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Official: Chechen wars killed 300,000 Sunday 26 June 2005 About 300,000 people have been killed during two wars in Chechnya over the past decade, a senior official in the province's Moscow-backed government said. Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, a deputy prime minister in the Kremlin-controlled Chechen civilian administration, also said on Sunday that more than 200,000 people have gone missing. Abdurakhmanov's claim could not be independently verified. The Russian government has not revealed any casualties among civilians in Chechnya during the two wars in the region since 1994. Casualty estimates vary widely, but many say about 80,000 civilians - 40% of them children - died in the first Chechen war. Countless more have been killed since the conflict exploded again in 1999. Abdurakhmanov made the statement during a visit to the neighbouring province of Dagestan, where more than 1100 ethnic Avar residents of a Chechen village fled after one villager was killed and 11 others went missing during a recent raid they blamed on Chechen security forces. Chechen wars Abdurakhmanov and other Chechen officials were trying to persuade the refugees to return home, arguing that Chechens had suffered much greater losses throughout the conflict. The high casualty figures Abdurakhmanov cited could be part of a pitch to push the reluctant residents of the village to come back rather than a product of a thorough calculation. "You lost 11 people, while every resident of Chechnya has scores of relatives who have been killed or gone missing," Abdurakhmanov told the village's residents. Russian forces pulled out in 1996 after a disastrous 20-month battle with separatist rebels, leaving Chechnya de facto independent. The Russian army swept in again in 1999 after Chechnya-based fighters made incursions into Dagestan and after 300 people died in apartment bombings blamed on the separatists. Agencies Monday, June 27, 2005. Issue 3195. Page 4. Chechen Villagers Refuse to Go Home By Nabi Abdullaev Staff Writer Sergei Rasulov / AP Villagers who fled Borozdinovskaya lining up Saturday to receive sugar as food aid at a tent camp in Dagestan. Residents of Borozdinovskaya, a village in eastern Chechnya raided by masked gunmen earlier this month, have refused to take up offers to return home, despite promises of a thorough investigation and material compensation by senior federal and Chechen officials. More than 1,000 ethnic Dagestanis fled the village after they found charred human remains in a house burned out during the June 4 raid. One man died and 11 men were abducted in the raid. The men have not been seen since. Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, on a visit to Borozdinovskaya on Sunday, promised to ensure the residents' safety if they returned. A day earlier, Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov, who is unrelated to Alu Alkhanov, said a squad of 19 policemen headed by an ethnic Dagestani would be set up in Borozdinovskaya. The Chechen government has also offered cash compensation to residents whose houses were destroyed in the raid if they return home. But on Sunday, Borozdinovskaya residents camped out in tents just over the border in Dagestan said they would not return until the fate of the missing men was known. "Not a single person will return until the fate of these 11 people is established," Borozdinovskaya resident Sofia Ibragimova said, Interfax reported Sunday. Villagers have accused members of the Vostok, or East, militia led by Sulim Yamadayev, a former rebel warlord who now serves in the federal military, of carrying out the raid and say they recognized some of his men among the attackers. Yamadayev and his federal military commander have denied that any of Yamadayev's men took part in the raid. Chechen officials have said they have no information about the fate of the 11 abducted men. Yamadayev's brother Ruslan, a United Russia deputy in the State Duma from Chechnya, accused the Borozdinovskaya residents of harboring separatist rebels. "This is quite a complicated village; many rebel leaders originated from there, and there always have been bases of Rappani Khalilov and Khattab there," he said, Kommersant reported Friday. "Many local residents who cooperated with the federal authorities were killed there." Khalilov is a Dagestani-born warlord fighting in Chechnya, while Khattab, a Jordanian-born Chechen rebel leader, was killed by federal security agents in 2002. Ruslan Yamadayev accused Chechen rebels of carrying out the Borozdinovskaya raid in an attempt to discredit the federal military and its Chechen units, like his brother's militia, in Chechnya. He said that rebel sympathizers serving in the military could have taken part in the raid. In an interview with Izvestia published *Friday, Ruslan Yamadayev also said that the Dagestani police had evidence identifying the 11 abducted men as rebel fighters. Dagestani officials have never claimed that before. Last Wednesday, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, ordered military prosecutors to name the perpetrators of the raid within 10 days. Investigators were questioning Borozdinovskaya residents in their tent camp over the weekend and have been conducting ballistic tests on weapons used by Vostok commandos, Russian media reported. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * This interview is with Sulim Yamadayev, not Ruslan. M.L. http://www.izvestia.ru/conflict/article2035112 article titled [Sulim Yamadayev, the commander of the Vostok batallion,: "When they killed my brother in Vedeno, we didn't set ablaze the whole village"] eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 20/6/2005 Abductions in Chechnya Armed people in camouflage uniforms abducted Rezvan Isayev, resident in the republic's Urus-Martan district, in the centre of Grozny in the afternoon yesterday, a source with republican law enforcement agencies told Caucasian Knot. Another such case was registered in Grozny's Staropromyslovskii district. Law enforcement or security agencies can be reported as involved in an unauthorised seizure of a citizen here. The service men driving an UAZ vehicle and an armoured personnel carrier abducted Rustam Taipov, a local resident. What structure these service men belong to is unknown," the source said. Kommersant, June 27, 2005 No 115/П (No 3199) 27.06.2005 Bombing outside of the train-schedule [Vzryv vne raspisaniya] A train with Chechens derailed in Dagestan A locomotive and four cars of repair train went off the rails in Dagestan, the 63rd km from Babayurt-Kurush haul, the North Caucasian railway, as a result of explosion occurred at 1:55 a.m. Saturday. Investigators say the actual target might have been not the maintenance, but the passenger train. It was the third explosion during a single day, the first two were aimed at policemen. This time, the target was Chechen workers of repair train going home for the weekend. "Chechen repairers service nearly the 400-km section of the railway from Chechnya and Dagestan to Kalmykia," said sources in Makhachkala department of the North Caucasian Railway. "It would have taken around three hours to reach Gudermes. Almost everyone was asleep when explosion took place." Detonation happened when the train was passing the bridge over a small water channel. The rail-track moved apart and a locomotive and four flat wagons fell into the ditch. A passenger car with more than 60 people aboard had a narrow escape. A self-made explosive device was actuated with the explosive capacity of around six kg of TNT equivalent, representatives from the local branch of the federal safety bureau specified. The 32-year old locomotive engineer Mairbek Aliyev of Gudermes, and his 45-year old assistant Salmsultan Mudayev of Kadi-Yurt from the Gudermes district of Chechnya were injured; around 150-m of rail and the bridge were damaged. The railway operation resumed by around 2:00 p.m. "The basic and the sole lead" is an act of terror, contacts with Makhachkala transport prosecutors told Kommersant, pointing out the bandits might have targeted at one of the passenger trains following the damaged one. A criminal case under the terrorism clause has been brought in. by www.kommersant.com Russian Article as of June 27, 2005 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=587215 By Magomed Isayev, Makhachkala "Hemayat": 98 Chechen refugees in Austria have passed treatment for consequences of tortures In connection with the Day of the United Nations in support of victims of tortures, which is celebrated on the 26 th of June, the Viennese organization of help "Hemayat" has informed refugees, that in 2004 in Austria 98 Chechens passed psychotherapeutic, psychological and medical treatment for consequences of the brutal tortures made by Russian terrorists and their helpers, Austrian newspaper “Kleine Zeitung” informs. "Hemayat", helping refugees from many countries, has protested against the planned mass dispatches of refugees to those countries, whence they have arrived. Especially critical situation with this question has developed in Czechia and Poland. The returning of the victims of tortures into the hands of executioners means a poison for those, who have passed the course of treatment, "Hemayat" has declared. According to the United Nations, 30 % of refugees have psychological traumas, the newspaper writes. Chechenpress, 28.06.05 http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/06/28/14.shtml