manwas thrown at the outskirts of Petropavlovskaya settlement, Grozny ruraldistrict. He asked the Information Center not to reveal his name. The Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship Man shot dead in Chechen village Law-enforcement officers shot a local inhabitant, Rustam Amriyev, on 9February in the village of Assinovskaya in Sunzhenskiy District inChechnya. According to evidence from witnesses in the village ofAssinovskaya, the law-enforcers arrived in the village in several lightvehicles with tinted windows. After blockading the Amriyevs’ house, theyburst in and shot Rustam. Witnesses to the incident say that theofficers from an unidentified law-enforcement department took the corpseof the dead man away with them. The motives for the crime are not known. Council of Non-governmental Organizations
Rally in memory of deportation of Chechen people banned in Moscow Moscow city authorities have not allowed a rally to mark the 60th anniversary of a mass deportation of Chechens to Kazakhstan, the head of the all-Russia movement "For Human Rights" Lev Ponomaryov told reporters on Wednesday. He said that a number of HR organizations had intended to hold a rally on February 23 near a monument to victims of political repressions on Moscow's Lubyanka Square. "We wanted to remember this sad date, talk about the Chechen people's tragedy and about the possibilities of peaceful settlement in Chechnya," Ponomaryov said. The HR activist also said that his organization had not received a written refusal to hold the rally, but they had been told that because February 23 is a holiday the city centre would be closed to all kinds of mass rallies. Ponomaryov said that his colleagues intended to appeal the ban.
Moscow authorities ban peaceful political meeting RUSSIA, Moscow. Moscow Mayor’s Office banned a political meeting on 23February to mark the 60th anniversary of mass deportation of the Chechenpeople by Stalin. The meeting, organised by a number of Moscow humanrights and political organisations, should have taken place in LubyankaSquare. The organisers of the meeting intended to honour the memory of thevictims of the genocide of Chechen people, call to a politicalresolutionof the Russian-Chechen conflict and set up an interim UN administrationin Chechnya. The meeting’s organisers include Transnational Radical Party, movementFor the Human Rights, Antimilitary Actions Committee, Russian Radicalsmovement, Antiwar Club and Sakharov Public Centre. A representative ofthe meeting’s organisers was told in the office of Moscow CentralAdministrative District that all the centre of Moscow was "reserved" forthe celebrations of Fatherland Defender’s Day (former Soviet ArmyandNavy Day). Nikolai Khramov, Chairman of Transnational Radical Party’s Moscowoffice, former member of the Democratic Movement in the USSR, stated toPRIMA correspondent that their organisation will hold the meeting in anycase, regardless of whether or not they get a permission from theMayor’s office. "We didn’t ask anyone for permissions to hold meetingseven at the time when they jailed you for that, and Mr. Putin served inthe KGB as a young officer," said Nikolai Khramov. Translated by Olga Sharp Source IAGJ: On February 19, 11 am, under the order issued by Irakli Orkuashvili, Prosecutor General of Georgia a special-purpose unit broke into the offices of Iberia, an independent TV station, Akhali Epoka newspaper and Media News agency to conduct search operations. Journalists of the Iberia TV station claim they damaged technical devices of the company and insulted its employees. After 6 hours police thwarted the peaceful action of journalists conducted on the initiative of a Georgian Times reporter in front of Parliament building. The protest action was held to lend support to Iberia TV company, Akhali Epoka newspaper and Media news agency. Journalists started marching from the Marriott Hotel building carrying a wood coffin to symbolize that the government buries freedom of speech. "Freedom", "Press", "Georgia", these were the words written on the coffin which also had a rose, a symbol of so called Rose Revolution which may turn into a symbol of dictatorship today. Police unleashed fury on the protest action of journalists. They broke up the gathering of journalists in front of the Parliament and then blocked the way to another group carrying the coffin to the State Chancellery. Police resorted to force to throw the coffin into the yard of the Palace of Young People located next to the Parliament building. With leaders of Independent Association of Georgian Journalists (IAGJ) participating in the action, the IAGJ openly warns of the threat of dictatorship in Georgia. Following Rose Revolution, several political figures became subject