Russians Won't Give Bodies to Families

Friday October 21, 2005

By FATIMA TLISOVA

NALCHIK, Russia (AP) - Authorities on Friday refused to release the bodies of men suspected of being involved in last week's deadly assault on law enforcement offices, angering their families who said even accused terrorists deserve a proper burial.

Mothers of the suspected militants have held around-the-clock vigils outside the morgue where dozens of bodies were being held by the government. Some residents allege that their relatives had been unfairly identified as participants in the militant raid.

Olesya, a 40-year-old, black-clad woman who did not want to give her last name, vowed to burn herself alive in the main square if she doesn't get the body of her son.

``Maybe this sort of torch will rouse a drop of humanity in them,'' she said, protesting with nearly 200 people outside the morgue.

At least 139 people died in the brazen daytime assault Oct. 13 on law enforcement offices in Kabardino-Balkariya - including the 94 accused attackers, according to official tallies. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, the purported author of modern Russia's worst terrorist attacks, claimed he was behind it, according to a statement posted on a Chechen rebel-connected Web site.

In an interview published Thursday in the daily newspaper Izvestia, Kabardino-Balkiriya's president, Arsen Kanokov, said the government would not return the suspected militants' bodies to their relatives because Russian law forbids it. The top federal prosecutor for the Caucasus region reiterated the government's position Friday.

``The bodies will not be turned over and this question will not be discussed further,'' Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said.

Larisa Dorogova, a defense lawyer who specializes in defending Muslims from police abuse, dismissed the explanation from some authorities that they were sorting out which of the bodies were fighters and which were innocent civilians.

``What sort of analysis is needed to determine who is a fighter and who is an accidental victim?'' she said.

She said by her own unofficial count, 132 bodies remain in one morgue, at least 40 of which have yet to be identified. She said the bodies are beginning to decay.

Resident Iskhak Nabitov, who was allowed into the morgue Thursday, also said the bodies were decomposing, and many were missing hands and feet. He said no one would help him lift decaying corpses to search for his sons, ages 22 and 26.

``We're being quiet as long as there's hope they'll give us our children to bury,'' said Nabitov, 60.

Meanwhile, Shepel told reporters that investigators have found clear links between last week's assault and a series of attacks in the past 16 months in other Caucasus cities, including the September 2004 seizure of more than 1,000 hostages at a school in Beslan. He warned that Islamic extremism is a dire threat to Russia.

``Now we are experiencing the severe consequences of the lightweight response to the appearance of religious extremism,'' he said.

Basayev has said the Oct. 13 attacks were carried out by militants affiliated with the Chechen rebels, but that Chechen fighters were not involved, indicating an increasingly organized effort to set up militant cells throughout the region that take direction from him.


Monday, October 17, 2005. Issue 3275. Page 5.

Hundreds Demand Release of Bodies

By Fatima Tlisova The Associated Press

NALCHIK -- Hundreds of black-clad, mostly elderly people gathered Sunday outside the prosecutor's office in Nalchik, demanding release of the bodies of their relatives who were killed during a raid by Islamic extremists.

"Give back the bodies of our children so that we can bury them," said a petition the crowd passed to prosecutors.

Many feared that they would never see their relatives' bodies. Under the law, terrorists' bodies are not returned to their families for burial, and some in the crowd said their relatives had been unfairly identified as participants in the militant raid.

Asya Zhekamukhova, 21, said she wanted to collect the body of her 26-year-old husband, Vadim Zhekamukhov, who had worked as a driver for a veterinary clinic.

When the shooting started Thursday, she said, he rushed to a nursery school to pick up his nephew and was killed.

"He was not a Wahhabi; he despised them," Zhekamukhova said, using the usual term for Islamic extremists in Russia.

"He never carried any guns, but when we found his body there was a gun lying nearby."

A delegation of three elderly men from the crowd presented the petition to prosecutors.

Deputy regional prosecutor Asker Masayev asked the crowd to return to their homes and wait until Monday because investigators were still working to separate the bodies of the attackers from those of accidental victims, said Mukhamed Zhekamukhov, a relative of the driver's who was part of the delegation.


Meanwhile, another crowd of hundreds stood vigil outside Nalchik's main morgue in the suburb of Dubki, awaiting the results of autopsies.

Many police and security officers stood by.


Oct 17 2005 12:24PM

Relatives demand militants' bodies

NALCHIK. Oct 17 (Interfax) - Relatives of militants killed in the October 13-14 terror attack on Nalchik have demanded that the militants' bodies be handed over to them for burial.

