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RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies Vol. 5, No. 17, 31 October 2004 Appeal to OSCE: 'Human rights no internal affair'... In a development cited by many Western diplomats as the most encouraging sign from civil society in Eastern Europe and Eurasia in many years, 105 signatories from 16 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) countries issued their own response at a human rights conference in Warsaw on 15 October to a critique of the OSCE's human rights programs launched in July. They said they were challenging what they saw as their own governments' retreat from the basic principle that human rights are not the internal affair of any one member, but the proper subject for examination and criticism by other member states based on OSCE standards. Many diplomatic missions as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have grown frustrated with what they feel are dull OSCE meetings failing to lead to tangible progress in the human rights field. OSCE documents are not binding treaties and states do not negotiate texts at human rights meetings. Western diplomats say they are fearful that a confrontation with Eurasian governments over their backsliding on human rights in recent years, in an effort to get more detailed standards, would lead to weaker texts and the erosion of past achievements. But NGOs say that making mere recommendations to states not serious about reform is a futile effort. They have trouble justifying the cost of maintaining their presence at a two-week meeting to present human rights complaints -- although most still recognize that there are some benefits -- and have turned their attention to other institutions, such as the European Court of Human Rights if their country is in the Council of Europe, or the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, where they can get resolutions and written decisions with detailed condemnation of human rights practices. By contrast, the NGO initiative was viewed at the OSCE as a welcome injection of activism in what has come to be seen as a stalled process, and a sign that the political and financial investment in emerging civil societies in the region have borne fruit. The appeal developed in response to two official declarations in July ultimately by nine CIS countries -- first in Moscow and the second in Astana -- which criticized the OSCE, accusing the body of violating such fundamental principles as "noninterference in internal affairs" and of "selective attention on certain states while ignoring problems in other states" (see "Russia Coordinates Broadside Against OSCE," rferl.org, 12 July). The CIS states complained that the OSCE had become unbalanced by devoting too much attention to human rights. The NGOs expressed their "categorical disagreement with the negative evaluation of OSCE activity in the region" and said the CIS statements reminded them "of the tactics of Soviet propaganda," when Western condemnations of human rights abuses were always dismissed by Soviet officials with claims that it was "interference in internal affairs." Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine signed the second CIS declaration -- although, say activists in their appeal, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan may well have signed it because their authorities "are not less deserving to be among those who ignore the criticism of European organizations." Activists from major human rights groups as well as smaller local groups from every one of the countries who signed the official declaration were represented in the NGO appeal except for Tajikistan. The organizers of the NGO appeal said they believed the NGO sector is weak in that country and were unable to reach anyone to sign it. The NGOs say the CIS statements come at a time when human rights and electoral democracy have increasingly been violated in their region, representing a growing disregard for the original principles negotiated in the Final Act of the Conference for the Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975, known as the Helsinki Final Act. "It has been three decades since Europe recognized and put into law the connection between European security and respect for human rights," says the NGO appeal. They fear this connection is being lost. Western governments in the OSCE countered the CIS governments' attack by hastening to point out substantial progress in areas ostensibly of concern to the former Soviet states, such as the streamlining of visa procedures, economic progress, and programs to eliminate small arms. Yet NGOs believe that an actual or perceived "imbalance" among the different "baskets" of the Helsinki Accords is not really at issue. Rather, they say political leaders abusing their power are attempting to create a barrier against outside criticism, and are themselves a threat to security due to their flouting of the rule of law and democratic values. Accepting the CIS bid to deflect criticism of human rights in the name of economic or security progress is a "dangerous and unproductive" road, say the activists. An argument used in the CIS declaration is that certain countries have a "special path" or "special cultural features" tied to their national sovereignty that ostensibly preclude them from accepting outside interference, implying an excuse for the violation of basic human rights. The NGO activists reject this notion. "People who suffer from the violation of their rights do not accept such arguments," the appeal emphasizes. The text was drafted in Moscow by Valentin Gefter of the Institute for Human Rights, Lev Ponomarev of the Movement for Human Rights, and Yuri Dzhibladze for the Center for Development of Democracy and Human Rights. In an interview with "(Un)Civil Societies," Dzhibladze said the region-wide protest statement came in response to the CIS declarations which, in turn, appeared to be a reaction by Russia and other countries to efforts by the OSCE to increase monitors in areas of "frozen conflict" such as Abkhazia and the Transdniester. "We were very concerned by these actions because the fundamental principle that human rights is not the internal affair of the state is placed in doubt," he said. "For 30 years, the principle of human rights as a legitimate subject of outside concern has governed international relations, he said. Now this foundation of European cooperation is in peril. "Human rights is no less important for international cooperation than security or economic issues. We didn't want to cede the right to speak on behalf of our countries only to those political leaders who were taking steps against human rights and democracy," Dzhibladze said. The Russians activists turned to other CIS groups as well as colleagues in Eastern Europe. On 25 July, they began to distribute the text through e-mail and websites, calling the campaign "Human Rights: No to the Immunity of the State," to indicate that states are not immune from criticism of the human rights situation within their countries. "The signatures from Eastern Europe are an important sign of solidarity from those countries," said Dzhibladze. The Russians turned to Central and East European colleagues because they say they sense a new "iron curtain" going up between those countries that turned the corner on reform and joined NATO or the European Union, and those that are far from meeting EU criteria, or not even yet a member of the Council of Europe. They are hoping that citizens' ties across these new divides will help civil society address the daunting array of problems expected in a newly united Europe, from the problems of trafficking, AIDS, and migrant-labor rights to the persistent problems of torture in detention and suppression of media freedom. The appeal calls on civil society in the former USSR to come up with "concrete suggestions" for working with the OSCE as an institution and with its member states to "stand up for European values and mechanisms adopted 30 years ago and to put them into practice." They are hoping Western governments will devise "more effective approaches in dealing with challenges, including resistance from the governments of OSCE member states." They urge the OSCE to continue monitoring elections and criticizing the human rights practices of the CIS states. The list of 105 signatories represents a new generation of activists, including many young people not born when the Helsinki Final Act was signed in 1975. Some of them related to the citizens' movement that began nearly 30 years ago with the formation of the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1976, and the various tendencies that developed in the Helsinki movement today. These include Mikael Danielian of the Helsinki Association of Yerevan; Anait Bayandur of the Armenian Committee