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RFE/RL Wednesday, 07 September 2005 Russia: Authorities Seek To Convert Beslan's Muslims By Paul Goble In the year since the Beslan tragedy, North Ossetian security officials have sought to close down all independent Muslim organizations there, a campaign that has caused at least some members of historically Islamic nationalities to announce their conversion to Orthodox Christianity. Tartu, 6 September -- Prior to the terrorist attack, 70 percent of the residents of Beslan considered themselves Muslims, according to a report in "Nasha versiya" this week. This report is somewhat anomalous because Ossetians are traditionally Christians and they account for 60 percent of the republic's total population of some 710,000. But now, the number of Muslims in Beslan has declined significantly as officials have indicated that they view anyone who "actively practices" Islam as "an enemy," according to religare.ru on 30 August. Earlier this year, Taymuraz Kasaev, the North Ossetian minister for nationality affairs, said officials had decided they must take steps in order to ensure complete "transparency in the work of every social organization [and maintain] closer contacts with all religious and national communities." The meaning behind Kasaev’s words quickly became clear. A local paper indicated that the authorities planned to shut down the activities of all Muslim groups that were not prepared to subordinate themselves to the government-financed and controlled Muslim Spiritual Directorate, a body that in North Ossetia is headed by a former police officer. Over the next months, the authorities in Beslan and across North Ossetia arrested numerous independent Muslim leaders, sometimes even planting evidence on them and sentencing them to confinement in prison camps. And fearing arrest, other Muslim leaders either stopped preaching in public or fled the republic, "Nasha versiya" reports. But this police campaign against "unofficial" Islam -- which had been the more dynamic part of the Muslim scene in Beslan as it has been elsewhere -- intentionally or not has had the effect of undermining the position of the official Islamic establishment and its followers as well. On the one hand, this campaign led the local authorities to take an even harder line against official mosques. Plans to build a mosque in Beslan appear to have been put on permanent hold. Moreover, republic officials reportedly are considering closing down the main mosque of North Ossetia in Vladikavkaz and converting it into a museum of some kind. And on the other, many members of historically Muslim nationalities are having themselves baptized, either as a result of their horror at what the Islamic radicals did at the school or, what is more likely in today’s climate, their recognition that being identified as a practicing Muslim in Beslan is potentially dangerous. According to "Nasha versiya": "Many children who survived the terrorist act and the parents of those who did not have been baptized, despite the fact that earlier they considered themselves Muslims. And those residents of Beslan who died -- including Muslims -- have been buried according to Orthodox custom, and none of their relatives has complained.” Russian Orthodox priests in Beslan have confirmed this development, Russian news agencies reported this week, with one priest reportedly saying that the number of people seeking baptisms in his parish alone had gone up 500 percent over the year before and in the republic as a whole risen by at least one-third. Father Vladimir attributed these conversions -- which he said involved many who had been hostages -- to the activities of Bishop Feofan of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz, who took an active role in the hostage crisis and in the treatment of the bereaved and wounded after the authorities ended the standoff. But such conversions, however welcome they may be to the Orthodox Church, are not the end of the story. Many of these newly baptized may quickly fall away from their new faith. And at least some of those who had been the followers of unofficial or official Islam may now be driven to listen to underground Muslim activists with a more active and more radical message. To the extent that happens -- and the experience of Muslims in both Soviet and post-Soviet times suggests this is the most likely outcome -- the efforts against Islam in Beslan over the past year may set the stage for more, rather than less, Islamist radicalism not only there but across the north Caucasus in the future. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/09/8295114F-9A3D-4ED9-97C7-5A15A0D66FA4.html New Beslan probe to summon Russia's security bosses Thu Sep 8, 2005 9:09 AM BST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Officials conducting a new probe into last year's Beslan school siege will question the heads of Russia's powerful security services, a top prosecutor was quoted as saying on Thursday. Interior Minster Rashid Nurgaliyev and FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, head of the KGB's main successor agency, are two of the Moscow officials blamed by Beslan residents for the tragedy a year ago when 331 people died, mostly children. "We will question all people who were linked to these tragic events - - regional leaders and the heads of the security services including Rashid Nurgaliyev and Nikolai Patrushev," Vladimir Kolesnikov, a deputy general prosecutor, told Interfax news agency. On last week's anniversary of the raid by pro-Chechen gunmen, President Vladimir Putin promised bereaved relatives that a new probe would uncover the truth and punish officials who allowed the stand-off to collapse into a bloodbath. Beslan residents say two probes already being conducted are ignoring evidence and will whitewash top officials, whom they blame for failing to stop the rebel seizure of 1,300 hostages. No senior officials have been sacked or punished for the disaster. The "Beslan Mothers" group said after their meeting with Putin they would refrain from criticism of the new investigation in the hope that it would more closely examine the reasons why their children died. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. Abducted man found dead September 8th 2005 · Prague Watchdog / Lecha Sadayev Corpse of man recently abducted in North Ossetia discovered in Grozny By Lecha Sadayev GROZNY, Chechnya – On September 7 police officers discovered the corpse of Khasan Dzhavatkhanov, a resident of the district town of Urus-Martan, on the site of a former cannery in the Leninsky district of Grozny. This was announced by Ruslan Atsayev, head of the Chechen Interior Ministry's press service. The day before, Musa Lechiyev, a resident of Chechnya who used to work for the Chechen Interior Ministry, was found with multiple knife wounds in the River Sunzha, also in the Leninsky district. He was taken to hospital in a grave condition and is presently in resuscitation. The investigation claims to have proof at its disposal that that both Dzhavatkhanov and Lechiyev were recently brought from Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia by unidentified criminals. However, it is not clear how the criminals managed to ferry the hostages through the numerous checkpoints of three republics - North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya. The Leninsky district public prosecutor's office has begun criminal proceedings with regard to the incidents. Translated by David McDuff. Georgia: Chechens Impatient With Life in Limbo Refugees from the Chechen conflict say they can't go back or forward, and life where they are in the Pankisi Gorge has become intolerable. By Jokola Achishvili in Duisi and Giorgi Kupatadze in Tbilisi (CRS No. 303, 08-Sep-05) - IWPR Vakha Arsanukaev and his family have lived in a hospital building in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge for six years since they fled Chechnya, always fearing that they could be sent home to an uncertain fate but sustained by the hope that they will one day be accepted as refugees in some other country. Arsanukaev, 47, is among more than 100 Chechen refugees who have been picketing the entrance to Duisi, the administrative centre of Pankisi, for a third consecutive week. They are refusing to sign the annual round of documentation that registers them as refugees in Georgia, and are threatening to go on a hunger strike unless the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, and the Tbilisi government act on their complaints. In the face of what they say is continual pressure by Georgian police, they accuse the UN agency of blocking their attempts to leave the country. "For six years, we have been living in constant fear. Our rights are being violated all the time and nothing is being done to solve our problems," Arsanukaev told IWPR. "This isn't our first action. But this time, we refugees are not going to surrender until we achieve some result." About 2,000 of an original total of 7,000 refugees from Chechnya remain in Georgia six years after Russia began its second military action against Chechen separatists in 1999. Almost all live in the Pankisi, not far from the mountainous border with Russia. The Chechen civilians now protesting in the gorge complain of constant harassment by Georgian police. Security in the Pankisi remains a sensitive issue between Tbilisi and Moscow, with the former attempting to counter Russian claims that it is not doing enough to make the area safe. From 2001, Georgia cracked down against Chechen militants hiding out in the gorge, and now asserts that the fighters have gone. But the Russian authorities allege that some rebels are still based in Pankisi. Russian bombs have twice landed in the gorge in recent years, and Moscow says it has the right to strike targets outside its territory to wipe out "terrorists". But their main complaint is with the UNHCR, which they accuse of blocking their efforts to be relocated to a third country. "We have information that Canada, Sweden, Poland and a number of other countries are ready to receive the refugees. But the UNHCR is impeding this opportunity," said Ziavdi Idigov, chairman of a group which coordinates Chechen refugees in Georgia. Idigov said those people who had managed to reach those countries independently had won refugee status easily. The UNHCR mission in Tbilisi says such accusations are groundless, and that it is being wrongly blamed for the increasing tough immigration policies introduced by western countries. "The High Commissioner's office does its best to render assistance to refugees - including their departure from Georgia," said Naveed Hussain, the head of the UNHCR office in Georgia. "Those refugees who have been refused resettlement [by third countries] certainly think that their rights are violated, and they begin to protest. And because we are the only organisation that works directly with them, they accuse us." According to Hussain, 