About 30 women gathered near the government building on Monday, but were not allowed to approach the Kabardino-Balkaria president's office. None of the republic's officials has met with the women, an Interfax correspondent reported.

The bodies of 85 militants remain in the Nalchik morgue. The identification of their bodies is continuing, chief of the city's forensic medicine bureau Azret Mechukayev told Interfax

"The bodies of policemen and civilians, killed in the attack, have been handed over to relatives, but the bodies of militants will not be handed over until we receive a permit from the Prosecutor General's Office, Mechukayev said.


Monday, October 17, 2005

3 Suspects Say They Were Tortured

By Maria Danilova The Associated Press

Three men recently acquitted of terrorism charges, including two former Guantanamo Bay prisoners, accused law enforcement agencies on Friday of torturing them to force confessions.

A jury in Tatarstan in September acquitted Timur Ishmuratov, Ravil Gumarov and Fanis Shaikhutdinov of charges of involvement in the January explosion of a gas pipeline in the Tatarstan city of Bugulma. The acquittal was a rare case of suspects being acquitted of terrorism charges in a country that has been hit by a string of devastating terrorist attacks. Prosecutors said they would appeal the ruling.

Ishmuratov and Gumarov are among seven Russian men who were released from Guantanamo last year and returned to Russia. After being briefly held in jail in southern Russia, they were freed after investigators found no evidence of their involvement in the Taliban movement.

The pipeline exploded on Jan. 8, but it caused no casualties. Citing initial police reports, rights groups claimed the blast was caused by technical problems, not criminals. But the three men were arrested on suspicion of involvement.

They said at a news conference Friday that law enforcers had severely beaten them, deprived them of food and sleep and tortured them with gas masks. Shaikhutdinov said he spent the first five days of his detention without getting any sleep, one wrist handcuffed to the bars of his jail cell so as to prevent him from sitting down.

"At night we would stand and during the day they allowed us to sit down, telling us meanwhile to admit that we had acquired explosives," he said.

Shaikhutdinov said regional police and security officers had beat him several days in a row, trying to get him to confess involvement in the pipeline explosion and accuse his comrades.

"Then I fell and they continued beating me as I was lying with their hands and legs, aiming at my kidneys and groin and stomach," he said.

Geidar Dzhemal, head of Russia's Islamic Committee, accused law enforcement agencies of cracking down on Muslims, many of whom he said were prosecuted on false charges of extremism.


17.10.2005

Federal forces grab Dagestan rights activist

DAGESTAN. The Chechen human rights centre reports that early on 13 October, federal forces took away a Dagestan human rights activist, Abdurakhim Magomedov. The man was grabbed from his home village of Novo Sasitli, located close to Chechnya, and believed to have been taken to the Russian army's military base at Khankala, outside Grozny in Chechnya. The man is a co-chairman of a human rights organisation, Civic Alternative.

Magomedov is 70 years old. He is well-known in Dagestan and throughout the North Caucasus, and translated the Koran into Avar, one of the languages of Dagestan.

PRIMA-News Agency [2005-10-14-Dagestan-06]


eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 7/10/2005

Refugee camp unheated

Most rooms in a temporary accommodation point (TAP) for internally displaced persons in the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, are still unheated.

Dwellers of the Okruzhnaia TAP in Grozny's Zavodskoi district complain that no heat is supplied to their panel houses to date. Autumn cold weather is already beginning to affect the forced migrants.

"The small houses in which we live are made of thin panels. There are huge gaps, and there are draughts everywhere. Adults can stand piercing cold after all, but what about children? No heat supply system has yet been connected, we have to take some measures by ourselves — winterise the rooms, fill in the gaps," a TAP dweller, Zaman, 45, said. "Wherever we apply to - the migration service, the district administration, etc. — everywhere officials have one and the same answer: no funding. I cannot even imagine what will be in winter."

Zaman says that two years ago when refugees were transferred from camps in Ingushetia, local government representatives promised that all necessary conditions for normal living will be provided to them. "In reality, everything has turned out to be different," she says. "Living in the TAP does not practically differ from living in tarpaulin tents in anything. The same cold in winter and stifling heat in summer, and practically the same problems as in Ingushetia. It was promised that 500,000 roubles would be allocated for the needs of our TAP as far back as last year, to the best of my knowledge. This money has not been allocated to date."

Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent


eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 6/10/2005

Another victim of extrajudicial execution found

The body of a local resident abducted several months ago by a group of armed people was found in Chechnya's Grozny district.

This is what a source with republican law enforcement agencies told Caucasian Knot's correspondent. The man's body was found near Chechen-Aul, according to the interlocutor.

"The killed man was resident in Mesker-Yurt, Shali district. In July this year, he was abducted by a group of armed people in camouflage uniforms driving in a vehicle with darkened windows," the source said.

Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent


eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 11/10/2005

Dead bodies found in Chechnya

The bodies of three Chechnya residents, two police officers and a Grozny resident who were previously abducted by unknown persons, have been discovered, a source with republican law enforcement agencies said today.

The bodies of a police officer from the Oktiabrskii District Division of Internal Affairs in Grozny and a woman who worked as a secretary with a district administration head in the Chechen capital, have been found in a sand-pit near Berdykil, Grozny village district. Unidentified persons abducted them in late September this year.

The body of a police officer from the Pobedinskoye with marks of violent death has been found near Sernovodskaia, Sunzhenskaia district. He was abducted in April 2005, Interfax says.


20.10.2005

Chechen Diary

CHECHNYA. (Information from Organisation of Russian-Chechen Friendship & Union of Non-Governmental Organisations) In Chechnya there is no end to disappearances, killings, “special operations”, “addressed cleansing operations”, and arbitrary behaviour by Russian forces, the Chechen militia, as well as other unidentified groups.

6 October Grozny region. During the night, a member of the interior ministry force was killed by gunmen in the village of Vinogradnoye. Initial reports say he was shot at his front door.

7 October Achkoi-Martan region. In Kotar-Yurt, two brothers were taken by one of the state armed groups. The names were withheld on request of the two men’s relatives. During the day the older of the two brothers was released after having been tortured. One of his hands had been burned to the bone, and several fingers had been cut off. The fate of the second brother remains unknown.

Urus-Martan region. In Roshni-Chu, masked men in camouflage fatigues took a youth known only as Hamzat.

Shali region. Near the village of Mesker-Yurt, three corpses were discovered.

Grozny region. On the outskirts of the settlement Chechen-Aul, villagers discovered the body of an unknown man, with gunshot wounds to the head.

Vedeno region. From 12-15 October, the village of Azhi-Aul was subjected to bombardment from federal forces.

Grozny region. On the edge of Stariye Atagi, the body of a woman was discovered. Eyewitness accounts said the body showed signs of torture.

Vedeno region. In Vedeno, federal forces in combination with local armed forces carried out a so-called passport check, affecting all citizens and blocking all ways in and out of the town.

Grozny region. In Tolstoi-Yurt, armed forces killed a local inhabitant, age 22-25, near the Mosque. According to some information, the forces had been trying to arrest him, at which point the young man drew a pistol and opened fire.

Grozny. In the Oktyabr district, federal forces carried out a so-called Passport Control, checking documents and stopping all traffic.

8 October Urus-Martan region. A local woman, Gulya Bairmurzaeva, was shot dead by unknown gunmen. A criminal investigation has been opened, evidence being collected.

Vedeno region. From 4 to 6 a.m. a mountain range near Elistanzhi was subjected to bombardment with heavy weapons by federal forces. This has been a regular occurrence since the start of the month.

Grozny region. During the early hours two unidentified masked men entered the Hozhiev family home in Tolstoi-Yurt. They opened fire on Amzhi Hozhiev (33), seriously wounding him.

Achkoi-Martan region. A zachistka is underway in the villages of Samashki and Novy Sharoi. Local armed forces are carrying it out. All entrances to the villages are being blocked by tanks.

Shali region. Local police are conducting investigations into the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Aslambek Gazimagomaev, resident of the village of Mesker-Yurt. The man’s body, carrying signs of violent death, was found on the outskirts of the village on 5 October. Two days before, according to old routine, he was taken by masked men in unmarked vehicles.

Achkoi-Martan region. Samashki resident Emin Ayziev, detained by undetermined armed forces 4 months ago, has been released. He was ejected from a car not far from his home. Weak and in poor shape, the man was not able to get home without assistance. He said he “does not know” where he was and did not remember who he had been with. His relatives then took him away from the village.

