| Caucasus Muslims decry state abuses By Dario Thuburn AFP, 24/10/2005 Local Muslims this week denounced a climate of fear for believers and criticised state-backed Islamic officials as this North Caucasus city struggled to understand why dozens of local men took up arms against the state. "There is complete police arbitrariness... and judges get their orders against Muslims by telephone," said Ali Pshigotizhev, 55, an unemployed former radio presenter with a charcoal-grey beard. Pshigotizhev's son, Zaur, 29, a taxi driver, was arrested on suspicion of taking part in a wave of attacks on police and security forces outposts in Nalchik last week that officials said killed 12 civilians and 36 law enforcement officers. Outside the main government building in central Nalchik, female relatives of the 92 militants officially reported killed in the attacks demanded authorities return their loved ones' corpses for burial. "He saw so much injustice in the police force that he decided to retrain as a lawyer," said the aunt of Khasbulat Kerefov, 24, who said her nephew had gone missing during the attacks. Under heavy rain, the women described beatings and humiliating abuses in local police stations. Many said their sons, brothers and nephews could not get jobs or university places because of their beliefs. "They call us the Wahhabists. They are people and we are non-people," said Marina, 19, whose 33-year-old uncle, a builder, took part in the attacks and who declined to give her surname for fear of police reprisals. Local lawyer Larisa Dorogova has written dozens of petitions over the past few years from local Muslims denouncing repressive police measures against perceived Islamic radicalism, referred to generically as "Wahhabism" in Russia. "The police mocked them... They went to war against those who waged war against them," Dorogova said. Many believers were angered at the closure of six mosques in and around Nalchik last year. "They were training to use weapons in the mosques... that's why they were closed down," Marina Kyasova, a local interior ministry spokeswoman, told AFP in a building still scarred by bullet holes from the militants' attacks. "We should have acted more forcefully... We shouldn't just copy democracy and human rights from other countries - we should adapt them to our own conditions," Kyasova said. Interior ministry officials and Islamic officials at the state-sponsored central mosque built last year denied massive police abuse preceding the attacks. "Maybe there were some individual cases of police abuse but these were exceptions and they should be resolved according to the law," said Khaizir Otarov, a mosque official. Otarov said the republic has 142 mosques, a marked difference from Soviet-era repression of Muslims. But Arsen Kanokov, the leader of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic appointed by the Kremlin in September to roll back endemic corruption, economic collapse and a growing Islamic insurgency, told AFP abuses against Muslims did take place. "There were excesses... On one side there was harsh pressure from the authorities, on the other a very low quality of life," Kanokov said, adding that mosque closures had fed anger among local Muslims. "Our republic was not ready for freedom of religion," said Khazrat-Ali Dzasezhev, Kabardino-Balkaria's chief imam, wearing a tall white cap and a black leather jacket. During the 1990s, young Muslims from the republic travelled to the Middle East for Islamic studies. Some believers say they brought back true Islam, incurring the suspicion of the authorities but officials say problems with the police started after these men were brainwashed with extremist ideas. A few of the militants in last week's attacks, observers said, used to worship at the Volny Aul mosque - a converted cinema on the outskirts of Nalchik that was turned into local administration offices last year. In front of the freshly-painted building, five security officers stand guard, eating lakum, a local pancake cooked on Muslim holidays during the month of Ramadan - their machine gun trained on the deserted street outside. - AFP Member of Pro-Kremlin Party Accuses Police of Torturing Terror Suspects in Nalchik Created: 26.10.2005 MosNews A pro-Kremlin party member was detained by the police in a counter-terrorist cleanup operation in Russia's Nalchik. After his acquaintances in the security service helped him out, he told Gazeta.ru in an interview of the torture he saw and experienced while in detention. Ramazan Tembotov, a local activist of the United Russia party was detained Sunday and spent only 24 hours in detention. Before the arrest he managed to call an acquaintance in the security services, which he now says must have saved him. "Masked people rushed at me with no explanation, forced me down to the ground, swearing. It was a disgrace, I am a deputy and everybody knows me here," Tembotov told Gazeta.ru. The police, struggling to reach the planned number of solved crimes and arrested militants, torture the detainees into admitting their guilt, Tembotov said. "Compared to others, I almost avoided the torture. But I was shown around the rooms and cellars and I saw what they did to other detainees: tortured them worse than the Gestapo. No lawyers, no interrogations, just torture until you admit your guilt and name several more people," he said. Cleanups in the southern city of Nalchik were launched after 12 civilians and 24 military were killed and 139 wounded in a rebel raid on Oct. 13. At least 2,000 people have been arrested, according to the number of complaints filed by the detainees' mothers. Nobody would ever consider these complaints, Tembotov said. The cleanups are carried out according to special lists, Tembotov says. The Wahhabis (the militants), mosque-goers, anybody who has a doubtful criminal record just about anybody can get on the list. Tembotov, however, is optimistic about the situation in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The new president Kanokov will see that the pressure on Muslims is eased in the republic, and the local chiefs responsible for the cleanups will be fired, he says. "I am sure Konokov will find a way to stop the lawlessness," he said. HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER «MEMORIAL» Russian Federation,103051 Đoscow, Đ.Karetnii pereulok 12 Tel. +7-095-200 6506, Fax: +7-095-209 5779 E-mail: memhrc@memo.ru, Web-site: www.memo.ru On the Events of 13-14 October 2005 in Nalchik Representatives of HRC âMemorialâ visited Nalchik and interviewed local residents, who witnessed the events of October 13-14. Below is a short summary of the monitoring results. Most of the participants of the insurgency were young people aged 17-20, permanent residents of Kabardino-Balkariya. Dressed in sportswear and jeans, they moved by cars and attacked objects in