of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly; Tatiana Pratsko of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee; Boris Zvozdskov of the Helsinki-XXI in Minsk; Miralem Tursinovic of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly in Tuzla; and Vladimir Cheremis of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights. Other signatories are from lesser-known groups that do not use the word "Helsinki." They were only able to hear about and sign the appeal due to the extended reach of older networks through e-mail and websites. Some of the signers reflect work on conflict resolution necessitated by regional conflicts, such as Sotira Hroni of the Institute for Democracy and Mediation in Albania. Others are groups that have emerged to address major human rights crackdowns in their countries and challenges to the rule of law such as Nozima Kamalova of the Legal Aid Society in Tashkent and Elena Volochai of the All-Ukranian Association of Judges in Kyiv. Among the newer provincial activists were signers such as Vasilii Adrianov of Youth for Democracy and Reforms in Kaliningrad; Artur Gorbatov of the Interregional Roma Association in Volgograd; Yevgenii Grekov from the Southern Wave in Krasnodar; Galina Selina from Arc in Lipetsk; Boris Stelmashek from House 28 in Arkhangelsk; Maksim Terlyaev from the Civic Education Club in Ulyanovsk; Aleksei Tarasov of the Chernigov Public Committee for Human Rights; and Aidzhakhon Zainabitdinov of the Andizhan Regional Human Rights Society in Uzbekistan. Some prominent veteran human rights advocates also signed the appeal, such as Svetlana Gannushkina of Civic Assistance in Moscow; Emil Adelkhanov of Amnesty International's chapter in Tbilisi; Yevgenii Zhovtis of the Human Rights Bureau; and Boris Pustintsev of Citizens' Watch in St. Petersburg. Dzhibladze said that "It's important to note that the more aggressive line of Russia and other CIS countries in the international arena is becoming more evident: at UN meetings, in Strasbourg at the European Parliament, at the Council of Europe, and at OSCE meetings. The general leitmotif is that democratic institutions can be peculiar to a given nation." The CIS declaration in July complained that the OSCE was not taking the "special features" of some countries into account. "This is the classic argument of authoritarian regimes or even dictatorships that, in fact, are suppressing rights and freedoms, saying there are no universal human rights, only special cultural features," said Dzhibladze. "But the people who live in these countries, and whose rights are violated, think the opposite, that human rights standards are universal, and they cannot be a subject of national particularity," he said. ...WITH MIXED REACTIONS FROM GOVERNMENTS. Even five years ago, governments did not openly defy the old Helsinki values, and it seemed a given that Russian and other countries accepted that human rights were a legitimate topic of international meetings. But this consensus has eroded, and civic groups must respond and get all governments to become aware of this connection, says Yuri Dzhibladze of the Center for Development of Democracy and Human Rights. Western governments' intercession on this issue remains vital, say Russian NGOs, because their own government has begun to directly challenge human rights groups and has attempted to co-opt them. "Dialogue is not easy. The channels have become severely limited. We have few opportunities to say these things to the face of our government. But in those opportunities that we have for dialogue with Foreign Ministry, at the Commission on Human Rights, and elsewhere, we will go on raising these issues," Dzhibladze said. Russian NGOs are facing an immediate challenge to their operations with a move in the Duma to pass legislation providing for a state commission that would examine foreign grants and heavily tax those organizations that do not meet official criteria for being "socially useful." NGOs are concerned that the process will become politicized in the current climate, where President Vladimir Putin himself has lashed out at human rights NGOs, claiming they do not represent "the people's interests." Laws severely restricting or barring foreign grants have already been put into place in Belarus and Central Asian countries. Turkmenistan has passed a law not only making it possible for the government to clear and control foreign assistance; NGOs are now being herded under state agencies according to their topic, i.e., women or the environment. In Uzbekistan, in addition to restrictive law, the Legal Aid Society reported that officials want to restrict grant transfers to two state banks, making it easy for the government to tax or obstruct aid from abroad. In Belarus, punitive restrictions on donations to NGOs has caused even Western-government aid programs to pull back their investments. Western diplomats and OSCE staff face an increasing problem of even getting the former Soviet states to the table for talks. Many states send low-level delegations or do not remain present in the human rights conferences after they start. For the fifth straight year, Turkmenistan did not send any representative at all. Some years ago, when a state was criticized by an NGO at the OSCE human rights review meeting, it would hasten to use its "right of reply" to counter criticism and a dialogue, of sorts, would ensue. Now states grossly violating human rights, such as Belarus, have learned that if they leave the room and ignore NGOs there are no consequences. Increasingly, OSCE states do not single out specific countries for mention in their critiques, but attempt to deal in a cooperative manner with cross-border and cross-cutting issues such as trafficking or integration of Roma. While these issues have benefited from greater attention and resources, the core issues of freedom of association and freedom of the media have seen some serious backsliding in recent years, both Western government and NGO delegations reported. The backlash that may come when a country is singled out can be intimidating. The NGO collective appeal met with instant and vehement criticism at the OSCE session from the Russian delegation. "Who are these people? Who authorized them? They represent no one, and some of them do not even live in Russia," complained Anvar Azimov, deputy head of the Department for European Cooperation in the Foreign Ministry, about the signers of the collective appeal. Russian NGOs said on 22 June that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gathered 48 NGOs in his office to discuss how they could "maintain a united front" and "coordinate" statements made at international meetings to "defend Russia's interests" so the country's prestige would not be harmed. Critical human rights groups dealing with issues such as racism and Chechnya were demonstratively not invited. While Russia may prefer not to discuss human rights problems in the country and region at international meetings, NGOs will keep going to them because of the lack of remedies at home. Valentin Gefter, director of the Institute for Human Rights, told "(Un)Civil Societies" that the CIS convention on human rights signed in 1995 did not really exist and states that had greater progress in the area of human rights and democracy within the CIS did not seem keen on pressuring their less-developed neighbors. "Where are the commissions that should be functioning on the basis of this convention? Where is it all?" asked Gefter. NGOs from the CIS would like the OSCE to take on the standards for freedom of association and assembly promoted by the Council of Europe, in guidelines issues or in case law from the European Court of Human Rights, and in the EU's recent guidelines for human rights defenders. But Western diplomats are concerned that if they begin to negotiate these terms with Russia and other CIS states at an inopportune time they will get final texts that are significantly watered down or which undermine progress made at the 1994 Copenhagen meeting within the Helsinki process. In the same way, diplomats tended to play down the July CIS statements in the summer so as not to sharpen the CIS response. "Many of us were surprised at the absence of reaction to this statement on the part of other OSCE countries," Dzhibladze said. Some ambassadors talked to us about how this should be resolved with "dialogue." "Offers for dialogue are a completely inappropriate response," they added. "The principles should be emphasized up front." In two statements to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna in July, the U.S. rejected the charges made by Russia and its allies about any "imbalance" among issues. In his final statement to the OSCE's Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) on 15 October, Ambassador Larry Knapper of the U.S. delegation mentioned the "vigorous