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eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 21/6/2005 Tax agency targeting human rights group Serious tax claims have been put forward against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) that works on Chechnya problems, says Izvestia newspaper. Having done an audit, the tax agency came to a conclusion that the RCFS was to pay an additional 1 million roubles as a profit tax on foreign grants which it received to fund its activities. The RCFS must pay 1,001,651 roubles as a profit tax and penalties for three years (2002-2004) according to the report on the audit the Nizhny Novgorod Federal Tax Service did. The FTS considered it a violation that no taxes were paid on grants received from the National Endowment for Democracy and the European Commission because neither organisation features on the list of tax-exempt donors approved by the Russian government's decree No 923 of 24 December 2002, RCFS leader Stanislav Dmitriyevskii told Izvestia. He said the European Commission was in fourth place on the list, and the tax service men did not notice it because of their poor command of English. The National Endowment for Democracy does not feature on the list indeed. "However, subject to an intergovernmental agreement between Russia and the US of 14 April 1992, funds provided by US governmental structures are tax exempt in Russia," says Dmitriyevskii. "The NED gave us US State Department money, i.e. those funds should also be tax exempt." The FTS press service found it difficult to comment on the claims against the RCFS. However, it confirmed there had been an audit. Meanwhile, the RCFS has more than once become the subject of close attention on the part of various agencies. On the one hand, RCFS staff and volunteers work in both Chechnya and Russia and the RCFS says its key objective is to stop war in Chechnya. At the same time, the Nizhny Novgorod regional prosecutor's office opened a criminal case in January 2005 concerning the publication of addresses by Aslan Maskhadov and Akhmed Zakayev to the Russian citizenry and the European Parliament in Pravo-zashchita newspaper published by the RCFS and the Human Rights Society. The addresses were supposed to appeal to an overthrow of the constitutional order. The RCFS says it is going to appeal the tax claims. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 21/6/2005 Refugee camps fail to meet standards A special commission set up as ordered by Chechnya's leader to check temporary accommodation points (TAP) for forced migrants in Chechnya has come to a conclusion that living conditions in such points fail to meet any standards. The commission inspected a number of TAPs in Grozny, a source with the staff for the Chechen president and government told Caucasian Knot. The living conditions there were found to be very poor. "As a matter of fact, there are not any conditions for normal living in the TAPs. People are not given food for months, the sewage system is not operated, there is no water, and power is supplied with interruptions," says the interlocutor. "The blame for what is happening is first of all on officials in pertinent agencies that handle refugee issues. Their treatment of people can be called just heartless." He said temporary accommodation points for forced migrants in Chechnya were turning into centres of social tension. Unless the government is able to overcome the situation soon and provide people with more or less tolerable living conditions, the situation may become uncontrollable. "Refugees living in Azerbaijan and Dagestan have currently expressed a wish to return to their homeland. Their numbers, respectively, are 12,000 and 8,000. Besides, there are forced migrants from Chechnya in Georgia, Ingushetia and other areas. With such treatment of those who are coming back and who have come back already, we will not be able to remove the refugee problem," believes the interlocutor. In the next few days, the governmental commission is to prepare a report on its inspection and submit it to the Chechen president. More than 37,000 people, including 16,000 children, currently live in temporary accommodation points for forced migrants in Chechnya, according to official information. FROM THE CONFLICT REGION BULLETIN OF HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER “MEMORIAL” JUNE 2005 (the issue prepared by HRC “Memorial” in Nazran) Natural Disasters and Aerial Attacks in Itum-Kalinsky District of Chechnya. For 28 days an ancient mountainous village of Zumsoi is cut off the outside world Spring rains have become yet another ordeal for the residents of mountainous Chechnya. Rains have washed off the roads and resulted in landslides. Itum-Kalinsky district has suffered most, the majority of settlements are inaccessible for motor vehicles, while the ancient village of Zumsoi has been fully cut off the outside world. On June 1, 2005 as a result of a land-slide, the road between the villages of Ushkaloj and Zumsoi completely collapsed. The village of Zumsoi, where reside 8 families, became fully isolated from the outside world, not only transport, but also horses and people cannot get out to the mainland. The landslide turned a section of road into a steep mountain slope above precipice. Usually due to hard accessibility, there is no organized catering into the Zumsoi and the neighboring villages. Every month the villagers collect money, hire a car and go downhill to the district center- the town of Itum-Kali (15 kilometers from the village) to buy food and kerosene for one month. During rains the mountaineers bring food by horses or donkeys. The recent disaster makes even this means of transport impossible. As of today, most families have used up their monthly supplies of food. The crops have not ripened yet, so the danger of famine is becoming quite realistic. Moreover, showers of rain have washed the soil off the vegetable gardens, so the crops will be very modest this year. There are very elderly people and small children in the village, in case of emergency they will have no access to medical aid. The residents of Zumsoi have informed the Federal and republican Ministries of Emergency Situations about their problem, but there has been no reaction in the last 28 days. In despair some residents with great risk to their lives made their way above the abyss using spades and picks to get to the district food store. One family had to evacuate their children, so they tied the children to themselves and walked above the precipice. On June 25-26 the monitors of HRC “Memorial” managed to get into the village using a similar method. We can testify that the situation is catastrophic, indeed. The village of Zumsoi was founded in the 10th century and is of historical value to the Chechen culture . In the village there survived ancient towers,with petroglyphs of pre-Islamic period. Most of the residents of Zumsoi are direct off springs of the village founding fathers. Before the Stalinist deportation in 1944 there used to be 950 households; before the second Chechen war in 1999-36. Because of tough conditions (no electricity or gas) and out of fear of recurrent aerial attacks the families leave Zumsoi. In January 2005 the village was subjected to severe bombing for several days, then the paratroopers landed and kidnapped 3 men and a teenage boy. As of today, all of them remain missing. The last aerial attack at the outskirts of the village was registered on June 16. Currently there remain 8 families in Zumsoi. All of them are below the poverty level. Humanitarian organizations and government provide no aid to Zumsoi. Zumsoi is a typical mountainous village of Chechnya. The residents of Itum-kalinsky, Vedensky, Nozhaj-Yurtovsky districts of Chechnya experience similar problems. “Memorial” appeals to the government of the Chechen Republic, the Ministries of Emergency situations of Russia and Chechnya to urgently liquidate the land slide in Itum-Kalinsky district of Chechnya. We ask humanitarian organizations to help underprivileged residents of mountainous Chechnya. For information about humanitarian assistance, please, contact “Memorial” in Nazran: Phone/ fax 8 (8732) 22 23 49 e-mail: memorial@southnet.ru FAX OF THE MINISTRY OF EMERGENCY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (095) 923 57 45 __________________________________________ 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 ______________________________________ http://friendly.narod.ru/2005-2e/indexe.htm PRESS-RELEASE #1346 FROM JUNE 27, 2005 REPORT FROM INGUSHETIA Problems of IDPs residing in �Daryal� refugee camp The refugee camp �Daryal� is situated in the settlement of Troitskaya of Ingushetia. There are 250 IDPs living there. Most of them come from the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and there are four families of refugees from the Chechen Republic. The camp was set up in 1995. There are three prefabricated panel barracks in the camp. There are twenty eight isolated rooms in each of them. All the premises are heated and there are kitchens in each of the barracks. The majority of people residing there used to live in settlements in south-western part of Prigorodny district, including villages of Yuzhny, Kombileevka, Chernorechenskoye and Oktyabrskoye. The main problem of these people on their way back home is the fact that the majority of these settlements have been included into water-protective area of Vladikavkaz. All their houses have been destroyed. Although there have been dozens agreements on return of these IDPs to the places where they lived before, there has been no radical changes in their situation so far. According to the commandant of �Daryal� refugee camp El�murzaeva Leyla Israilevna, they have received help from the Danish Council on Refugees and �Doctors Without Borders� only. The camp was cut off the electricity supply from 15 May until 16 June, 2005. The