| Chechen Refugee Camps
Raided Masked men raided a Chechen refugee camp near Ingushetia's Nazran on Wednesday, Ekho Moskvy radio reported, citing camp superintendent Raisa Isayeva. Isayeva cited numerous abuses, such as beatings, unlawful detentions, and instances when men were taken outside, forced to undress, and held on the ground face down for several hours. According to her, 34 people, including several 15-year-olds, are being held by the attackers. On Thursday, electricity, water, and gas were cut off from the camp, and the refugees were ordered to leave the territory of the camp within two days or it would be burnt down, Isayeva told the radio station. Attempts by the refugees to get information from the local authorities were unsuccessful — after receiving a complaint from one refugee, an Ingushetia migration official reportedly advised her to "return home to Chechnya," adding that there was nothing he could do. Another camp nearby was also reportedly threatened, Isayeva said. Those inhabitants of camp, who were let go, "ran away to their relatives, and haven't returned to the camp" - she noted. In the town's office, where the women from Altiyevo camp turned up they "got no information, and were chased away". On 24 June they brought a crane to the camp, removed a transformer, cut off electricity to the camp, turned off gas, cut out and took away section of pipes";. These unknown people in masks, she reported, demanded in 2 days to vacate the territory under threat of burning down of the camp. Women from Altiyevo turned to deputy assistant of administration for matters of migration in Ingushetia, but he stated that "can't help"; and "if there are threats - it is necessary to go home to Chechnya" "We don't have any place [to live there}. We decided to turn to all organizations, which protect the rights of citizens with a request to move us into other regions of Russia" - reported Isayeva. An ultimatum to vacate within 2 days and to leave Ingushetia has also got inhabitants of the “Logovaz” camp - refugees reported. KC & Internet Sources 2004-06-25 02:05:32 eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 24/6/2004 Locals threaten Chechen refugees with pogroms in Ingushetia Appeals to organize pogroms were heard in the village on Yandare, Ingushetia's Nazran district, on June 22, during funerals of people who fell victims to the developments of the night of June 21-22. Some people, including a village dean, called upon their fellow-villages to raid the Chechen refugee camp situated in this village on the territory of the Nazran Agricultural Technical School. Most of the villagers did not respond to these appeals, and they have not entailed any practical steps so far. Imran Ezhiev, chairman of the regional branch of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship and an inhabitant of the above-mentioned camp, commented on the situation with pogrom sentiments: "I can rate appeals to organize pogroms only as a deliberate provocation, which can lead to a catastrophe. In my opinion, these sentiments are being roused by those who hold interest in escalating the conflict to the territory of Ingushetia and giving the interethnic tint to it. Many people hold interest in such a course of developments, and above all the corrupted army generals, many of whom rise very rapidly and get serious profits using the blood of civilian people and their colleagues. Besides, Chechnya has already been sacked to a great extent, and the market of illegal oil production has been shared. And Ingushetia is a "tidbit". The provocateurs, waging the pogrom campaign by somebody's order, are not clever men. And the matter is not even that, according to many eye-witnesses, the majority of the people who attacked state offices were ethnic Ingushetians and any confrontation on the basis of nationality is out of the question. The matter is that these people do not understand that if they sow chaos in the republic, they will inevitably become its victims soon." Source: Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship Ingushetia Denies Reports of Refugee Camp Abuses Created: 25.06.2004 13:51 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:51 MSK, MosNews Ingushetia's Interior Ministry has denied media reports of abuses of Chechen refugees living in camps in the internal republic, Itar-Tass reported. After rebel raids in Ingushetia killed nearly 100 people Monday night and early Tuesday morning, police and military authorities launched operations to apprehend those involved and find the rebel militants. Searches included refugee camps, deputy Interior Minister Musa Apiyev was quoted as saying Friday at a press conference. "We detain people only when we find evidence, credible proof of their participation in the events, when we find weapons, traces of blood, and other objects indicating involvement in the terrorist acts," the Ingushetia official was quoted as saying. If the detainee resists arrest, Apiyev added, "then we have to apply physical force to take [him] to the police." Earlier there had been reports of up to fifty random detentions, beatings, threats, and people forced to stand outside for hours naked. Apiyev did not clarify exactly how many people had been detained in connection with Monday's events, saying that there were dozens of them. "Some of them are testifying," Itar-Tass quoted him as saying. In Ingushetia, Russian troops search door-to-door for rebels By Peter Baker The Washington Post Published June 24, 2004 MOSCOW -- Government forces swept through villages and forests in southern Russia on Wednesday, hunting elusive