60 Chechen refugees living in Georgia have left for third countries so far this year, with Canada, Switzerland and the Netherlands the most common destinations. In 2003 and 2004, 170 Chechen refugees left for those countries as well. "Unfortunately, the number of refugees accepted in western countries is reduced every year, as immigration policies become tougher," said Hussain. The Chechens protesting in Pankisi say they are so desperate that they would be willing to accept temporary resettlement in other parts of Georgia. But Georgia's minister for refugee affairs, Eteri Astemirova, said this was impossible. She pointed out that the government's existing obligations include helping the ethnic Georgians displaced by the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, over half of whom have yet to be provided with a place to live. Georgia has also promised to help the Meskhetians, a Muslim group deported by Stalin in the Forties, to come back. Another complaint made by the Chechen refugees is that the aid they get from UNHCR is insufficient. Each refugee is issued with 27 kilogrammes of flour, three kg of beans, 1.2 litres of sunflower oil, a tin of condensed milk, a can of canned fish, and some tea, sugar and sanitary supplies. "It's not enough to live on," said one woman, Lia Bagayeva. Sosbek Alisultanov has lived for years in one room of a state-owned building with his family of three children, and says they barely get by. "If it weren't for the help of the Chechen non-government organisations which provide us with some food from time to time, it would be impossible to survive," he told IWPR. "We are half-starving anyway. We basically eat bread, beans and pasta. We get only when the locals start building something and employ us as labourers. But that happens very seldom." However, the UNHCR's Navid Hussain says that even though life may be difficult, the refugees here are getting more aid than recipients in other countries, particularly in Africa. The protesters say they are willing to boycott the re-registration process even if that disqualifies them for the rations. If they cannot go to another country, or relocate within Georgia, the other option would be to consider going back home. Many of the refugees are put off by fears that they will be caught up in the continuing military sweeps, in which Russian troops and Chechen security forces loyal to Moscow-backed administration detain suspected rebels. "My relatives returned to Chechnya. They were promised a lot of construction work, but we haven't heard from them since," said one Pankisi local. But a minority of the remaining 2,000 refugees have taken the decision to go back. Vasily Korchmar, adviser to the Russian ambassador in Tbilisi, told IWPR that more than 300 have submitted applications to help them return to Chechnya. "I have decided to go home," said one man who refused to give his name. "We no have no choice. I wanted to leave for any third country, but I was turned down. We live in very bad conditions, we don't have enough food and our children need education. "The Russians have promised to give us living space and monetary compensation. We haven't seen our relatives for six years and we miss our native land, so we've decided to go." It is a decision that may make this man unpopular with fellow-refugees. "Everyone who has submitted an application to return to Chechnya is viewed as `Moscow's man' here and comes under suspicion," he said. "There have even been fights between those who'd agreed to return and people who were against it. So it's better to keep silent so as not to complicate life, which is hard enough as it is." Giorgi Kupatadze is a correspondent with the Black Sea Press in Tbilisi. Jokola Achishvili is is head of the Pankisi office of the Tbilisi-based group Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights group based in the Pankisi Gorge. Moscow authorities investigate assault on Chechen singer MOSCOW, September 9 (RIA Novosti) - The authorities in Moscow are investigating an assault on a Chechen singer, Liza Umarova, a city prosecutor said Friday. "Last Tuesday, a group of young people attacked Chechen singer Lisa Umarova and her son on Filevskaya Street in western Moscow," he said. According to the official, the suspects shouted nationalist slogans during the assault. http://web.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/09/12/012.html Monday, September 12, 2005. Issue 3250. Page 3. Chechen Pop Singer Attacked The Moscow Times A Chechen pop singer-songwriter and her son have been beaten in Moscow in what prosecutors are saying was a racially motivated attack. Liza Umarova and her son Murad, 15, were attacked on their way to the metro by a group of four drunken men, aged between 25 and 30, on Filyovskaya Ulitsa at about 8:15 p.m. last Tuesday, an unidentified official at the City Prosecutor's Office said, RIA-Novosti reported. Umarova and her son sustained numerous contusions in the attack but initially decided against reporting the incident to the police, RIA- Novosti said. The City Prosecutor's Office said Friday that it was treating the attack as racially motivated. The police are sometimes reluctant to investigate racially motivated attacks or attacks against Russian citizens of non-Slavic descent, with officers siding with assailants rather than with the victims of attacks. Calls to the City Prosecutor's Office went unanswered Friday. "You will not live in this country," one of the attackers told Umarova, she said