to repressions by the government. The new leadership mounted pressure on media outlets, including several newspapers and TV companies. Two political evening talk shows were prematurely pulled out from the Rustavi-2 and Mze schedule TV stations on one and the same day, allegedly for criticizing the government. Just several weeks ago a grenade attacked Rustavi-2 office, an apartment of anchor of Iberia TV Luba Eliashvili was shot, the windows inside the apartment of President of IAGJ was smashed. The broadcasting of TV company Caucasus was interrupted and its employees were insulted, Inter-press news agency received threats. Independent Association of Georgian Journalists assesses these facts as the government's campaign against freedom of speech. IAGJ calls on international organizations of journalists, CE, EU, UN, Human Rights watches to intervene in the processes in Georgia. We urge those who believe that the democratic values in Georgia and independent Georgian media should be protected to express their position about the above-mentioned incidents. Recommended action: send letters of protest to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili: Rustaveli 29, 300002, Tbilisi, Georgia Fax: +995 32 99 86 90 / 99 96 30 And also to our address: fax: 93 10 25 / 99 60 97 / email: iagj@gol.ge
Feb 19 2004 4:34PM
MOSCOW. Feb 19 (Interfax) - The Russian Interior Ministry said no reprisals will be initiated against the law-obedient Chechen citizens who are to be deported to Russia from the Netherlands. "The Netherlands made the decision to deport the Chechen asylum seekers to Russia, guided by their own laws. Russian law- enforcement agencies are acting on the basis of Russian law: if those who return to Russia do not have a criminal record, no legal action will be taken against them, and their rights will not be curbed," an Interior Ministry spokesman told Interfax on Thursday. He said that according to international law, the deporting country must provide the country of destination a list of the deported asylum seekers. "If such lists arrive, the persons listed will definitely be checked with our data base and through other channels," he said. The Dutch authorities on Wednesday decided to deport 26 foreign asylum seekers, among them Afghans, Somalians and Chechens, to their home countries. The international organization Human Rights Watch urged Dutch authorities to reverse the decision fearing these people will face problems at home. Diderick Lohmann, an expert of the Human Rights Watch's New York headquarters, told Interfax that reprisals may be taken against these people at home. He added that they must not be deported. Sixteen asylum seekers go on hunger strike in Moldova Chisinau, Basapress news agency, 18 February: Sixteen foreigners who have applied for political asylum in Moldova went on hunger strike yesterday, protesting against the Chisinau authorities' refusal to grant them the refugee status. Most of them are from the Russian Federation's Chechnya. Shemkhan Tasuyev, one of those who went on hunger strike, told Basapress that the asylum seekers would continue their hunger strike until the authorities take measures to solve their problems. Tasuyev said asylum seekers received 25 dollars per month from the [Moldovan] government for six months while their applications were examined. "After the deadline expired, our applications were rejected and we receive no more financial aid. We neither can find any jobs without the status of refugee nor return home. We do not have funds to keep our families and nobody cares about us," Tasuev said. Contacted by Basapress, Traian Turcanu, the deputy head of the State Department of Migration's directorate for refugees, said that in accordance with the legislation in effect, the status of refugee can be granted only to those applicants who risk being persecuted in their native countries for various reasons, so they need international protection. "The refugee status is not granted to every foreigner who seeks political asylum. Many applications are rejected," Turcanu said. Over the last few years, many foreigners, particularly from Chechnya, have applied for political asylum. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who dealt with refugees in Moldova until 1 January 2001, granted all asylum seekers the status of refugees, Turcanu said. At present, the law says that the status of refugee is given only to those people who need international political protection. Unfortunately, there are not enough funds in the budget to provide all asylum seekers with social protection, as other foreign countries do, Turcanu said. According to the State Department of Migration, there are about 200 people with the status of refugee in Moldova at present.
