| Economics
minister: 90% of Chechens in poverty MOSCOW, August 18 (RIA Novosti) - Official statistics put the number of the poor in Chechnya at just over 90%, Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref told the government Thursday. Gref also said poverty figures varied greatly in different regions. For example, the figure in the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous regions (Western Siberia) is no more than 7%. On the other hand, poor people in Kalmykia (a republic in southwestern Russia) and Evenkia (an autonomous district in Siberia) account for 55%-56%, the minister said. "The Chechen republic has 91% of poor people," Gref said before adding that he had given instructions to verify the statistics. Gref said constituent federation members and municipal authorities had to focus on solving the [poverty] problem. The Economic Development and Trade Ministry forecasted that poverty levels in Russia would fall from 17.8% in 2004 to 10% in 2008. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 15/8/2005 Victims in Chechnya Three boys resident in Khambi-Irze, Achkhoi-Martan district, triggered an unidentified explosive device on the bank of the river Sunzha where they had come to swim. Eleven-year-old Shakhbiyev and the brothers Gazaliyev (13 and 3 years of age) sustained serious shrapnel wounds as a result. They were admitted to hospital and the doctors assess their condition as grave, though stable, a source with Chechnya's Internal Affairs Ministry told Caucasian Knot. Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent Rights Group Says Authorities Prosecute Muslims in Southern Russia 17.08.2005 MosNews At least a dozen young Muslim men were detained by authorities in a southern Russian region near the restive Chechnya Tuesday, after police found a bag wired with explosives in a city park, a rights activist said. The roundup in Kabardino-Balkariya comes amid contract murders and other violence that is occurring with increasing frequency. Some is linked to rivalries between criminal clans and some is believed to be spilling over from Chechnya to the east, The Associated Press reported. Law enforcement officials said five people had been detained in the sweep, but Valery Khatazhukov, chief of the Human Rights Center in the regional capital Nalchik, told The Associated Press that more then 20 families had reported that their relatives were arrested. Four families told AP their relatives had been detained, but they refused to give their names or give any other information, fearing retribution by authorities. Regional Interior Minister Khachim Shogenov said a travel bag with wires protruding from it and containing about 10 kilograms of explosives was found in a park near the city police station Tuesday. “Without question, the bomb was intended for a terrorist act against police officers and residents of the nearby buildings,” Shogenov said. Among those arrested were two men who were held for four years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Rasul Khudayev, who was turned over to Russian authorities in February 2004 and ordered released four months later, said he was beaten when he was taken into custody, and then held for five hours. Khudayev said police did not question him and refused to explain why he had been detained. Authorities say Islamic extremists are responsible for a growing number of attacks on law enforcement officials. Last month, four police officers were shot and killed by unknown attackers in two separate incidents. In December, unidentified attackers raided a branch of the Federal Drug Control Service in Nalchik, killing the four employees and seizing dozens of guns and ammunition cartridges. Authorities have blamed Islamic militants for the attack. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 15/8/2005 'Caucasus-phobia' in Russia Adherents to xenophobic slogans numbered between 50% and 60% in the first half of 2005 in Russia, according to various social surveys. The disliked ethnicities and peoples are largely natives of the Caucasus: Chechens (14.8%), Azeris (5.1%), Armenians (4.1%), and Caucasians in general (6.0%). Only Roma (5.1%) and Jews (2.5%) dilute this list. Such figures are quoted in a report of the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights titled Racism, Xenophobia, Ethnic Discrimination, and Anti-Semitism in Russia (January-June 2005). A major part of it is devoted to "Caucasus-phobia" and discrimination against natives of the Caucasus in Russia. Author: Vyacheslav Feraposhkin, CK correspondent Russian Court Jails Pro-Chechen Journalist for Illegal Gun Possession 16.08.2005 MosNews A court in Moscow sentenced Pavel Lyuzakov, an independent journalist known for his sympathies with Chechen separatists for two years in jail on Tuesday for illegal possession and carrying of firearms, the Interfax news agency reports. Lyuzakov, who worked as the editor in chief of the Svobodnoye Slovo (Free Word) newspaper, was arrested in January 2005 and charged with illegally carrying a handgun. Apart from working in Svobodnoye Slovo, Lyuzakov worked as a freelance columnist for the Kavkazcenter web-site — the media outlet of radical Chechen separatists. Lyuzakov’s articles clearly showed that his sympathies were with the separatists. He also used to head the Separatist newspaper and repeatedly published his own views attacking the Russian government for fighting in Chechnya. After his arrest in January the journalist claimed that he had been framed and the gun was planted on him by security service officers. One of Lyuzakov’s colleagues, however, recalled in a newspaper interview that Lyuzakov had been convicted at the age of 18 on charges of terrorism. “I don’t remember the details, but it had to do with weapons. He spent a couple of years in prison, and was a grown man when he got out,” the source said. RELATIVES APPEAL ON BEHALF OF SENTENCED INGUSH. The mothers, sisters, and wives of 13 young Ingush and Chechens sentenced earlier this month to terms ranging from eight to 23 years imprisonment for their alleged participation in the June 2004 raids on Interior Ministry targets across Ingushetia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 June 2004 and 4 August 2005) have addressed an appeal to world public opinion saying that most of the young men did not participate in that attack, ingushetiya.ru reported on 17 August. Appended to the appeal are accounts by six of the young men of the circumstances of their arrest and the tortures to which they were subjected during interrogation. All six said they confessed under torture to participating in the attack. LF RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 156, Part I, 18 August 2005 eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 17/8/2005 Local residents clash with oil authorities Residents of Solionaia Balka in Grozny's Staropromyslovskii district demand that local oil authorities should discontinue the construction of a gas-oil separation plant situated in the immediate vicinity of the community. "They want to install a separation plant literally within 200 metres of our community. But people here have enough health problems without that. Many have heart diseases, hypertension, etc. Besides, many families have children, including small ones. And they want to give us another 'present' in the form of processed oil products here" Aziz Sakayev, 50, says indignantly. The Oil Industry Ministry maintains that the construction of the gas-oil separation plant near Solionaia Balka is "absolutely safe." That may or may not be true though, but what else they can really say? The truth is there is hardly any safe oil and gas facility in this country. Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent |