Information Center of the Council of Chechen NGOs faces threat of closure

The only professional and constantly working independent journalistic organization in Chechnya receives no subsidies and grants and publishes a daily news summary using its own funds.

Reports by the Information Center are well known among journalists writing about Chechnya. The Council's reports are published on numerous sites of Chechen emigrants and used by other independent mass media. The Center's journalists work under the most difficult wartime conditions, under the threat of repressions and extrajudicial punishments on the part of various forces in Chechnya that are interested in hiding reliable information on the developments in the republic from the society.

The situation when such important work depends on several thousands of dollars per month seems to be depressive. The journalists are ready to renounce their own well-being for the sake of telling the truth about developments in Chechnya to the world. They cannot arrange contacts with rich sponsors, to go to European capitals, to haunt the threshold of American foundations. They are occupied with complex daily work, for which they, unfortunately, do not get worthy pay, international prizes and wide recognition.

Source: Prima News Agency

March 6th 2004 · Prague Watchdog

Special operation” imposed on refugee camp Satsita

Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus - This morning Russian military andChechen law enforcement units raided Satsita, the Chechen tent refugeecamp on the outskirts of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia.

Men dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks arrived in severalarmoured personnel carriers and military UAZ jeeps and began a search of the tents.

According to camp residents, the soldiers taking part in this operationwere cursing and had sworn to avenge the recent bombing in the Moscowmetro, saying they were going to burn down two villages in revenge forthe explosion.

The search lasted about two or three hours during which five men werearrested. But as the military convoy tried to leave the camp, refugeesblocked the way; and it was the women who finally managed to get the menreleased.

Chechen human rights defender Ruslan Badalov stated that this was an act of intimidation to force the camp residents to leave and go to Chechnya.

He said that Chechen authorities have now begun increasing pressure onthe Chechen refugees living in Ingushetia. There is no other explanation for this except intimidation since Satsita residents are repeatedlyscreened by Ingush authorities, Badalov added.

Satsita is one of the two remaining Chechen tent refugee camps inIngushetia.

March 6th 2004 · Prague Watchdog

Raid on refugee camp Satsita

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus - A large-scale search was carried outearly morning today at the refugee camp Satsita in Ingushetia, one ofthe two remaining Chechen tent refugee camps in the republic.

According to Satsita residents, the camp was surrounded by militaryvehicles, namely four tanks and eight armoured personnel carriers. Theoperation was carried out by federal soldiers as well as members of someunknown Chechen law enforcement units who arrived on 17 UAZ jeeps.

All people who were outside their tents at the moment were detained. Inspite of the early morning hours, there were many people out because itwas the morning prayer time.

Then the searches were carried out all over the camp. According to therefugees, the soldiers were entering tents and checking document,claiming that they were looking for guerrillas and weapons.

"They were keeping one girl only in plain cloths on the street duringthe search," said camp resident Malika Tovsultanova, whose 5-year-olddaughter was so frightened that she almost fainted.

One of the two local policemen who tried to stand up for the refugeeswas even beaten.

A total of 17 people were taken to a bus parking behind the camp.According to one of them, Ruslan Dzhamsayev, they were told that theirdocuments need to be checked with the help of a computer. "However,there was no computer. On the bus there was a man who was just observingus carefully," said Dzhamsayev.

Later on, the detained men had to be released under the pressure of thewomen who came to save their husbands.

The search ended at about 10 a.m. And already in the middle of the dayElla Pamfilova, chairwoman of the special Russian presidential humanrights commission, departed from Moscow by air to find out about theincident.

Pamfilova said that today's search at Satsita was a result of thewilfulness of the local officials. "Such order could not have come fromabove," she said.

According to Chechen human rights defenders, the search had no specificgoal. "It was elementary intimidation aimed at forcing people to leavethe camp. And it was carried out according to an already traditionalscenario," stated Ruslan Badalov, chairman of human rights organizationChechen National Salvation Committee. 4.3.2004

Grozny: university student abducted

CHECHNYA, Grozny. During the daytime on 1 March, a student at theFaculty of Medicine at Grozny State University, Aslambek Khambiyev, wasabducted during studies. According to current information at the time ofwriting, masked members of some state force dressed in military fatigueswho had arrived in several vehicles, removed Khambiyev withoutpresentation of any charges and forced him into one of the waiting cars.He was then driven off in an unknown direction.

According to information from the Union of Chechen Non-governmentalOrganisations (UNO), the location of the youth is unknown. Khambiyev’sfellow students called on the republic’s administration to investigatethe matter, and obtain the youth’s release. However, according to theUNO, there has been no reaction from the authorities.

