Fate of those kidnapped persons still unknown

ingushetiya..Ru, 23.03.2004 22:33

The relatives of those kidnapped by special services; of Ozdoyev, Yevloyev, Izmailov, Tsitskiyev, Tsechoyev and tens of other inhabitants of the RI, at the present moment cannot establish their whereabouts, are they are alive or not. The leadership of the MVD, which promised to take all measures in search for those abducted, hasn't kept its word.

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya is in our republic right now, she has met with the relatives of some of those who got abducted.

http://www.ingushetiya.ru/news/3392.html (tr. by M.L.)

MVD attempts to intimidate organizers of the rally

ingushetiya..Ru, 23.03.2004 22:33

On 22-23 of March to some organizers of the forthcoming on the 26 of March general national rally of Ingush people came police officers and they demanded not to carry out this rally. Officers reported that they got a rigid order, at any price, even with using  of weapons, to avoid conducting this protest action.

In spite of threats, to the rally approx. 10 thousand inhabitants of republic are coming.

The rally organizing committee prepares special announcement to members of the law-enforcement agencies  of the RI, which will be published when it text gets into our editorial staff.

http://www.ingushetiya.ru/news/3398.html (my quick tr)

Rally's organizing committee to employees of law-enforcement agencies

To ingushetiya..Ru, 25.03.2004 15:48

Address to employees of the law-enforcement agencies

On 26 March, after Friday's prayer, the inhabitants of Ingushetia are going to gather in the vicinity of Iabi-Guv for the rally to protest against actions of unknown special services, which have kidnapped 40 inhabitants of our republic. People will gather in this  peaceful rally without any weapons and want only that the entire world know about their present problem. All other methods to ask for justice have been exhausted. We live in 21 century, when as the main concern must be the law that protects rights and interests of citizens. Instead of this, some special units took upon themselves tasks of committing extrajudicial violence.

We know, that you - the employees of police, have been given an order not to allow under any circumstances to conduct this rally. You must not fulfill these criminal orders, no matter by whom they have been ordered. You must be guided by law. People will arrive and will express their opinion. There won't be any violent actions or calls for them from the side of those who organized the rally. Everything will take place within the framework of law.

The Chechen Times

«The United States urges Russian federal and local authorities to support voluntary returns to Chechnya and to provide alternative shelter for IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] who wish to remain in Ingushetia," U.S. diplomat Douglas Davidson told the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna March 25.

«Under international norms, the return of IDPs is considered voluntary only when they are offered acceptable alternative shelter in Ingushetia for those who wish to stay," Davidson said.

He said a February 9 report by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s representative on the humanitarian situation in the North Caucasus cites factors preventing the return of IDP’s, including the dangerous security situation, lack of housing, lack of economic prospects and «inefficiency and corruption in the administration of compensation being offered to those who decide to return to Chechnya."

«We ask Russian authorities not to close tent camps and spontaneous settlements and to cease deregistering IDPs who wish to stay in Ingushetia. We also urge Russian authorities to stop cutting utilities to camps and settlements," he said.

The United States also urged Russian authorities «to work constructively and cooperatively with international assistance organizations» trying to provide aid to the IDP’s.

Following is Davidson’s statement: United States Mission to the OSCE Vienna

STATEMENT ON CONDITIONS FOR DISPLACED PERSONS FROM CHECHNYA

As delivered by Deputy Permanent Representative Douglas Davidson to the Permanent Council

March 25, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The United States is particularly concerned about a number of aspects of the conflict in Chechnya, including continued reports of human rights abuses. Today we would like to draw attention to the humanitarian situation for internally displaced persons in the North Caucasus.

While many reputable NGO’s functioning in the region are providing reports on their monitoring and observation activities, and while they corroborate what is now a dire situation, we would like in particular to call attention to the report issued on February 9 report by Ms. Panfilova, President Putin’s own representative on the humanitarian situation in the North Caucasus. That report is entitled «On the Results of the Mission of the Commission on Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation to Chechnya and Ingushetia."

This report focuses on two principal problems preventing the return of IDPs to Chechnya from the temporary camps in which they are currently residing in Ingushetia. The first is the dangerous security situation and the lack of housing in Chechnya. The second is the lack of economic prospects in Chechnya itself.

The report also cites inefficiency and corruption in the administration of compensation being offered to those who decide to return to Chechnya, including the considerable bribes that returnees often must pay in order to avoid retribution from Chechen authorities.

Here, if you’ll permit me, we would like to quote for the Council the conclusion of this report: «It is premature to invite the IDPs back to the Chechen Republic. This attempt has no real economic, social and legal basis."

Mr. Chairman, bearing in mind these facts put forward in the report, and the report’s own conclusion, the United States urges Russian federal and local authorities to support voluntary returns to Chechnya and to provide alternative shelter for IDPs who wish to remain in Ingushetia. Under international norms, the return of IDPs is considered voluntary only when they are offered acceptable alternative shelter in Ingushetia for those who wish to stay.