statement...in support of the OSCE issued by over 100 NGOs from the OSCE region" and called it "a concrete manifestation of the contribution that civil society can make in all OSCE participating states and to the OSCE as an institution." The Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe issued customized letters to all the heads of state that had signed the July CIS declaration. The letter objected to the characterization of OSCE work as "imbalanced" and also explains that field activities in Eurasia are deployed because these regions "have a poor implementation record on OSCE commitments and have shown only slow progress in democratization." "The vast majority of OSCE stats has made it clear that greater attention to this important component of the OSCE's contribution to Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security does not and must not detract from the unique and vital role that the OSCE, through its field missions and the ODIHR, play in promoting democratization and respect for human rights. The letters recall the 1991 Moscow concluding document at the Helsinki meeting of the era, which was a human-dimension conference energized by the defeat of the Russian coup, stated: "[The participating states] categorically and irrevocably declare that the commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension of the CSCE are matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating states and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the state concerned." OSCE has been an attractive venue for NGOs precisely because they could sit at the table with governments and speak in lists that alternate between NGO and government interventions, unlike the UN, where they sometimes find themselves lumped together in a group with no listeners. Now they are finding their governments at the OSCE are not listening. Some participants have suggested moving the meeting to a CIS capital, closer to where human rights violations occur and away from comfortable Western capitals and new NATO members like Poland, in order to shine the spotlight on the remaining difficulties in the transition to democracy throughout Eurasia. NGOs from the host country and region might find it more accessible to attend, and government officials might be more likely to attend a meeting in their homeland or region and participate more attentively. Some governments have objected to moving the conference to sites where facilities like faxes, e-mails, and good hotels might be scarce or virtually nonexistent. But some are concerned that holding the meeting in the region might decrease access to them. "Colleagues from countries with poor human rights records worry and fear that holding OSCE meetings in Central Asia could give more legitimacy to the actions of these governments," Dzhibladze said. More restrictive countries will not let in half the NGOs that are now able to enter Poland. They may identify NGOs that are more critical of their human rights behavior and deny them visas. This will require pressure to be mounted by the chair-in-office and other institutions of the OSCE and member states, and add to the headaches in preparation for these meetings The NGOs are calling for special attention to be given to the problem of freedom of association, NGO registration, and the rights of NGOs in the face of state repression and attempts to co-opt them. They would like to see either a seminar devoted to the topic among the menu of follow-up seminars organized by the chair-in-office, which will be Slovenia in 2005, or else regional conferences on the subject organized by OSCE's Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. (Compiled by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick) From the conflict zone. Bulletin of human rights center "Memorial" SEPTEMBER 2004 (the issue prepared by HRC "Memorial" in Nazran) Dear colleagues, Human Rights Center "Memorial" in Nazran offers its ensuing information bulletin based on the results of monitoring the human rights situation in the Chechen and Ingush Republics and Republic North Ossetia-Alania. Your questions and comments, please, send to: 386100 Republic Ingushetia, Nazran, Mutalieva, 46 Human Rights Centre "Memorial" e-mail: memorial@southnet.ru phone/fax + 7 (8732 ) 22 23 49 I. Beslan: the Hostage-Taking at the School On 1, 2 and 3 September 2004 monitors of the Human Rights Centre "˜Memorial"™ were present in Beslan (Republic of North Ossetia-Alania).  The following is short version of their account based on observations and interviews of the released hostages On the morning of 1 September 2004 at School â„–1 in Beslan the parade to celebrate Learning Day was due to take place at 10 a.m. The pupils and their families gathered in the yard to await the start of the ceremony. Everyone was in festive mood, thus, when armed masked men burst into the schoolyard many at first thought that it was a prize-draw, and assumed the shooting was the sound of bursting balloons.  When it became clear within a few minutes that this was no joke, the parents and children attempted to flee.  Some managed to escape, but the majority were herded into the school building by the terrorists. The terrorists allocated the hostages around the school buildings in the gym and the classrooms. The bulk of the children and their parents were in the gym.  So many people were herded in there that everyone had to sit on the wooden floor with their legs drawn in, 3-4 persons per square meter.  It was not possible to lie down or move around the hall. During the first 24 hours the hostages were allowed to drink.  Household buckets for washing the floor were filled with water from the tap and enamel mugs were used to allow the children to drink. On the Thursday and the Friday water was not allowed.  According to several of those questioned, the children were made to urinate on their clothes and suck the urine.  Alan Tsgoev related to "Memorial" monitors that he ate the leaves of a houseplant which happened to be nearby. As it was very hot and stuffy in the gym almost all the children were made to undress down to their underclothes.  According to Zemfira Hodova, who was released on 2 September, on the first day the gunmen did not mistreat the hostages.  Towards the end of the second day they began to get noticeably more nervous, and were shouting and shooting into the air. Information differs regarding the total number of terrorists who seized the school.  The hostages gave figures ranging from 16 to 40.  There were two women amongst them (all those questioned confirmed that there were two), dressed in dark long dresses with " belts of shakhid". According to one of the female hostages, the women looked very young "“ 17 or 18 years old.  Some of the men hid their faces with masks.  According to the released hostages, the terrorists were of various ethnic origins included Ingush, Chechens, Ossetians and Russians.  The gym was usually guarded by 2 or 3 people, while the remaining terrorists were in other parts of the school. According to the hostages, the gym was mined around its entire edge. Explosive devices were attached to wires slung across the entire length of the hall from one basketball goal to the other. The terrorists virtually did not communicate with the hostages.  This was extremely stressful for the adults: they had no idea what demands had been made, were unable to calculate the chances of a positive outcome to the negotiations "“ their fate was being decided independently of them. *** Meanwhile the relatives of the hostages were gathered on the square by the town Palace of Culture, approximately 300 metres from School â„–1. Throughout 1 September and during the day of 2 September the relatives were generally calm. The Head of the Analysis and Information Department of the Administration of the President of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Lev Dzugayev would periodically come out to talk to them and report on the latest situation.  During each announcement he underlined that the use of force to resolve the situation had been excluded and that the army staff would negotiate with the terrorists.  The majority of those people questioned that day felt certain that the Government would do everything to save the children, and avoid storming the school. The situation began to heat up towards the evening of 2 September . Dzugayev's announcements became fewer and contained less information. It became apparent that the negotiations with the terrorists were not having the required effect, and those in power were not prepared to carry out the terrorists"™ demands. The first widespread outburst of emotions came soon after the release of the group of hostages on 2 September.  When the representatives of the army staff read out the names of those released, some of those whose children were not in the lists, began to get hysterical.  