small groups, usually of five. According to preliminary information, among the killed fighters were one ethnic Ingush, two Russians and three Osetians, the rest - Kabardines and Balkars. It seems that the young people could hardly handle guns; they were mostly killed during the operation. A significant part of the insurgents were students and off springs of rather well - off middle class families. Many of the insurgents lived in the same district of Nalchik. Near the airport and the building of FSB were different fighters â according to the locals, they were professionals, were dressed in camouflage and acted in larger groups of about ten. However, according to preliminary information, they were not among the killed insurgents, most likely they managed to freely escape the city. Representatives of âMemorialâ interviewed residents of Nalchik about their perspectives on the reasons behind en mass participation of local youth in the events of October 13. The interviewees explained, that preconditions for the insurgency had been gradually created by the republican authorities, and the tragedy of October 13 was the price for the âstabilityâ in Kabardino-Balkariya. This âstabilityâ was ensured first of all by administrative and police measures with all side- effects due to them. After the insurgency to Ingushetia in June 21-22 2004 and the tragedy of Beslan, the âpreventiveâ measures taken by the authorities were so assertive that they had a reverse effect. Thus, in 2004-2005 in Kabardino-Balkariya many mosques were closed, including major ones in Volny Aul and Alexandrovka. Many village mosques were opened by local militiamen for the time of Friday prayers only and then locked back again. This Muslim youth was forced out of the mosques to alternative religious communities, the so called âdzamaatsâ. As a result of repressive measures of the authorities these communities were in fact acting as underground organizations. The Muslim community of the republic had since long ago experienced schism. The arbitrariness and abuse by the security forces ensured support to religious leaders of dzamaat âYarmukâ, who refused to recognize the official institution - the Spiritual Department for Muslims of Kabardino-Balkariya (Dukhovnoje Upravlenie Musulman Kabardino-Balkarii) and called it an institution captured by âcommunists, drunkards and KGB agentsâ. Probably, the opposition Mulsims could have been prevented from radicalization. The leaders of the âalternativeâ Muslim community - Astemirov, Mukozev and Kudaev were characterized by the interviewed as educated and reasonable men in their early 30s. Probably at the time when âdzamaatâ was still a mainstream community, it was different from âdzamaatâ of a later period - a cell of militant underground network. However, after Beslan, the republican authorities pressed Mukozev and Kudaev leave Russia for Jordan. They refused to issue Astemirov an international passport; as a result on October 13 he was killed in Nalchik during the insurgency. This is how the respondents characterized Astemirov: âHe was a soft, even one could say, âintelligentnyâ young man. All who knew him were shocked by his participation in Nalchik. When we spoke to him of âinternational jihadâ or âspread of caliphate to entire Caucasusâ he laughed at this stupidity. He was not a radical, his participation in Nalchik insurgency was not the ideology of jihad.â The main reason of the events of 13 October was police brutality and impunity. âPreventive measuresâ had been carried out quite widely: in early March 2005 tens of thousands of people were âcheckedâ in Kabardino-Balkarija, dozens of them were detained. Combat on vakhabism turned into prosecution of Muslims. Moreover, people in camouflage started to exert pressure and interfere with the local business. Beatings and torture in respect of the detained exceeded average in the Russian Federation. According to the locals, militia in Kabardino-Balkarija became a notorious institution not only for extremists and prosecuted Muslims, but also in the eyes of the entire population.â Currently the republican and federal authorities have a choice of two possible strategies: one is the traditional approach to use police measures exclusively: to carry out repressions against those suspected of disloyalty, to employ illegal methods of interrogation to the detained in order to make them âconfideâ in terrorist activity, continue to persecute alternative Mulsim communities. This way, which has already been tested in other republics of the Northern Caucasus will further escalate the conflict. The second approach demands serious intellectual effort but it should be able to prevent the conflict from further escalation. This approach, will first and foremost imply ending all grave human rights abuse and breech of law by security agencies of Kabardino-Balkariya. It is necessary to guarantee the residents of the republic their right to freedom of consciousness and initiate dialogue between representatives of alternative Muslim communities. An open public debate on the issues of public concern should be launched, including deliberation on religious issues. Which approch will be chosen by the authorities, should become clear soon. In the meantime, on October 18 the units of militia and internal troops were placed all around the city of Nalchik, mop-ups were carried out, some neighborhoods were completely blocked. According to the information which leaked to Memorial, representatives of security services have a list of almost two thousand members of âYarmukâ, all of these people will be âworked throughâ. According to the authorities, on October 13 these members were supposed raise and join the insurgents after they would have acquired sufficient numbers of guns. Many residents of Kabardino-Balkariya think that among the 92 killed âterroristsâ were in fact many civilians who were caught in the crossfire. At the building of the Republican Prosecutorâs Office gathered relatives who demanded the bodies of the insurgents being returned to them. However, the corpses have not been returned, which can increase the dissatisfaction of the society. Several interviewees mentioned that the republican authorities were inclined to return the corpses in order to avoid social schism â the republic was small, kin ties were strong and many people were sorry for the young people, even if they had been insurgents. However, the republican leadership were afraid of the federal center. The amendments to article 16.1 of the âLaw on Combat of Terrorismâ, adopted after Beslan and a Statute âOn burial of persons, whose death was a result of abortion of their terrorist actionsâ allow not to release the bodies to relatives. Since everything that is going on in the Caucasus is declared an âanti-terrorist operationâ, anyone can be declared a terrorist these days. October 