Shali region. Residents of Avtury speak of repeated systematic morning bombardment of the outskirts of their village, a daily event for the last two weeks. The operations include howitzers and originate from Russian positions near the regional centre of Shali. Firing lasts around 40 minutes, between 4 and 6 a.m. Although the shelling is concentrated on the forests between Serzhen-Yurt and Avtury, the residents are nonetheless compelled to hide in their cellars. Villagers are thus subjected to stress, with heart attacks having been the result on occasions.

9 October Grozny region. Two men, Isa Horsaev and Usman Bakaev, were killed in the settlement of Prigorodnoye after stepping on a mine in a deserted holding.

Shali region. On the outskirts of Mesker-Yurt, the body of a young man carrying signs of torture was found in a wood.

Grozny. Pro-Moscow Chechen militia shot two residents of Samashki in the Grozny area of Staropromyslovskoye. The bodies of the men, Bekhan Katsaev and Ruslan Nasilov, were taken to the Russian military base at Khankala, outside Grozny. According to some information, Nasipov was the head of the Samashki Dzhamaat (rebel group).

Kurchaloi region. A 50-year-old man, Isa Dzhabihadhiev, was taken form his home by armed men. His son (16) was beaten up.

10 October Shali region. Armed men took three inhabitants from Noviye Atagi, named as Edilov, Idrisov and Terluev. While Terluev was released that day, the fate of the other two remains unknown.

Shelkovsky region. A boy aged 7 was taken from the village of Grebenskaya. According to eyewitnesses, the incident happened at the entrance to the local middle school. The kidnappers forced the boy into a car and drove off.

Grozny. Members of the Oktyabr local police and forces from the “anti-terrorist centre” killed two men during an operation at a crossroads. The men, Bekhan Katsaev (20) and Ruslan Nasilov (29), were said to be “active members of illegal armed formations”, and were “on the federal list for serious crimes committed in the Chechen Republic”. Nasilov was the “Emir of Achkoi-Martan region” and Katsaev his personal bodyguard. They were suspects in the murder of two policemen in March 2004; attacks on polling stations in 2003; and placing land mines on roads.

Shali region. On the edge of Kotar-Yurt, a body of a man was found with signs of an unnatural death. The body could not be identified.

Grozny region. The bodies of a man and a woman carrying signs of torture were found on the outskirts of Stariye Atagi.

Grozny region. In Prigorodnoye a so-called zachistka was carried out by federal forces. A man, Kharon Gatsaev (33), was detained. His whereabouts are unknown.

Grozny region. Two residents were taken from the village of Alkhan-Kala.

Vedeno region. At around 2 a.m. armed men with masks entered a house in Elistanzhi. The owner, Kameta Gakaeva, was questioned about the whereabouts of her son, searched her house, threatened her with punishment, and on leaving vowed to return. Gakaeva told a correspondent she did not know the reason for the non-authorised search. Neighbours said some of her relatives earlier took part in fighting for the Chechen Resistance.

11 October Grozny region. In the early hours of 11 October members of an unidentified armed force detained an inhabitant of Molsovkhoz 15, Aslanbek Sharipov. The man was taken away in an unmarked vehicle. His whereabouts are unknown.

Grozny region. In Stariye Atagi the burial of native inhabitant Madina Yunusova took place. The young woman had been working at the Oktyabr regional administration in Grozny. Relatives said she had been kidnapped together with a man who had been taking her home. Their bodies were found on 10 October with gunshot wounds to the head.

Ingushetia. On the federal road between Rostov on Don and Baku, a powerful explosion took place near Gamurzievo as a military column was passing. A member of a mobile Interior Ministry unit of Ingushetia was lightly injured. The bomb, with an estimated capacity of 2 kilos of TNT, contained bolts. A criminal investigation has been opened into the attack, the third at that place in a month, said to be on account of the greenery close to the road there.

Vedeno region. Two local schoolboys were released from Vedeno Interior Ministry detention. They had been detained on 9 October during identity checks by local and federal forces. The boys, Abdulkhadzhiev and Bibiev, residents of Elistanzhi, said they had been “treated correctly”, but gave no other details of their detention.

Grozny. Unknown men wearing masks and driving a Zhiguli car carried out an attack on hospital workers. According to eyewitnesses, the car carrying two hospital employees and also a director of studies from a local middle school, was fired at by men using pistols. One of the passengers was lightly injured. The attackers escaped with money from the injured passenger, a woman.