Everyone, including the men, were crying.  From this point on the tension only grew. Towards the evening of 2 September groups of men in civilian clothes began to gather in the vicinity of the Palace of Culture.  Some of them were armed.  At around 10 p.m. some representatives of the North Ossetia governing structures and some local men put on white gauze armbands.  When Memorial monitors asked "what are the armbands for?", two civilians in camouflage uniform without identifying marks (judging by their accent, they were of South Ossetian origin) replied: "We are fighters.  The armbands are to be sure of seeing each other".  "Is the school going to be stormed?", we asked.  "Not until our commander gives the word". By 11 p.m. on 2 September the power structures had reinforced their positions around the school.  Armoured troop carriers were on nearby streets around the school perimeter and tanks had been moved into position near the railway lines.  However during the evening and the night nothing happened. On 3 September at 6.20 "“ 6.30 a.m. shots from a grenade launcher could be heard coming from the school. At 11 a.m. the President of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania Alexander Dzasohov, spoke to the relatives gathered in the Palace of Culture.  He said that they would not storm the school. At approximately 1 p.m. chaotic shooting started and explosions could be heard in the vicinity of the school.  Very soon the first hostages appeared. The children were running out of the school, the locals began taking them home and the injured to hospital.  There were not enough ambulances.  The injured were put into private cars.  At first the corpses were also being sent to the hospitals, later those who had been killed were laid out on the streets, near the back entrance to the school.  Amongst the corpses we saw only women and children.  There were many armed men in civilian clothes milling about. After 3 p.m. the shooting began to die down.  Several people, identified as "terrorists", were brought out of the school.  One of them, who had already been wounded, was beaten to death by the crowd. Another injured man was set upon by the crowd but managed to convince his attackers that he was not a terrorist.  Journalists tried to photograph this episode.  They were also set upon by the incensed people, and some were slightly injured.  Not far from the Palace of Culture a soldier was struck in the face by a man. The main part of the operation was over by 6 p.m.  Relatives went to look for their children at the Beslan Town Hospital.  On the walls of the hospital blocks were lists of names of those hostages who had been taken to the various hospitals in Vladikavkaz. 2. Demonstrations Condemning Terror in Ingushetia and Chechnya On September 3-4, in the towns of Grozny, Nazran, Gudermes and Urus-Martan took place demonstrations of solidarity with the victims of Beslan, condemning the terrorist act in the school. Apart from regular citizens representatives of authorities and religious leadership were present at the events. The speakers at the demonstration condemned hostage taking in Beslan and emphasized that such horrendous acts had no justification. Official letters of support were adopted to the Ossetian people, to hostages, their relatives and friends. 3. The Situation in Prigorodny District of North Osetia after the Tragedy in Beslan After the terrorist act in Beslan the situation in Prigorodny district of North Osetia, the area of residence of a significant Ingush minority, became very tense. The tensions were caused by two major factors - the actively circulated  rumors that the hostage taking was carried out primarily by the Ingushis and the history of unresolved ethnic hostility  between the Ingush and the  Osetian peoples. The gossips that terrorists, taking the hostages in school, were Ingushis appeared the very first day. Besides, it was speculated that weapons for fighters had been brought into the school by a team of construction workers "“ ethnic Ingushis, who carried out construction works on the premises. The authorities did not try to curb these dangerous and false talks. The Russian press, not infrequently encouraged anti-Ingush sentiments by reproducing anti-Ingush stereotypes (see for example: Moskovsky Komsomolets, October 8, "Proklyatye voprosy Beslana") The tragedy in Beslan intensified already existing problems - the unresolved ethnic conflict of 1992.  In the fall of 1992 in Prigorodny district of North Osetia-Alania broke out a short but very ferocious armed conflict between the Ingushis and the Osetians. According to different estimates 35-60, 000 Ingush were expelled from their historic homeland in Prigorodny district of North Osetia-Alania and the capital city of Vladikavkaz; the majority of them fled to the neighboring Ingushetia. The process of return was very difficult and long, and the political cause of the conflict "“ the territorial dispute "“ had not been tackled.  The relatives of the victims in Beslan decided that their first enemies were the Ingushis and threatened Ingushis with revenge. Naturally, this created the atmosphere of intense tension in Prigorodny district and in Vladikavkaz. Schools in the villages of mixed settlement started the academic year 13 days later- on September 13. "The first academic quarter  was ruined,"- said the deputy principle of school # 2 Barzieva Zhimsari: "the parents would not let children go to school". "We were turned into enemies, this is hard and painful. For the Ingushis child murder is the worst possible crime. We have the cult of children, we live for the family continuation, for our off springs. Those who took hostage in Beslan are not Ingushis. They have no right to call themselves Ingushis, -" said the teacher of physics, Gardanov Khamzat. The students of Ingush and Chechen nationalities studying in Vladikavkaz were asked to take academic leave. Totally there were over 300 students of Chechen and Ingush nationality in Ossetia. Ten days after the tragedy in Beslan the administrative border of Ingushetia and Osetia was closed. The last days of September, the checkpoint KPP "“105 functioned as usual. II. The Situation in the Chechen Republic and Republic Ingushetia: September 2004 1. Statistics According to the data of HRC "Memorial" (We are able to carry out monitoring over a limited territory, 25-30 % of Chechnya, thus, the data below is incomplete) in September 2004: 1.Killed:  11 persons (10 civilians, 1 repres. of power agencies) 2. Kidnapped: 11 persons subsequently  set free or released for ransom "“  6 subsequently killed "“  2 went missing "“3 NB! Due to the specificity of human rights monitoring in the Chechen Republic, it is important to take into consideration the fact that data for the two most recent months are usually incomplete and then updated the following months. Therefore, unfortunately, the figures for murdered and disappeared in September 2004 are likely to grow. 2. From the "Chronicle of Violence" Ingushetia On September 3 at about 4 a.m. in the village Troitskaya, Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia unidentified representatives of federal power agencies in masks kidnapped and drove into unknown direction Masuev family: Masuev Turko, born 1931, his wife, Masueva Zama, born 1944, their daughters: Kulsum, 1969, Petman, 1972, Khavu, 1976 and their younger son Badrudi, 1978. The servicemen arrived at dawn by two armed personnel carriers (one of them had registration number 041), by two trucks "Ural" and two "Niva" cars. Many of them were in masks, spoke unaccented Russian. Those with unmasked faces were of Slavic nationality. Having blocked the household of Masuev family, the military servicemen broke into the yard. They entered the premises and demanded that everyone who was at home, quickly packed and got ready to leave. No search was carried out in houses. Then the column with the kidnapped turned from Sovetskaya street to the so-called inner highway, connecting Nazran and Ordzonikidzevskaya. Subsequently, it turned out that the family was taken to the Russian military base at Khankala. Until 1999 the Masuev family lived in the village Kharseboj, Shatoj district of Chechnya and moved to Ingushetia after the beginning of the military campaign. Since then, Masuevs had remained in Troitskaya, renting apartments. According to the relatives and neighbors, Turko Masuev was a very religious man, knew Koran and was a respected religious authority. Both Mansuev daughters were doing small business "“ Kusum fried and sold seeds, Khavu baked bread for sale.  