June 27th 2005 · Prague Watchdog New attacks and abductions in Chechnya By Ruslan Isayev CHECHNYA – A "Ural" lorry carrying Russian servicemen was blown up by persons unknown at around 3pm Moscow time this afternoon two kilometres west of the village of Chechen-Aul, a source from the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic told our Prague Watchdog correspondent. Two conscripts were killed and one wounded in the explosion, the source added. In the Leninsky district of Grozny today, a group of armed persons abducted two local residents – Abdula Bachayev and Ayub Takayev. According to certain information, officials of the Security Service under the command of Ramzan Kadyrov – so-called “kadyrovites” – were involved in carrying out the abduction. The whereabouts of the abducted men is not known. On the same day, the body of a member of the “Vostok” battalion, Ruslan Ezerkhanov, was discovered by local residents in the cemetery of the village of Kurdyukovskaya in the Shelkovskoy district; the body bore the marks of bullet wounds. The identity of the soldier’s killers has not been established. An investigation is underway. A group of Russian sappers came under fire from guerrillas on the Gansol-chu - Alleroy highway in the Nozhay-Yurtovsky district. One officer was wounded as a result. On Friday June 24 an attack on a military convoy of federal forces took place on the southern outskirts of the village of Shalazhi in the Urus-Martanovsky district. Three soldiers were killed, and four were wounded. The attackers hid in the forest. Translated by David McDuff. www.watchdog.cz PRESS-RELEASE #1325 FROM JUNE 15, 2005 REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Urus-Martan district. An abduction in the village of Roshni-Tchu On 14 June 2005 at about 5 am unidentified people abducted Aysaev Aslanbek Vakhaevich (born 1984) from his own house situated in the Chechen village of Roshni-Tchu at 32 Zarechnaya Street. According to some eye-witnesses, the perpetrators were riding in two Gazel mini-vans and a VAZ 2107 car. According to the information obtained by Aysaev's relatives, he is kept at Urus-Martan office of the RUBOP (the special branch on combating the organized criminality). However, this information needs to be confirmed. A serviceman of the Chechen force agencies is abducted in Grozny On 10 June 2005, representatives of unidentified force agencies abducted El'diev Lyoma Akh'yadovich (born 1976) in Grozny. El'diev is a native of the village of Alkhasurovo of the Chechen Urus-Martan district where he lives in Partizanskaya Street. The abducted man belongs to one of the Chechen force agencies. His relatives have no information about his whereabouts. Two residents of the village of Alkhazurovo are detained In the evening of 8 June 2005 representatives of security service of the Chechen president detained two residents of the village of Alkhasurovo of the Chechen republic for no apparent reason. The detained people are Akaevs brothers, Ramzan Saprailovich (born 1968) and Aslan Saprailovich (born 1979). They live in Alkhasurovo village at 40 Titov Street. The Akaevs' relatives have managed to establish the fact that the brothers are kept in the village of Prigorodnoye of the Chechen Grozny rural district at the place where the security service unit is stationed. There is no information about reasons of the Akaevs's detention. (From our correspondent) PRESS-RELEASE #1326 FROM JUNE 15, 2005 REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK People living in Shatoy are afraid of possible air raids On 14 June 2005, the military jets patrolled the territory of the Chechen Shatoy district center at a very low height for half an hour since 1 pm until 1.30 pm. They didn't deliver any missiles or bombs, though. However, there was panic among the local people as they remember bombing of their settlement in 1999-2000. (From our correspondent) PRESS-RELEASE #1345 FROM JUNE 24, 2005 REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Shelkovskoy district. An abduction in the village of Kobi On 19 June, 2005 unidentified armed people dressed in camouflage uniform abducted Vakha Mazaevich Jamaev (born 1964), a resident of the village of Kobi of the Chechen Shelkovskoy district. The man was abducted from his own house situated at 3 Dagestanskaya Street. According to his relatives, there were fifteen perpetrators who were moving in two cars. They introduced themselves as servicemen of the anti-terror center. (From our correspondent) Grozny. A disappearance of a Grozny resident On 18 June, 2005 Said-Akhmed Vakhidovich (born 1965) left his house situated at 5 Dekabristy Street in Grozny and never came back home. The whereabouts and the fate of the missing man remain unknown. (From our correspondent)