Grozny region. On the outskirts of Stariye Atagi the body of a woman was found in woodland. According to some information, she had been taken by unidentified masked men the day before, and her body showed signs of having been tortured.

Achkoi-Martan region. A man in the village of Katyr-Yurt was beaten by members of an armed force. The badly beaten 50-year-old Shahruddin Izaripov was taken to hospital, where his condition was described as “grave”.

Grozny region. The Mullah of Chechen-Aul, Arbi Musaev (50), was kidnapped.

12 October Urus-Martan region. In Alkhan-Yurt, an unidentified armed force detained two local inhabitants. A so-called zachistka was being carried out. All entrances into the village were blocked in the early hours of the morning.

Grozny. Two members of Chechen security organs were brought to the city’s hospital no. 9 with multiple gunshot wounds. The condition of the two men was said to be grave.

Urus-Martan region. A body of a man was found on the outskirts of the village Gehi. Some reports said the man was a native of the village who had been taken from his home on 10 October together with his sister.

13 October Shali region. During a so-called zachistka in Noviye Atagi, Russian forces took three men: Aslan Manaev, Saipa Elbuznukaev, and Magomed Kazimagomadov.

Sunzha region. In the early hours, a policeman was killed in Sernovodsk. Senior lieutenant Lom-Ali Hildiharoev, 36, was shot through the window of his house.

Shali region. Armed forces took two teenagers from Noviye Atagi. Locals say they are two brothers called Yamsaev. Reasons for their arrest and their whereabouts are unknown.

Grozny region. Russian forces bombarded the surroundings of Chechen-Aul.

Achkoi-Martan region. The village of Oreholo was subjected to a so-called zachistka. Inhabitants’ homes were entered and documents checked.

Achkoi-Martan region. In Samashki armed men took a man, named as Sharipov, aged 19 or 20.

Grozny. Pro-Moscow Chechen forces killed the driver of a car driving past. According to eyewitnesses, the incident, which occurred along the central boulevard in the city’s Staropromyslovsky region, happened because the driver did not stop to let a column of the Chechen forces pass. Therefore the armed men stopped the car, forced the driver out, and shot him in front of passers-by.

14 October Achkoi-Martan region. In the early hours, Russian armed forces subjected the area around Samashki to a massive bombardment. Fire came from one of the bases nearby. According to an inhabitant, shells flew over the village all night and exploded nearby. The bombardment started in the late evening and continued until dawn.

Grozny and Shali regions. The areas of Stariye Atagi and Noviye Atagi were subjected to bombardments from Russian army positions. According to a local inhabitant, the intensity of the shelling reminded of the events of spring 2000. towards 6 a.m. the bombardments became more intensive. Local inhabitants link the heavy shelling in the republic to the events in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, where rebels attacked state institutions in the capital Nalchik.

Sunzha region. In Sernovodsk a check of documents is underway. Local residents report the armed forces are checking documents and stopping cars.

Prima News Agency [2005-10-14-Chech-06]


RCFS reprots

Shalinskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 766

Passport checking in Avtury. No people have been detained

On 21 October 2005 at about 3 pm a police operation aimed at checking passport regime was completed in the village of Avtury of the Chechen Shali district. A correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency reports local people as saying that the operation was carried by the service personnel of the Chechen Shali district police office. There has been no information about detentions.

(From our correspondent)


Grozny rural district. Chechen Republic Report # 765

Assault aircrafts of the federal Air Force are going in the direction of Argun gorge

On 21 October 2005 at 6.15 am people living in the Chechen Grozny rural district saw three assault aircrafts of the Russian Air Force going in the direction of the Argun gorge. According to locals, the aircrafts were flying at a low altitude. There didn't hear any shooting.

(From our correspondent)


Grozny rural district. Chechen Republic Report # 764

Threat to blow up a school in Starye Atagi village

On 21 October 2005 at about 10 am in the village of Starye Atagi of the Chechen Grozny rural district all the school lessons at secondary school #2 were broken off as the information had been obtained that explosive device was planted in the school building. According to the preliminary information, unidentified people left a note containing threats to blow it up in the morning. All the pupils were immediately sent home. As of the present moment, sappers are working at the scene of the accident.

(From our correspondent)

Shalinskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 763

Shali district hospital is ready to work in cold seasons

On 20 October 2005 the chief doctor of Shali district hospital Sultan Chapsurkaev stated to a correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency that all the eight sections of the hospital are ready now to receive patients in autumn and winter. All the departments have been properly staffed and patients have been provided with food and medicines.