in an interview with Gazeta newspaper. She said the attacker gave her "the word of an officer." Umarova is a popular singer-songwriter whose repertoire includes Chechen songs calling for peace and reconciliation in the North Caucasus. She moved to Moscow from Chechnya six years ago. Umarova makes a living in Moscow as a bookseller and rarely gives concerts, Gazeta reported. From: http://ex-soviet.blogspot.com/2005/02/liza-umarova.html Liza Umarova is the most popular modern Chechen singer today called "Chechen Edith Piaf". Chechens policemen, russian soldiers, children and adults are her songs' admirers. Her CD was recorded in awful conditions but distributed in a moment (about 2000 illegal copies). "I think it cost $50 [to make the recording]," she said. "I was sewing, earning money to feed the children at that time. I sewed sets of linen swaddling for newborn babies. And I had a lot of cloth, rolls of cotton. I sold all those rolls at the market, on the cheap, and made back the $50." Liza and her family live in Moscow for a long time but she keeps in mind events had place in Grozny 10 years ago. The beginning of war caught her in Grozny but her children were so little to run away. Moreover she thought government would gain an understanding and the war would stop soon. But then her brother came from Novosibirsk and told the republic encircled with armade - he saw the troops while getting Grozny. He rescued family to Ingushetia and they began to wait war ending. Then she left for Almaty (Kazakhstan is her native country) riding as illegal passenger with children. While this trip her little daughter caught nephritis. In 1997 the war ended and Liza's family came back to Grozny but in 1999 they decided to move to Moscow despite of the fact lots of chechens emigrated to Germany or Norway but Liza had refused. Liza Umarova's songs are about tragedies the war had brought to chechens and russians. She's real patriot of Motherland more than generals and politicians. She considers combatants should negotiate and stop war. The authorities of Moscow have forbidden the meeting devoted to Day of Independence of CHRI The prefecture of the Central administrative district of Moscow has refused for activists of the Russian movement For Independence of the Chechen Republic and the Democratic union to organize a picket at Solovetski stone on Liubianski square of capital. It informs "the Caucasian unit" referring to the activist of these organizations Eugeni Frumkin. The purposes of picket were the protest against war in the Chechen Republic and celebrating the Day of independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. its realization was planned today September, 6 from 17:30 till 19. In the answer to the notice on the action, signed by the assistant to prefect TSAO of Moscow S.Vasiukov it is spoken, that "according to the Law of the Russian Federation from 19.06.2004 _ 54-FZ " About assemblies, meetings... And pickets " your notice may not be coordinated, as the information in the notice contradicts positions of the constitution of the Russian Federation" Informs IA "DAYMOHK". Chechenpress, 09.09.05 http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/09/09/14.shtml In the first half-year of 2005, 9400 Chechens asked for asylum in the West The data published in September, 6 by the Supreme commissariat on refugees of the United Nations are such. The data concern 36 industrially advanced countries of the West, including 24 countries of the Eurounion. As a whole, because of sharply amplified restrictive policy concerning refugees, their number was strongly reduced, especially in such new countries of the Eurounion, as Slovakia and Poland. In USA the total number of refugees was reduced to 8 % in comparison with the same period of the last year, in England - to 23 %, in Germany - 29 %, in Austria - 26 %, in Canada - 26 %, in Sweden - 30 %, in Slovakia - 78 %, - informs the agency Reuters. Chechenpress, 09.09.05 http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/09/09/10.shtml Gazeta.ru September 11, 2005 18:03 "Mothers of Beslan" demand resignation of Deputy Attorney-General Shepel [tr. by M.L.] The "Mothers of Beslan" are deeply angered by the statement of Deputy Attorney-General Nikolai Shepel, who heads the working group of investigators in the official inquiry into the tragedy in North Ossetia, that the act of terror in Beslan was the work of international terrorists. As Ella Kesayeva, a member of the "Mothers of Beslan" committee, said on the "Moscow Echo" radio station,"this statement is a continuation of the chain of lies." "The prosecutor's office knows the national composition of the gang just as well as we do. We cannot understand why there is so much lying, what aim is being pursued by this lying, and who stands to gain advantage from it," said the representative of the "Mothers of Beslan". "We are deeply angered by Shepel's statement that the gang, which was composed of inhabitants of adjacent republics, is `international terrorism'." "This statement demonstrates once again that the official inquiry is frantically doing everything it can to cover up the crimes that were committed in Beslan's School No. 1 during the assault, when children were burned alive by Bumblebee missiles and fired on by tanks and flamethrowers", said Kesayeva. "For international terrorism no one has the slightest responsibility – this is not what we expected after our representatives' discussion with Putin," she added. According to