20 2005 HRC âMemorialâ __________________________________________ International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Wickenburggasse 14/7 A-1080 Vienna Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 22 Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50 Web: http://www.ihf-hr.org ______________________________________ Muslims in Adygea detained, beaten. Police in Maikop detained six men on the night of 22 October as they left the city's Cathedral Mosque after prayers, regnum.ru and islam.ru reported on 24-25 October. The believers, who included the imam of the mosque and his deputy, were taken to Maikop police headquarters where they were stripped and beaten in an attempt to induce them to confess to being religious extremists, islam.ru reported. They were taken the following morning to the city court, where the judge ruled there was no reason to charge them with any administrative offense. The police who arrested them admitted that they were "acting on orders from above" in the aftermath of the 13 October attacks by militants in Nalchik, islam.ru reported. LF RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 201, Part I, 25 October 2005 A Symbol for the Second Chechen War: Six Years after the Bombing of the Grozny Market Nobody Held Accountable Vienna, 24 October 2005. Last week marked the sixth anniversary of a heinous crime -- the bombing of the market, the mosque and the maternity hospital in Grozny, in which between 100 and 120 civilians died and another 400 were wounded. This cruel attack on three civilian institutions in the very beginning of the second Chechen war epitomizes the essence of that war, whose primary victims are peaceful residents. The memory of this crime is already overshadowed by numerous other tragic events, indeed, with Chechnya immersed in a sea of blood and human suffering for the past six years. And the perpetrators still go unpunished. The IHF mourns the victims of the Grozny bombing as well as all the victims of the war in Chechnya, and urges in the international community to recall the tragic events of October 21, 1999, and call upon the Russian Federation to hold the responsible criminals accountable for their deed. Reconciliation and peace in Chechnya cannot be achieved without ending the climate of impunity and bringing to justice all perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. ****** Please find attached an article of the Human Rights Center âMemorialâ on this issue. For more information: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director; Eliza Moussaeva, Consultant, +43-1-408 88 22 Wednesday, October 26, 2005. Issue 3282. Page 3. Terror Victims Unite to Press Putin By Francesca Mereu Staff Writer Igor Tabakov / MT Nord Ost co-chair Karpova, left, and Beslan mother Ella Kesayeva speaking at a news conference Tuesday. Survivors and relatives of those who died in Moscow's Dubrovka theater siege teamed up with Beslan mothers and other families affected by terrorist attacks on Tuesday to demand that President Vladimir Putin ensure fair investigations into the attacks. The families, united under the auspices of the new Nord Ost nongovernmental organization, issued an appeal at a news conference for Putin to revisit "biased" official investigations into terrorist attacks. "We also want you, the president of the country, to admit your own responsibility for the death of our children, relatives and loved ones and to disclose the entire truth ... about Nord Ost," the appeal said. The organization, which is named after the musical that was being performed at Dubrokva when Chechen rebels took 912 people hostage three years ago this week, intends to stage a protest at the Dubrovka theater on Wednesday and gather signatures for the appeal. In addition to Dubrovka and Beslan families, Nord Ost is comprised of families affected by the Moscow apartment bombings on Ulitsa Guryanova and Kashirskoye Shosse in 1999 and the bombings of two planes that took off from Domodedovo Airport in August 2004. Nord Ost co-chairwoman Tatyana Karpova said survivors and relatives were seeking "justice to make Russia a safe country to live in." "After three years of investigations, we still don't know who is responsible for the death of our relatives," said Karpova, who lost her 31-year-old son, the well-known songwriter Alexander Karpov, in the Dubrovka attack. Chechens seized the theater on the evening of Oct. 23, 2002, and the standoff ended in the early hours of Oct. 26 when special forces pumped a knockout gas into the building and stormed it. All 41 attackers were killed, and most of dead hostages were killed as a result of the gas. The official death toll is 129 , but Nord Ost says at least 174 people died. Many people who died in the hospital afterward were not included in the official account, explained Svetlana Gubaryeva, who lost her 13-year-old daughter in Dubrovka. "My daughter, for example, is not among [the 129]," Gubaryeva said. "We want to know how many people died there -- 130? 174? Or maybe more?" Officials from the Prosecutor General's Office, which handled the Dubrovka investigation, were not immediately available for comment Tuesday. Ella Kesayeva, a member of the Beslan Mothers' Committee, reiterated a call by Beslan mothers for senior officials to face prosecution over the school hostage-taking in September 2004 that killed 331 people. She said senior officials should also be held responsible for Dubrovka. "Why are officials never held responsible? Who is responsible for all of this?" she said. Beslan mothers plan to hold a protest at the Prosecutor General's Office on Thursday. "We want them to tell the truth about the tragedy" at Beslan, Kesayeva said. Friday, October 28, 2005. Issue 3284. Page 2. Kidnappings Grow in Chechnya Before Vote By Francesca Mereu Staff Writer Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said Thursday that a growing number of people were being abducted in Chechnya, even as the republic prepares for parliamentary elections that the Kremlin calls a key step toward stabilizing the area. "I'm not happy that people are still being abducted in the republic. This is a violation of human rights," Alkhanov said at a news conference in Moscow. "Unfortunately, we registered an increase in the number of such crimes in October," he said, without providing figures. Alkhanov did say, however, that 65 people remained missing after being abducted in Chechnya from January through September. In a statement released late Wednesday, the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights urged Russian authorities to investigate the kidnapping and killing of Salman Arsanukayev and his son Khamzat. It said the two were taken from their homes in the village of Pobedinskoye by masked security forces on Oct. 18 and that their bodies, disfigured with knife wounds, were found outside the village the next morning. Another son, Supian, was killed by security forces in Grozny in an Oct. 2 raid, the group said. Authorities accused him of being a militant. Alkhanov also said rebels had tried to stage some 70 attacks this year and succeeded in carrying out 28. In comparison, rebels carried out 130 attacks last year, he said. Turning to the Nov. 27 parliamentary elections, the first in Chechnya in eight years, Alkhanov vowed to increase security across the republic by deploying 17,000 police officers during the vote. A total of 106 candidates are running on party lists for the 40 seats in the People's Assembly, the lower chamber, while 90 independents are running in single-mandate districts. Half of the seats go to single-mandate districts, and the rest are split up among the winning parties. A total of 161 candidates are running for the 18 seats in the upper chamber, the Republican Council. Alkhanov acknowledged that many candidates were former rebels who had been granted amnesty in exchange for laying down their arms. "If people want to vote for them, let them vote," he said. The vote is the latest Kremlin-orchestrated step to show that normalcy is returning to Chechnya. A first step was a presidential election held in 2003. The winner was assassinated in May 2004, and Alkhanov was elected president in August 2004. The November elections are for the fourth parliament in Chechnya since the collapse of the Soviet Union. None of the previous three lasted full term. The last parliament, elected in 1997, fell apart in 1999 after the second military campaign began. Appeal to Vladimir Pavlovich Kravchenko, Prosecutor of the Republic of Chechnya, RF, Via facsimile + 7 (8712) 22 31 44 , + 7 (095) 777 92 26 Copy: Vladimir Ustinov, Prosecutor General of the RF, Via facsimile +7(095) 921-41-86 Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman of the RF, Via facsimile +7(095) 207-76-30 Ella Pamfilova, Chair of the Human Rights Council under the President of the RF, Via facsimile +7 (095) 206-48-55 Vienna, 26 October 2005 Open Letter - Zarema Buraeva and her two brothers Ali and Baudin Buraev "disappeared" on 2 October 2005 in Grozny -- Salman Arsanukaev and his son Khamzat tortured and extrajudicially executed on 18 October 2005 in Pobedinskoe Dear Prosecutor Kravchenko, I am writing to you on behalf of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) regarding the "disappearances" of Zarema Buraeva and her brothers Ali and Baudin Buraev in Grozny on 2 October 2005, and regarding the torture and extrajudicial executions of Salman Arsanukaev and his son Khamzat on 18 October 2005 in Pobedinskoe. While the Prosecutors Office should have all the data, we wish nevertheless to provide known facts on these two cases to you. The IHF urges you to locate the "disappeared" persons, to investigate the apparently illegal circumstances of their "disappearances", and to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of the extrajudicial killings. The alleged perpetrators are in both cases members of the security structures of the Chechen Republic. ********************* On 2 October 2005, at 4 p.m. the house at Ivanov Street 37, Grozny, where the Buraev family lived, was surrounded by more than one hundred representatives from the Ministry of Defence, the FSB, and the Anti Terrorist Center (ATC) from the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. They all spoke Chechen. The commander of the operation did not introduce himself, but was called âIranâ by the others. At this time, Sazita Buraeva (born 1950), her daughter Zarema Buraeva (born 1982), and her sons Ali Buraev (born 1987, school boy) and Baudin Buraev (born 1984, construction worker) as well as Zarema's two small children (2 and 4 years old) were at home. A fighter, Supian Arsanukaev, the brother in law of Zarema (Maryam) Buraeva, had hidden himself under the roof of the house since the day before, which was known only to Zarema. Zarema's husband - Supian's brother - had been killed in April 2003, when attempting to escape from the police. After having entered, the servicemen demanded that Ali and Baudin Buraev lie on the ground and then started to beat them heavily while swearing. The mother tried to stop them, but the soldiers directed their weapons toward her. After approximately one hour, the commander (âIranâ) asked Zarema about her deceased husband, and then demanded her to follow them through the house. Zarema has not been seen since that moment. Supian Arsanukaev was found on the roof and killed, despite the order from the commander âto take him aliveâ, allegedly because he had threatened to blow himself up with a grenade. The servicemen took Ali and Baudin Buraev with them, "questioning" them, beating them with their feet and with their weapons as they moved toward their automobiles. Ali and Baudin were not able to stand normally after that treatment. When trying to interfere, Sazita was told by a soldier âYou should consider yourself lucky not to be executed yourselfâ. It was the last moment when Sazita saw her sons. Since that day Zarema Buraeva (born 1982), Baudin Buraev (born 1984) and Ali Buraev (born 1987) remain "disappeared". The servicemen also "confiscated" 9.000 rubles, the TV, the computer and several other valuables. The next day, they came again, allegedly in order to look again for hidden weapons. They did not find any. In the next days Sazita Buraeva went again and again to the Grozny police station to ask about the whereabouts of her three children. They told her that they were not in their custody, but also said that the operation had been a joint one with other security services, and that they did not know in whose custody they were. At some point police officers offered her âa dealâ: her children would be returned safely, if she would sign a document testifying that the servicemen had found two weapons buried in the garden in her house. She refused. On 14 October she went to the Prosecutors office, where they told her that they would open a criminal case about the kidnapping of her three children the next day, and that they would investigate the whereabouts of them. In the night of 18 October, masked and camouflaged security service personnel took away Salman Arsanukaev (born 1935, the father of killed Supian Arsanukaev) and his son Khamzat (born 1983) from their homes in the village Povedinskoe The following morning both corpses, disfigured with knife wounds, were found outside the village. ********************* We appeal to you to find the whereabouts of the "disappeared" Zarema Buraeva (born 1982), Baudin Buraev (born 1984) and Ali Buraev (born 1987), and to ensure that they are released immediately by those who hold them, or to provide a legal arrest warrant stating the reasons for their detention, which then also has to be