(From our correspondent)

Shalinskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 762

Head of Shali district administration held a meeting to discuss the situation with schools

On 19 October 2005 the head of Shali district administration Eduard Zakaev held a meeting to discuss the situation with the school buildings. The chief of the district department of education Khadji Umarov gave an account of the situation with school buildings. According to Umarov, all 27 schools situated in the district have been prepared to work in autumn and winter time. Gas heating systems have been installed in 25 schools and two schools situated in villages of Serzhen-Yurt and Aguishty are heated with either solid fuel or fire-wood. The head of the administration ordered a chief manager of Shali district forestry to provide the schools with ire-wood but head teachers of these schools prefer to buy fire-wood from private people. The secondary school situated in Avtury village has problems with low pressure in the gas pipe line. As a result, the school can't heat the school building properly. It is caused by the fact that many people in Avtury village earn their living by
producing bricks and it takes a lot of gas. The head of the village administration was ordered to find a solution to this problem.

It was planned to discuss the criminal situation in the district at the meeting too. However, the chief of Shali district police office didn't come to take part in the meeting.

(From our correspondent)


Vedeno district. Chechen Republic Report # 761

The vicinity of the Tevseni village has been subjected to shelling

On 19 October 2005 at daytime at about 12.20 pm the forested area situated near the village of Tevseni of the Chechen Vedeno district was subjected to shelling by the artillery of the Russian federal forces. There has been no information about casualties among the civilians.

(From our correspondent)


Vedeno district. Chechen Republic Report # 760

Two young people have been detained in Tsa-Vedeno village on suspicion of being connected with combatants

On 19 October 2005 the police detained two residents of the village of Tsa-Vedeno of the Chechen Vedeno district “on suspicion of being accomplices of members of unlawful armed groups”. These are Aslanbek Naibovich Mimalaev (aged 17) and Akraman Lomalievich Masaev (aged 19). Both young men are being kept in custody now. Their relatives have managed to find lawyers to defend them. Some of their fellow-villagers stated that young people really collaborated with the mojaheds but people are sure that they must have been forced to do it.

(From our correspondent)


Ingushetia Report # 759

New details of combatants' assault at households belonging to the police servicemen in Yandare village

Nasran district On 19 October 2005 the RCIA established particulars of the police servicemen whose households had been assaulted at night from 18 October 2005 to 19 October 2005 in Yandare village of Ingushetia's Nasran district. The RCIA reported before that at night of 18-19 October 2005 unidentified people opened fire at household belonging to the deputy chief of the criminal police at Nasran district police office Mustafa Kotikov and then burned it down (see O.R. from 19 October 2005). By some happy chance, none of the Kotikovs were at home at the time of the assault. Mustafa Kotikov has been treated in military hospital in Moscow for a month after he was wounded in summer of 2005. Kotikov's household was completely destroyed by the fire.

A correspondent of the RCIA has managed to find out that households of five more police servicemen were assaulted that night, including a RUBOP (department on combating the organized criminality) serviceman Gilani Kotigov, a commander of a special unit Rashid Ganiev, Issa Saltygov, Magomed Saltyfov and some Evloev (his first name has not been established). According to the testimonies of some of the locals, the automatic fire was heard for approximately five minutes. They also heard grenades going off. Then the assaulters set three of the households to fire and disappeared to an unknown destination.

It was also established that before assaulting the combatants set a checkpoint at the main bridge in Yandare village and stopped all the cars to check documents. At about midnight they stopped the car belonging to a resident of the village Magomed Khashagul'gov. They made the man get out of the car at gunpoint and highjacked the vehicle. The car was found near the forest in the morning. There is information that combatants seized a few cars belonging to local people in the same way.

According to one of the preliminary versions, the assault and the arson of the households must have been caused by the revenge of the combatants for Bashir Pliev's murder. Pliev was a former chief of the security department at the Ministry of the Interior of Ingushetia. Having joined the combatants, Pliev participated in the assault at administrative quarters in Ingushetia carried by combatants in June 2004. He was wanted by the police. It is known that Mustafa Kotikov headed the operation aimed at Pliev's annihilation. In the operation Kotikov was seriously wounded and taken to Moscow where he has been undergoing medical treatment since that.