her, the "Mothers of Beslan" will try to secure the removal of Shepel from the post he occupies. // Gazeta..Ru Constant address of this page: http://www.gazeta.ru/2005/09/11/last170426.shtml Beslan Mothers' Meeting with Putin Brought No Result Gazeta.ru September 11, 2005 19:05 [tr. by M.L.] The meeting of residents of Beslan with Vladimir Putin "has brought absolutely no result", Ella Kesayeva, member of the Mothers of Beslan committee, stated on the "Moscow Echo" radio station. "The President said that he was guilty and that there would be an objective investigation. But the facts are these: Shepel's statement that the terrorists in Beslan were drug addicts, that they were international terrorists who illegally penetrated into Russia – that is what followed after President Putin's assistance for an objective investigation", she said. "Do you think Shepel is speaking on his own behalf? It's quite clear - he is saying what they are telling him to say," Kesayeva added. "We were expecting that people would change their minds, that the federal authorities would at long last tell us at least some kind of truth. But here is even more untruth, an even more brazen lie than before," concluded the representative of the Mothers of Beslan. //Gazeta.Ru eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 6/9/2005 Duma member discloses evidence on Beslan Yuri Saveliev, a member of the Duma (Motherland faction) and the parliamentary commission for the investigation into the terrorist act in Beslan, claimed he had evidence disproving the official information about how tanks had been used on the school onslaught day, 3 September 2004. "There are eyewitnesses' accounts, and they are documented, more than twenty eyewitnesses who confirm that three tanks were shooting from about 1.30 pm, i.e. not one tank and not after 8.00 pm as officials say," Mr Saveliev said to inform his colleagues at a meeting of the Motherland faction about the process of the parliamentary investigation into the Beslan tragedy, according to Interfax. (*) Besides, the lawmaker emphasised, similar evidence, "i.e. that the tanks were actually shooting the windows where hostages were standing, was given by eyewitnesses in court; and this evidence is also documented." Mr Saveliev said he was going to introduce the commission to proofs he had himself collected concerning the use of heavy military materiel in the developments in Beslan last year. The parliamentarian expressed confidence that the report he was preparing would disprove the official point of view on this fact. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 5/9/2005 Refugees may number 100,000 in Ingushetia There are around 50,000 refugees in Ingushetia, 40,000 of them from the Chechen Republic, Ingush President Murat Ziazikov said at a press conference in the capital of Ingushetia, Magas, last Friday. All temporary refugee camps have been closed in the republic, according to the president. Meanwhile, human rights defenders believe the total number of refugees in Ingushetia reaches 100,000, according to unofficial information. This is what Mariam Yandiyev, chair of the Ingushetia Regional Office of the International Society Memorial, said in a broadcast of Radio Echo of Moscow. Of them, almost 25,000 ethnic Ingush people, former Grozny, Chechnya, residents, have stayed in Ingushetia and are unlikely to go back to Chechnya one day, according to her. Refugees from North Ossetia have stayed in Ingushetia since 1992 too, Ms Yandiyev noted. "Thirteen to fifteen thousand Ingush people have gone back to the Prigorodnyi district, North Ossetia, where they have been allowed to go. Some have settled down in various places in the CIS and other foreign countries, but most have stayed in Ingushetia." The president of Ingushetia quotes figures provided by the Internal Affairs Ministry and the migration service," Ms Yandiyev remarked. "However, not all people are registered, for various reasons. Registration is not to one's benefit presently." Ms Yandiyev says that the main obstacle that prevents, in particular, Chechnya refugees from returning home is the problem of security. Various reports from the RCIA Nizniy Novgorod Report # 644 Provocation against the RCFS and NBP in Nizhny Novgorod. Staffers of the RCFS are threatened again URGENT MESSAGE On 9 September 2005, leaflets containing threats aimed against staffers of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society were distributed in Nizhny Novgorod again. Unlike the intimidation campaign that took place five months ago, the leaflets are signed not by the non-existent “Patriotic Front of A.P. Ivanov” but contain real telephone numbers of activists of the National-Bolshevic Party. However, we strongly feel that national bolshevicks are not involved into this intimidation campaign. We are dealing with a deliberately planned provocation. Today, on 9 September 2005, unidentified people distributed leaflets containing threats and slander aimed against the managing director and editor-in-chief of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency Stanislav Dmitrievsky and the editor of the RCIA Oksana Chelysheva. The leaflets were distributed in the house where Dmitirevsky lives. The leaflets are printed on thin yellow A4 paper sheets. There are two of the symbols of the NPB printed in the leaflet in the top left corner of the leaflet and at the bottom of it. The leaflet states: Infamy and contempt! Be afraid of the people's anger! At the same time when