| Chechenpress
Alarming news about the Chechen refugees in Czechia Yesterday morning we spoke on the telephone with the representatives of Chechen refugees in Czechia, Rivzan and Mousa, who told us about the worsening of situation in one of the camps for the displaced persons in Vishny Khoty (central distributive camp in the area of Ostrava). According to them, the personnel of the camp treat badly the refugees who should be under the protection of corresponding international conventions. The mentioned group of Chechen refugees on the legal basis moved from Poland where the Polish police repeatedly subjected them to physical examination. In spite of this the Czech police made an attempt to conduct a humiliating procedure of personal inspection, though, after the refugees, especially the female ones, expressed their indignation, they had to stop the procedure. At the same time, it should be noted that practically all Chechen refugees produced the documents certifying that they had been put in quarantine in Poland. On arriving in the camp, the administration distributed food cards in which it was noted that the holders are Muslims who need corresponding food. Actually, this rule approved all over Europe was not observed there, so they made the refugees sit down together with the others, and the food does not correspond to any standards. They systematically serve up some slush with giblets and feathers smelling fishy that the refugees refuse to eat. Besides that it is practically impossible to buy some food because the currency exchange can be made outside the camp only, and the refugees are allowed to leave the territory only accompanied by the employees of the camp. So, the camp guards offer their services, but they change the currency at a very low rate. The administration staff tries all ways to avoid a dialog with the representatives of the refugees. The Chechen refugees hope that if the lawlessness taking place in Vishny Khoty camp for displaced person is made known, they situation will change positively.
Chechenpress, Department of Operative Information
http://www.chechenpress.info/english/news/2004/05/27/02.shtml
By Kim Murphy Los Angeles Times May 28, 2004 KATYR YURT, Russia -- The pattern is chilling in its simplicity. First, the husband dies. Often, he's a Chechen rebel fighter, or someone merely suspected of being a rebel. He is killed in a firefight with Russian forces, or he is arrested and dies in custody. Then, the woman who mourns him disappears. Sometimes she is released after a few days. Or sometimes not at all. In what human rights groups say is a controversial new strategy of pre-emptive strikes, Russian security services have launched a series of raids targeting young Chechen women seen as potential "black widow" suicide bombers. Such bombers, having lost a husband, father or brother, leave quiet farm villages like this one, board the overnight train to Moscow, strap bomb packs known as "martyr belts" to their waists and transform their despair into explosions. Female suicide bombers have been responsible for at least a dozen bombings, killing more than 200 people since 2000. In recent months, dozens of women in Chechnya have been grabbed from their homes by men in masks and camouflage gear and taken to prison or unknown fates. Many have no known terror links, investigators say, except that they had lost relatives to the 10-year-old conflict in the breakaway republic. Three of the women have been missing for as long as four months, according to the Moscow-based human rights organization Memorial.
"The practice is that if someone is detained and is ever found again, that happens in the first two or three days. If it's a week, or even a month, the rule is that people don't ever show up," said a human rights worker who has investigated the disappearances in the Chechen capital, Grozny. He declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.
"Our opinion is that someone must have thought that these women were getting ready to become suicide bombers" and ordered them to be held, he said.
Families of the missing have often been unable to learn who made the arrests or where the women were being detained. The Federal Security Service in Achkoi-Martan, where many of the detentions have occurred, declined to discuss its policies.
Russian officials say they have found evidence that many women who "disappear" end up at terrorist training facilities run by Chechen rebels or at safe houses in Moscow, where they prepare to make attacks. But human rights groups have documented that the majority of recent cases of missing women involved those who were abducted from their homes by masked men in camouflage gear. Elza Gaytamirova's husband disappeared in 2001. After that, Gaytamirova, 31, a mother of four, was arrested four times. Neighbors said she told them she had been hung by her ankles and interrogated in December. On Jan. 15, men in masks pulled up in front of her house in the town of Gekhi, grabbed Gaytamirova and disappeared. She has not been heard from since.
And in the western Chechen town of Assinovskaya, more than 20 Russian secret service officers in January arrested Luiza Mutayeva, whose sister allegedly took part in a Chechen siege at a Moscow theater in 2002. She has been missing since.
In another case, Lyubov Dubas of Katyr Yurt said her daughter was still missing after being arrested Jan. 19 at Dubas' house. "I kept talking to them, trying to talk them into letting her go, or taking me with her, or taking me instead," Dubas said.
Dubas said her daughter's husband, who had connections to Chechen rebels, had been killed last year. One night Russian security officials came to talk to her daughter, a mother of two young children, saying they had information she was being recruited as a black widow. "When we heard this, we smiled. She's with her children. She's 21 years old. What kind of a suicide bomber would she be?" Dubas said. "She herself told them, 'I don't want to be a martyr. I want to live.'" The day after her daughter's arrest, and for many days after, Dubas went to the authorities, asking for information. "They said, 'There were no raids overnight, we didn't take your daughter, we don't even know what you're talking about.'"
eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 28/5/2004
Twice a month, officers of the Chechen military prosecutor's office receive residents of the Chechen republic having complaints about violations of their rights by federal soldiers. The reception is conducted in the office of the Committee to Secure Constitutional Rights of the Residents of Chechnya. However these problems have been solved very inertly lately, visitors say. And on May 20, prosecutors did not come to meet with people at all, and the reception was conducted by the Committee's staff. Over 30 people came to the office that day. The human rights activists gave them appropriate legal advice, said Omar-Pasha Khakimov, the Committee's member. By the Committee's statute, this department is independent and not accountable to any state body or official in the field of securing Chechen residents' constitutional rights. The Committee has a file for every missing person, Mr Khakimov said. Over 2.5 thousand people have been declared abducted of missing in Chechnya. The whereabouts of more than 600 of them have already been established.
