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eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 18/3/2004 Lyudmila Alekseyeva: displaced persons return to Chechnya from Ingushetia under pressure Internally displaced persons return to Chechnya from Ingushetia under pressure, asserts chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseyeva. "I keep on insisting that displaced persons do not return to Chechnya voluntarily, they are forced to do it. Those who wanted have returned there long ago," Ms Alekseyeva said to the Interfax news agency on March 16. She does not agree with the authorities' plan to resettle people from the last two tent camps for Chechen refugees in Ingushetia. "My attitude to the closure of tent camps is distinctly negative. People come to Chechnya, where it turns out that there are not enough places at temporary accommodation centers for all of them," said Ms Alekseyeva. She thinks the authorities want to liquidate tent camps in Ingushetia as "a sign of instability" in the North Caucasus. Source: Interfax News Agency
An assault at the house of former refugees in Katayama settlement On March 13, 2004, unidentified armed masked people in camouflage burst into the house belonging to the Abalaevs that is situated in the Line 3 in Katayama settlement, Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. They searched it without any permit. According to a local woman Markha Idrisova, those people were riding in two cars, one of which was an «UAZ» car (known in Chechnya as «a pill»). She does not remember the make of the other car. At the time of the attack there was Luisa Abalaeva together with her two daughters, teenagers of ten and thirteen years old, in the house. The criminals locked all of them in one of the rooms, searched the house. On doing it, they left the house very quickly and disappeared in an unknown direction. As a reporter of the Information Center at the Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship managed to find out, Luisa Abalaeva returned to Chechnya from Ingushetia together with her husband Alavdin and their two daughters about a month ago. They had lived in Ingushetia as forced migrants since the second war campaign broke out. On returning to their homeland, the Abalaevs had to survive, as they had no accommodation. They managed to rent a house although it was difficult to do. At present, they are living in this house. All the members of the Abalaevs family feel worried as they apprehend one more assault at them. SRChF Citizen of Ingushetia kidnapped, whereabouts still unknown Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus - Timur Yandiyev, 25, was abducted on March 16 at 5 PM in Nazran, Ingushetia, and his relatives are still in the dark about his fate. According to eyewitnesses, unknown armed men forcibly bundled Yandiyev into a white Niva car as he was leaving the building of the Ingushenergo Company and drove off to an unknown destination. Magomed Ozdoyev, manager of ITT where Yandiyev worked, states there was no reason for his arrest. "He belonged to no radical Islamic movement and worked as an on-duty manager in our company. Besides, he was from a well-cultured family; his grandfather is the well known Ingush writer Akhmed Vedzizhev." According to Shakhman Akbulatov, an employee of the human rights center Memorial, a wave of similar abductions seems to be taking place in Ingushetia. "This started about a year and a half ago. And the "moping up operations" have now spread from the Chechen Republic to neighboring Ingushetia," declared Akbulatov. Complaint lodged by Movement for Human Rights, lost by Moscow City Court A complaint lodged by the Movement for Human Rights with the Moscow City Court in connection with the case on the hostage taking on Dubrovka was expected to be considered on March 24, but court officials "confessed they had lost the complaint," head of the movement Lev Ponomarev said to the Ekho Moskvy Radio. Therefore, the sitting will be put off, he said. The complaint in question is an appeal against a decision of a district court, the human rights defender explained. "Right after Nord-Ost hostages had been released, the Movement for Human Rights addressed the Prosecutor General's Office with a proposal to pick out three separate cases from the general criminal case," Lev Ponomarev explained. "The first one concerned fentanyl, a strong drug, which had been illegally used, as we think; the second one concerned the unjustified elimination of all terrorists, which made it impossible to obtain information about these terrorists and their leaders; and the third one concerned the lack of medical aid." "For already a year, we have been trying to achieve separate investigation into these three cases. We have been turned down," noted Lev Ponomarev. The human rights defenders are going to seek legal investigation into these questions in Russia and do not rule out the possibility of bringing the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, he said. Source: Ekho Moskvy Radio
New victim of arbitrariness in Grozny streets The funeral of Ilyas Khatatayev was held on March 19 in the village of Serzhen-Yurt, Chechnya's Shali district. The man was killed by a gunman in camouflage uniform in broad daylight in the center of Grozny the day before. According to Khatatayev's kinswomen who accompanied him on the day of the tragedy, the incident started with a verbal squabble because of everyday things. The man who started disputing with Ilyas wore camouflage uniform without military insignia and was Chechen. The women calmed the contenders, and they separated. But after the stranger had made some steps away, he suddenly turned round and opened aimed fire on Ilyas from an automatic rifle. Khatatayev died at the scene. The criminal escaped. Relatives of the killed man believe the murderer was an officer of one of the numerous security agencies operating in the Chechen Republic. Today, representatives of virtually all security agencies in Chechnya perform their duties and appear in public places with arms and without any military insignia. It is impossible to determine by sight, without looking into their certificates of employment which agency they belong to. Source: Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus - A Russian contract soldier without provocation opened fire in a Chechen village, killing two local men. The soldier, from a unit deployed on the outskirts of Itum-Kala, made a call from a public telephone booth and upon emerging suddenly began shooting at a nearby parked car. Two young men were sitting in it, one of whom was from the local police; both men died instantly. The soldier was detained at the crime scene and only saved from the wrath of the bystanders by being taken to a nearby police station. The reason for the shooting is not entirely clear although the fact that he was drunk may have played a part. However there is one version circulating that he was either angered by a quarrel he had with someone on the phone or received some bad news. The outcome of this senseless shooting will be decided by the court.
Soldiers and civilians alike keep dying in Chechnya Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus - Two Russian soldiers were killed and five others wounded when a radio-controlled mine exploded in the village of Tsa-Vedeno in the Vedensky district. A source at the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic said that the mine was planted on a village road and went off when the vehicle was passing the place. All the dead and injured were members of a special elite unit of the Russian marine troops. Meanwhile, as reported by a police officer, in Urus-Martan a 16-year-old schoolboy was killed and three others wounded by an artillery shell launched by the Russian military. Evidently it appears that this incident was caused by Russian soldiers carelessly handling their weapons.
2004-03-24 15:09 Adjarian leadership to hire mercenaries in Ukraine and Chechnya TBILISI, March 24, 2004. (RIA Novosti) - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili asserts that the leadership of Adjaria is conducting negotiations on hiring militant in Ukraine and Chechnya. "According to my information, the leadership of Adjaria is conducting negotiations on hiring certain persons in Ukraine and Chechnya for replenishing their bandit unit," Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters before flying to Western Georgia. "I do not advise them even to think about it. If Chechen or Ukrainian mercenaries appear in Georgia, the organisers will be very much sorry for this," he said. Mikhail Saakashvili believes that the Georgian law enforcement bodies will have a lot to be done for disarming bandit units, including those in the territory of Adjaria. "Much work is in store for disarming bandit units," he said. 2004-03-24 16:23 CHECHNYA GOVERNMENT KNOWS NOTHING OF ADZHARIA ENLISTING RECRUITS IN CHECHNYA GROZNY, MARCH 24. (RIA NOVOSTI). The government of Chechnya /Russia's North Caucasian autonomy having a common border with Georgia/ has no information on whatever talks being held between the leadership of Adzharia /Georgia's autonomy with Batumi as the capital; the new Georgian government accuses Adzharia of separatism/ on "the enlistment of Chechen militants", said Movsar Khamidov, Vice-Premier of the Chechen government for work with the power structures. Such was his comment on the utterances of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili that, according to his information, the leadership of Adzharia is holding talks on "the enlistment of definite persons in Ukraine and Chechnya to replenish its bandit formations". "We have no such information. If Abashidze /the head of the Adzharian autonomy/ takes his militants from Chechnya, we won't be against it", Khamidov said. In a conversation with the RIA Novosti correspondent, a high-ranking source in the United Group of Troops in the North Caucasus voiced the opinion that Saakashvili's declaration is "the result of the on-going internal political 'squabble' between the centre and regional chiefs".
New «mop-ups» in Achkhoy-Martan and Sunzha districts On March 17, 2004, the Chechen police and representatives of thepro-Moscow Chechen president Akhmat Kadyrov’s security service blockedoff a big part of Rostov-Baku motorway, starting from Kulary settlement,Grozny rural district of the Chechen Republic, and up to the turningpoint to Achkhoy-martan town. All in all, a 50-km part of the motorwaywas blocked off. According to the locals, such a big police cordon wasreasoned by «mop-ups» held in neighboring villages of Achkhoy-Martan andSunzha districts of the Chechen Republic. SRChF
Russian soldiers fired at a group of Chechen women On March 16 representatives of the Russian force bodies, riding in an APC along a federal motorway Rostov-Baku, started firing at a group of Chechen women not far from Shaami-Yurt village, Achkhoy-Martan district of the Chechen Republic. The women were collecting wild garlic in a forest not far from the road. One of the witnesses, Rosa Lulaeva by name, told a reporter of the Information Center at the Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship, «We were just at a point where the forest adjoins the road. When an APC with soldiers sitting on its armour was driving past us, one of them raised his submachine gun and fired three shots at us. I fell down to the ground quickly. Hardly had the SAPC passed us, when I rushed to find out whether all of us survived. Fortunately, none of us was injured. What would we do, if somebody had been killed or wounded? All of us have little children, after all!» INGUSHETIA, Nazran. Chechen refugees living in the tent camp “Sputnik”on the edge of the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia’s Sunzharegion continue to leave. According to SNO Press Center, nearly everyday several families of forced returnees leave the camp. The cause of the situation lies in the fact that the authorities haveofficially announced the closing of the camp by April 1. Many refugeeswho don’t want to return to Chechnya have found accommodations in otherrefugee camps and private homes in Ingushetia. On March 22 a group of refugees from the camp “Logovas” in Nazran turnedto the Ingush office of the Information Center for Russian-ChechenFriendship. They said that immigration officials had excluded nearly 100refugees living in the camp from the list of those who could receivehumanitarian aid. Three months ago, these same people stopped receivingreceipts for their payments of fees for the use of gas and electricity.They were warned by the administration of the tent camp that they had toleave by March 24, 2004. Translated by Rebecca Gould
The Chechen Times 24.03.2004 Appeal: Chechen student in need of scholarship support [The following message is from Prof. Michaela Pohl at Vassar College. Please contact her directly if you have any leads.] I am looking for scholarship or tuition support for a Chechen student who was recently forced to leave Moscow State University along with several other Chechen students, and who is desparate to leave Russia and to continue his education somehow. The student has applied to Indiana University, but will hardly be able to attend without additional support. He may have a chance to get some tuition remission at IU, but will need help to cover the rest of tuition and living. His own family and extended family can possibly come of up with several thousand dollars, leaving a shortage of perhaps 8-9 thousand dollars. His family has suffered intensively because of the war and because of several family members' political activity. I am looking for any tips leading to potential sponsors or scholarship support, which are very meagre for foreignundergraduates in general. If you are interested, I can send more information about this student and his case. Helping students from Chechnya to attend Western schools is one concrete, specific way in which we can save Chechen youth from war and discriminization and radicalization. Please take a moment to consider whether you can help in some way, perhaps by sending this on to members of your academic or business community who might be able to mobilize financial support. Thank you, Michaela Pohl, Department of History, Vassar College mipohl@vassar.edu |