| December 17th 2005 · Prague Watchdog Russian soldiers refuse to admit shelling village of Chechen-Aul By Umalt Chadayev CHECHNYA - In Chechnya an investigation is continuing into a long-range shelling of the village of Chechen-Aul, located in the Groznensky district. The investigation of the incident, which occurred on the night of December 16, is being dealt with by an investigative team of the military prosecutor's office. As a result of the shelling three private houses in this populated area were partially destroyed. Local residents are convinced that the village came under fire from Russian soldiers stationed in the vicinity of the town of Shali. However, the soldiers say that the projectiles fired at Chechen-Aul were not live ammunition. “There was no shelling of Chechen-Aul,” the office of the republic’s military commandant claims. “These were 50 and 150 mm calibre illumination shells of an uncased type, which cannot be called live shells. An operational-investigative group is presently working on the site, and it will explain all the circumstances of what took place.” "The military simply doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened,” a Chechen human rights defender says. "According to the information given us by local residents, three artillery shells exploded in Chechen-Aul, on Argun, Kirov and Kalinin Streets. Fragments of the shells seriously damaged three houses: windowpanes were knocked out, holes were made in roofs, gas pipes, and so on. If only illumination shells had been used, the village would not have suffered such damage. It’s fortunate there weren’t any human casualties." This is now the second such incident to have taken place in Chechnya during the past two months. On November 9, Russian soldiers shelled the heavily populated village of Starye Atagi, also located in the Groznensky district. Then six local residents, including an eight-year-old girl, were seriously injured, and eight apartment houses were destroyed. The Chechen military prosecutor’s office opened criminal proceedings against the Russian officer responsible for this bombardment under the legal statute on violation of the regulations concerning the handling of weapons. On December 16, Chechnya’s pro-Moscow leader Alu Alkhanov announced at a meeting in Grozny with the heads of the law enforcement agencies that severe measures would be taken to curtail the shelling of populated areas by Russian soldiers. "Our task is to completely eliminate such incidents, and we will combat the depraved practice of shelling populated areas", he said. Translated by David Mc Duff. www.watchdog.cz The Moscow Times Tuesday, December 20, 2005. Issue 3320. Page 1. UN, EU Aim to Revive Caucasus Economy By Oksana Yablokova Staff Writer Starting next year, international aid to the North Caucasus will be targeted much more toward sustainable economic and social development in an effort to try to end the volatile and depressed area's dependence on humanitarian aid. Under programs run by the United Nations and the European Union, a total of $67 million will be spent in 2006 on job creation, health, education and other development and recovery projects in Chechnya and neighboring republics -- a shift from previous years, when the lion's share of aid went to emergency humanitarian assistance, including food and shelter. The switch in focus, particularly from those Western countries that have been the harshest critics of the Kremlin's policy in the area, is being seen as a response to elections and a partial stabilization in Chechnya and to worries that the security situation in the rest of the North Caucasus is deteriorating. Earlier this month, the UN unveiled an aid package for the North Caucasus of $88 million in 2006. Of that, $44 million, will go toward development and recovery projects in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. The UN aid followed an announcement at the EU-Russia summit in London in October that the EU -- a consistently harsh critic of federal forces' conduct in Chechnya -- would fund $24 million in development programs for the area next year. Aid organizations point to the urgent need to rebuild the area's economy, which still has the country's worst unemployment rate and lowest per capita income. Numbers of people displaced by the conflict returning to Chechnya also slowed to a trickle this year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its 2006 aid plan for the North Caucasus. About 200,000 people are estimated to remain displaced following the closure last year of refugee camps in neighboring Ingushetia. Kazbek Kulayev, coordinator of the United Nations Development Program's North Caucasus program, said the focus of foreign aid was changing in response to events. "What we have to deal with now are changes in the economic and political situation in the North Caucasus. The slow pace of economic development and the high unemployment rate are problems that cannot be solved by humanitarian levers, " Kulayev said. "Besides, humanitarian assistance cannot be provided forever." Last year, the UN allocated $45 million for predominantly humanitarian programs, including the provision of food, medicines and basic relief to those in need in conflict areas or displaced peoples. The EU, another major donor to the North Caucasus, has given more than 170 million euros ($200 million) in relief assistance since 1999. Officials in the Chechen government said that measures to kick-start job creation and economic recovery, particularly in agriculture, would help the republic far more than food deliveries. "The republic was flooded with sugar and groceries four times already, but these products usually turn up at markets in other republics," Magomed Vakhayev, Chechnya's labor and social development minister, said by telephone from Grozny. Of Chechnya's population of 800,000, 80 percent are unemployed, Vakhayev said, adding that most people tried to get by though subsistence farming or under-the-table payments for regular or occasional employment. Loans from state-owned