young patriots are fighting against domination if people from the Caucasus in Russia, so-called human rights defenders Dmitrievsky and Chelysheva are getting their bloody money from their mountainous soul brothers and are making profit put of annihilation of the local population of Russia. We say no to the pro-Chechen vermin Who live among us and at our expense Death to the enemies! We are waiting for you Then the names Ilya and Mikhail follow with some telephone numbers. When we tried to check whether these telephone number really exist, it turned out that these are numbers belong to the leader of Nizhny Novgorod branch of the National Bolshevik Party Ilya Shamazov and his deputy. Ilya Shamazov stated that his organization and he personally were not involved into distributing these leaflets. Dmitrievsky also thinks that a deliberate provocation aimed both against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and NBP had taken place. As the RCIA reported earlier, on 14 March, 2005 similar leaflets were distributed in the area where Oksana Chelysheva lives. The criminal case has been commenced and the investigation is being conducted by the prosecutorship of Kanavino district of Nizhny Novgorod (the investigator is Alexander Kuflin). The prosecutor's office has not been able to find the guilty for more than five months. The RCFS are sure that the people who have organized this provocation are trying to reach several aims - to find “the guilty” of the threats and to announce their achievements in investigating this criminal case, to start repressions against the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the NBP and to cause a clash between the human rights people and national Bolsheviks. “To all appearances, the power is afraid that the opposition forces will get united and they are trying to cause a quarrel between us by such dirty means. In addition, they would like to deliver a blow at the NBP as they are being persecuted now by the authorities. It is a proof to the assumption that people who distributed the leaflets did it by order made by the authorities”, Stanislav Dmitirevsky stated. (From our correspondent) Urus-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 631 Armed people beat up a resident of Alkhan-Yurt On 7 September 2005 a resident of Alkhan-Yurt settlement of the Chechen Urus-Martan district Khankurkhanov Khanpash Ziyautdinovich was beaten up by armed people not far from the village at the federal highway Rostov-Baku. When he was on the plot of land rent by him, armed people in camouflage came up to him. A correspondent of the RCIA reports the victim as telling that they asked whether he would sell this plot of land. Khankurkhanov answered that he wouldn’t sell it. The perpetrators immediately started beating him with butts of their submachine guns. Khankurkhanov assumes that his assaulters must have been servicemen of the anti-terror center at the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic. (From our correspondent) Grozny. Chechen Republic Report # 630 A police guard is shot dead in Grozny On 7 September 2005 at about 7.30 pm in Olimpiysky district situated within the precincts of Leninsky (Avtorkhanovsky) district of Grozny unidentified people opened fire from submachine guns at Jamaev Sayd-Akhmed (born 1978), a police guard at Zavodskoy district police office. The man was seriously wounded. It happened when he was coming out of a block of a multi-storied apartment building. The murderers drove away in a VAZ 21099 car. They took the firearm and uniform belonging to Jamaev. Jamaev died in Grozny hospital #9. His corpse was taken to the village of Achkhoy-Martan where his family lives in an ambulance vehicle. (From our correspondent) Baku Report # 629 The UN Special Representative is concerned about harassment of the RCFS On September 7, 2005, in the capital of the republic of Azerbaijan the city of Baku the Annual Network Meeting for the Human Rights House Network and Regional Human Rights Defenders Workshop began its work. The UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, Hina Jilani, has attended the meeting. Participants of the meeting and the Special Representative expressed their concern about the harassment of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society by the Russian authorities. The Russian editor of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency Tatiana Banina reported it from Baku. The managing director of the Human Rights House Maria Dahle (Norway) addressed to the participants of the meeting and told in her speech that all the participants are concerned about the fact that not all potential participants of the meeting could arrive in Baku due to the obstacles created by the official agencies of the Russian Federation. Mrs Dahle told that the situation connected with hindering the managing director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society Stanislav Dmitrievsky from coming to Baku and participating in the work of this significant human rights forum and imposing pressure upon this organization raised serious concern. Mrs.Hina Jilani presented her mandate of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders and stated that she is going to demand halting activities of the human rights organization that is recognized by the international community as such issues are covered with her mandate. At the RCIA reported earlier, on 2 September 2005 at the prosecutor’s office of Nizhny Novgorod Region the managing