| June 30th 2004 · Prague Watchdog /
Ruslan Isayev Protest rally in Shali Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus - A rally protesting civilian abuse by the Russian military was organized on Tuesday in Shali, a district town southeast of Grozny. Several hundred inhabitants from the Serzhen-Yurt village were out on the street holding anti-war slogans. The reason for this protest was the recent shelling incident in their village; a family of four were accidently killed by a shell that was allegedly fired from the direction of a Russian military camp. Although the protesters urged the local officials to find and punish the guilty parties, their pleas fell on deaf ears as the authorities ignored the rally. (S/E,T) Up to 13,000 Killed in Chechen War — Soldiers' Mothers Created: 06.07.2004 14:17 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:44 MSK, MosNews The number of killed and those who died of their wounds in the second Chechen campaign is close to 13,000, the head of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, Valentina Melnikova, told MosNews on Tuesday. Melnikova specified that "when journalists report that someone was blown up, they give the number of those killed. But they talk about those killed on the battlefield." She said that the committee includes those who died of their wounds later in hospitals in the number of Chechen war victims. "If a wounded person leaves the service and dies within a year, we consider it a war casualty," she said. Melnikova told that the committee's data are based on the lists presented by different regions of Russia. "Each region knows how many people were killed because it is connected with the social support of the families," she said. She accused the general staff of the Defense Ministry of not publishing the official data of those killed since 1997 although they are obliged to do this in accordance with the federal law. Search for missing Agence France Presse correspondent continues in North Caucasus 05.07.2004, 22.11 NAZRAN, July 5 (Itar-Tass) - A year after the kidnapping of, Ali Astamirov, the Agence France Presse (AFP) correspondent in the Russian North Caucasian territory of Ingushetia there is still no information on his whereabouts or on the kidnappers, but active search for the man is underway, said sources at the Office of Ingushetia's Prosecutor. Russian Prosecutor General's Office, too, keeps the Astamirov case under special control, the sources said. Monday, the International organization Reporters Without Borders appealed to the UN human rights commission, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Walter Schwimmer, and the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Peter Schieder to help find Astamirov. In a release that the organization placed on its website, it asked to set up a committee to investigate the circumstances, in which the man disappeared July 4, 2003. It urged the UN, the Council of Europe, and PACE to use the full measure of their influence so that the search for the man would be stepped up. Astamirov, 33, was kidnapped near a gasoline station in the Garmuziyev district of Nazran by a group of camouflaged gunmen, who had passed themselves off as law enforcement officers. Threatening the correspondent with the use of arms, they dragged Astamirov out of his car and pushed him into their own car, which according to eyewitness accounts then rushed towards the border of neighboring Chechnya. Neither his relatives nor Russian officials nor AFP colleagues have heard anything about him since the moment of kidnapping. Data indicates he had received anonymous threats several months before that and even had to change the place of residence. Compensation program broken in Chechnya Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov 06.07.2004, 11.37 MOSCOW, July 6 (Itar-Tass) - Fulfilment of the programmed measures to restore the socio-economic structure of the Chechen Republic is "becoming less and less effective with every year". The schedules and procedures of compensation payments for ruined dwellings and destroyed property are being broken in the republic, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov stated here on Tuesday, opening a government meeting, devoted to the rehabilitation of the Chechen Republic and compensation payments to its citizens. Dwelling on the rehabilitation program for Chechnya, Fradkov noted that each enterprise there is being financed separately and some of the factories and plants, slated for restoration, have still not been commissioned. Some programs, on which more than two billion roubles had earlier been spent, have been deleted from the program in 2003. More than 62 billion roubles were earmarked since 2000 on the restoration of the most vital systems of the republic (energy, water supply, public health, education, production and transport). This sum was made up of money from the Central Target Program, the extra budget funds, consolidated budget of the Chechen Republic, from ministries and departments, and from the funds of economic organisations. "The ineffective implementation of the program is due to the still undecided problems of controlling it," Fradkov stated. Compensations have to be paid in Chechnya to more than eighty thousand families. Each of them is to get 300,000 roubles for their ruined homes and 50,000 each for the lost property. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 5/7/2004 Chechen refugees leaving Ingushetia The tragic events in Ingushetia on the night of June 22 have resulted in a new wave of actions against refugees from Chechnya living there. After the action of law enforcement / security agencies in the temporary accommodation point in Altievo, Nazran district, Ingushetia, this camp where more than one thousand people lived has practically become completely deserted. Not more than fifty out of the one hundred and fifty families that lived in the temporary accommodation point on the dairy farm in Nasyr-Kort (a Nazran suburb) still stay there. A similar situation can be found practically in all compact residence places of refugees from Chechnya throughout Ingushetia. Moreover, officers of migration services and representatives of local law enforcement agencies openly threaten people and demand that they should leave the republic without delay. Simultaneously, local heads of administration and the elders of a number of communities have become involved in the process of forcibly ousting internally displaced people from Ingushetia. In spite that neither officers of law enforcement and security agencies nor local authorities have presently any information confirming that Chechens were involved in the June 22 events, the idea is constantly imposed on residents of the republic that refugees from Chechnya are to blame for everything. Practically every day, television shows items in which what happened is interpreted as an invasion from the outside and the idea about "evil brought to the republic from the outside" is especially emphasized. In the opinion of many internally displaced people, federal and local authorities are openly making use of the tragedy that occurred in Ingushetia to evict thousands of refugees back to Chechnya. Source: Infromation Center of the Council of NGOs eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 5/7/2004 Five people detained in special operations in Sunzha district, Chechnya Officers of Chechnya's law enforcement and security agencies conducted "target clean-up operations" in Assinovskaia, Sunzha district, Chechnya, on the night of July 5. Some people were detained. "Last night, with a view to implementing some intelligence our officers in cooperation with representatives of federal forces conducted 'target' activities in Assinovskaia. This operation resulted in the detention of five people suspected of being members of IAF (illegal armed formations) and having taken part in the recent attack on Ingushetia. All the detainees were delivered to the detention center. Investigators are currently working with them," a source in the republican Internal Affairs Ministry told Caucasian Knot's correspondent. "The operation for the search and detention of people involved in the developments in Ingushetia on the night of June 22 has been conducted in the republic's neighboring areas for a second week already. And we have already had some specific results," he said. The interlocutor refused to give the surnames of the detainees with reference to the secret of investigation. In the meanwhile, residents of Chechnya's Sunzha district express concerns with regard to the worsening situation in that area of Chechnya. "A lot of military and armored vehicles have been driven to this district since June 22. There are troops around our villages (Assinovskaia and Sernovodskaia). They have not undertook any action as yet, but they can block communities at any moment and make 'large-scale clean-ups' here with a lot of people detained and young men "filtered," like it used to happen two or three years ago. In the meantime, local law enforcement and security agencies are 'working' here, but they aren't any better. By night, they burst into the houses of civilians, seize young men and take them no one knows where. In doing so, no one gives any explanations to the detainees' relatives as regards the reasons for the arrest of their family members. People are extremely alarmed at this situation," a district resident, Usman Iznaurov, 35, says. Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent |