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June 7, 2004. PACE: No Way to Check Aug. 29 Poll The Associated Press The ongoing war and dangerous security situation in Chechnya make it impossible to ensure that the Aug. 29 election to replace slain Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov is free and fair, a rapporteur for Europe's leading human rights body said in an interview published Monday. "Normal monitoring -- this is when observers may ... travel freely to this or that village in the mountains or the plains without obstacles [and] without prior notification of the authorities," Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted Rudolf Bindig of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE, as saying. "In Chechnya, this is impossible for security reasons," said Bindig, who visited the region last week. He said observers would have to be accompanied by 20 to 30 soldiers and would be able to visit no more than two or three voting stations. "Is that really a normal election?" PACE and most other international monitors stayed away from last October's presidential vote, which was widely criticized for being held during a war. Bindig said PACE has not decided yet whether to send a delegation in August. Kavkaz-Center Georgian authorities unwilling to investigate terrorist act The story with poisoning of the Aldamov family in Georgia still has close attention of the local press. And everybody agrees that it was a terrorist act when neuropalytic substance was used. This tragedy is directly associated with Moscow’s actions against Chechens in Georgia. Meanwhile the poisoning seriously affected the health condition of the victims. Head of the family Mr. Hizri Aldamov (Envoy of CRI President in Georgia) and his son Zelimkhan have been transferred to outpatient treatment. The doctors say that the rehabilitation process may take several months. Aldamov, Sr. still has evident signs of speech disturbance and systematic hallucinations. Zelimkhan is in a rather better condition. But the condition of Mr. Aldamov’s nephew Ruslan (see photo), who was driving the car on that day, is causing serious concern. As soon as doctors have enough time to stop the aggravating process in one part of the body, problems start occurring in other parts. Georgian authorities had an interesting reaction to the demonstrative terrorist act against citizen of Georgia, Mr. Aldamov. No criminal prosecution case has been filed and no investigation is under way. No one inspected the vehicle. And that’s in spite of the fact that the doctors have been officially verifying that it was a premeditated poisoning, when neuroparalytic mixture penetrated through cutaneous surfaces and respiratory tracts. The analyses show large amount of phosphorus and two other unknown components. The difficulties in making an accurate diagnosis are caused by the problems in providing the first aid, since some components that led to the disorder have not been identified. The doctors believe that during the poisoning the driver was supposed to pass out when driving. Presumably, some chemical substance was put on the car’s dashboard. It can also be confirmed by the fact that these victims were poisoned inside the car, and that the Aldamovs’ neighbor suddenly got sick on the same day when he got behind the wheel of that car to take the victims to the hospital. He started feeling sick and losing his eyesight. There is yet another problem. There is a catastrophic lack of means for the patients to undergo an expensive treatment. So far the attempts to take the victims to the third-party countries have been unsuccessful. The family is experiencing difficulties due to the lack of funds first of all. But there were still some promising phone calls from Chechen Diaspora in Finland and Estonia. Right now they are the only ones to be counting on. Data Tutashkhia, Tbilisi, Georgia. For Kavkaz-Center 2004-06-08 Russian Officials Meet Chechen Refugees in Georgia Created: 08.06.2004 14:40 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:13 MSK, MosNews A delegation from the Federal Migration Service of Russia met 50 refugees from Chechnya in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia on Tuesday, Interfax news agency reported. The officials went to the village of Duisi in the gorge on Monday to investigate the possibility of the refugees returning home. They told the refugees about the security and social guarantees in Chechnya, the press secretary of the emergency directorate of the Georgian Interior Ministry, Tamaz Chogovadze, was quoted by the agency as saying. He added that none of the refugees had expressed a desire to return to their homes. However, they agreed to accept the humanitarian aid from Russia that has been stored in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi since September 2003. The refugees had earlier refused to accept the aid. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jun 7 2004 7:29PM Some 200 refugees ready to return from Georgia to Chechnya TBILISI. June 7 (Interfax) - Some 200 Chechen refugees said they want to return to Chechnya from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, said a joint Georgian-Russian interdepartmental commission working on the return of Chechen refugees from the Pankisi Gorge to Chechnya. "Some 200 Chechen refugees have expressed the wish to return to their homes. Their documents will be transferred to the Russian embassy in Tbilisi in the near future," Tamaz Chogovadze, a spokesman for the Georgian Emergency Situations Ministry, told Interfax. Russian officials have informed their Georgian colleagues in the joint commission that several dozen Chechen families returned from the Pankisi Gorge to their homes last year and are so far happy with their choice. Igor Yunash, the head of the Russian delegation, said "the purpose of our visit is to help our compatriots who would like to return home, and not only to Chechnya, but if they want to return to any other region of Russia, we will help them." On Tuesday, the Russian delegation visited the Pankisi Gorge, where it plans to met with Chechnya