Their son Badrudi was a  worker in a private carpenter workshop. Chechnya On September 4, at 11: 30 in Grozny, unidentified armed persons detained and carried into unknown Saiev Idris, 22 years old, resident of Admirala Makarova street. Market vendors eye-witnessed the detainment. They explained that Idris was kidnapped by a group of armed men in camouflage uniform. The kidnappers, ethnic Chechens, arrived at the bus stop where Saiev was standing by two Zhiguli cars (7 and 9 model) and without explanations forced him into one of the cars and drove in the unknown directions. On the fact of kidnapping the father of Idris, Saiev Turpal, filed a complaint to ROVD of Oktyabr"™sky district. On September 6, the body of Saiev Idris with the marks of violent death was found near the destroyed building of Chechen State University at Sheripova street.  After the identification the relatives buried the body at the family cemetery in Chechen Aul. According to Saiev, the body of Idris had marks of torture by electricity, his left hand and left arm were broken, the back of his skull was smashed and there was a aperture from shot in the head. The family claims that Idris spent three last years in Cherkessk, and came to Chechnya with relatives for vacation. On September 8, militiamen found two corpses with marks of violent death and gun shot injuries between the villages Geldagan and Avtury. After careful examination of bodies and interrogation of the local residents, the identity of the killed persons was established, as well as the circumstances of their death. The murdered were Amuev Khasan, 36 y.o., resident of village Dzugurty, Kurchaloy district of Chechnya and Mezhidov Musa, the resident of Shali. Both were kidnapped by "kadyrovtsy" in Grozny in August 2004. Amuev Khasan participated in the first Chechen war, being part of the presidential guard. Allegedly, he also participated in Chechen armed formations during the second war. There is no data about Mezhodov"™s past. He was much younger than Amuev, and was allegedly a fighter as well. After the kidnapping, Mezhidov and Amuev were delivered to one of the bases of "kadyrovtsy" in the village of Geldagan. After interrogation under torture "kadyrovtsy" shot these men dead. On September 11, at 5: 10 p.m. at the federal highway "Kavkaz", at the cross section of Assinovskaja village and Servovodsk, a group of unidentified  men in masks, dressed in black uniform, shot dead three residents of Assinovskaya: 1. Vitaev Alikhan, born 1980 2. Machiev Anzor, born 1981 3. Chergizov, age unknown According to eye-witnesses, shortly before the accident the highway at the crossroad was blocked by several cars (VAZ 21099, VAZ 21021- NIVA). In the cars were armed men in masks, dressed in black military uniform. At about 5:10 from the direction of Grozny, a car VAZ-2106 with Viataev, Machiev and Chergizov arrived. Unidentified persons came out of their cars and ordered the car to stop. The car did not stop, then the unidentified persons opened fire. The car drove into the  trench. The unidentified  persons ran up to the car, dragged two persons out, shot several times from machine guns, then made control shots in the head. After that they leisurely returned to their cars and left. The eye-witnesses suspect that the unidentified persons were representatives of the Kadyrov Security Service. The co-villages have different opinions about the victims. Many suspect them of criminal activity, however, all agree that Vitaev,  Machiev, Chergizov had nothing to do with Chechen armed resistance. On September 12 in the town of Argun unidentified armed persons in masks kidnapped Sadullaeva Khalimat, born 1967, resident of Novaja street, 31, the mother of four children. According to Khalimat"™s mother at dawn they were woken up  by some noise. Having looked out of the widow she saw military persons in masks. The armed persons arrived by a mini-van "Gazel" and cars "YAZ-21099" (Zhiguli, 99). Tamara learnt about her daughter"™s detainment from her grandchildren. The military servicemen, speaking unaccented Russian, came into the house and ordered everyone to gather in one room. One of them pointed at Khalimat"™ s sister and asked his colleague "Is it her?" Having got a negative response he pointed at Khalimat. The colleague nodded and the military servicemen took Khalimat outside. The next day the relatives of Sajdulaeva turned to ROVD, commandant office and prosecution. However, the representatives of law enforcement agencies did nothing to help. According to the relatives, Khalimat was a housewife, bringing up children, the youngest of whom was 8 y. o. Earlier Khalimat lived in house # 26 at Gagarina street, which burnt down on June 28, 2004 during armed clash between Chechen fighters and federal military servicemen. The relatives of Khalimat think that the military servicemen could have suspected Khalimat to having had connections with fighters. "Memorial" also received notification that at the same time, in Argun was kidnapped  another woman. Its only known that her name was Myalkh-azij and that she was a vendor at the market. Apart from this in mid September in the market was kidnapped Arsamikov Aslan, resident of Vygonnaja street 5/a. Aslan was selling  gasoline at the market. In the local administration of Argun  "Memorial" monitors were told that Arsamikov and Myalkh-azni were released and safely returned home. However, the residents of Argun, invalidated this information. At night of September 16, in the village of Kotar-Yurt, Achkhoi-Martanovsky district of Chechnya, 20-25 unidentified armed persons in camouflage uniform and in masks, arrived by APC without registration numbers and two mini-vans "Gazel", entered the house N 25, located at Pervomajskaya street. Threatening with guns the unidentified men kidnapped Mukaev Kh.M., born 1978, and drove him in the unknown direction. During detainment one of the servicemen hit with gun butt Mukaeva M, born 1920, who tried to prevent the detainment.  Mukaeva M. died. On September 22, at about 11 p.m. in the village Kotar-Yurt, Achhoi-Martanovsky district was killed Zajpulaev Isa, the captain of local militia, born 1956. Zaipulaev Isa was shot dead at the moment when he was entering his yard. The assaulters shot from the side of the nearby vegetable garden. On September 23, in the village Starye Atagi, Groznensky district of Chechnya, the personnel of local ROVD, together with "kadyrovtsy" and the personnel of republican OMON carried out a special operation for checking the passport regime. In the operation were used "YAZ" and "URAL" cars and several "Zhiguli" cars (model 99, Niva). Since early morning, the local militiamen put out checkpoints at the roads. Several groups were carrying out door-to-door check ups in the private sector.   The  servicemen who carried out the operation did not hide their faces under masks, they hardly ever presented their identity, often behaved impolitely, in some cases were openly rude. All men, whom they considered suspicious were taken by cars to the outskirts of Mesker-Yurt, where was organized the headquarter of the operation. Totally, 8 men were detained: 1. Maaev Alvi 2.  Bakaev Isa 3.  Sugaipov Said Khusein 4.  Astamirov Ramzan 5.  Kataev Gelani 6.  Kagirov Vakha 7. Abdulkhadzhiev Abu-Khasan 8. Galaev Apti Three of the detained (Kagirov, Astamirov and Bakaev) were beaten. Thus, Kagirov Vakha, representative of Shatojsky ROVD got a brain concussion, several of his ribs had been broken. At 4 p.m. the operation was over and all the detained were released. On September 30, 300 meters of village Zhaglargy, Kurchaloy district of Chechnya, North side of the road was found a corpse of Dzabrailov Musa, with the marks of violence (broken skull, numerous bone fractures). The corpses already started to decompose. Subsequently, two "TT" machinegun bullets were taken out of the corpse, calibre 5,45. Musa was detained in July 2004 in Gudermes, by  representatives of traffic police. Subsequently he was transferred to the prison of Tsentaroy village. IV. Armed Clashes Between the Federal Servicemen and the Chechen Fighters On September 23, at 7 p.m. a groups of fighters entered the village Majrtup, Kurchaloy district of Chechnya. The unit numbered about 200 persons. At the entrance to the village, at the southern outskirts, the combatants subjected to fire an YAZ car, with three Russian military servicemen. All the three of them were killed. In the village itself was a short fight in the house of Salmanov family. In the crossfire were killed Salmanov Baj-Ali, 40 years old, his nephew Salmanov Baddrudi, 18 years old, was injured a physically disabled man - Salmanov Ruslan, 32 years old The choice of Salmanov house  was not accidental. In November 2002, this house was visited by two Chechens, Ousman Dzabokhanov from Kurchaloy and a man named Imran. They came to collect money, which Salmanov Lemi owed them for a KAMAZ truck, which he bought from them. Lemi, who worked in ROSH at the Russian  military base in Khankala, refused to pay the debt and killed both men. According to the residents of Majrtup, the group of