| April 22nd 2005 ·
Prague Watchdog More than twenty people have been kidnapped within the space of one month in two districts of Chechnya Ruslan Isayev CHECHNYA – Between March 16 and April 19 in the village of Starye Atagi representatives of the official law enforcement agencies arrested 6 people, including a young woman of 23, and drove them off in an unknown direction: Ruslan Ebayev, 50, father of 2. Lived in Moscow. Abducted on April 15 by Chechen and Russian law enforcers. Present location unknown. Rizvan Oybuyev, 34. Abducted by soldiers on March 18-19. Mother and father badly beaten. Present location unknown. Aslan Turluyev. Abducted by soldiers on March 27. Was in RUBOP (Regional Center for Fight against Organized Crime). Signed documents under pressure. On April 15-16 medical nurse Yupayeva (Apayeva), aged 22-23, was abducted from a hospital. Seized by soldiers. Present location unknown. On April 19 Ramzan Kuntayev, 30, and Rustam Sambiyev, 25. Kuntayev – a police official – was released, but the other man cannot be found. A Moscow businessman named Maayev, who had come home to stay for a while, was kidnapped and abducted by an unknown law enforcement agency on the second night of his arrival. He was freed on payment of a large ransom. A few days ago Movsar Davletbiyev and his son were kidnapped from the village of Chiri-Yurt. The father was beaten up and released, while the son is still being held in the SIZO (solitary confinement block) in Shali. He is being made to give information about the location of guerrillas. In the neighbouring village of Duba-Yurt two local residents have also been kidnapped. For 19 days now there has been no information on the whereabouts of two residents of Argun – Kazbek Khizrailov and Saykhan Umalatov. They were arrested by officials of one of the law enforcement agencies beside the Argun highway while gathering scrap metal on a rubbish dump. Both are suspected of laying landmines on the highway while pretending to gather scrap metal. In the space of one month more than twenty people have been kidnapped in four villages of the Shali and Grozny rural districts. Translated by David McDuff. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=572867 No 73 (No 3157) 23.04.2005 They convicted Aslan Maskhadov posthumously // President of Ichkeria buried as a terrorist// [passage omitted] "His (Maskhadov's - K) widow and children prepare an appeal against the Russian authorities to the Strasbourg court"- reported yesterday to Kommersant, located in France acting chairman of the parliament of Ichkeria Selim Beshayev. Furthermore, according to Mr. Beshayev, it's possible that a question about handing over of Maskhadov's body will be discussed on 25 April at the current session of PACE: "We've already got agreement of several deputies of the European Union that they will make a statement with the requirement to hand over Maskadov's body to his relatives". True, Mr. Beshayev didn't say which deputies will do that. However, the Attorney General's Office won't to change its decision. "Within the framework of investigation of terrorist act in the no 1 Beslan school - stated yesterday Nikolai Shepel - the investigation obtained evidence of participation of Aslan Maskhadov in organizing of this act of terror. This evidence was presented to the Vladikavkaz court, which on 22 December 2004 sanctioned the arrest of Maskhadov as a terrorist, who participated in this act of terror. That means, the court agreed with evidence, presented by the investigation. In this connection, with Aslan Maskhadov's body to do otherwise, as with a body of terrorist, according to our law about terrorism, couldn't be done". Meanwhile Ruslan Yamadayev, the Deputy of Duma from Chechnya, the hero of Russia considers that it would be possible to bury Maskhadov not in secret. "I would want to see Maskadov's and Basayev's graves in the republic - stated to Kommersant Mr. Yamadayev. - I think that there wouldn't be any passions around these burials, because these so-called heroes, besides grief, haven't brought to the Chechens anything". Musa Muradov, Aleksandra Larintseva, Stavropol Refugees as a change card Frequently callousness of officials injures life and safety of simple people. The real guarantee of safety of a person is geniality, attention and competence of people, especially from the authority. Conventions, international laws, canons of religion, human customs are the essence only of words and books. But if they have not touched the heart, we suffer from human indifference! One week ago at attempt to cross the Ukrainian-Slovak boarder 9 people, Chechen refugees, were detained by Ukrainian frontier guards. 