banks, such as Sberbank or Agroprombank, to start up a business or a farm remain out of reach for most people in Chechnya, Vakhayev said. Kulayev said that starting next year, the UNDP in the North Caucasus would provide business education for those wanting to set up businesses and would set up credit organizations that would offer micro loans and lease out agricultural equipment to farmers. The EU's health, education and job creation programs will be run through UNICEF, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, and the World Health Organization. Sean Carroll, a spokesman for the European Commission's delegation to Russia, said that the EU's recovery and development program was first suggested during the EU-Russia summit in The Hague last year and agreed on with the Russian government. "Our mission went down to the area to evaluate the situation in April, and following this trip three projects were rolled out," Carroll said. Up to 80 percent of the EU's North Caucasus aid will go to Chechnya, Carroll said. Part of the budget allocated for health development will go toward establishing a forensic laboratory in Grozny, he said. The EU will also continue sending humanitarian aid to Chechnya as long as it is needed, Carroll said. On Dec. 13, the European Commission said it would allocate 6 million euros ($7.2 million) next year for humanitarian aid for victims of conflict in Chechnya. The UN will also continue its humanitarian programs next year as it expects easier access for humanitarian agencies within Chechnya, said Gregory Ferguson-Cradler, associate humanitarian affairs officer for OCHA in Russia. The switch in aid toward development indicates that the EU is moving away from criticizing Russia over its conduct in Chechnya and is now taking a more practical approach to Russia, which is increasingly being seen as a key energy partner, analysts said. "At a political level, the rhetoric of the West -- and particularly of the EU -- has changed in recent months, as Russia's role as a major partner has increased," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs. "The Kremlin has managed to create the illusion of changes for the better in Chechnya by holding elections and transferring rule of the republic into the hands of the local authorities. "But at the level of nongovernmental organizations and the media, the criticism of Russia's Chechnya policy remains as fierce as it was before," Lukyanov said. Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent State Duma deputy and a member of the Duma's EU-Russia working group, said that while international organizations had switched their focus to development projects in Chechnya, it did not necessarily mean that they would ease up on their criticism of Russia. "Russia held presidential and parliamentary elections in Chechnya. The political changes in Chechnya are microscopic, but they cannot be ignored and the West is responding," Ryzhkov said. http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/12/20/002.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Comment by N.S.: First, these international bodies chose to ignore international law and to allow the so-called Russian Federation to incorporate foreign countries into their empire by way of their own putsch constitutions and then to attack them. Then they accepted the aggressor propaganda that their frequent but completely illegal and pointless "elections" in the occupied territories are a magical method to make the war go away. And now that they have gotten so used to their own misconceptions and geostrategical machinations that they take them for facts, they have decided that it's time to pour large amounts of "economical development aid" into the pockets of the gang that created the bloody situation in the first place and has no intentions to end. A brilliant strategy. N.S. Another 13 children hospitalized with poisoning in Chechnya ROSTOV-ON-DON. Dec 20 (Interfax) - Another 13 children, four of them in grave condition, from the village of Staroglazovskaya in Chechnya's Shelkovskoi district were taken to the republic's hospitals after being poisoned by an unidentified substance. A spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry's southern regional center told Interfax that the Shelkovskoi district's central hospital is treating four patients, while another 16 children have been admitted to Grozny's children's hospital. All of the patients are showing the same symptoms, among them weakness, asthma attacks and headaches, the spokesman said, adding that most of the hospitalized children are girls. A toxicological examination is needed to set a more precise diagnosis, he said. December 19, 2005 Monday 8:19 PM MSK European court accepts Chechen's complaint over missing son MOSCOW Dec 19, Interfax, The European Court of Human Rights will examine a complaint filed by a female resident of Chechnya, Zura Alikhadzhiyeva, whose son, Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev, who in 1997-1999 was the parliamentary speaker of the so-called republic of Ichkeria, has gone missing in Chechnya. "The European Court of Human Rights has accepted a complaint about Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev's disappearance," the Memorial human rights center says in a statement circulated in Moscow on Monday. In the spring of 2000, Alikhadzhiyev, blindfolded, was taken away by unknown people from his house in the town of Shali. There has been no news about him ever since. His mother is seeking a recognition of violations of clause 2 (the right to live), clause 3 (the prohibition of torture), clause 5 (the right to freedom and personal inviolability) and clause 13 (the right to effective legal protection) with respect to her son. Lawyers of Memorial and the London-based European Center for the Protection of Human Rights will represent Alikhadzhiyeva in court. Information Centre of the Russia-Chechen Friendship Society Anna Politkovskaya testifies at the trial of Dmitriyevsky Nizhny-Novgorod, 21 December 2005 Communiqué no. 1645 The Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and the architect Elena Karmazina, have provided testimony in favour of the defence during the hearing on 21 December in the matter of Dmitriyevsky, who is accused under article 282 CP FR of "acts of inciting hatred or animosity, and attacking the dignity of a person or group, for motives related to the sex, race, nationality, language, origin, religious affiliation or belonging to a social category." The accused faces a possible five years of deprivation of liberty. Anna Politkovskaya, who has received several national and international prizes for her coverage of events in Chechnya, spoke about the massacre of civilians during the conflict; the crimes of war committed by the representatives of the federal forces; extra- judicial punishments; untargeted artillery and missile bombardments perpetrated by the federal forces, all of which amounted to confirmation of the facts comprising the basis of the charges against Stanislav Dmitriyevsky. According to her testimony these acts amounted to state terrorism, and as such justified the _expression "Russian terrorism" used by Maskhadov, and justified as well the description of the military criminals as "occupiers" and their acts as "atrocities". Moreover the appeals of Maskhadov and Zakayev published by the accused were directed neither against the Russian people, nor against the Russian machinery of the state, since they were appeals for the commencement of negotiations. Elena Karmazina, a well-known architect of Nizhny-Novgorod, spoke about the actions of Dmitriyevsky in the field of restoration of Russian monuments, and the protests which he had organised to prevent the demolition of the town's historic monuments. After the statements of the witnesses, prosecutorial documents were read. The defence for the accused then requested the addition of a series of further documents to the dossier, in particular the guilty verdict of the Qatar tribunal in the case of the Russian agents who benefited from diplomatic immunity and who were responsible for the assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbayev etc. The next hearing will be on 18 January 2006. Editor, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky Editor responsible for publication, Tatyana Banina Unofficial translation from French language translation from the original Russian. RCIA reports Nizniy Novgorod Report # 919 Dmitrievsky has rejected all the charges against him On 15 December 2005 the next session of the criminal court trial against the chief editor of the “Pravozaschita” newspaper and an executive manager of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society was held in Sovetsky district court of Nizhny Novgorod. Dmitrievsky has been accused of inciting to ethnic, national and social hatred. Today Dmitrievsky gave his testimony to the court and answered the questions put by the sides of the trial. Dmitrievsky rejected all the charges preferred to him and stated that he would never plead guilty. Moreover, he told that he felt insulted by allegations by the prosecutor's office that he acted like a racist and xenophobe. The defendant gave a detailed account of his attitude to the war in Chechnya and politics implemented by the Russian authorities characterizing it an extremist. Responding to the questions put by his lawyers, Dmitrievsky told a lot about the history of relations between the Russian state and the Chechen people since XVIII century until now. He gave evidence that facts stated in the appeals by Maskhadov and Zakaev that are incriminated to him are true. Today two witnesses for defense gave their testimonies in court. They were the manager of the museum of the Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University, the World War II veteran Victoria Romanova and a historian Aleksey Davydov. They told about the scientific and public activities Victoria Webb (the UK), the researcher of the Europe and the Central Asia section of the “Amnesty International” organization, attended the court hearing as an observer. All the people present at the court session pointed out the unbiased and proper mode of conducting the court hearing by the judge Vitaly Bondarenko. (From our correspondent) Shalinskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 918 Shelling of Shali district All night long from 14 to 15 December 2005, all the residents of the village of Starye Atagui of the Chechen Grozny rural district could fall asleep because the heavy artillery of the Russian federal forces was firing in volleys. The volleys were heard from the south-east edge of the village. Thus, to all appearances, the forested area situated in the mountains between the villages of Novye Atagi and Chiri-Yurt of the Chechen Shali district was subjected to shelling. There has been no information about any casualties in the shelling. (From our correspondent) Urus-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 917 A new hospital in the village of Guekhi On 15 December 2005 an opening ceremony was held in the village of Guekhi of the Chechen Urus-Martan district. A new building of the local hospital was opened. The new hospital is a two-storied building with spacious offices that are well-equipped. Residents of Guekhi village are happy with the news about a new hospital. They express hope that they will be able to receive adequate medical aid without a necessity to leave the village. (From our correspondent) Nizniy Novgorod Report # 910 Hearing of the suit lodged by the RCFS against the tax inspection was held at the court of arbitration On 13 December 2005 the court of arbitration of Nizhny Novgorod kept considering the suit lodged by Russian-Chechen Friendship Society against the tax inspection of Nizhny Novgorod city. All of a sudden, the hearing started with the request submitted by the tax inspection to cancel consideration of the case until the decision in the criminal court of Nizhny Novgorod Sovetsky district concerning the charges preferred to the executive manager of the RCFS