Chechen Refugees Want Out of Georgia
After five years living in Georgia, worried Chechen refugees look to the West for salvation.
By Sebastian Smith in Duisi (CRS No. 235, 27-May-04)
When she fled Chechnya through snow and rocket fire almost five years ago, Kaifa Astayeva thought of Georgia as a life-saving sanctuary. Today, she is desperate to leave. Squeezed with her five children into a single room in Duisi, in the Pankisi gorge north-east of Tbilisi, Astayeva, 39, wept as she recounted her escape while under attack from aircraft, over the Caucasus mountains in late 1999. But, like many other of the 3,856 Chechen refugees registered in Georgia, Astayeva now wants to flee again – this time to the West. "We need to get out of here – beyond the ex-Soviet Union," she said. Refugees recite the misery of life in the Pankisi, but increasingly they also voice fears about Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili's drive to cooperate with Russia, including sealing off Chechnya. "We want to leave," said refugee Mausar Gaskayev, 44, standing in a muddy street on the edge of Duisi. "Being on the border is dangerous."
Although their numbers are small, the Chechens in Pankisi are a still major political issue in Georgian-Russian relations. Until 2002, significant numbers of guerrillas were believed to use the steep, wooded valley and its string of villages about 50 kilometres from Chechnya as a rear base for their operations. Crime, including kidnapping, was also beyond the control of the Georgian authorities. That has changed since a series of police sweeps that began in early 2002, and with the improved security, Georgian troops have reduced their presence in the area from nine to five checkpoints. Yet Chechens, worried that Saakashvili has struck a deal with the Kremlin to hand some of them back to Russia, feel less safe than ever.
In February this year, two Chechen men vanished shortly after being freed from Georgian custody in Tbilisi, only to reappear in the hands of Russian police.
The Georgian government denied accusations that it spirited the two Chechens to Russia in February. "We don't need secret extraditions," said Saakashvili. Refugees say they were reminded of the extra- judicial arrests plaguing Chechnya.
Under former president Eduard Shevardnadze, five Chechens were extradited, despite widespread concern from human rights groups over the treatment they might receive in Russia. Saakashvili has repeatedly stated his willingness to help refugees. But he has also attacked what he calls the threat from Wahhabism, a Saudi form of Islam that has taken root among more radical guerrillas, while being rejected by the overwhelming majority of Chechen Muslims. "We will carry out the most severe measures against them.… We have not donated Pankisi to the Wahhabis," Saakashvili was quoted as saying recently. Refugees took this as a general threat. Naveed Hussain, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, in Georgia, called for sensitivity. "There are certain political statements made, and the refugees are directly affected by these statements," he told IWPR. "They feel it very strongly … and that's why they want to be resettled." According to Bhakta Gurung, head of the UNHCR field office in Akhmeta, near the Pankisi valley, "hardly two or three per cent would say no" to resettlement in a western country. The process, though, is painfully slow. Since 2003, just 38 Chechens have left Pankisi for new countries, including Canada, Sweden and Finland, according to the UNHCR. Another 17 "cases," meaning either individuals or families, have been accepted by host countries, but not yet allowed to leave. This year, UNHCR hopes to speed up the process and win approval for 100 cases. Canadian representatives met refugees less than a month ago. Yet even at this rate, it is clear that only a small portion will be able to go.
Because each country decides cases individually, refugees will not be able to resettle in large groups – something important to this cohesive ethnic minority. "Impossible," said Gurung. Other than resettlement, or return to Chechnya – which the UN warns against – two options remain. One is naturalisation in Georgia, but this too is slow and likely only to apply to refugees with family ties, for example to the Kists, an ethnic group related to the Chechens who have a long presence in the area. The other is to stay – maybe indefinitely – in the twilight existence of the Pankisi, where refugees have no work, little communication with the outside world, and now no state, since the old Soviet passports that most Chechens carry expired this year.
For the young the future is especially bleak.
Ziaudin, now 20, was 15 when he arrived. "We thought it would end and we'd soon go home. Now this is all I've seen." He has never been to Tbilisi, less than three hours' drive away. Schooling is funded by the Norwegian Refugee Council and the UNHCR, but only up to the age of 16, meaning that young people of Ziaudin's generation, who have known only war, chaos and life as refugees, have had virtually no education.
In the cramped room that is home for her family of four children, Kameta Temirbulatova thanked Georgia and the UNHCR for saving them.
"But now my goal is to leave," she said. "Not for ever – just to give the children a chance." Sebastian Smith is IWPR's editor/trainer in the Caucasus.
