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Russia's Top Prosecutor Suggests Taking Hostages to Fight Terror Created: 29.10.2004 16:24 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:25 MSK, MosNews Russia's Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov has proposed taking hostages as a possible measure to fight terrorism. "Detaining terrorists' relatives during a terror attack would certainly help us save people," Ustinov told the State Duma, speaking at a conference of law enforcement officials and law makers on the war on terror, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported. In his address, he urged parliament to consider the issue as they revise the law on terrorism. In response, Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov said Russia's parliament is prepared to consider an amendment to the existing law on terrorism to allow the possibility of federal forces taking hostages in the case of a terror attack. At this point, Gryzlov noted, laws stipulate that terrorists' relatives can be used for the purpose of negotiation, but their participation is voluntary. The amendment proposed by Ustinov would allow the federal forces to confine the relatives of terrorists by force if necessary. FSB head Nikolai Patrushev, for his part, applauded suggestions to amend the current law on terrorism to give law enforcement authorities greater power in apprehending terrorists, but did not comment on Ustinov's proposal in particular. *Allegations have appeared in the past that federal forces took as many as 40 people hostage during the Beslan school siege. All of them were reported to be relatives of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. In another case earlier in the year, several other relatives were reportedly taken hostage and forced to spend days on their knees. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 27/10/2004 European Commission allocates 10 million euro for victims of conflict in Chechnya We call your attention to the press release issued by the European Commission on 25 October 2004: The European Commission has approved a 10 million euro humanitarian aid package to support victims of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya. The recipients will include internally displaced persons (IDPs) and vulnerable groups in central and southern Chechnya as well as IDPs in Ingushetia and Daghestan. Assistance includes: food and non-food items, medical support, shelter and water/sanitation, education, psychological assistance and vocational training. Funds are being allocated via the Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid, ECHO, under the responsibility of Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian aid Poul Nielson. Five years after the beginning of the second conflict in Chechnya, humanitarian needs remain acute. Widespread physical and psychological trauma has resulted from the war in Chechnya, and the instability has recently spilled over in other republics of the Northern Caucasus. Some 40,000 people are still displaced in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia as well as some 10,000 in Daghestan. In addition, the conflict has caused the internal displacement of approximately 150,000 people within Chechnya proper. This new financial support will allow providing basic and supplementary food for the 400,000 most vulnerable people in the three republics, mostly in Chechnya. The decision will also fund primary and mother and child health care and support surgery, traumatology and rehabilitation services for the war-wounded and disabled. It will help provide primary education and vocational training, as well as psychological assistance for the people, especially children, affected by war-related trauma. The funding will ensure that the population in Grozny (estimated around 100,000 people) has access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation facilities. It will also allow IDPs in Ingushetia and Daghestan to have access to decent shelter conditions and water/sanitation facilities. Since the beginning of the current crisis in autumn 1999, ECHO has allocated approximately 137 million euro to the victims, making the EU the largest donor in the region. Source: Delegation of the European Commission in Russia eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 28/10/2004 Several people abducted during purges in Chechnya Officers of security agencies abducted three people in the course of "address actions" in the village of Noviye Atagi, Chechnya's Shali district. "In the morning of October 26, servicemen in masks, who arrived in several UAZ cars without number plates, captured a 14-year-old boy and took him away in an unknown direction. The boy's family name is Taysumov. Soldiers abducted his elder brother a month ago, and another one — last year. This brother, the youngest one, was the last of the three bothers. Nobody knows where he is now and what happened to him," Khizir, a 37-year-old resident of Noviye Atagi, said. "There was another purge, or, as the military called it, "address special operation" in our village on October 24. They took away two people that day. They're Tarmov and 50-year-old Shamil Bibulatov, who lives not far from us. As I know, they took Shamil away because he had a beard. And having a beard is a sign of Wahhabism today, no matter if you are a Wahhabi or not. Taramav, cruelly beaten and wounded in his leg, was thrown away on the road between our village and the village of Chechen-Aul the next day. He doesn't know whey he was held, who detained him and why. He says there were both Russian and Chechen officers of security agencies." The Chechen Interior Ministry has refused to give any comments on the matter, claiming that Chechen policemen have conducted no actions in the village of Noviye Atagi recently. Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent Source: Caucasian Knot Chechens Disappointed by War Reparations Getting compensation for destroyed homes involves bribery and a long wait. By Kazbek Tsuraev and Aslanbek Badilaev in Grozny (CRS No. 259, 28- Oct-04) A large crowd of people stand at the crossroads where the two main streets meet in central Grozny, hoping it might be their turn to be summoned into Chechnya's only functioning bank and win compensation for property lost or destroyed in the many years of war. Bank employees occasionally emerge to read out a fresh list of surnames, and the lucky few squeeze through the crowds to get inside the building. Once inside the bank, they could receive up to 300,000 rubles, 10,400 US dollars for a destroyed house or apartment, plus an additional 50,000 rubles for other damaged or lost property. The process has been a painful one: only 14,000 out of the 39,000 people deemed eligible for compensation have received their money. Some have paid over large sums to agents to get the money due to them. Once they have the money they find it is not enough to buy a replacement home. Some believe that the delay in payments happened because the September 2003 announcement of the scheme was a public relations stunt by the authorities, ahead of the election of Akhmad Kadyrov as Chechen president. Now Kadyrov is dead, killed by a bomb in May this year. Abuzayid, a 52-year-old Grozny man, has been waiting at the bank since early morning – and his name has come up at last, a year after he was promised compensation. He once had a four-room house in Grozny, which he built with the help of relatives. The home was destroyed by artillery fire in winter 2000, when his family had already relocated to a refugee camp in neighbouring Ingushetia. "We were promised that if we came home [from Ingushetia], we'd be the first to receive money. But a year has gone by, and I haven't got anything yet," he said. . Abuyazid is unemployed and says he will only be able to rebuild his house when he gets this compensation. "Besides unemployment benefit and the occasional odd job, I have no source of income. And you can't build a home with that," he said. The former welder will not get the maximum compensation, as the commission that examined his house estimated it was 80 per cent destroyed. In reality he will get even less, because he has promised 30 per cent in commission to an agent who secured the money for him. Many other claimants interviewed by IWPR, most of whom did not want to be named, said they too had fallen victim to the scam – believed to be run by individuals with good access to compensation commission members. The fee ranges between 30 and 50 per cent. "To get a positive outcome, I was offered to share the compensation 50-50," said Tamara, a resident of Starye Atagi. "Look over there: right next to the bank there are plenty of these middlemen. But you can't build a house for 350,000 rubles [maximum damages], let alone half that amount. And I'm scared of going to the police." Fear of the extortionists is compounded by Chechen's widespread distrust of the police, and a general aversion to "informing". When Alu Alkhanov was elected president of Chechnya in August this year, he said ensuring that compensation was paid would be high on his agenda. He replaced the compensation committee with a new one, and opened an office to monitor the process. One problem that appears to have been dealt with is a protection racket in which people had to pay another 10 per cent to groups of armed men, with threats of beating or death. Recipients of compensation say that since the death of Akhmad Kadyrov, these groups are no longer extorting money from them. But claimants say other corrupt practices persist. The Chechen government calculates that 114,000 private homes have been destroyed across the republic, a figure which does not include homes in Grozny apartment blocks. Nor do "partially destroyed" homes count, even though the damage can range from smashed windows and doors to uninhabitable structures with caved-in roofs and collapsed walls. IWPR was unable to obtain precise figures as to how many families are due compensation, and how many have received it. The deputy chief of staff in the Chechen government, Shukran Jabarilova, said it was forbidden to give out any information without the express permission of more senior officials. People lucky enough to win compensation find that it is not enough to buy an apartment or build a house. When the compensation scheme was announced, it caused a surge of inflation in the housing market and construction industry. A three-room apartment in Grozny that would have sold for 8,000 dollars last year would now go for between 20,000 and 25,000 dollars, while the cost of building a small three-room detached house has risen to at least 15,000 dollars. The scheme is now closed to new applicants, and anyone who failed to submit the right documentation in time will now be able to seek redress only through the courts. Meanwhile, hundreds of claimants have simply disappeared from the books. Akhmad Karimov, deputy head of Itum-Kali district's local government, said that in his area "two hundred people are unable to receive compensation. Their documents were examined by a commission, but then disappeared. Our administration is trying to ascertain where these papers are". A similar situation is reported in Sunzha district, where deputy administration chief Yunes Barcheshvili told IWPR, "Of the 200 cases, 60 have been struck out, for reasons unknown. No representative of the district's [local government] leadership has been allowed access to the compensation commission. And there's a similar situation in Achkhoi-Martan district." Kazbek Tsurav is a correspondent for the newspaper Chechenskoe Obschestvo. Aslanbek Badilaev is a correspondent with the Zov Zemli paper.