communicated to the family members of them. In either case we appeal to you to conduct a thorough investigation of the apparently illegal conduct of the operation. We also appeal to you to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of the extrajudicial killings of Salman Arsanukaev (born 1935) and his son Khamzat (born 1983). We will be grateful if you will inform us about the investigation of this case. Sincerely, Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director) cc Council of Europe, Mr. Rudolf Bindig, Chechnya-Rapporteur for the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Mr. Stephen J. Toope; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr. Philip Alston European Union, Personal Representative for Human Rights in the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Mr Michael Matthiessen European Parliament, EU-Russia Parliamentary Co-operation Committee; Subcommittee on Human Rights OSCE Delegations National Helsinki Committees __________________________________________ Joachim Frank, Project Coordinator International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Wickenburggasse 14/7 A-1080 Vienna Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 22 Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50 Web: http://www.ihf-hr.org ______________________________________ October 23rd 2005 · Prague Watchdog Chechnya in need of special schools for children with hearing, speech and sight impairments By Timur Aliyev GROZNY, Chechnya - Only five percent of children in Chechnya with hearing, speech and sight impairments are able to get an education, stated Pola Viskhanova, aide to chairman of the Commission for Social Policy of the State Council of the Chechen Republic. According to her, the problem is due to the fact that the country has no special educational facilities. Only 75 children out of nearly 1500 deaf and the visually impaired are in school. Sixteen boarding schools functioned in Chechnya before the war. "But now the majority of these buildings are either occupied by the military or were ruined during the course of two military campaigns," said Viskhanova. In a recent letter to Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, the Commission asked that these buildings be vacated. "But as yet this matter has not been resolved," she added. In addition, two boarding schools, one for children with developmental difficulties and one for the visually impaired were included in this year's federal reconstruction program for Chechnya. "However, the repair of these schools has not been started yet," Viskhanova said regretfully. Translated by Mindaugas Kojelis. www.watchdog.cz RCIA: reports Nizniy Novgorod Report # 782 The criminal case against the chief editor of Pravo-zaschita newspaper is to start in court on November 3 27.10.2005. Nizhny Novgorod. The preliminary hearing of the criminal case commenced under paragraph b of part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (inciting to hatred or animosity) against the chief editor of the Pravo-zaschita newspaper and the executive manager of the RCFS Stanislav Dmitrievsky is to be held on November 3, 2005 in Sovetsky district court of Nizhny Novgorod that is situated at the address 75 Beketov Street. The case is be considered by the judge Bondarenko in office #40 and the hearing starts at 11 am. As it is the preliminary hearing, the defendant's appeal to exclude the inadmissible evidence from the case is going to be considered. In Dmitrievsky's and his lawyers' points of view, the main evidence of the prosecution side have been obtained with violations of the Procedural Code. It refers to the expertise of the peace appeals made by Maskhadov and Zakaev that is the only evidence the charges are based on. Thus, they have to be excluded from the case, according to the defendant's lawyers. According to the Procedural Code, no public will be allowed to attend the preliminary hearing. All the other proceedings will be open. (From our correspondent) Achkhoy-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 781 Mother having four children begs for help On 25 October 2005 Bakaeva Dagmara Movlaevna (born 1978) turned to a correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency with the request to help her. Bakaeva is a resident of the temporary accommodation station situated in the village of Samashki of the Chechen Achkhoy-Martan district at the address 52 Vostochnaya Street where she lives with her family in room 22. Bakaeva told that she has four children and is pregnant with the fifth one. She described her husband, Magomed Makhmaev (born 1969) as a drunkard and rowdy. The woman complained that she was regularly subjected to beating. Her children, Baysantur (born 1997), Imran (born 2000), Ramzan (born 2002) and daughter Yasmina (born 2004), are also victims of their father's violence. The woman can't raise and bring up her children having such a husband. In Dagmara's words, her husband's parents persuade her to send the children to a boarding school by telling her that otherwise they are going to die of hunger. Being under such grave circumstances, the woman apprehends danger for the health and life of her children and turns to human rights people for help. (From our correspondent) Shatoy district. Chechen Republic Report # 780 Shatoy district is regularly shelled 27.10.2005. The vicinities of villages of Urdyukhoy and Dekhesty of the Chechen Shatoy district have been regularly shelled by the Russian artillery for the last week. According to testimonies of local residents, the areas are usually shelled in mornings for approximately five or seven minutes. The adjacent forested area situated in the mountains is also shelled. On 19 October this area was shelled at 4 am, on 21 October it happened at about 5 or 6 am and in the period from 22 October until 24 October it was shelled at 7 am. On 25 October this area was subjected to the air raid by the military helicopters. Fortunately, there have been no casualties among the civilian population. (From our correspondent) Nizniy Novgorod Report # 779 The law nonsense: the tax inspection insists on attaching the criminal case against Dmitrievsky to the case at the arbitrage court initiated by the RCFS On 26 October 2005 representatives of the tax inspection openly confirmed the political background of the tax claims to the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. It happened at the hearing at the arbitrage court of Nizhny Novgorod Region where they demanded to attach the documents collected during the investigation into the case charging Stanislav Dmitirevsky under article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to the case that is being considered now in the arbitrage court. The judge of the arbitrage court Evgenia Belyanina couldn't conceal her surprise when such application was submitted