refugees. RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 107, Part I, 8 June 2004 Noncombat military deaths up in first monthes of 2004. More than 180 military personnel were killed in the first five months of this year as a result of accidents, crimes, and suicide, newsru.com reported, citing military-justice officials. The figures do not include casualties from military operations. According to figures released earlier by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, 337 servicemen were killed in such incidents in 2003. Of those, 35 percent were suicides, 23 percent resulted from violations of safety procedures, and 10 percent resulted from road accidents. The Defense Ministry also reported that almost 1,800 servicemen are currently considered absent without leave and are being sought by the authorities. RC Kavkaz-Center Kavkaz Center news and information agency received a press release «For Peace in Chechnya and For Recognition of Right of Chechen People For Self-Determination». The editors are publishing it uncut. For Independence of Chechnya We are ready to support any reasonable and humane initiative on stopping violence and bloodshed in Chechnya (comment by Social Initiative «For Peace in Chechnya and For Recognition of Right of Chechen People For Self-Determination» concerning the statement made by Russian human rights activists) The other day a group of well-known human rights activists and social activists (Boris Nadezhdin, Lev Ponomarev, Yuli Rybakov, Yuri Samodurov, Alexander Tkachenko, Ruslan Badalov, Igor Yakovenko, Dmitry Brodsky, and Gleb Yakunin) made a statement about the situation in Chechnya titled «Chechen Republic Needs True Political Settlement» (http://www.hro.org/war/2004/06/03.php). We share most of the positions formulated in this statement and we are ready to support any reasonable and humane initiative on stopping violence and bloodshed in Chechnya. At the same time, we consider it necessary to say a few remarks on our own concerning the latest statement by human rights activists. The authors are viewing the guarantees of «political integration into democratic processes for separatist formations who laid down arms», including «freedom of campaigning for the creation of independent state in Chechnya», as one of the key moments in the process of political settlement in Chechnya. Apparently, such guarantees will make any sense to the armed separatists only if there is complete assurance that: 1.The people of Chechnya will be provided with true freedom of expression of their will concerning the creation of independent Chechen State; 2.Russian authorities will recognize the final choice of the people of Chechnya, if it will be made in favor of such a decision. We consider the last moment to be the key moment in starting a process of peace settlement in Chechnya. Only with an unambiguous statement by the Russian government that the creation of independent Chechen State is a possible result of the political process in Chechnya, then cessation of armed fight by separatists can be brought up. This is the only condition when negotiations with separatists will have any future. Without this prerequisite any peace initiatives are doomed to remain nothing but good wishes, and violence and bloodshed will still be continuing. Unfortunately, this is the key moment that was not expressed in the Statement clearly enough. The authors of the Statement probably think that it makes their initiative more acceptable for today’s Russian government and for the part of the Russian society enthralled by imperial ambitions. On our behalf, we believe that only the threat to lose power and be punished for the war crimes committed in Chechnya can incline today’s Kremlin regime towards searching for compromise on the Chechen problem. Such a threat may arise if the existing political opposition in Russia brings the Chechen tragedy to the forefront of its criticism of the Putin regime and formulates convincing alternative to Putin’s line. And vise versa, present-day Russian opposition will stop being toothless and politically powerless if it will not be afraid to be open about the criminal nature of Russian government’s actions in Chechnya. And here another question is becoming clear, which Russian human rights activists have been leaving unanswered so far: who should the peace initiatives be addressed to? In our point of view, any admonitions of the Putin clique today are making no sense. Oppositional forces are the ones to be addressed and offered options of political settlement. And only becoming a part of them, which will promote consolidation, will the Russian human rights movement be able to bring the way out of the Chechen deadlock any closer. St. Petersburg, Russia, June 4, 2004 From Social Initiative «For Peace in Chechnya and For Recognition of Right of Chechen People For Self-Determination» 2004-06-07 eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 8/6/2004 Artillery, aviation bomb vicinity of mountain Chechen village For the last few days, the Russian air force and artillery have been shelling forest tracts in the vicinity of the village of Kharsenoy in the Shatoy district, Southern Chechnya, a resident of the village told the Caucasian Knot correspondent. "At least three pairs of airplanes are dropping bombs in the vicinity of Kharsenoy daily. The Grad volley fire system is being widely applied too. We don't know why it is happening. Many people, fearing for the life of their children, are moving to the plain," Murad, the 42-year-old resident of Kharsenoy, said. In his opinion, the reason for such active actions of the military in the vicinity of Kharsenoy lies in the fact that notorious Chechen field commander Dokku Umarov is a native of this village and there was a period of time when his groups were based in the area. The Chechen military commandant's office has refused to give any comments on the matter, saying only that the federal air force and artillery "work exceptionally with targets and rebel mountain bases revealed beforehand." Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent Source: Caucasian Knot