Arab mercenary paid $4.5m for Moscow metro blast TEXT: Yelena Neglinina Russia has evidence that this month's terrorist attack on the Moscow metro was organised by Arab mercenary Abu al-Valid who is believed to have succeeded the notorious Khattab, eliminated by special services in 2002. According to intelligence reports, Al-Valid was paid $4.5 million for the attack and has already left Chechnya for one of the Persian Gulf states. That information was reported on condition of anonymity by representatives of Russia's special services. Security agents first suggested Abu al-Valid might be involved in the attack several days after the explosion, though no evidence substantiating those assertions had been available. Today's statement by Interfax's anonymous source confirmed earlier assumptions of Al-Valid's possible implication in organising the attack. ''According to our data, Arab mercenary Abu al-Valid, one of the leaders of Chechnya's bandit formations, has had $4.5 million transferred into his personal foreign account for preparing and perpetrating the act of terrorism in the Moscow metro on 6 February,'' an unnamed source in the special services told the news agency. The fact that Khattab's successor left Chechnya shortly after the blast may implicitly prove that he organised the attack and received remuneration. When and how he departed from the republic remains unclear but Russian security agents are convinced that the Arab terrorist is currently hiding in one of the Persian Gulf states. Relatively little is known of Abu al-Valid. The Saudi-born rebel began his career in Chechnya as an aide to the notorious rebel leader Khattab. In April 2002 when Khattab was poisoned, Chechen field commanders named al-Valid commander of all the foreign mercenaries fighting on the rebel side in Chechnya. Also after Khattab's death Al- Valid took charge of all the financial resources received by the rebels from their sponsors abroad. Russian special services have reported him killed six times, but each time those reports had to be refuted after the mercenary leader re- surfaced in the republic, alive and well. In November of last year the FSB offered a $100,000 reward for any information leading to the location and extermination of the elusive Arab. The metro explosion was the first terrorist act perpetrated outside the Northern Caucasus to be blamed on Abu al-Valid. The secret service suspected earlier that the October 2002 raid on the Nord-Ost theatre in Moscow and the December 2002 attack on the government compound in Grozny were the work of Abu al-Valid, albeit the responsibility was taken by Arab militants using Shamil Basayev's name as a symbol of Chechen separatism. It has been established that by organizing terrorist acts Al-Valid used suicide bombers, mostly women. In particular, suicide bombers carried out attacks on a government compound in Znamenskoye, at a religious festival in Iliskhan-Yurt, where a bomber blew herself up in the presence of Akhmad Kadyrov, and on a bus carrying troops to Mozdok. An explosion that tore though a Victory Day parade on 9 May 2002 in the Dagestani port of Kaspiisk, too, was ascribed to Al- Valid, who organized the attack with the help of his aide, Rappani Khalilov. In a TV broadcast ran by Al-Jazeera in November of last year a man, introduced as Abu al-Valid, pledged to continue terror attacks in Russia, specifying, however, that those attacks would be aimed at military targets in Russia's Muslim regions. If Al-Valid has indeed fled, separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov may follow his example shortly. Without regular financing from abroad rebel leaders will find it harder to continue active resistance to federal troops. Judging by special service reports they have not received any financing for three months now. 19 Feb.2004 Gazeta ru 17:27
Chechen refugees stage protest in Georgia TBILISI. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Nearly 200 refugees from Chechnya who had found shelter in Georgia's Pankisi gorge held a protest in the village of Duisi on Wednesday. The protesters decide to send a petition to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, parliament chairperson Nino Burjanadze, and numerous ministers and heads of non- governmental and human rights organizations, Chechen human rights activist Aslanbek Abdursakhov told Interfax. Refugees feel unprotected in Georgia and are demanding security guarantees, Abdurzakov said. "The protest was a warning. It there is no response to the petition, the refugees will proceed to the next stage of protest," he said. The protest was triggered by the disappearance in Tbilisi of two Chechens, Khusein Alkhanov and Bekkhan Mulkoyev, who had been detained in August 2002 when a group of 13 armed men crossed the Georgian- Russian border. They were released from a remand center in Tbilisi last week. Chechen refugees suspect that Georgian authorities secretly handed over the two men to Russia. Ban on lessons of peace arranged