| January 9th
2005 · Prague Watchdog New Year sees new violence in Chechnya Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus – Since the new year began, 11 people have died, 8 disappeared without a trace, and an additional 32 were detained in Chechnya by various power structures. This information was given to our Prague Watchdog correspondent by the Grozny section of the human rights organization Memorial. According to human rights activists, the intensity of violence in Chechnya escalated during the past week in that so-called special operations were carried out in various parts of the republic, which resulted in people being arrested. And these people mostly have nothing to do with the current military activities in the country. Inhabitants of the village of Katyr-Yurt are indignant that a recent raid was carried out by the security force of the Moscow-backed Chechen president during which a young man, Yamlikhanov, was detained. According to his fellow villagers, he fought in the first Chechen war (1994-96) but had received amnesty at the start of the second one and stayed home. In addition, a mass grave was discovered in a field not far from the settlement of Kapustino, in the Naursky district of Chechnya. Local inhabitants found the remains of four people whose bodies showed signs of torture and bore gunshot wounds. Although they notified the authorities about the grave, no officials came to the site. Thus the people had no choice but to bury the bodies in accordance with Muslim tradition. Tuesday, January 11, 2005. Page 3. Reports: Maskhadov Relatives Abducted The Associated Press Chechen rebels claim several elderly relatives of separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov have been abducted in recent days by federal forces or pro-Moscow Chechen forces in the republic, media reports said. The accusation came in a letter addressed to the European Parliament, according to Ekho Moskvy radio and the pro-rebel web site Kavkazcenter.org, on Sunday. Ekho Moskvy said the letter was from Chechen separatists; the web site described its authors as Chechen politicians. According to the letter, two brothers and a sister of Maskhadov were among several relatives abducted last week in Grozny and elsewhere in Chechnya, the reports said. The letter said their ages ranged from 69 to 76. A spokesman for the Chechen Interior Ministry, Ruslan Atsayev, said the republic's police force had not detained any relatives of Maskhadov and was unaware of any having been abducted. Interfax quoted an unnamed source in the Chechen prosecutor's office as saying that neither Chechen law enforcement agencies nor federal troops had detained Maskhadov's brothers or sister. A total of 386 people were abducted in Chechnya in 2004, the human rights group Memorial said last week, adding that 24 were found killed and 175 remained missing. The letter to the European Parliament claimed that abductions of women, the elderly and children have increased in recent weeks, the reports said. They said its authors tied the increase to a statement by Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, who said in late October that detaining terrorists' relatives could be an effective tool against them. In September, a brother-in-law of Maskhadov, Shirvani Semiyev, said federal forces briefly detained him and up to 50 other relatives of Maskhadov and rebel warlord Shamil Basayev on Sept. 3, the final day of the rebel raid in Beslan. A lawyer is missing in the Chechen Republic There was an attack on a Chechen family at 8.00 o’clock in the evening in the settlement Voikov in Groznyy at the address 8, L.N. Tolstoy’s street on December, 27, 2004. Five people armed with the automatic weapon in masks and a camouflage, having rushed into a private house, having locked juvenile children in one of the rooms, took away the father of the family - Idagov Sulumbek Sultanovich, born in 1957, to an unknown direction. The attackers subjected the house to a thorough robbery, having taken a car, a computer, money and other property. Later the automobile, from which the valuable equipment had been stolen, was found out in the settlement Chernoreche. Relatives are at a loss to answer for what and why Idagov is kidnapped, as he was engaged in private lawyer practice. Probably, protection of the peace population of the Chechen Republic against the arbitrariness of invaders and Kadyrov’s supporters in the courts was the reason of the kidnapping of Idagov Sulumbek. On December, 30, Idagov’s colleagues held out emergency meeting in the high school No 7, at which they demanded from the present authorities of the Chechen Republic to release the lawyer immediately, otherwise they threatened with a strike. The information was brought to the attendants’ notice, that the violent disappearance of Idagov is already the fifth case of kidnapping of the lawyer since the beginning of the work of the chamber in the territory of the Chechen Republic since 2002. The previous four kidnapped have disappeared completely. It was reported about this crime in the press release of the Society of the Russian-Chechen Friendship No 1068, December, 30, 2004; however Idagov’s destiny remains unknown till now. Relatives of the kidnapped address all international and legal organizations for help and with the request to respond to their grief and to help to find Idagov Sulumbek. The Chechen Legal Center Chechenpress, the Department of letters 11.01.05 |