Stanislaw Dmitrievsky on inciting to ethnic hatred (Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was taken. However, the judge Evgenia Belyanina turned this request down stating that the connection between the arbitration case and the trial conducting in the court of general jurisdiction was not well-reasoned. To all appearances, the tax inspection hopes that in case Dmitrievsky is found guilty, they will obtain the necessary grounds to state that the RCFS activities are not charitable and, consequently, the assets received by the organization can be regarded as the profit of the organization and can be taxed. However, the representatives of tax bodies didn't manage to explain their motivation clearly and the judge turned their request down. In the court hearing the judge tried to find out the attitude of the tax bodies towards the reasons offered by the complainant. She pointed out that the tax inspection had not given any definite counter arguments to the reasons presented by the RCFS in the previous hearings. The judge asked according to which article of the tax law the tax inspection had counted the expenses the RCFS had had. However, the respondent side behaves as if they didn't understand the question and could explain anything. To all appearances, the tax inspection had expected that they request would be turned down and they came to the court hearing being absolutely unprepared for it. Meanwhile, on December 5, 2005 the tax inspection of Nizhny Novgorod stopped arbitrarily withdrawal of the RCFS funds from their bank accounts. The withdrawal was absolutely unlawful as it broke the ruling made by the court of arbitration to cancel the collection orders until the case has been considered by the court of arbitration. As of the present moment, the RCFS demands that the tax inspection presents the official order according to which they withdrew 13 000 rubles more from the RCFS accounts. The RCFS is going to submit a new complaint to the court of arbitration and lodge a report on persistent break of the law by the tax inspection. The next session of court of arbitration has been scheduled for 20 December 2005. (From our correspondent) Nizniy Novgorod Report # 896 The next hearing of the criminal case against the chief editor of the “Pravo-zaschita” newspaper On 7 December 2005 the Nizhny Novgorod Sovetsky district criminal court held another session of the hearing of the criminal case against the chief editor of the “Pravo-zaschita” newspaper and the executive manager of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society Stanislaw Dmitrievsky charged with inciting to ethnic, racial and social hatred. Galina Vronskaya, the senior lecturer at the journalism department at the Chuvash State University and the president of the Chuvash Guild of linguists, answered the questions of the sides as a specialist invited by the side of defense. She stated that, in her estimation, the statements made by Maskhadov and Zakaev contained no humiliating characteristics, negative appraisals and statements aimed against racial, ethnic and social groups or their representatives. Vronskaya also pointed out that these publications didn't contain any incriminated facts unless they were proved correct. “However, these are the questions that are within competence of historians, sociologists and specialists in other spheres of knowledge”, stated Vronskaya. Usam Baysaev, a staff member of Nasran office of the “Memorial” human rights center and the author of many books and reports on the situation with human rights abuses in the Chechen Republic, and Igor Kalyapin, the chairperson of the regional public organization “The Committee against Torture”, also gave their testimonies to the court. Both witnesses told about the facts of mass casualties among the civilian population of the Chechen Republic, carpet bombardments, extrajudicial executions, torture and abductions perpetrated by servicemen of the force agencies of the Russian Federation. Both witnesses shared the opinion that Aslan Maskhadov had the right and grounds to describe the perpetrators of such crimes as “occupants” and “terrorists” and to state that their actions should be regarded an outrage against humanity. They also told the court about the attitude of the Chechen population towards the “Pravo-zaschita” newspaper edited by Dmitrievsky. In their words, the newspaper contributes to establishing the atmosphere of peace and trust between the Russians and Chechens. Baysaev stated that those Chechen people who had seen the newspaper for the first time were amazed at the fact that there were people, Russians by origin, in different regions of Russia who felt for sufferings and destiny of the Chechen people. It raised hopes in people that crimes perpetrated by servicemen of the Russian federal forces that had acted on behalf of the Russian authorities could not be attributed to all Russians. They told a lot about assistance that the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society had been providing for Chechen children. Kalyapin cited extracts from compositions of children who visited the city on the Volga River on the invitation of Dmitrievsky and his colleagues, “We have visited the tender Novgorod”, “we had a flight in a helicopter that can't launch missiles”. Two lawyers are defending Dmitrievsky. They represent nationalities between which Dmitrievsky has been allegedly inciting to animosity, an ethnic Russian Yury Sidorov and an ethnic Chechen Leyla Khamsaeva. The court building was picketed by some thirty members of the pro-Putin “Nashi” movement. They were holding the slogan, “No terrorist can become a peace maker”. Several residents of Nizhny Novgorod who participated in the armed actions in Chechnya participated in the picket. They demanded the severest punishment for Dmitrievsky. Meanwhile, the authorities didn't authorize holding the picket in Dmitrievsky's support referring to the law prohibiting imposing pressure upon the court. (From our correspondent) http://www.ria.hrnnov.ru/eng/index.php |