1. Hamzatov Edik, born in 1976, the status No. 4731, (the inhabitant of Starye Atagi); 2. Hadisova Liza, born in 1983, the status No. 4731, (the inhabitant of Starye Atagi); 3. Gerihanov Movsar, born in 1977, the status of a refugee No. 5558, (Argun) 4. Dzhamaev Imran, born in 1985, (has left the Chechen Republic ) 5. Bashaeva Amnat, 50 years old, from Naur - mother of three children: 6. Hadzhimagomadova Heda, 22 years old 7. Hadzhimagomadova Rusalina, 16 years old 8. Hadzhimagomadov Abdulla, 16 years old 9. Hadzhimagomadova Aset, 5 years old, daughter of Hava They left Baku on the 26 th of March, except for Dzhamaev Imran. He joined them in Uzhgorod. They were registered in the Azerbaijan republic, in the Baku center of the UVKB of the United Nations, but because of hopelessness of financial situation they decided to get to Europe quickly. In Baku refugees receive the time help about 80 dollars only for three months for an average family. Then they receive a refusal paper at least for three months. According to the preliminary data, all these refugees have been deported to Russia, what is forbidden by the Convention of human rights, clause 33, which is named so: "Prohibition of deport of refugees or their compulsory returning (in the countries from which they have arrived)". This clause is literally the following: "The agreeing states will not send or return refugees to the border of the country, where their life or freedom is threatened with danger owing to their race, religion, citizenship, an accessory to certain social group or political convictions". We ask people and organizations, who are able to take part in destiny of these refugees to respond until the antihuman state machine of Russia has crippled lives and destiny of these people. And the God will remunerate you! The Legal Center of Chechen refugees, Baku, Chechenpress, the Department of letters, 22.04.05. http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/04/22/04.shtml Monday, April 25, 2005. Issue 3153. Page 3. UN Scolds Belarus but Ignores Chechnya The Associated Press GENEVA — The UN Human Rights Commission, widely accused of shielding some governments from criticism, concluded what might be its last annual meeting Friday with a top UN official calling its performance "demonstrably deficient.'' During its six-week session, the 53-nation commission condemned human rights abuses in Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Myanmar. But it did not consider potential abuses in Chechnya, China or Zimbabwe. Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, told the commission at its final session that its performance was "demonstrably deficient." "There is something fundamentally wrong with a system in which the question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world is answered only by reference to four states," said Arbour, a Canadian legal expert. Other critics say authorities in Russia, China and Zimbabwe — whose representatives are on the commission — have been shielded from condemnation. Under UN rules, members are picked by regional groups, which means that several states which have been criticized for abuses are on the panel. Countries criticized by the UN body face no penalties, even though most governments push hard to avoid such censure. "Even though the commission took some positive steps, overall it was even more timid than in preceding years," said Joanna Weschler of Human Rights Watch. "This only confirms the need to replace the commission with a body that would take more decisive action against human rights violations wherever they occur, respond to human rights crises and be ready to follow up on commitments made by violating countries," Weschler said. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed replacing the commission with a new, permanent human rights body with greater authority, possibly on a par with the powerful Security Council. Annan has said he wants the world body's General Assembly to decide on possible reforms by September. "We have reached a point at which the commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole, and where piecemeal reforms will not be enough," Annan told delegates of the commission, adding that the watchdog is failing to do what is needed to protect against abuses — particularly in Darfur. The commission has been meeting, generally in just one annual session of several weeks, since 1948. Relatives of Slain Chechen Leader Maskhadov to Sue Russia Over Secret Burial Created: 25.04.2005 MosNews The family of slain Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov is planning to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and demand that Russian authorities hand over his body which was buried in a secret location, the Associated Press news agency reported citing Maskhadov's son Anzor as saying. A senior Russian prosecutor said on Friday that Maskhadov had been buried secretly in line with legislation allowing authorities to refuse to release the bodies of terrorists to their family. "We still hope that this decision will be revised and the body will be given to us. In case they don't change their mind we will have to appeal to the Strasbourg court," the Associated Press quoted Anzor Maskhadov as saying. The European court's rulings are binding on all 46 members of the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights watchdog. Russian security forces killed Maskhadov on March 8 in a special operation in northern Chechnya. Critics of Russia's politics in the volatile republic have raised numerous questions about the legitimacy of the operation and Russian public figures have supported Maskhadov's family in their request for the body handover. Nevertheless, the request was not fulfilled. |