| Chechen invalids and ill people have
declared a hunger-strike Driven to despair Chechen invalids and ill people in Baku have declared term less hunger-strike, which begins since February, 23. There are a lot of reasons, because of which the most restrained part of the Chechen refugees have determined for the extreme measure; among them there are the following ones: · The official refusal of the Management of the Supreme Commissioner of the United Nations (MSCUN) in Azerbaijan in giving of international status of refugees to them of the sample of 1951; · Practical absence of financial, material, medical and other kinds of help from the MSC of the United Nations; · Refusal in the international status is not motivated from the legal point of view; · Activity of the office of the MSC of the United Nations has a closed character, while the openness is a key to mutual understanding between the office of the MSC of the United Nations and refugees. Invalids and ill people claim, that during their stay in Azerbaijan , for 4-5 years, there had not been any acts of terrorism or any offences from their party. This circumstance should form the basis for delivery of the international status and citizenship of any country to invalids and ill people. Default by employees of the basic norms of the Charter of the United Nations and requirements of the Supreme Commissioner pushes the Chechen refugees to returning to the Chechen Republic, where military operations proceed and where their life is in danger, is regarded by the Chechen invalids and patients as a certain version of genocide of the Chechen people. Participants of the hunger-strike apply to the legal experts and mass-media with the request to report about their requirements to the management of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the MSC of the United Nations and other international organizations. Baku, Azerbaijan Chechenpress , the Department of the operative information 24.02.05 http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/02/24/01.shtml Russian Commander in Chechnya Vows to Kill 3 Rebels for Every Soldier Created: 22.02.2005 14:47 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:47 MSK, MosNews The commander of the 42nd motorized rifle division General-Major Sergei Surovikov said he would kill three rebels for every soldier killed on Monday in an attack in Grozny, Interfax reported. Nine servicemen were killed and three more injured in the rebel attack on Monday, the military prosecutor's office reported earlier. The servicemen died in an exchange of fire with gunmen. According to some sources, grenade launcher fire caused a building to collapse that killed the servicemen. The attackers numbered at least five. One of them was killed by return fire. Earlier reports said that nine servicemen were killed when a roof collapsed at a poultry farm on the outskirts of Grozny. It occurred at about 19:50 local time on Monday, a source in the military prosecutor's office for the troops deployed in Chechnya told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. Six servicemen of the Defense Ministry died in the incident, and another three died on the way to hospital. Surovikov also said that, according to his information, his servicemen eliminated two rebels and wounded another one. RUSSIA: Interior Ministry says journalist will not be deported New York, February 22, 2005—The Interior Ministry in North Ossetia says a journalist recently ordered deported by the Federal Security Service may instead stay in Russia and reapply for citizenship, according to local press reports. But the apparent shift does not lift any of the restrictions that have prevented Yuri Bagrov—who has covered the North Caucasus for The Associated Press and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—from reporting for the last six months. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Russian government to take genuine steps to allow Bagrov to report freely. The Interior Ministry issued a statement on Friday saying that Bagrov is officially registered as a resident in North Ossetia and may lawfully remain in the republic, the online Moscow-based news Web site Gazeta.ru reported. The statement came days after CPJ and other free press groups protested Bagrov's pending deportation. But Bagrov told CPJ today that he remains frustrated by the Interior Ministry position. He noted that the ministry's statement does not remove any of the obstacles that have prevented him from reporting. His passport was confiscated during a Federal Security Service (FSB) investigation last year, leaving him without the identification needed to cover local news events or the documents required for travel outside the regional capital, Vladikavkaz. Bagrov was convicted in December 2004 on criminal charges of using falsified documents to obtain Russian citizenship after he moved from Georgia to North Ossetia more than a decade ago. CPJ has questioned whether the conviction was politically motivated, noting that the FSB probe was launched after Bagrov wrote a number of politically sensitive stories. The journalist lost an appeal in January before the Supreme Court of North Ossetia, and learned last week that the FSB wanted him deported. Background On August 25, 2004, agents from the local FSB branch raided Bagrov's apartment, his office, and his mother's apartment. FSB agents presented a court order authorizing them to search for weapons, ammunition, drugs, and forgery-related items. They confiscated Bagrov's passport and other personal documents, personal and work computers, computer disks, film, tape recorder and tapes, and his wife's diaries, according to local and international press reports. Several unidentified men followed him for several days after the raid, Bagrov said. Also during that time, unidentified assailants stole his wife's passport. Bagrov reported for The Associated Press from 1999 to September 2004, writing numerous stories that included closely held casualty figures for Russian military and police forces in Chechnya, information that sometimes differed from the official figures. Bagrov is also known for his investigative reporting, including a February 10, 2004, story on the radicalization of Chechen rebels and a May 24, 2004, story on a wave of mysterious abductions in the southern republic of Ingushetia. © 2005 Committee to Protect Journalists. http://www.cpj.org E-mail: info@cpj.org http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Russia22feb05na.html Belarus Extradites 2 Chechens to Russia By Associated Press February 22, 2005 MOSCOW -- Two ethnic Chechens suspected of involvement in the death of the American editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition were extradited from Belarus to Russia on Tuesday, according to Russian news reports. The two suspects were arrested Nov. 17 in the Belarusian capital and had been held by Belarusian security services. Russia's NTV television showed the men, identified as Kazbek Dukuzov and Valid Agayev, being led in handcuffs through a Minsk airport. The July killing of Paul Klebnikov, 41, compounded concerns about the safety of journalists in Russia and about the violence often used to settle scores. Speculation on a motive has focused on Klebnikov's writing about the Russian business world. In the spring, Forbes published a list of Russia's 100 richest people, which could have drawn unwanted attention to people sensitive about the source of their wealth. Some commentators have said a Chechen link was also possible, pointing to Klebnikov's book based on his interviews with Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, a former deputy prime minister in the Chechen separatist government. The book published last year, "Conversations With a Barbarian," cast Nukhayev and other Chechen rebels in a sharply negative light. Two Chechens arrested last September for allegedly participating in the killing were later released without charges. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment by N.S.: "They conveniently forget that these two guys "are said to" have connections with the pro-Russian puppet regime in Chechnya." |