We ask Russian authorities not to close tent camps and spontaneous settlements and to cease deregistering IDPs who wish to stay in Ingushetia. We also urge Russian authorities to stop cutting utilities to camps and settlements.

A stable security environment in Chechnya is a prerequisite for IDP returns as well as for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. We consider the access of humanitarian organizations’ to radio communications (HF, VHF frequencies) and satellite telephones as essential to improve the security of humanitarian operations in Chechnya. We urge Russian authorities to allow these organizations access to these essential tools of communication.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, a safe environment resulting from ample security for humanitarian organizations delivering aid is essential for better identification of needs and closer monitoring and evaluation of relief operations and their beneficiaries. We urge Russian federal and local authorities to work constructively and cooperatively with international assistance organizations. These organizations have taken great risks to try to provide for the basic needs of many thousands of people. If Chechnya is to be someday considered «normal» again, respect for these international norms, and cooperation with international organizations and NGOs willing to offer a helping hand will surely be tests that need to be met.

I thank you. US Info

24 March 2004, Volume V, Issue 12

CHECHNYA WEEKLY: News and Analysis on the Crisis in Chechnya Jamestown Foundation

Is Russia acting to halt migration from Chechnya?

Is the Russian Federation quietly getting other former Soviet republics to agree not to admit migrants from Chechnya? Anna Politkovskaya described in the March 22 issue of Novaya gazeta the case of a Chechen woman who has lived for some years in Ingushetia. When the woman tried to enter Ukraine by rail from Russia, the Ukrainian border guards refused to let her continue her trip as soon as they saw from her passport that her birthplace was Grozny.

According to Politkovskaya's sources, this sort of thing has become a regular practice: For the last two and a half months Ukraine has been turning Chechens away for no other reason than that they are Chechens. It would appear, concluded the journalist, that Russia has enlisted the help of Ukraine, a country that aspires to full-fledged membership in the European community, in turning the Chechen republic into a kind of "reservation" from which Chechens are forbidden to leave--and that this practice has western Europe's tacit consent.

Chechnya suffers infromation blockade

Aslan Doukaev, director of the North Caucasus service of Radio Liberty, has provided some revealing observations about Chechens' current reading habits in an interview published in the March/April issue of Foreign Policy. Lively discussions of Chechnya's history and cultural identity are taking place among the Chechen diaspora, but the populace living within Chechnya is largely cut off from access to these intellectual currents. "Antiwar books don't reach the territory at all," said Doukaev, "and possessing books on Chechen aspirations for independence can be life-threatening. We received reports of people being executed when Russian soldiers found such books or video materials. A teacher in northern Chechnya was arrested simply for receiving in the mail the latest book by Alla Dudaeva, the widow of the slain Chechen president. That teacher spent three days being interrogated by officers in the Federal Security Service, the Russian secret service, which ultimately burned the book in front of him."

Despite the proliferation of websites about Chechnya--both multi- lingual and in the Chechen language--the near total lack of telephone service within the republic makes these information sources effectively inaccessible to most Chechens. Doukaev observed that "in the computer room of the university, students are greeted by a sign prohibiting access to Chechen sites produced abroad."

Meanwhile, a local man working as a driver and assistant for an American journalist in Chechnya was released on March 12 after a month in captivity. Ruslan Soltakhanov, who had helped Moscow correspondent Rebecca Santana of the Cox newspaper chain in her reports on Chechnya, had been abducted by unidentified men from his home in neighboring North Ossetia on February 13. The Russian authorities had failed to respond to inquiries from Cox newspapers about the case.

Shortly before the kidnapping, FSB officers harassed Santana at the airport in Mineralnye Vody as she was about to fly back to Moscow. They confiscated her notebooks, mobile phone, undeveloped film and personal data assistant. These items were returned to her the next day in Moscow, but her film had been developed.

Santana said that Soltakhanov's detention was "undoubtedly connected with the fact that he had been working with me and [was] designed as an attempt to punish him for his actions."

Kidnapping are highlited

From the beginning of January through mid-March at least sixty-three Chechen civilians have been kidnapped, according to the Moscow-based human rights center Memorial. Of that total, twenty-six have since been released and two have been found dead. The fate of another thirty-five remains unknown, according to a March 19 Nezavisimaya gazeta article based on interviews with Dmitry Grushkin and Oleg Orlov of Memorial. Orlov said that he could confirm reports from other sources that Magomed Khambiev, minister of defense in the underground Maskhadov government, was forced to surrender to the Kadyrov administration because relatives of his had been kidnapped to be held as hostages.

New infromation about hostage siege

The father of the Chechen terrorist Movsar Baraev, ostensible leader of the band which seized Moscow's Dubrovka theater in the fall of 2002, has added yet one more to the many unanswered questions about that episode. In an interview from his home in Baku, carried by the Chechenpress website on March 23, Bukhari Baraev said "I know for certain that some of the guerrillas, including most of our women, returned to Chechnya alive and healthy and told in detail about what happened..." The Russian authorities, of course, have claimed for the last year and a half that all the hostage-takers were killed--and yet they have not released their bodies.