by center of Chechen culture "Vaynakh" in Yekaterinburg schools A peaceful action arranged in Yekaterinburg by the human rights society "Memorial" and the center of Chechen culture "Vainakh" ended with a scandal. After the Moscow metro blast, Ural Chechens suggested giving lessons of tolerance and peace at local schools. They were going to tell children that not all Caucasian people are terrorists and the only way to establish order and peace in our multinational country is to learn to understand and listen to each other but not to fan nationalistic sentiment. But before the human rights activists had had time to unroll their posters in the first school chosen, the police came to the educational institution. The head of the district popular schooling department, Marina Kopilova, ordered to stop the lesson in categorical terms without explaining the reasons for banning the action. The police watched the Chechens and human rights activists being evicted from the school but preferred to remain aloof and not to interfere in the situation. The chairman of the Sverdlovsk society of Chechen culture "Vainakh", Adam Kalayev, said Chechens had never yet been faced with such aggressive resistance on the official level at "peaceful" structures. Source: Rosbalt News Agency Refugees in Pankisi are indignant at duplicity of Georgian authorities The refugees from Chechnya held an action of protest on Wednesday in the village Duisi of Pankisi Gorge. The participants in the rally expressed their anxiety with regard to disappearance of two Chechens - Hussein Alkhanov and Bekhan Mukoyev. After detention of a group of Chechens, including the abovementioned persons, in August 2002, the Georgian judges have been considering the case of their extradition to Russia for several months. As it is known, the Russian side accuses them of committing grave crimes on the territory of the Russian Federation - participation in the actions of illegal armed formations, terrorism, attempt on life of the employees of law-enforcement bodies. As a result of the proceeding, the Supreme Court of Georgia has found the arguments submitted by accusation for extradition insufficient, therefore the detainees should have been answerable for the offences committed in Georgia only. In particular, the Chechens took part in a scuffle inside the prison in Tbilisi in autumn 2002, to express the protest against extradition of five Chechen people detained for illegal crossing of the frontier. In accordance with the decision passed by the district court of Tbilisi on 6 February 2004, Hussein Alkhanov and Bekhan Mukoyev were released. They were sentenced to a year's imprisonment, but as they had already served out the sentence, the detainees were let off directly in the hall of law court. The Georgian non-governmental organizations tell that Alkhanov and Mukoyev left their homes on 16 February morning and are missing since then. Both of them lived in Vashlidjvari district (in the outskirts of Tbilisi). They had to appear in the Ministry for Refugees to get the documents. One of them had a mobile phone, which is switched off now. The refugees from Chechnya held an action of protest in Tbillisi, before the Mtamtsminda-Krtsanisi district court building. Today the district court examined a case of three Chechens detained in August 2002 on the border of Georgia with Russia. In particular, the court examined a case of Aslan Khachukayev, Adlan Magomedov, Khamzat Isiyev accused of putting resistance to the guards inside the prison, the citizen of Georgia, George Kushtanashvili also appears in the same case. A. Makhauri, Chechenpress, 19 February 2004 http://www.chechenpress.info/english/news/2004/02/20/02.shtml
Chechen human rights defenders continue to receive training ininternational law Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – NGO representatives from Chechnya weretaught how to write applications for filing by Chechen individuals withthe European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. This was thesubject of a training workshop for human rights lawyers from Chechnya,Ingushetia, and Dagestan, organized by the International HelsinkiFederation on February 16-17 in Nazran. The workshop’s program was divided into two days. The first dayparticipants received theoretical background about the EuropeanConvention on Human Rights; and during the second day they learned howto file written applications for ECHR in compliance with internationallaw requirements, using illustrative examples of specific cases of humanrights violations that took place in Chechnya. Diederick Lohman, director of the Moscow branch of Human Rights Watch,and Krasimir Kanev, chairman of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, werethe instructors. This workshop was one in a series organized under the European Union'sTACIS program ’The Legal Protection of Individual Rights in the RussianFederation’,” said Vladimir Weissman of the International HelsinkiFederation, one of the organizers of the event. |