PRIMA News Agency [2004-03-02-Chech-12]

5.3.2004

Hostages Taken in Chechnya

CHECHNYA, Grozny. As already reported by PRIMA, on 1 March, first yearstudent Aslambek Khambiyev was kidnapped from a building of theUniversity of Chechnya by members of unidentified forces The SNOinformation Centre found out today that the kidnapped youth is arelative of Magomed Khambiyev, a Chechen field commander.

According to several sources, a brother of the kidnapped student wasseized and taken away from his house on the same day.

On 2 March Aslambek Khambiyev’s classmates demonstrated in front ofGovernment House in Grozny. Dressed in white gowns the students blockedthe main road leading to the building, demanding that Aslambek be foundand released. Officials coming out to address the protest promised toinvestigate the incident and resolve the problem.

Today there is still no information concerning Aslambek Khambiyev’s fate and whereabouts.

Translated from the Russian by Sue-Ann HardingPRIMA News Agency [2004-03-04-Chech-12]

March 4th 2004 · Prague Watchdog

Students request classmate be released

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus, March 3 – A demonstration of about 200students from the Medical Faculty of the Chechen State Universitycontinued for the second day in front of the building of theMoscow-backed Chechen government in Grozny insisting that theirclassmate, Aslambek Khambiyev, be freed.

According to eye witnesses, Khambiyev was taken from the lecture hall byone of the University’s security guards who told him that his relativeswere waiting for him outside the building. Once outside, he wasapproached by some unknown men in military uniforms, pushed into a carand driven away.

His classmates believe that his arrest is in connection with his lastname Khambiyev as he is related to Ichkerian Health Minister UmranKhambiyev and Ichkerian Defense Minister Magomed Khambiyev. “His brotherwas also arrested,” stated one of his classmates.

The students turned to a local police station requesting that Khambiyevbe released. “However, they didn’t even allow us into the building,saying that they don’t accept any complaints and if we insist on makingone, we’ll end up just like him,” the students asserted.

Representatives of the Moscow-backed Chechen government tried to stopthe demonstration but were unsuccessful. Only after briefly talking toone of the colonels from the Interior Ministry who came out to see whatwas going on, did some of the students go with him to write their complaint.

5.3.2004

Grozny High School Robbed

CHECHNYA. On the night of 1 March in Grozny’s Leninsky District,unidentified criminals raided a high school. According to the availableinformation, armed persons in masks and camouflage broke into thebuilding late at night.

The SNO information centre reports that the burglars first beat up thesecurity guard, tied his hands behind his back and forced him to lieface down on the floor before carrying off televisions, radios andmusical instruments.

Translated from the Russian by Sue-Ann Harding

PRIMA News Agency [2004-03-02-Chech-06]

5.3.2004

"Putin has turned the country into a torture chamber"

RUSSIA, Moscow. On 3 March, 15 former Soviet political prisonersaddressed Vladimir Loukin, a new Human Rights Executive in Russia whohas recently taken up this post, to draw his attention to the plight ofinmates in the Russian penal colonies and prisons. The letter was faxedto Mr. Loukin on the evening of 3 March. Former political prisoners andformer dissidents who joined them, write in their address:

Dear Mr. Loukin,Recently, mass media in Russia have published a large number ofmaterials pointing out that inflicting torture on the people kept indetention institutions has become universal and virtually a rule.

Let us remind you only a few of the recent reports:

1. Year 2001. In a penal colony in Perm Region spetsnaz beat up theinmates for several days for no reason. "They beat [us] when we went tothe canteen, beat [us] while we were eating. They made [us] imitate anaeroplane, that is to run around the drill square with the arms raised."These are the lines from the letters of the inmates of the penal colonyin the village of Chepets.

2. Year 2003. In Rossoshanskaya penal colony in Voronezh, 15 prisonerspunctured their lungs with sharp objects as a protest againstadministration’s actions.

3. On 9 July 2003 in Kaliningrad penal colony for underage offenders inthe village of Kolosovka, there was a riot due to cruel treatment in theprison. The teenagers set light to the building. Up to 80 people tookpart in the riot.

4. On 7 May in Kazan 40 inmates of penal colony No 2 performed an act ofself-harm by slitting their wrists.

5. On 19 May 2003 prisoners of Boutyrki detention prison in Moscow wenton a hunger strike due to unbearable conditions inside.

6. In February this year in Irkutsk city detention prison the arrestedPavel Bazhenov and Roman Ermolaev committed suicide unable to beartorture inflicted on them in the course of the investigation. Bothpassed letters outside through their lawyers before the suicide statingwho, where and how had tortured them. On 6 September 2003 in the sameprison, during questioning, a suspect Pyotr Loukin was thrown out of athird-floor window.