bands of guerrillas who staged coordinated attacks on government installations Monday and Tuesday. Officials said the death toll in those assaults had risen to about 92. Soldiers and police conducted door-to-door searches in Ingushetia, which borders war-ravaged Chechnya, demanding documents and taking away dozens of young men. Human-rights groups accused authorities of rounding up people at random and beating some of them--allegations disputed by local officials. The hunt came a day after insurgents rampaged through Ingushetia, firing rocket-propelled grenades at police stations, taking over checkpoints and setting fire to government buildings. It was the biggest outbreak of fighting outside Chechnya since 1999, when Russian troops returned to quell separatists in the troubled republic. With the guerrillas in hiding, near calm returned to the mountainous region Wednesday and shops remained closed as families buried their dead. "Yesterday there was panic--people were scared. By today, things have calmed down. There are a lot of funerals going on," said Madina Khadiyeva, a spokeswoman for Ingushetia's Interior Ministry. The only bloodshed reported Wednesday was in Chechnya, where a nighttime shootout between regional security forces and rebels in the village of Avtury killed three officers and eight insurgents, officials said. The violence underscored the difficulties in President Vladimir Putin's plan to declare the war over and unilaterally impose a political settlement on the region. Amnesty International released a report Wednesday that depicted what Putin calls a "normalization" program as failing, saying the situation in Chechnya is "far from normal" and spilling into Ingushetia. The report condemned both sides for targeting civilians but singled out the disappearances of people held incommunicado by Russian forces and allegedly tortured and raped. "Such abuses, which previously occurred almost exclusively in Chechnya, are increasingly spreading across the border to neighboring Ingushetia," it said. Such abuses fostered speculation that the latest attacks were intended as retaliation for the recent disappearances of young men in Ingushetia. The guerrillas included Ingush and Russians as well as Chechens, said officials, who identified the leader as Magomed Yevloyev, an Ingush who has fought alongside rebels in Chechnya. Details of the assaults remained murky. Officials increased their estimate of guerrillas involved from a low of 200 to as many as 1,000. The death toll rose from 57 but varied depending on the official providing information; more than half of the dead were said to be police officers, prosecutors and Interior Ministry troops. Khadiyeva said government forces searched the villages of Galashki and Altiyevo on Wednesday in case the attackers simply melted back into the local population. "It's possible a lot of them are still here. That's why we're conducting these document checks," he said. The local office of Memorial, a human-rights group, said the government raids were zachistkas, or cleansing operations, aimed in part at Chechen refugees, with about 75 taken away. "They were beating them," said Yekaterina Sokirianskaya, a Memorial activist who witnessed the raids. "They were also telling them that if they don't leave the republic in two days they would be in trouble." Ingushetia's president, Murat Zyazikov, denied that. "Some people would very much like the situation to look this way," he told the Interfax news agency. "But there are no sweep operations whatsoever." Former Chechen Vice PM Murdered in Moscow Created: 25.06.2004 09:40 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:00 MSK, MosNews Chechnya's former Vice Prime Minister, Yakov Sergunin, was shot to death in the early morning hours of Friday in central Moscow, Russian media reported. Sergunin, who was a retired general, was leaving a restaurant with his wife at about 3:30 a.m. Moscow time, when an unidentified motorcyclist shot him and his wife several times with an assault rifle, Russia's First Channel television reported. The assassin managed to escape, the channel said. Sergunin died on the spot, while his wife was taken to the hospital in a serious condition. Investigators are working at the scene. Sergunin headed Chechnya's Justice Department and served as deputy Prime Minister in the region's Moscow-backed government until last year. He worked closely with former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated by a bomb last month. But Sergunin's murder was unlikely to be linked to his work in Chechnya, where separatists have fought Moscow's rule for a decade, Itar-Tass quoted a government source as saying. "(He was) a successful businessman and most likely a commercial activity could be the motive for the killing," the source said. Russian businessmen and politicians frequently fall victim to contract killings in Russia. Jun 24 2004 5:50PM Council of Europe commissioner denounces Ingushetia attack MAGAS. June 24 (Interfax) - Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles said the recent guerilla attacks in Ingushetia were targeted against human rights and democracy. In a letter to Ingushetia's President Murat Zyazikov, Gil-Robles said this attempt to spread hostilities to Ingushetia, which supported the fraternal Chechen people in a time of need by accepting Chechen refugees onto its territory, was a clear attempt to undermine the principles of human rights and democracy. The commissioner expressed hopes that Ingushetia will not abandon its democratic path based on common European standards, and promised his support. |