fighters, which attacked the Salmanov house was led by the brother of one of the killed men - Imran. Lemi Salmanov was not at home, so they killed his close relatives. Before retreat, the fighters kidnapped two local residents, Aliev, 27 y.o., resident of Nuradilova street and Akbulatov, resident of Sheripova street. On September 23, at 8: 15 p.m. a unit of Chechen combatants numbering about 300 entered the village Alleroj, Kurchaloy district of Chechnya. In the village the fighters divided into several groups. One of them surrounded the headquarters of Kadyrov Security Service. However, they did not attempt to enter inside and shot into the air. In the meantime, a Volga car left the territory of the headquarters. The fighters stopped the car, pooled the driver out and burnt the car. The driver was set free. Another group of fighters, headed by Akhmet Avdarkhanov, entered the yard of Sulejman Abuev, the commander of local Kadyrov security service. In the house was the elderly mother of Sulejman. Avdorkhanov announced that he would  burn the house of house of her son, since he is a "munafik" (the traitor of faith). In the yard of Sulejman were two houses, the combatants burnt one of them, leaving the other for the family "to have a roof above their heads". At 11 p.m. a helicopter started to circle around the village. The fighters opened fire of gun machine and the helicopter left.  Serious clashes did not take place. The fighters were walking freely around the village, did shopping, paid for their purchases. Then was hazardous shooting every now and then. Allegedly, a 13 year old girl was wounded. Closer to midnight, the fighters left. In the morning of September 25, "kadyrovtsy" came to the village. They were very aggressive, and threatened to reduce the village to rubble. In revenge "kadyrovtsy" burnt several houses of fighters"™ relatives, e.g. the house of Nasurov Khas-Magomed and Dalkhadov Ruslan (kidnapped and beaten to death by "kadyrovtsy" in spring 2004). Totally 9 houses were burnt in Alleroy in two days. On September 23, a unit of Chechen fighters numbering over 100 persons entered the village of Avtury, Shalinsky district of Chechnya, and burnt the building of local administration.  The village was subjected to fire from the helicopter, one civilian was killed. No data concerning the losses of fighters has been available. At about midnight the unit freely left the village. For full version of the "Chronicle of Violence" for June 2004 in Russian, please, consult our web site at http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/rubr/2/index.htm V.  Demonstrations of Protest against Pardoning of Colonel Budanov On September 21, a demonstration against pardoning of colonel Budanov took place  in the center of Grozny. The demonstration was organized by students of Chechen universities and high schools. The students were holding slogans "No pardon to the rapist and murderer" , "Chechen youth is against pardoning of murderer  Budanov" etc. Most of the speakers noted that pardoning of colonel Budanov, one of a handful federal servicemen ever brought to justice for abuse against Chechen civilians, will be another precedent of impunity for those, who commit crimes against civilians in Chechnya and prove that war criminals find support and justification with Russian civilians an authorities. Students composed a letter to President Putin, which emphasized  that pardoning Budanov would destroy the fragile trust of the Chechen people to the Russian judicial system. __________________________________________ Joachim Frank, Project Coordinator International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Wickenburggasse 14/7 A-1080 Vienna Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 22 Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50 Web: http://www.ihf-hr.org ______________________________________ Wednesday, November 3, 2004. Page 1. The Moscow Times Kremlin Moves to Keep Rebels Offline By Timur Aliev and Nabi Abdullaev Special to The Moscow Times NAZRAN, Ingushetia -- When authorities shut down his small Internet cafe, Rustam Aldaganov did not buy their explanation that he lacked a license. "They shut us down because it is impossible to control who sends what from an Internet cafe," Aldaganov said. "The FSB does not like the idea of anyone coming in, sending an e- mail and leaving," he said. "It is impossible to trace the identity of the sender." Authorities closed all Internet cafes in Ingushetia in August, and a Federal Security Service officer confirmed that the action was indeed an attempt to prevent anonymous Internet use in the restless region. The crackdown is one of the latest steps to further isolate separatists by cutting off their access to information outlets in a drive that appears to be bearing fruit: Five years after the start of the second Chechen war, the Kremlin has managed to squash almost all of the separatists' information outlets. Moscow has apparently learned its lesson in information warfare by not allowing a repeat of what happened during the first Chechen war in 1994-96, when rebel Information Minister Movladi Udugov was a major newsmaker on national television and in the press. Now, interviews with separatists are banned from television, and most Russian newspapers refuse to make room for them. While separatists are often interviewed and quoted in the foreign press, their primary target audience -- the Russian public -- remains largely out of reach. Separatists until this year secretly published their own newspapers, including Ichkeria (the rebel name for Chechnya), Kinzhal (Dagger) and Mehk-Khel (Council of Elders), and distributed them within Chechnya. But they closed the newspapers in January, apparently because readership was too small and their efforts to build support were not paying off. Moscow's tight control over information flows has allowed President Vladimir Putin to adopt harsh policies on Chechnya with minimal criticism in Russia and abroad. How the information war is planned and whether it is carried out in coordination with other anti-terror efforts are unclear. No government media officials or media figures are members of the top anti-terror policymaking agency, the Federal Anti-Terrorist Commission, which is headed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and includes representatives of almost all government agencies. As indicated in the Ingush crackdown, the government is now going after the last and most independent media outlet used by separatists to disseminate information in the Russian language -- the Internet. The campaign is being carried out through diplomatic efforts to force the closure of rebel web sites hosted abroad and by making it much more difficult for rebel media correspondents to send information without being tracked down. About four years ago, there were dozens of radical Chechen web sites and mirror sites, but for now only three remain -- all located outside Russia. A server in Georgia hosts Chechenpress.com, which positions itself as the official web site of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, while Azerbaijan is home for the web sites Daymokh.info and Kavkazsky Vestnik (kvestnik.org). The most controversial rebel site, Udugov's Kavkazcenter.com, is currently offline after being shut down by Finland. Until mid- September, when the site published warlord Shamil Basayev's claim of responsibility for the Beslan school attack, its server was kept in the Lithuanian apartment of the head of the local Helsinki Watch human rights group, Viktoras Petkus. Lithuania pulled the plug on the site after Moscow complained. The site resurfaced soon after in Finland, but was online for only a day before Finnish authorities closed it on Oct. 12 amid Russian protests. Basayev, the web site's main newsmaker, turned to Maskhadov's Chechenpress.com over the weekend to post a lengthy interview threatening attacks against Russian civilians and foreigners whose countries support the Kremlin's actions in Chechnya. Chechenpress.com said it had passed over the questions for the interview on behalf of Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. Maskhadov envoy Akhmed Zakayev disavowed the remarks Monday, saying Basayev was "naive" to think that terrorist attacks would force a political solution in Chechnya. Several times, Russian hackers have mounted cyber attacks against rebel web servers, forcing them to shut down temporarily. Rebel web administrators have usually blamed the FSB for the attacks. Internet cafes in Ingushetia -- a republic heavily infiltrated by anti-government insurgents, as evidenced by a spate of deadly attacks there this year -- were closed because rebel correspondents could use them anonymously, an FSB officer in the North Caucasus said on condition of anonymity. There are also indications that the FSB is monitoring home and