7. February this year, the inmates in practically all the prisons andpenal colonies of Sankt-Peterburg and Leningrad Region went on hungerstrike in protest against the torture.

Torture is also widely used in relation to the political prisoners. InMatrosskaya Tishina detention prison in Moscow businessman MikhailKhodorkovskiy and lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin were too subjected totorture. Mass murder and torture of the arrested continue in the ChechenRepublic.

Mr. Loukin, we call you to raise the issue of torture and murder indetention institutions immediately and publicly. The facts demonstratethat V.V. Putin’s regime has turned Russian criminal justice system intoa torture chamber. Your reputation of an honest man of democraticpersuasions allows us to hope that you will be able to use your newappointment to help the victims of arbitrariness and lawlessness.Otherwise, your further presence in the position of Human RightsExecutive will look at least odd.

Sincerely,Elena Bonnair (Boston)Anatoliy Altman (Israel)Sergey Kouznetsov (Ekaterinburg)Eduard Kouznetsov (Israel)Yuriy Fyodorov (New York)Vyacheslav Sysoev (Germany)Irina Grivnina (Holland)Nikita Krivoshein (Paris)Alexander Podrabinek (Moscow)Yuliya Vishnevskaya (Israel)Teghiz Goudava (Prague)Mikhailo Mikhailov (Yugoslavia)Leonid Finkelshtein (London)Alexander Litvinenko (London)Vladimir Boukovskiy (Cambridge)

Joined by:Tomas Ventslova (Yale University)Yuriy Yarym-Agaev (New York)Andrey Grigorenko (New York)Vladimir Neplekhovich (Holland)Larisa Sysoeva (Germany)

3 March 2004

Translated by Olga Sharp

PRIMA News Agency [2004-03-04-Rus-39]

Kavkaz-Center

Chechens in Georgia are worried

A press conference on the situation with the Chechen refugees and on themost recent kidnapping of two Chechens in Georgia was held in the officeof Georgian human rights activist Nana Kakabadze in Georgian capitalTbilisi on Wednesday.

Chairman of the Vainakh Sector of the Caucasus House of CulturalConnections Mekka Hangoshvili took part in the meeting with Georgian andforeign mass media. Ms. Hangoshvili stressed on the alarming tendency ofworsening of Georgian-Chechen relations, provoked by the new Georgianauthorities. She is deeply convinced that what is happening today doesnot fit into any law or morals. ‘If Chechens are creating problems forGeorgia, then the government must say so publicly, and Chechen forcedsettlers will leave the country within the next 3-4 days. They areleaving the country anyway. Entire families are moving out already.Chechens are forced to do it. Right now there are two commissions fromEuropean states working in Georgia, which are preoccupied with movingthe people,’ Ms. Hangoshvili said.

She says mass movement to other countries is already under way.

Ms. Hangoshvili added, ‘Too bad that the new Georgian authorities aretrying to please the Putin regime and are crossing out everything goodthat ordinary Georgians have made for the Chechens over these fouryears. Kindness and courage, which the neighborly nation was receivinghere, are all getting crossed out.’

Human rights activists expressed their belief that the kidnapping of thetwo Chechens was carried out with the help of Georgian authorities.‘Even little kids would understand how the two men ended up in Russia.They were kidnapped and handed over.’

Human rights activist Nana Kakabadze said that there is no way peoplewith no money and wearing somebody else’s clothes could have crossedinto Ossetia (Russian ‘internal’ republic neighboring Georgia). Besides,the passport of one of them was left at home. At the same time theauthorities are remaining cynically silent. All legal norms have beenviolated. People get caught and handed over to Russians with no trial orinvestigation conducted. It is already becoming a method of work of thenew Georgian government, so that they could satisfy their dangerousambitions in such a way. «They know that under any other set ofcircumstances the public would have raised a clamor. The reaction wouldhave been most painful. Today we are demanding that this tyranny stops.We are demanding to stop conniving at the criminal desires of otherstates, and we are demanding that pressure is put on the Georgiangovernment, which unfortunately turned out to be very much yielding tosuch pressure», Ms. Kakabadze stressed.

Ms. Kakabadze also said that the Georgian public must have a harsher andstricter attitude towards the violations committed by the authorities;that the public must get more active and demand that the authoritiespunish the ones guilty of violations of the laws, and that such thingsnever happen again.

Data Tutashkhia, Tbilisi, Georgia.For Kavkaz-Center