(From our correspondent)

Ingushetia Report # 758

Armed assault at the household belonging to the deputy chief of the criminal police department at Nasran district police office

Nasran district At night from 18 to 19 October 2005 a group of unidentifiable armed people opened automatic fire at the household belonging to a police captain Mustafa Kotikov who is the deputy chief of the of the criminal police department at Nasran district police office. The household is situated in Yandare village of Ingushetia's Nasran district and then the assaulters set it on fire. By some happy chance, none of the members of the Kotikovs were at home at that time. The owner of the house has being undergoing medical treatment in a military hospital almost a month. Kotikov's household has been completely destroyed by fire.

A correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency turned to Nasran district police office with the request to comment on the occurrence but everybody refused to do it. Residents of Yandare village assume that fighters of the so-called unlawful armed formations must have revenged annihilation of the former serviceman of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia Bashir Pliev on 23 August 2005 by assaulting Kotikov's household. Bashir Pliev had joined combatants and he was one of those who Shamil Basaev trusted a lot. Pliev was wanted by the police for the assault at administrative quarters in Ingushetia on 21-22 June 2004. Mustafa Kotikov headed the operation aimed at annihilation Pliev.

(From our correspondent)


Vedeno district. Chechen Republic Report # 754

Passport checking in the village of Tsa-Vedeno and bombardment of the neighboring forest there

On 14 October 2005 the Russian military and service personnel of the local force agencies carried passport checking in the village of Tsa-Vedeno of the Chechen Vedeno district. Two young men (aged 18 and 19) were detained in the operation as they are not registered in the village. Both of them came to the village to visit their grandmother. After established all the details the young people were released two hours after the detention. They were not subjected to violence.

From 9 until 10 pm the same day the forested area situated in the vicinity of Tsa-Vedeno village was subjected to bombardment. A few mortar shots were delivered from the site where the Russian military unit is stationed.

(From our correspondent)


Vedeno district. Chechen Republic Report # 753

Female resident of Elistanzhi is released after being tortured

On 15 October 2005 the Russian-Chechen Information Agency received information about releasing Toita Jabrailova, a resident pf the village of Elistanzhi of the Chechen Vedeno district after her arbitrary detention by the Russian military on 16 September 2005. A correspospondent of the RCIA reports her fellow-villagers as saying that Jabrailova was released two or three days ago. They also told the RCIA correspondent that Toita was subjected to torture while she was being kept in custody. She was regularly beaten up by force agents who were trying to establish the whereabouts of one of her relatives who is reportedly involved into activities of the Chechen combatants. The released woman refuses to talk to journalists.

According to the information obtained by the RCIA before, Jabrailova Toita (born 1969) was subjected to arbitrarily detention by the Russian military on 16 September 2005 at about 7.30 am at the entrance checkpoint to the village of Serzhen-Yurt of the Chechen Shali district. The woman was going on a bus from Elistanzhi village to Grozny. The bus was stopped by the service personnel manning a mobile checkpoint. According to testimonies of eye-witnesses, having checked the passports of all the passengers of the bus, the military took Toita Jabrailova out of the bus, forced her get into their vehicle and drove away to an unknown destination. Some of the bus passengers made an attempt to prevent the military from arbitrarily detaining the woman but they were beaten up by the military.

(From our correspondent)


Shalinskiy district. Chechen Republic Report # 752

Kadyrovtsy have beaten up a resident of Shali

On 15 October 2005 two servicemen of the unit at the anti-terror center that is stationed in Shali town of the Chechen Republic (these are units subordinate to Kadyrov) subjected a local resident to brutal beating. A correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency happened to witness the accident.

The accident happened at about 12.15 pm not far from the central market. There is a very busy road junction there and traffic jams happen regularly there. A 40-year-old driver of a “Zhiguli” car of the 6th model stroke against a “Zhiguli” car of the 10th model by accident. There were two servicemen of the anti-terror center in that car (aged 20-25). The car belonging to “kadyrovtsy” was slightly damaged. “Kadyrovtsy” burst out of their car, dragged the driver out of his car on to the roadway and started beating him up with butts of their guns. Some witnesses interfered and they managed to drag the “fighters on terror” from their victim. The beaten man was immediately taken to Shali district central hospital. “Kadyrovtsy” got into their car and entered the territory of their permanent post in Shali that is situated in Ivanovskaya Street.

(From our correspondent)


Nizniy Novgorod Report # 751

Acknowledgement of the evident fact: the tax agencies have confirmed the political background of their claims to the RCFS

14.10.2005. Nizhny Novgorod. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society received a letter from the Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region in response to their complaint about the decisions taken by the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district that had been submitted some time before. The RCFS asked to cancel the decision taken by the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district to impose the profit tax upon the assets received by the RCFS to implement specified projects. The complaint was submitted to the superior tax body in accordance with the procedure established by Article 139 of the Tax Code. The Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region represented by the deputy chief inspector of the administration Natalya Mamykina made a decision not to comply with the request. She explained her decision by stating, for instance, that the RCFS had published Maskhadov's and Zakaev's peace appeals in its newspaper. According to Mamykina, publication of
these appeals contradicts both to the statutes of the RCFS and to article 2 of some federal law (she didn't indicate what law she meant).

Moreover, Ms. Mamykina stated in her letter that “according to part 5 of article 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, establishment and activities of public associations which activities are aimed at forcible change of the constitutional order and disrupting the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, threatening the safety of the state, organizing armed groups and inciting to social, ethnic or religious animosity are prohibited”. Then Natalya Mamykina comes to the conclusion that the organization has received the funds with the framework of implementing charity activities. However, Mamykina claims that “they are considered as a profit of the organization as it has spent the received funds beside the purposes of the projects. Thus, the profit tax can be imposed upon them”.

“The tax officials have been persuading everybody that their actions against the RCFS are just a regular tax inspection, that it is observance of the tax law that they are interested in and there is no political background in this case. Now Ms. Mamykina is behaving like the corporal's widow who has whipped herself. Mamykina has acknowledged that the tax claims have been directly caused by publication of Maskhadov's and Zakaev's appeals by the RCFS. Bravo!”, commented Dmitrievsky the response made by the Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Dmitrievsky continues, “If we consider Mamykina's work from the point of view of the law, it's not clear for me how an official of the tax inspection can give her estimates to the content of the publications in our newspaper. According to the law, it is the prerogative of court of general jurisdiction or Information Ministry or the Committee on Disputes on Information, as the last resort. The tax bodies have nothing to do with these issues. From the legal point of view, the fact the regional prosecutorship perceived these articles calling to the peaceful reconciliation of the Russian-Chechen conflict as incitement to ethnic animosity and decided to prefer charges against me means nothing. The prosecutorship has to prove these accusations in court and I think that they are going to have many problems to do it. I'd like to remind Mrs. Mamykina that according to part 1 of Article 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a person suspected of committing a crime is regarded
innocent unless their guilt is proved in court and court verdict gets its legal force. The same refers to the dirty hints made by Mamykina that activities of our public association are aimed against the forcible change of the Constitutional order and similar nonsense. I have to remind here that the only court verdict of March last year that had something to do with our organization referred to a 500-ruble fine for some inaccuracy in the date-line of our newspaper. That's all!”

In conclusion the executive manager of the RCFS stated, “It goes without saying that we are going to appeal this decision as it is ignorant from the point of view of law. But it is important that we have obtained irrefutable evidence that the tax bodies and the prosecutorship are acting jointly against us, that they are coordinating measures undertaken to destroy the human rights organization. We have not sent any issues of the newspaper to the tax inspection and they didn't demand it as they don't have such a right according to the law. Natalya Mamykina must have received information about Maskhadov's and Zakaev's appeals in the newspaper only from the prosecutor's office of Nizhny Novgorod region. But it is a gross violation of the principle of the secrecy of investigation”.

As we reported before, on 15 August 2005 the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district made Resolution #25 to bring the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society to tax accountability for alleged breaking the tax law. The deputy chief of the tax inspection M. Yu. Trifonov claimed in this document that the Society has to pay taxes and fines amounting to 1 001 561 rubles for the funds that they had received from international donors to implement their specific projects. On 24 August the RCFS appealed this decision at the Arbitrage Court of Nizhny Novgorod region as unlawful and ungrounded. The complaint lodged by the RCFS is to be considered on 26 October at the Arbitrage court. The RCFS also appealed this decision to the superior tax body that is the Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Besides, on 2 September the chief editor of the “Pravo-zaschita” newspaper and the executive manager of the RCFS Stanislav Dmitrievsky was officially charged of committing the crime under paragraph b of part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“inciting to animosity”). The charges refer to the fact of publication Askan Maskhadov's open letter to the European Parliament and Akhmed Zakaev's appeal to the people of Russia that contain tough rhetoric against the policy of president Putin in the North Caucasus.

(From our correspondent)

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