office Internet users in the area. "Recently, not all e-mails have been reaching us and not all the ones we sent are being delivered. And the Internet has become noticeably slower," said Taisa Isayeva, head of the Council of Nongovernmental Organizations in Ingushetia, a group critical of federal tactics in Chechnya. The FSB took control over all Internet lines in Ingushetia in mid- August, said Ibragim Albakov, a representative of a local Internet provider, Telecom. The FSB and police are allowed to secretly tap private electronic communication under a security task force called SORM. However, none of Ingushetia's three Internet providers feels threatened. "There is no sense in putting us down," Magomed Sultygov, a representative of ITT, a provider. "The home addresses of all our clients are registered in our databases. If any of them sends something from his IP address, it will be easy to trace him." Staff Writer Nabi Abdullaev reported from Moscow. Wednesday, November 3, 2004. Page 3. The MOscow Times Bill Allows Police to Break Law By Oksana Yablokova Staff Writer The Prosecutor General's Office has drafted a controversial bill offering police officers immunity from prosecution if they break the law while working undercover in criminal gangs or in sting operations. The bill, which has yet to be submitted to the State Duma, is an amendment to a law regulating the operational and investigative activities of law enforcement and security agencies. The bill applies to police detectives who may have to buy drugs or weapons from suspected dealers to catch them red-handed, Gazeta reported Tuesday. "Such situations occur very often in the everyday work of law enforcers, and all security and law enforcement agencies have called for the law to be amended," said Gennady Gudkov, a Duma deputy with the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and a former security officer. Similar laws exist in the West, Gudkov said by telephone Tuesday. Police detectives already buy drugs and weapons in sting operations that are usually videotaped, but technically their actions are illegal. To avoid prosecution, detectives are required to prove the need to break the law in court. The bill also seeks to make it easier for police detectives to entrap suspects in criminal gangs by allowing them, among other things, to steal and transport weapons or drugs. The proposal was announced Friday by Deputy Prosecutor Vladimir Kolesnikov, Gazeta reported. A spokeswoman from the Prosecutor General's Office would not comment on the bill. If adopted, the legislation could open the way for police abuse. Police are notoriously known for such practices as planting drugs and guns to blackmail people or to make false arrests to flatter their statistics. The Interior Ministry has busted several groups of police officers on suspicion of running extortion rings over the past year. "If this amendment is adopted, measures of strict control over these crimes should be established as well. Otherwise, things could descend into chaos, especially in this country," Gudkov said. The Prosecutor General's Office presented another controversial proposal Friday. Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov proposed a bill allowing authorities to detain terrorists' relatives in the event of a hostage crisis and use them as a negotiating tool. Some deputies denounced the proposal as inappropriate and unconstitutional. The Chechen Times 2.11.2004 What happened in Baku? Judging by conflicting reports, we only know that from October 14 through October 16 houses of Chechen refugees in Baku were raided. Some reports say these arrests were “not massive,” “only those suspected of grave crimes” were detained, they were “treated politely,” the raiders “wore no masks” and in general “Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan are in good graces.” This is the opinion of Vakha Tourpukhanov, a representative of “the Chechen Representation.” Even without any further information the following questions arise. 1. Why were “those suspected of committing grave crimes” pick out by the ethnic criteria? Recognizing “an inborn bent” of Chechens for robbery?! Thus, there are reasons to investigate what happened – charging the Azerbaijan authorities with a racist (ethnically biased) approach to criminal phenomena. 2. What is “a favorable” attitude towards Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan, if in accordance with numerous reports received previously they are in fact deprived of the possibility to find a job and are left to the mercy of fate? At the same time, there reports of different sorts. Below is a letter received from a former inmate of a Russian prison. He did not fight, he even did not support the Resistance. He was arrested three years ago on the way to classes at the Grozny University. Now he is dragging out a miserable existence in Baku… “Armed people arrived in the apartment where I stay, with undue familiarity, at night they frightened all the children, my wife and me. When our neighbors began panicking, they left. And today they came again. fortunately, I survived, they seized my documents and told my wife my whereabouts, I am shocked, I am afraid for my life. Later I found out a general check up of the Chechens staying in Azerbaijan had began. It seems 13 people were seized, there are rumors they can be extradited to Russia. I do not live at home, I sleep outside… My wife is frightened, she cannot stand up. I beg you, write, call, do anything you can! I cannot understand what I did wrong? I did nothing wrong.” We shall add that the man is still under surveillance. When he came to meet a lawyer at the Baku UNHCR office he was told: “You have nothing to be afraid of, the necessary number of Chechens has been taken.” (!!!) I think, we shall await further development of the events. But even today the main point is clear: Chechen refugees in Baku do not feel themselves relatively safe. This must be a signal for all the international organizations dealing with refugees: the resettlement of Chechen refugees to more safe countries must be sped up. Below is an article about the situation of Chechen refugees in Baku – by Akhmad Khacharoyevsky. The shame of Azerbaijan Sometimes in Azerbaijan Chechens are being reminded of early 90’s, when D. Dudayev was in power, when trains heading to Azerbaijan were robbed. If these facts took place, with FSB behind them, there were few Chechens among those robbers. At the same time no one in Azerbaijan wants to remember that during D. Dudayev’s presidency Chechens gave shelter to hundreds of Azerbaijani refugees from Karabagh. They were accommodated for free in dormitories, hotels, apartments in Grozny, also they were offered free meals. Later refugees from Karabagh were offered jobs at a farm in one of the districts of the Chechen Republic. From the beginning of the war in 1999, no more than 10,000 Chechen refugees flooded to Azerbaijan. They live in much worse conditions. In Azerbaijan Chechen refugees pay for housing per day as much as Azerbaijani citizens pay for the whole month. A month rent for Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan is approximately 5fold higher than an average wage in Azerbaijan! It is noteworthy than the only source of income for Chechen refugees – is an allowance of $60-$100 for three months, depending on the number of family members – with three-month-long interruptions from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, maximum for 500 people. At the same time, judging by the UN data, the number of Chechen refugees is at least 10fild higher. But even these 500 people can pay only for housing with this money. The families which receive no money must survive on their own, leave or die. Chechen refugees can hardly find a job in Azerbaijan. Over the recent five years, those who have failed to move to a third country returned to die to Chechnya. During this time about 100 Chechen newborns have died in Azerbaijan from cold. Over the recent five years Chechens have committed no terrorist act or an organized crime in Azerbaijan. No Azerbaijanis have been killed by Chechens, whereas many Chechens have died from the hand of locals. However, the fear before Russia turned out to be stronger in Azerbaijan than the feeling of gratitude. Even though in Russia xenophobia is more aimed at Azerbaijanis than Chechens. At Moscow metro stations we can often see the following sign: “Azeris out from Russia!” Shortly before the meeting of the two presidents, I. Aliyev and V. Putin in Moscow, local law enforcement bodies raided the apartments where Chechens stayed in Baku and detained them. The detainees, including women, as of October 14, have remained in custody, the authorities are trying to charge them with terrorism. And the most surprising thing is that the beginning of these actions coincided with the beginning of Ramadan when believers are to show an overall forgiveness. This is the shame of Azerbaijan. According to an eyewitness, law enforcers planted live cartridges on the Chechen detainees to make their cases desperate. This is how international terrorism is being fought. No comment! Sometimes residents of the post-Soviet space, including Azerbaijan, remember the old times with nostalgia. But they do not want to notice what is happening in today’s Russia. Fighting against the USSR’s successor – Russia, Chechens bleed and protect not only their freedom, but freedom of all the former Soviet republics. If Chechens give up their struggle, the mad armada of the Russian military is likely to move south and then Azerbaijan will lose its sovereignty. Azerbaijan’s sovereignty depends directly on the firmness of the Chechen Resistance. There have been no voluntary accessions to Russia. 