AMSTERDAM, May 28 (Reuters) - The Dutch government admitted on Friday it paid a ransom to secure the release last month of a Dutch aid worker kidnapped near the rebel Russian region of Chechnya, but said it wanted the money back from his employers.
Officials had previously denied a ransom was paid for Arjan Erkel, former head of operations in southern Russia for medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), who was bundled into a car in August 2002 in the lawless region of Dagestan.
The Dutch foreign ministry said it did not normally comment on such kidnap cases but wanted to respond to an article in France's Le Monde accusing it of blackmailing MSF to recover a ransom the newspaper put at one million euros ($1.23 million).
The ministry said in a statement the Dutch embassy in Moscow was told on April 8 that Erkel would be freed if MSF in Dagestan delivered an unspecified sum of money within 24 hours, but MSF said it could not raise the sum quickly enough.
The ministry said MSF had earlier left an envelope of cash at the Dutch embassy in case a ransom had to be paid at short notice, but this money could not be delivered immediately so the ministry decided to advance the missing amount on the understanding MSF would repay it as soon as possible. "Medecins Sans Frontieres is a serious organisation whose word can be trusted. We still hope that Medecins Sans Frontieres will stick to its promise and repay the advanced sum," it said. There was no immediate comment from MSF.
Le Monde cited unnamed sources as saying Dutch officials had threatened to launch a diplomatic offensive against MSF to try to get other European governments and the European Commission to cut funds for the charity's work in Russia if it did not pay up.
The Dutch ministry said the article was full of lies and inaccuracy. Le Monde said at least two MSF directors considered resigning over the affair and have said they would repay the money only if the Dutch said who was paid the ransom. Kidnappings are rife in the Caucasus region, but Erkel was the only Westerner still held there. Dagestan is the eastern neighbour of Chechnya, where Russian troops and separatist Muslim guerrillas have been locked in a decade-long conflict.
Thyroid gland epidemic hits Chechnya
Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – Through medical examinations, it was found that nearly all of the Chechen population suffers from some type of endocrine gland dysfunction, stated members of the Health and Education Ministries and Epidemiological Center during a round table discussion on May 24 at the endocrine outpatient clinic in Grozny.
According to them, almost 90 percent of patients who undergo endocrinal examinations have enlarged thyroid glands. The main reason for this is a lack of sufficient iodine in their systems, stated the doctors. "Iodine deficiency in food leads to an enlargement of the thyroid gland which causes people to develop goiter problems," explained Chechen Deputy Health Minister Akhmed Sadayev. "Because this illness is inherent among the inhabitants of Chechnya, an endocrinology outpatient clinic was founded at the beginning of the 1960s that examined and treated all the villagers. As a result, this national phenomenon was all but eliminated by the mid-80s," he said. Unfortunately, an epidemic is again spreading across Chechnya, he noted. To prevent it becoming widespread, regular patient examinations and treatment must be renewed. And also all food products and salt contents must be examined to make certain they contain enough iodine, declared Sadayev.
VLADKIKAVKAZ, Russia Associated Press-May 29, 2004 A passenger train traveling from Moscow to a provincial capital in southern Russia was hit by an explosion early Saturday but no one was killed, according to preliminary information, officials said.
The explosion shook the train bound for Vladikavkaz, the capital of the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya (news - web sites), near the village of Elkhotovo, said Alan Doyev, a spokesman for the regional police. According to preliminary data, there were no victims, Doyev said.
UPDATED - Saturday May 29, 2004 8:29am
VLADKIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) - A passenger train traveling from Moscow to a provincial capital in southern Russia was hit by an explosion early Saturday, derailing seven cars and lightly injuring about six people, officials said. No one was killed.
The train was bound for Vladikavkaz, the capital of the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, when an explosive device detonated near the village of Elkhotovo at 7:27 a.m. local time, said Alan Doyev, a spokesman for the regional police. He said the explosion happened between the third and fourth cars. The force of the blast derailed seven cars, carrying sleeping passengers. Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency said the train had 18 cars.
An official in the Interior Ministry, who asked not to be identified, said that six people were injured. Sergei Kozhemyaka of the southern region's Emergency Situations Ministry, said the injuries were all light and suffered by people who fell from the top bunks in the sleeping carriages.
Local detained, then released in Urus-Martan On May 24, Said-Ibragim Rasayev, a local resident detained by local police in his house on May 17, 2004, was released from a temporary detention isolator in the town of Urus-Martan, Chechnya. The man said isolator officers had savagely beat him all the time he was in custody. A relative of Rasayev, who asked not to disclose her name, said to a correspondent of the Information Center of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship: "After searching for and getting numerous refusals from district police officials and federal officers quartering in Urus-Martan, we turned for help to our relative who is an official at the Chechen interior ministry. Said-Ibragim was set free only after his interference. Asked why Rasayev had been kept in detention, an isolator official said, "It had become known to us that federals wanted to abduct him. And if we hadn't taken him, your son would have disappeared without a trace. We arrested him in order not to let it happen." Source: Society for
Russian-Chechen Friendship
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