and she informed the sides that she would need time to read all the documents before taking a decision. The court hearing was attended by five representatives of the tax inspection, including a lawyer with the law department of the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod Rafael Nasyrov and a tax inspector Ludmila Barskova. Both had the right to represent the tax bodies in court. All the rest were attending the hearing as visitors. Nasyrov submitted his response to the RCFS complaint. When the judge pointed to the fact that it was submitted overdue, Nasyrov told that he had completed it the evening before. The executive manager of the RCFS Stanislav Dmitirevsky also stated that the response was submitted overdue and thus the RCFS couldn't acquaint themselves with it before the court hearing that is the breach of the Arbitration Code. In connection with this fact he asked the judge to postpone the court hearing until they read the response and prepare to the next hearing in a proper way. The judge compiled with the request and fixed the next court hearing on November 16 this year. Looking through the response from the tax inspection, both the judge and the representative of the RCFS were surprised to see the appendix to the response containing documents from the criminal case under Article 292 commenced by the prosecutor's office of Nizhny Novgorod Region in reference to the publication of peace appeals by Maskhadov and Zakaev in Pravo-zaschita newspaper (the newspaper is the joint edition of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and Nizhny Novgorod Region Society for Human Rights). The copies of the incriminated articles as well as texts of the linguistic expertise carried by a specialist of the Privolzhsky Center of the Law Expertise Larisa Teslenko are attached to the response. As we reported before, the expert finds grounds of inciting of three types of animosity in the appeals made by Maskhadov and Zakaev, including ethnic, national and social. However, the expert doesn't clarify against what groups precisely the appeals are aimed at. Rafael Nasyrov's response states that the expert's conclusions confirm the fact that the funds received by the RCFS from the international foundations and aimed at contributing to the peaceful reconciliation of the conflict were spent on inciting to animosity and thus the profit tax must be levied on them. Dmitrievsky stated that he considered such evidence as inadmissible. Addressing to the judge, he reminded that every defendant is considered innocent unless they are found guilty by court according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The expert's conclusions attached to the case have been taken from the information collected during the preliminary investigation into the criminal case under Article 282 and they reflect Teslenko's personal opinion the court makes its verdict. If the judge at the arbitrage court comes to the decision to attach the submitted documents to the case, the RCFS is going to submit the conclusions made by some other experts and to demand all the experts to be questioned in court. However, he thinks that an attempt to turn the arbitrage case into the criminal one is absurd. Dmitrievsky commented on the situation, In any case the tax agents openly confirmed that the campaign aimed at annihilation of the RCFS is a politically motivated planned action and not the chain of coincidences as they stated before. To all appearances, it's the prosecutorship of Nizhny Novgorod Region that has been playing the first fiddle in this orchestra and the tax agents are their second one. From the other side, it's evident now that the tax bodies have failed in upholding their position within the tax and arbitrage law and as a matter of fact they have confirmed that we are absolutely right. Being unable to defend their position by applying the lawful methods, they have tried to discredit us with the judge. (From our correspondent) Grozny. Chechen Republic Report # 778 Resident of Kalinin settlement went missing On 21 October 2005 a resident of Kalinin settlement situated within the precincts of Grozny Isa Asievich Mityaev (born 1959) disappeared without any traces left. Mityaev lives at the address 16 Jambul Street. As of the present moment, there has been no information about the whereabouts and the destiny of the missing man. (From our correspondent) Grozny. Chechen Republic Report # 777 Unidentified corpse in discovered in Grozny On 24 October 2005 service personnel of the Chechen law-enforcement bodies discovered a male corpse bearing no signs of violent death on the bank of the Sunzha River in Zavodskoy district of Grozny. According to a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the republic, the corpse of a man of about 50-55 years old remains unidentified. (From our correspondent) Gudermes district. Chechen Republic Report # 776 Male corpse is discovered in Koshkel'dy village On 25 October 2005 a correspondent of the RCIA obtained information from a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic that the corpse identified as Aliev Malik Khansoltovich (born 1975) was discovered in the village of Koshkel'dy of the Chechen Gudermes district. The corpse reportedly bore no signs of violent death. (From our correspondent) Nizniy Novgorod Report # 775 Registration department at the Ministry of Justice again insists on closing the RCFS down 25.10.2005. Nizhny Novgorod. Today during the court hearing at the regional court the Ministry of Justice suddenly returned to their claims to close the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society down. Moreover, the representative of the Registration department Oleg Kocherov asked the judge Samartseva to take this decision immediately. Earlier officials of the registration department stated more than once that they had almost no claims to the RCFS and assured that they were going to call the suit back from court. The executive manager of the RCFS Stanislav Dmitrievsky attached the response to the suit in which he stated that the demands to liquidate the organization are not based on the law as the Registration department received all the information requested to be submitted for their checking a few months ago and the delay in its submittance was well reasoned. The court hearing has been postponed until November 2, 2005 until additional documents confirming Dmitrievsky's statements are attached to the case. As we reported before, on 8 April, 2005 the main department of the registration service at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in Nizhny Novgorod region lodged a suit against the RCFS demanding to close it down. The department carried unscheduled checking of the activities of the RCFS since 28 February 2005. To carry it, the registration department demanded to submit the originals of