21.10.2004 Akhmad Khacharoyevsky Nadezhda Banchik http://www.chechentimes.org/en/comments/?id=23082 Chechnya's Dubious Land Mine Title WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2003 More people were killed by land mines during the continuing conflict in Chechnya last year than anywhere else in the world, a watchdog group said Tuesday. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, reported that 5,695 people were killed by land mines in Chechnya in 2002, more than double the 2,140 casualties a year earlier. The group said Russian troops and Chechen rebels both use mines in the breakaway Russian region. “Fighting, replete with massive violations of human rights and laws of war, including widespread use of mines by both sides, continues,” the group said. (*) At the same time, a massive mine-clearing effort in Afghanistan is having the desired effect, lowering the toll from mines from 1,445 in 2001 to 1,286 last year, still the world's second-deadliest toll. About $64 million was spent last year on mine-clearing operations, four times greater than in 2001, after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government. Nine of the world's 15 current land mine producers are in Asia: China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam. Nepal was added to the list this year after the government in Katmandu admitted producing mines. The group said that as of July 31, 134 countries, including Afghanistan, had ratified a treaty to ban land mines. The agreement awaits ratification in another 13. The United States, Russia and China are among the 47 countries that have yet to sign the treaty. The Bush administration is reviewing the U.S. policy toward land mines. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines said the administration had stockpiled mines to use in the recent Iraq war but did not deploy them. Six governments used land mines in 2002, down from nine in 2001 and 13 in 2000, the group said. This year, only two countries — Myanmar and Russia — continued to use mines on a regular basis, the group said. The number of deaths in Myanmar, also known as Burma, doubled from 57 in 2001 to 114 in 2002. The Myanmar military has been accused of forcing people to walk in front of patrols in suspected minefields, so-called atrocity demining. The report found that 11,700 people around the world were reported killed by mines last year, including 2,649 children and 192 women. The advocacy group said the actual total is higher because civilians are killed in areas with no help and no way to communicate, so their deaths are not reported. The Associated Press. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Comment by N.S.: The report (if quoted correctly) forgets that the Chechen side doesn't carpet the entire country with mines from the air as the Russia side does, but actually uses recycled and adapted Russian mines for attacks on military targets, not the civilian population. N.S. Car bomb goes off in Dagestan 03.11.2004, 11.00 MAKHACHKALA, November 3 (Itar-Tass) - A man killed by a car explosion in Dagestan on Tuesday evening could be a member of an armed group, a police spokesman told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. A half-burned passport of Aslanbek Askhabov was found at the site of the explosion. Operational information suggests that a 28-year-old native of Chechnya's village of Novogroznenskoye was a gang member, follower of Wahhabism and a fugitive of law. Police are investigating whether the dead man was really Askhabov. A bomb went off at a car park in Makhachkala, killing one and injuring a 41-year-old man and a ten-year-old boy. The explosion caused a fire that destroyed ten cars and damaged 20. A criminal case has been opened and the investigation begun. 3.11.2004 Attacks on Families in Chechnya CHECHNYA, Grozny. (ORChD). On November 30th, at 4 o'clock in the morning, in the center of the Shelkovskaya region ,representatives of the federal power structure arrived in three armored troop-carriers, and abducted seven members of a family of Aleyev residents ranging in age from 13 up to 71 years. On October 30th, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, in the Tsotsin-Jurt village of the Kurchaloevskogo region, nine unidentified armed people abducted four local residents: 50-year-old Axaev, his wife Hadizhat and their two sons. The next day, the severely beaten Axaev was released. Hadizhat Axaev died later as a result of grave injuries. On November 30th, at about 1: 20 a.m., in the village of Sernovodsk in Sunzhenskovo, in the region of high school No. 2, six unknown armed people in masks fired grenades at the house of residents of Kurbanov. Two children of 15 and 11 years and their 78-year-old grandmother were wounded. Translated by OM Kenney PRIMA-News Agency [2004-11-01-Chech-06] 2004-11-03 19:50 Chechnya: crime rampant, warns interior minister GROZNY, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - Crime remains rampant in Chechnya with crying unemployment and other social and economic hardships, warned Ruslan Alkhanov, acting republican Interior Minister. He was addressing a conference republican President Alu Alkhanov was chairing in Grozny, Chechen capital. Up to 75 per cent of the republic's ablebodied population are out of job. Characteristically, persons with no fixed incomes account for more than a half of officially registered crimes, said the minister. There is a ray of hope, however-the year's ten months brought the crime rate 13.2 per cent down thanks to the Interior Ministry's preventive efforts. The number of kidnaps more than halved-140 this year against 382 in 2003. The number of premeditated murders shrank by a third, with a 27.3 per cent cut for crimes involving weaponry. The republican police joined hands with federal law enforcement agencies for several big target operations this year. 218 paramilitaries were seized, 93 killed, and 102 forced or coaxed to give themselves up Russian Rights Groups Denounce Federal-Hostage Taking Initiative Created: 03.11.2004 14:40 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:50 MSK, MosNews The Presidential Human Rights Commission criticized a suggestion by Russian law enforcement officials that federal forces should take hostages from among terrorists' families to counter attacks. The federal commission, whose members are appointed directly by the president, feels that the "ineffectiveness of the law enforcement authorities in their fight against terrorism cannot serve as a justification for such statements," the Interfax news agency quoted commission head Ella Pamfilova as saying. Last week, speaking before the Russian parliament, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov suggested making amendments to current anti- terrorism laws to allow federal forces to take hostages during major attacks, like the school siege in Beslan. "The commission believes that such initiatives do irrevocable harm to the nation's legitimacy," Pamfilova said. "The intent to punish innocent people for crimes committed by their alleged relatives contradicts fundamental rights and deals a blow to the concept of human rights itself," Pamfilova added, saying that such measures could lead to an escalation in violence. Non-governmental rights groups, meanwhile, also denounced such drastic measures to fight terrorism. "Knowing the style of our power structures, we can be pretty sure of what the outcome will be — the results will be catastrophic," the news agency quoted Memorial human rights center head Alexander Cherkasov as saying. Memorial was among a number of rights groups that addressed President Vladimir Putin asking him to dismiss Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov for his remarks last week. The Moscow Helsiniki Group seconded the request, director Liudmila Alekseyeva said at a press conference. "We believe such remarks compromise our nation and harm our international authority," Interfax quoted her as saying.