Kidnappings in Ingushetia
INGUSHETIA, Nazran. On the 31 January at 4 o’clock not far from theIngushetian Ministry of Culture in Nazran two Chechens, who were sittingin a Zhiguli car, were kidnapped. The kidnap took place on a busy streetwith many onlookers.
According to the press service of the “Chechen Committee for NationalSalvation”, the car containing the two young men was blocked in by twoother cars which had tinted windows, no number plates and were of themodel UAZ. About ten armed men in masks rushed out of these vehicles.The young men, who did not show any resistance, were dragged from theircar, had their upper garments pulled down over their heads and were thendriven away somewhere along with their vehicle.
PRIMA News Agency [2004-02-02-Ingush-12] 3.2.2004
Russian troops involved in robbery
Chechnya. According to an announcement by the information centre CNO,during the night of the 29 January in the village of Stariye Atagi agroup of Russian soldiers carried out a robbery against the Tataev family.
According to information received from local inhabitants, a group ofsoldiers wearing masks burst into the Tataevs’ house, having broken downthe front door. One of the soldiers made violent threats and demandedthat the owner, Tamara Tataev, hand over all the money and valuables inher possession. After collecting all the woman’s jewelry and cash, thesoldiers drove her out onto the street along with her two youngchildren, one of whom was not even a week old. Leaving the woman andchildren outside in the extreme cold, the soldiers set about searchingthe premises. The soldiers took audio and video equipment, 400 USdollars and anything else of value and left in an unknown direction.
PRIMA News Agency [2004-02-02-Chech-06]
eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 3/2/2004
Threats against expert of Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations
We call your attention to a press release by the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations:
"Tamerlan Aliyev, an expert of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, is threatened with savage punishment for being a "national traitor". His name is in the list of 200 people that is being spread in Chechnya. The opening address reads that these persons are traitors of the Ichkerian people and they are employed by the Main Intelligence Department (GRU). Then it is said that all these people will be finished. The list itself was allegedly bought from Salam Gairbekov, an officer of the Chechen Interior Ministry's organized crime unit. The position number 170 in the list is "Aliyev Tamerlan - Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations." Names of all editors of the Chechen state media, the republican leadership and officers of security agencies are also put on the list. The appeal is signed as "Ichkerian Sword".
The attention should be drawn to the fact that such threats are not an uncommon thing in Chechnya. In August 2001, the "sentence of the Sharia Court" was spread in Chechnya according to which the editor-in-chief of the Groznensky Rabochiy newspaper, Musa Muradov, and all the men - contributors to the newspaper were condemned to death. As it turned out later, that was a "joke" of Russian special services. However we all know everybody engaged in public and human rights activity in Chechnya, first of all, activists of the Information Center of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship, are subjected to real threats.
The Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations is a non-government organization, which is not engaged in politics. Our work is connected with the observance of legislation of the Russian Federation and the CIS counties and of international law, and above all, of the regulations concerned with human rights. Thus we consider the attempts to intimidate our workers a wish to discredit our work. We suppose the part of law-enforcement agencies that is not involved in the dissemination of these threats must take measures to protect the citizens' rights."
Source: Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (Moscow)
Feb. 03, 2003
Trepashkin Review
MOSCOW (MT) -- The European Court of Human Rights will review the case of lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin as a priority, and has already sent inquiries to the Russian Cabinet, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Trepashkin is accused of illegal gun possession and divulgence of state secrets.
Before he was jailed, Trepashkin had been due to testify in court about alleged Federal Security Service involvement in the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings in his capacity as lawyer for two sisters whose mother was killed in the attacks.
Trepashkin's lawyer, Yelena Liptser, says the charges were fabricated and the imprisonment was an effort to prevent him from speaking in court.
She said that Trepashkin was also tortured in prison, Interfax reported.
Liptser's appeal to Strasbourg said the jailing and alleged torture violated articles 3 and 5 of the European Human Rights Convention that guarantee freedom and humane treatment, Interfax said.
Car Bomb Kills 2 in Vladikavkaz
The Associated Press VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia -- A car bomb exploded Tuesday evening near the central market in Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia, killing two people and injuring up to 10.
Heavy smoke filled the area as firefighters battled flames after the explosion and glass in some of the two-story buildings in the area was shattered.
The secretary of the North Ossetian Security Council, Uruzmag Ogoyev, said two people died and 10 were injured in the blast. Regional Interior Ministry spokesman Ismel Shaov said the dead included one civilian and one serviceman and that six other people were hospitalized. A Federal Security Service spokesman in Moscow said a truckload of Interior Ministry servicemen was passing by when the explosion occurred.
Alexander Burayev, deputy head of the North Ossetian Security Council, said there was no immediate indication of whether Tuesday's blast was related to the Chechnya war or to criminal groups.
The central market has been hit by a series of bombings over the past five years. A 1999 bombing killed 55 people. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
RBC, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004, 7:13 PM Moscow Time
The version of an accident did not prove to be true in regard to the explosion in the center of Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, a source in North Ossetian law-enforcement authorities told RBC. According to him, the blast occurred at 5:17 p.m. Moscow time near the Gamid bank and the Center of Standardization and Metrology of the republic. One of cars at a parking lot blew up. The explosion set three other cars on fire. It has not been identified yet what car exploded. Police officers working at the site assume it was a GAZ-24 automobile. When the bomb went off, two trucks with cadets of the North Caucasian Military Institute of Interior Forces drove at the nearest crossroads. One of the trucks passed the site, the other was in the zone of the explosion. The blow wounded three cadets and a soldier. One of the military men was delivered to hospital with a serious brain injury. Additionally, a woman who passed by was killed. Currently, officers of the North Ossetian Interior and Emergencies Ministries are working at the site.