the documents concerning the financial operations carried by the organization. However, as of that moment, these very documents were being checked by the tax bodies of Nizhegorodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod. Thus, they couldn't be submitted to the inspection of another state agency. The RCFS notified the Ministry of Justice about this situation. Nevertheless, the acting deputy chief of the main department of the registration service E.V. Istomina considered it as a grave violation of the law and lodged a suit demanding to close the RCFS down. On 16 June 2005 the tax agencies completed checking the RCFS activities and all the seized documents were returned to the organization. On 22 June all the necessary documents were submitted to the Registration service for their checking. On 29 June the regional court postponed the case hearing on 4 August following then request made by the representative of the Registration service Aleksey Shubin. He explained to the judge that the RCFS had presented all the documents for their inspection and they need time to study them. On 12 September they completed studying the documents and the RCFS received a warning from the Registration department about breaching the law, including Article 14 of the federal law On Public Associations. It concerned the name of the organization mostly as the words Russia and Russian can be used only referring to all-Russian organizations, according to this law whereas the RCFS is an inter-regional organization. They also made some other remarks concerning the necessity to mention all the RCFS branches set after its establishment in the statutes as well as to file the documentation in a proper way. The RCFS followed all these remarks and sent all the necessary documents confirming it to the Registration service. It refers both to the amendments in the statutes and the change of the name of the organization into the Russo-Chechen Friendship Society. On 21 September the case consideration was postpones again and it was also the decision of the Registration service. Its representative, Aleksey Shubin, claimed during a court hearing that at that moment they were busy with considering the papers that referred to the change of the name. Talking to a representative of the RCFS unofficially, Shubin told that they were satisfied with the submitted documents but registration of all the amendments in the statues and the change of the name would take some time. He also told that after doing all that, the suit demanding to close the RCFS down would be likely to be called back as they had no other claims to the RCFS. However, yesterday Oleg Kocherov, who substituted Shubin as a representative of the Ministry of Justice in court, suddenly started to claim closing the organization down presenting no other charges than overdue submittance of the documents. At the same time he confirmed in court that all those documents had been received and considered by them long before. Nevertheless, he asked to close the RCFS immediately. The executive manager of the RCFS Stanislav Dmitrievsky thinks that such a situation might e explained by some good results gained by the RCFS in the arbitrage court. Closure of the organization will result in the disappearance of the plaintiff in the arbitrage case against the tax inspection and consequently the arbitrage case will be surely closed. All the disputed funds will be immediately withdrawn from the accounts of the organization that is under liquidation and I will become the defendant in the criminal case commenced by the Ministry of the Interior that refers to evading taxation. This criminal case is now making no headway as it is based on the decision of the tax bodies that has been appealed to the arbitrage as unlawful. If they manage to liquidate the RCFS, the team that has been coordinating the harassment campaign against us will kill three hares with one shot They will destroy the organization, close the arbitrage case that they going to fail, gain the money and put me to prison, commented Dmitrievsky. (From our correspondent) Achkhoy-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 774 Relatives of a resident of Achkhoy-Martan village who was abducted a week ago still know nothing about his destiny 26 October 2005. Today it's been the ninth day since unidentified people drove away a resident of Achkhoy-Martan district center of the Chechen republic Kushaev Rizvan Akhmedovich (born 1983). Kushaev lived in Sovkhoznaya Street and he was abducted from his own house on October 17, 2005. According to Kushaev's relatives, the same day Rustam Sidikovich Idrisov (born 1982) was taken away together with Rizvan but he was released on October 19. Idrisov also lives in Sovkhoznaya Street. The released man states that Kushaev is being kept in custody in Gudermes town. (From our correspondent) Grozny rural district. Chechen Republic Report # 773 The head of administration of the Chechen-Aul village has been shot dead On 25 October 2005 Khatsuev Lom-Ali who was the head of the administration of the village of Chechen-Aul situated in the Chechen Grozny rural district was shot dead at his back by some unidentified people. Some news agencies reported that Khatsuev was killed in a blast at night from October 24 to October 25. Chechenpress information agency disseminated information that it had been done with an explosive device hidden under the toilet but a correspondent of the RCIA established that it is not true. Many of the people living in the village confirmed that Khatsuev had been shot. Khatsuev left a wife and two children. (From our correspondent) Grozny. Chechen Republic Report # 772 Chechen policemen caused a road accident in Grozny On 26 October 2005 some servicemen of the Chechen police caused a road accident that occurred at the junction of Altayskaya Street and Staropromyslovsk highway in Grozny. As we reported before, today at about 13.30 an APC of the Russian federal forces collided with the Zhiguli vehicle (the state number plate is 386 AP 95th Region) (see our newsletters No1568 from 26 October 2005). A correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency went to the scene of the accident and established some new details. It turned out that the road accident had been caused by Chechen policemen riding in the Zhiguli car. The driver of the car didn't manage to maneuver the car and he drove on to the opposite lane where he collided with the APC that went first in the column of military vehicles. Fortunately, none of the people got injured in the accident. (From our correspondent) Grozny. Chechen Republic Report # 771 Road accident in Grozny with the involvement of a Russian armored personnel carrier On 26 October 2005 at about 1.30 pm an APC of the federal forces caused a road accident and collided with a Zhiguli car (state license plate