Unknown people kill two and kidnap another two in Chechnya

GROZNY, May 31 (RIA Novosti) - In Chechnya unknown people killed two and kidnapped two more people, a source in the Chechen Interior Ministry said.

"On Monday morning at 2:45 a.m. Moscow time in the Kalaus village of the Grozny district unknown people in masks threatening with weapons kidnapped Aslan Rasuyev and Zhalil Matsuyev taking them in unknown direction," the source said.

According to the source, Matsuyev's brother Rizvan attempted to offer resistance, but was killed.

Currently the law-enforcement officers inquire into the incident. The Vulkan-5 operation has been initiated in order to find the kidnapped and detain the criminals.

According to the source, earlier that day in the village of Oiskhar of the Gudermes district unknown people shot a local woman.

"According to witnesses, on Sunday in the early hours four armed people dressed in camouflage uniform came to the village, started to drink alcoholic beverages and use foul language," the source in the Interior Ministry said. "When a woman made a remark to them, they delivered a shot into her direction. The woman later died of the received injury," the source added.

After the murder four unknown people drove away from the village on a Niva car. They are being searched for at the present moment. As a result of the explosion in the Shali district of Chechnya a police officer was wounded, the Chechen Interior Ministry reported.

The explosion of the bomb, planted on a road near the village of Mesker-Yurt, occurred yesterday at 1.10 p.m. Moscow time when a Ural truck with servicemen of a combined police detachment was riding on this road. One senior police officer received injuries and was later hospitalized as a result of the explosion.

Investigation is underway.

Major refugee group gets back to Chechnya from Ingushetia

31.05.2004, 08.41

MOSCOW, May 31 (Itar-Tass) - A big group of Chechen refugees left the last tent camp for refugees in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia during the weekend, a spokesman for the Chechen government told Itar- Tass on Monday.

"A total of 222 people, or 44 families, have returned back home from the tent camp over the past two days," Sharap Beldurov reported. He said 630 people still stay in the last tent camp Satsita in Ingushetia.

According to Beldurov, the process of refugee return has got a boost after refugees began receiving notifications on compensations for their lost property in Chechnya. He said 53 families have received such notifications over the past two days.

Beldurov believes the last tent camp in Chechnya may be shut down before June 10. On May 27, an agreement was signed with the head of Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan region on the assignation of the property from the tent camp Satsita to the village of Bamut. It includes a school building, a kindergarten, storage facilities as well as temporary gas and water supply lines.

The head of administration, Ali Dalnayev said the school and kindergarten buildings would be unveiled in the village by the beginning of a new school year.

May 31 2004 12:27PM

Four abducted, one killed in Chechnya

GROZNY. May 31 (Interfax) - Four people were abducted and one was killed in Chechnya over the past day.

A group of unknown attackers abducted two residents of Kalaus early on Monday. Another Kalaus resident was killed while resisting the abduction, a source in the Nadterechny district administration told Interfax.

Two people traveling by car were abducted in Komsomolskoye village, said a source in the Gudermes district police department.

The Ingush police clashed with rebels in the Barsuki municipal district near Nazran on Sunday. The rebels were blockaded in a house. They opened fire and tried to take a mother with three underage children who lived in the house hostage. The hostages were released, and none of them was hurt.

The clash lasted for more than four hours, and three rebels were killed. Three police officers were wounded.

Sappers found about 15 kilograms of explosives, ammunition and suicide belts in a house in the Barsuki municipal district near Nazran, where three rebels were killed on Sunday, a spokesmand for the Nazran prosecutor's office told Interfax on Monday.

*There is preliminary information that the rebels who were killed were members of illegal units fighting in Chechnya who had tried to find refuge in Ingushetia.

A police examination showed that bullets that wounded people in Grozny on Saturday were fired from the rebels' weapons, regional federal headquarters spokesman Col. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax. He said the rebels Umar Idrisov and Magomed Aguyev opened fire during an operation in Grozny center, wounding several people. A female student of the Chechen State University died on her way to hospital.

Members of the group under field commander Doki Umarov "are planning an attack on a humanitarian convoy in the Shatoi district," Shabalkin said. The humanitarian aid comes from the French organization Action contre la Faim.

"Arab mercenaries, mostly Yemenis, have joined the Umarov gang," Shabalkin said. "They have been promised large rewards," he said.