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RUSSIA: CPJ disturbed by new FSB harassment on journalist Yuri Bagrov New York, May 23, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the continued harassment of Yuri Bagrov, a North Caucasus correspondent for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). A Federal Security Service (FSB) agent prevented Bagrov from covering an opposition rally on Friday, then followed him back to his office and threatened him, the correspondent told CPJ in a telephone interview today. An opposition demonstration against local government corruption attracted 700 people in downtown Vladikavkaz, the North Ossetian capital, on Friday. When Bagrov tried to interview one of the rally organizers, an FSB agent ordered the reporter to stop the interview because he was “violating the Russian media law by working without the appropriate press accreditation,” Bagrov said. When Bagrov tried to contest the order, the agent “promised him troubles” if he did not obey. Bagrov said he recorded the conversation and intended to include it in his report for RFE/RL. A Russian court pulled Bagrov’s passport and press credentials late last year as part of a politicized criminal prosecution. Shortly after Bagrov returned to his office on Friday, he said, the agent entered the premises and demanded the tape be erased. The agent said Bagrov would have “very big problems, much bigger than the ones he has already dealt with,” the journalist told CPJ. “I was forced to erase my recordings,” Bagrov told CPJ. “For a moment, I did succumb to the intimidation, fearing for the safety of my family.” A day earlier, Vladikavkaz police and the FSB prevented Bagrov from covering the second hearing in the trial of Nurpashi Kulayev, the only survivor among the armed fighters who took more than 1,000 children, parents, and teachers hostage in a public school in Beslan in September 2004. Last Thursday, a police officer and several plainclothes FSB officers stopped Bagrov at the North Ossetian Supreme Court entrance and told him he could not proceed to the hearing because he lacked Foreign Ministry accreditation. Background 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. He 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. 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 discs, 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. In February, an official from the Interior Ministry’s Passport and Visa Service in Vladikavkaz summoned Bagrov to the passport office to inform him of an FSB-issued order for his deportation. However, the Passport and Visa Service did not find Bagrov in violation of any laws that could lead to deportation. This month, Human Rights Watch awarded Bagrov the Hellman/Hammett Grant for writers worldwide who have been victims of political persecution. For more information on Yuri Bagrov, read related CPJ alerts here: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Russia15feb05na.html http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Russia16feb05na.html © 2005 Committee to Protect Journalists. http://www.cpj.org E-mail: info@cpj.org eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 23/5/2005 Human rights defenders share grave figures Ninety-seven have been abducted in Chechnya in 2005, including 53 still missing, Dmitry Grushkin of the Human Rights Centre Memorial says. "Since 2002, 1,579 residents of Chechnya have been abducted according to our information. Of these, 917 have disappeared, 492 have been released and 160 have been found killed. Another ten persons who were deemed abducted are under investigation," Grushkin says. Besides, he said 3,131 residents of the republic died under various circumstances other than military action in Chechnya between the second half of 2002 and 2005, according to the human rights defenders' information. "Our monitoring covers just 30% of the territory of the Chechen Republic and even in this territory we cannot register all committed crimes. So the information we provide is not exhaustive," Grushkin said, quoted by Interfax. Belarus extradites Chechen militant to Russia 23.05.2005 MOSCOW, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - Belarussian authorities have extradited to Russian law enforcers Nurmagomed Khatuyev, who took part in the assault by a band led by Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev of town of Budyonnovsk in southern Russia in June 1995. The chief of the Southern regional branch of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Nikolai Khazikov, told Itar-Tass on Monday that Khatueyev, who hails from the Chechen village of Goity, had been formally charged with banditry and hostage taking. He said Khatyuev was "another bandit who will stand trial for the participation in the attack of Budyonnovsk". Twenty gunmen involved in the hostage-talking raid of a Budyonnovsk hospital had been earlier arrested and convicted, Khazikov said. He said 30 other bandits who attacked Budyonnovsk with the Basayev-led band had been spotted and killed as they resisted arrest. "They included such odious figures as Movsayev and field commanders known by their nicknames as Big Aslambek and Little Aslambek. None of the bandits who took part in the attack of the Stavropol territory's town will escape responsibility," Khazikov said. Khatuyev was detained at the Belarussian capital's Minsk's airport where he arrived from Istanbul. He showed to border guards a false passport, but his identity was established by a close look. The Belarussian mass media said Russian security agencies also suspect Khatuyev of involvement in a hostage-taking raid of a Moscow theatre. Basayev's band took 1,800 people hostage in Budyonnovsk in June 1995. The assaults left 126 local residents, including policemen, dead and 18 others died in hospital later. In early 2005, Belarus extradited to Russia Valid Agayev and Kazbek Dukuzov, who are suspected of involvement in the murder of Paul Khlebnikov, an editor of the Russian version of the magazine Forbes.