is 389 AP 95th region). It happened at the junction of Altayskaya Street and Staropromyslovsky highway. There has been no information whether there have been anybody injured in the accident. (From our correspondent) Vedeno district. Chechen Republic Report # 770 Murder at the vicinity of Elistanzhi village: a Russian policeman has been shot dead by the Russian military protecting a local resident On 20 October 2005 a group of servicemen of the federal force agencies opened automatic fire at local residents in the vicinity of Elistanzhi village of the Chechen Vedeno district. As a result of the fire, two residents of the village, three people were shot dead, including 36-year-old Chumakov Makhmud Musadievich, Ayubov Bislan Turkoevich (born 1982) and a police serviceman Garanin Valery Petrovich who was an ethnic Russian. A correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency managed to establish the details of the tragedy. Early in the morning of 20 October Makhmud Chumakov and his friend Aslanbek Yangul'baev went to the Arzhi-Akhk River to fish trout. Having to come to the river, they went up-stream. All of a sudden, they heard the order, Lie down! They saw a group of unidentified men in camouflage who were reportedly ethnic Russians. Aslanbek cowered whereas Makhmud started to explain them that he was fishing there together with his friend. He was showing the fish rod and the caught fish while addressing to them. In response the men opened fire aimed at them. As a result, Makhmud Chumakov received grave wounds and died on the spot. His friend managed to escape by miracle. On reaching the village, Aslanbek Yangul'baev came immediately to the village police office and reported the accident to the chief officer. The chief police officer immediately sent to the scene of the accident a group of three policemen headed by Garanin Valery Petrovich. Some local residents joined the policemen. All in all, some twenty people went to the site where the tragedy occurred. The policemen accompanied by local people reached the place in dusk. At that moment they were fired by some unidentified military men. When the fire started, Garanin yielded out, Don't shoot! We are Russians. We have come to take the corpse There was another burst of fire in response. All the people scattered in all directions to find some shelter. Garanin was killed when he was protecting one of the residents of the village, Kazbek Chumakov by name. Another resident of the village Ayubov Bislan Turkoevich (born 1982) was shot dead and three other people, including Petirov Il'as Munamovich (born 1974), Asimov Ismail Mekhchievich (born 1971) and Kaimov Usman Girgievich (born 1957), were wounded. The following day a group of Russian military and police agents arrived at the scene of the accident. They were headed by the military commandant of Vedeno district. They saw the corpses of Ayubov and Chumakov lying next to each other with their hands tied and put on their chests. The corpse of Chumakov was put on a stretcher. The military found the corpse of Garanin pretty far from the bodies of Ayubov and Chumakov. They didn't manage to find the firearms belonging to Garanin. According to some witnesses from among the residents of Elistanzhi village and police servicemen, residents of the village and policemen must have been fired by the service personnel of the federal forces. One of their units is stationed near the village (it is regiment either 42 or 45). Eye-witnesses claim that the crime must have been perpetrated by a patrol of servicemen f this regiment. Residents of Elistanzhi village who became targets of the assault assume that the Russian military must have tried to show the situation as an attack of the Chechen combatants. That was the reason, according to the witnesses, why the corpses of the killed people had been treated in a different way. Relatives of the killed people apprehend that no effective measures to investigate this crime will be undertaken. (From our correspondent) Grozny. Chechen Republic Report # 769 A policeman's suicide in Grozny On 23 October 2005 a senior officer of Staropromyslovsky district police office of Grozny Dolinsky Yury Evgen'evich (born 1965) committed a suicide by hanging himself in the flat where he lived at the address ap. 40 Ugol'naya Street, 269. According to the information obtained from a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the republic, the suicide must have been caused by his quarrel with his wife Ludmila Kisyolova. (From our correspondent) Achkhoy-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 768 Explosive device is made safe in Achkhoy-Martan On 23 October 2005 some local residents discovered a planted explosive device in Nuradilov Street of the district center of Achkhoy-Martan of the Chechen Republic. Later representatives of the law-enforcement bodies confirmed that the explosive device had been planted under a trailer in which a café is situated. Sappers were called to the scene and they detonated the device with another explosive over it. (From our correspondent) Ingushetia Report # 767 Residents of Yandare village held a meeting On 22 October 2005 residents of Yandare village of Ingushetia's Nasran district held a meeting of all the residents of the settlement. They discussed the issue of self-protection of civilian population in the situation when they can be targeted by fighters of the so-called illegal armed formations. The residents of the settlement condemned the recent actions taken by the combatants in the village of Yandare. We have to remind here that at night from 18 to 19 October 2005 several groups of combatants assaulted households belonging to six police servicemen living in Yandare village. Having fired at the houses, the assaulters set three of their houses on fire and disappeared from the scene of the accident (see O.R. from 19 October 2005 and from 19 October 2005). The debates lasted for quite a time and resulted in an unexpected conclusion that it was the task of the village residents to guard families of servicemen of law-enforcement agencies living there. When the meeting was over, a correspondent of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency asked one of the elders to comment on the taken decision. The man answered by telling an old Vainakh (it's the self-name of the Chechen and Ingush peoples) parable of a cat and mice. The parable tells that once mice got together to discuss what could be done to protect themselves from a cat who was the main source of their trouble. It was decided to put a bell onto the cat's neck. The bell ringing could warn them about approaching danger. However, when it was necessary to decide who of them would put the bell onto the cat's neck, there was no one bold enough. The mice scattered. (From our correspondent) http://www.ria.hrnnov.ru/eng/index.php |