Home

Up

Next abductions of the citizens of the CRI At Thursday night assistants of the invaders armed with automatic devices and wearing camouflage uniform abducted a young man from a point of time accommodation "Okrujnoi". Also in the evening on the 25 th of May, in settlement Kirov in the Andreevskaya Street five chastisers in camouflage uniform, threatening with automatic weapon, abducted a young man and took him away in an unknown direction. Similiar abduction was also accomplished on the 25 th of May, in the Staropromyslovskiy region of Johar, where five criminals in camouflage uniform rushed into the house of a local resident and took him in an unknown direction. Chechenpress, 28.05.05 http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/05/28/11.shtml May 27th 2005 · Prague Watchdog Mop-up takes place in Martan-Chu By Ruslan Isayev MARTAN-CHU, Chechnya - A targeted mopping-up operation took place on Thursday in the village of Martan-Chu in the Urus-Martanovsky district in which military vehicles and a large number of soldiers took part. The residents said that the soldiers entered individual houses and checked documents of every occupant there. The operation lasted several hours, but no one was arrested. The village, which lies at the foothills of the mountains in the south, was subjected to similar operations in the past during which people disappeared. For example, relatives of Lyoma Mesayev and Bislan Saydayev have been officially trying for more than two years to discover the whereabouts of these two men. Although they were taken out of their homes and driven off by Russian soldiers in December 2002, the official investigation was discontinued because the abductors were allegedly unknown. However, there is a check-point between Martan-Chu and the district town of Urus-Martan and it stands to reason that the men in charge there should have been able to shed some light on who abducted those two victims that day. The relatives of Mesayev and Saydayev sued the District Prosecutor's Office, accusing them of doing nothing about this matter. The court acknowledged that action had been taken in this case, but refused the claimants' request to view the documents. www.watchdog.cz Putin says human rights need attention Friday, May 27th, 2005 By JUDITH INGRAM, Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Friday that Russia had human rights problems that need attention, but said the country had made progress over the past 10 to 15 years. He spoke during a meeting with the human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe, Alvaro Gil-Robles, who presented Putin with the group's rights report on Russia. The report by the continent's top rights watchdog, which was issued last month, urges Russia to abolish the death penalty, combat police violence and safeguard minority rights, particularly in Chechnya. It also calls on Moscow to improve prison conditions, guarantee full freedom of _expression and strengthen the independence of the judiciary. "We'll pay careful attention to the conclusions laid down in the report and will work strenuously during the next two years not merely to react, but to change the situation in some areas," Putin told Gil-Robles. The commissioner called Russia "a great European democracy" and said officials there had offered a positive response to the report. But he added that Russia should be held to the same standards as all the members of the Council of Europe. Many Russian and foreign rights advocates say that civil liberties in Russia have declined during Putin's five years in office, with the security services given broader powers and restrictions slapped on independent media. Gil-Robles said he was "shocked" at a jury's recent verdict acquitting four members of an elite military intelligence unit who were charged with killing six civilians in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. "I hope this will be rectified by the same Russian tribunal," he said. The defendants, accused of killing six civilians who were riding in a truck that passed their position in 2002, insisted they were acting on superiors' orders. Human rights groups claim Russian soldiers and Chechen security forces frequently act with brutal impunity, including killing, abducting and intimidating civilians in Chechnya. Two people, one of them policeman, found killed in Grozny GROZNY. May 28 (Interfax) - Two people, one of them a police captain, have been found dead in Chechnya's Grozny. Police found two bodies in the trunk of a car parked near school No. 27 in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district, the district police office told Interfax. One of the bodies was that of police Capt. Rezvan Ashayev, who worked as senior communications inspector at the district police. The other body was that of a woman and has already been identified, it said. Active measures have been taken to establish the circumstances of the crime and detain those responsible for it, the police said.