director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and the editor-in-chief of the “Pravozaschita” newspaper Dimitrievsky has been charged with “inciting hatred or enmity on the basis of ethnicity and religion” (part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). The same day Dmitrievsky was made to sign the written undertaking not to leave the territory of Nizhny Novgorod without getting a special permission from the investigator. Oleg Kirukov who is conducting investigation into the case refused to permit Dmitrievsky to leave for Baku to participate in the meeting with the UN Special Representative (From our correspondent) Shalinskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 628 Abduction of a resident of Argun town On September 3, 2005, at about 11.20 pm a group of people dressed in camouflage uniform abducted a resident of the two of Argun of the Chechen Shali district Aslan Abdulkerimov from his own house situated in Matrosov Lane. As of the present moment, the man’s whereabouts have not been established. The information was obtained from a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the republic. (From our correspondent) Shalinskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 627 Resident of Shali is acquitted On September 5, 2005, Shabaev Lechi Ramzanoivch, a resident of the Chechen Shali town, was released from custody after his detention on suspicion of being involved into committing a number of crimes in the territory of the district, according to the information obtained from a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the republic. Shabaev’s guiltlessness was proved in the investigation. (From our correspondent) Vedeno district. Chechen Republic Report # 626 Shelling and air raids in Vedeno district In the evening of September 6, 2005 the mountainous area situated in the vicinity of the Elistanzhi village of the Chechen Vedeno district was subjected to the air raid by Russian helicopters. According to local residents, the air raid might have been caused by appearance of groups of the Chechen resistance movement in this area. That very night the same area was subjected to missile strike by the Russian assault aircrafts. On September 4, 2005 at 4.20 am the outskirts of the village of Eshilkhatoy of the Chechen Vedeno district were subjected to bombardment which lasted for about thirty minutes. Mortar shells exploded in the territory of households of the village residents, including, for instance the Shamaevs. The house in which this family lives was seriously damaged: all the window panes were smashed with blast waves and the roofing was damaged with shell fragments. Fortunately, none of the members of the family were injured as they slept in a different building situated in the territory of the household. The neighboring houses were also damaged. On September 5 the service personnel of the militia and prosecutorship arrived at the village to carry out investigative actions. The criminal case was commenced on the fact of the bombardment. The authorities promised to pay 100 000-ruble compensations to the owners of all the damaged households. On September 5 and 6, 2005, the Russian forces stiffened the level of security in the territory of the Chechen Vedeno district in connection with the Independence Day of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. All the roads, official buildings and other important buildings were guarded more thoroughly. The military checkpoints were set at the entrances to all the settlements in the district. (From our correspondent) Achkhoy-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 625 Member of the Chechen armed resistance movement is detained On 4 September 2005, the service personnel of the Achkhoy-Martan district police office carried operative and search actions in the village of Novyy Sharoy of the Chechen Achkhoy-Martan district in which they detained a man (born 1973) on suspicion of being involved into activities of the unlawful armed formations. The particulars of the detained man have not been revealed. The information was obtained from a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the republic. (From our correspondent) Naurskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 624 Resident of Naurskaya settlement is found dead On 4 September 2005, a male corpse identified as Kolpakov Vladimir Ivanovich (born 1972) was found in the house situated at the address 7 Alyonov Street in the settlement of Naurskaya of the Chechen Naur district. According to a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the republic, the corpse bore no signs of violent death. (From our correspondent) Urus-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 623 Assault at a taxi driver On 4 September 2005, unidentified people first beat up a resident of Alkhan-Yurt village of the Chechen Urus-Martan district Sabirov Ruslan Lom-Alievich living in Mendeleev Street and then wounded him at the leg. The victim of the assault works as a taxi-driver. On 4 September two unknown people asked him to take them to the junction with the road going to the village of Samashki of the Chechen Achkhoy-Martan district. His passengers attacked him on the way, beat him up and wounded him at the leg. After that Sabirov was thrown out of his car and the criminals drove away to an unknown destination. The service personnel of the Achkhoy-Martan district police office were immediately called to the scene of the crime. (From our correspondent)