authorities explained their decision by the depreciation of the equipment. There are many disabled people among the residents of the camp, including two paralyzed elderly people. The oldest inhabitant of the camp is Jabrail Katsiev who is 97. The youngest girl is five days old. The whole generation of children has grown up in the camp for these thirteen years. The majority of them have never seen their native land. Every time when the negotiations on returning IDPs to their places of former residence are resumed, the camp inhabitants experience mixed feelings hope and anxiety. When the representative of the Russian president in the South Federal district Dmitry Kozak attended the inauguration ceremony of Ingushetia�s president Murat Zyazikov not long ago, they also discussed the problem of IDPs from the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. It inspired people living in the camp. Dmitry Kozak stated in his speech that all the IDPs would have been returned to the places of their former residence by the beginning of 2006. (From our correspondent) http://friendly.narod.ru/2005-2e/indexe.htm PRESS-RELEASE #1347 FROM JUNE 27, 2005 REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Shatoy district. A former serviceman of the military commandant�s office is abducted in Yukerch-Keloy On 25 June, 2005 a resident of the village of Yukerch-Keloy of the Shatoy district Alikhan Asuev (aged 27) was abducted by representatives of an unidentified force agency. The attempt to stop the perpetrators resulted in death of Asuev�s mother and wounding of one of his neighbors who is a local militiaman. The abductors came to Asuev�s house at dawn. They forced Alikhan into their car and disappeared in an unknown direction. A local policeman Yunadi Kakhtarov, who lives close to Asuev, tried to stop the perpetrators and a scuffle started. However, his attempt failed as the perpetrators hit him at his head with a gun butt and seriously injured him. At present, Kakhtarov is in hospital. Asuev�s mother who witnessed her son�s abduction had a heart attack and died. She was buried the same day at the local cemetery. The abducted Alikhan Asuev used to work at the military commandant�s office in Shatot district center for quite a long time. He has been unemployed for the last few months after the military commandant�s office was liquidated. (From our correspondent) PRESS-RELEASE #1350 FROM JUNE 28, 2005 REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Vedeno district. Vedeno district is subjected to air raids again 28 June, 2005. The forested and mountainous area among the settlements of Makhkety, Khattuni, Eshilkhatoy and Elistanzhi of the Chechen Vedeno district has been subjected to air raids by assault aircrafts of the federal forces for the last three days. The air strikes are delivered not only at night but at day time as well. There has been no information about casualties among the civilian population. The locals suppose that such scale of air raids is caused by the fact that the Chechen armed resistance units have penetrated to the territory of the district. Security Service units are sent to Vedeno district As of 28 June, 2005, the situation in Vedeno district remains tense after units of the Security Service run by Ramzan Kadyrov have returned to the territory of the district. According to local people�s testimonies, there have been gossips circulating among the locals for the last few days that �kadyrovtsy� are recruiting the local youths again. (From our correspondent) Borozdinovskaya residents to return home by Friday - envoy ROSTOV-ON-DON. June 29 (Interfax-South) - The transportation of residents of Borozdinovskaya village from a camp in Dagestan back to Chechnya is underway and is likely to last for two days, presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak told reporters. "The transportation of Borozdinovskaya residents from the temporary camp is unlikely to end today. But all of them are likely to return home tomorrow," Kozak said. First refugees return to Borozdinovskaya GROZNY. 29 June (Interfax) - The first trucks carrying refugees from the Nadezhda refugee camp have arrived in the Borozdinovskaya village, Vakha Garsayev, the deputy chairman of the state commission in charge of settling the situation in Borozdinovskaya, told Interfax. "Twenty Kamaz trucks and other kinds of vehicles carrying the possessions of the refugees have arrived in Borozdinovskaya," Garsayev said. Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and other officials June 29th 2005 � Prague Watchdog Chechnya sees growth in number of patients with oncological diseases, tuberculosis and nervous disorders By Timur Aliyev GROZNY, Chechnya � The consequences of military actions in Chechnya are leading to an increase in the number of patients with oncological diseases, tuberculosis and nervous disorders. This is evidenced in data supplied by the republic�s Ministry of Public Health and by its medical institutions. According to the data of the republic's psychoneurological dispensary, out of 200 adult inhabitants of Chechnya 137 are suffering from psychological disorders of one kind or another. Only the reason for the stress has changed, the specialists of the dispensary assert. "Whereas three or four years ago there was no doubt that the incidence of psychological trauma was related to the violation of human rights in Chechnya, today the foreground is occupied by economic reasons for stress � unemployment and the population�s low standard of living," they say. According to the data of the Chechen Ministry of Public Health, over the period from 1991 to 2001 the morbidity of the population from tuberculosis has increased threefold. "The primary cause of tuberculosis as a socially significant disease is the low standard of living of the republic�s inhabitants and, as a consequence, the weakening of the organism�s immune system,� Vakha Yandarov, assistant to the Chechen Minister of Public Health, considers. According to the information of the International Committee of the Red Cross, up to 80 percent of the inhabitants of Chechnya suffer from various forms of oncological diseases, tuberculosis, and cardiovascular and hematological diseases. One of the reasons for the increase in the number of diseases in the republic is the unfavourable ecological situation in the region, i.e. the degree of the pollution of the surrounding environment, the physicians assume. Translated by David McDuff. www.watchdog.cz Russian NGOs to be brought under financial control MOSCOW, June 29. (RIA Novosti)- Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, recently publicly declared that the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had to be spelled out in law, taking into account the role they had played during the presidential elections in Ukraine. Today's Vremya Novostei, a daily, reported that this meant established financial control over the activity of these bodies. Sergei Popov, the chairman of the State Duma's committee for public and religious organizations, said that the lower chamber had "passed amendments to the law on the registration of legal entities that are also concerned with NGOs. The amendments oblige them to submit financial statements to tax authorities." The parliamentarian said he was positive that the legislation should ensure the transparency of all activities of both commercial and non-profit organizations. Any public organization declares its goals and aims when registering, but "in reality their practical activities are often different," he said. Alexei Makarkin, the deputy director general of the Center for Political Technologies, said that this way of regulation is the most acceptable for the Russian leadership. "If organizations are banned or prosecuted, there will be inevitable problems with rights advocates and the Council of Europe," he explains. He added that a potential toughening of financial control over NGO activities was "a model that allows shutting down an organization that violates something, and if anyone in the West objects to it, everything can be justified by economic reasons." "We have lost Ukraine and if we now lose Belarus, in a certain period the North Atlantic alliance will be standing along the full length of our western borders," Makarkin said. "This is an issue of prestige and security." UN to maintain aid for Chechnya, appeals for millions 06-30-2005 MOSCOW (AFP) UN aid agencies and non-governmental organisations will continue aid to Chechnya and neighboring southern Russian republics, but will need 67 million dollars to meet their needs this year, UN officials said. "The need for humanitarian aid in the region is expected to remain roughly equal in 2006 to what it is today. The UN, non-governmental organisations and donors are committed to providing humanitarian aid as long as there is significant need for it," the UN humanitarian coordinator's office in Russia said in a statement late Wednesday. "In addition, these organisations will seek in 2006 to continue to explore ways in which they can complement government plans for long-term economic and infrastructure development." As for aid plans for 2005, the UN requires over 67 million dollars, with donors so far having provided only half that sum. The main donors are the European Union, the United States and other major industrialised states. Separatists and Islamic militants have been fighting pro-Russian forces in Chechnya for more than five years, the second such war in less than a decade. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 23/6/2005 Human rights groups give killed, missing figures Russian human rights groups say more than 80 Chechnya residents have been abducted or missing this year. "One hundred and forty-two people have been abducted in Chechnya in 2005, according to our information. Fifty-three of them have been released, five found killed, two are under investigation, and 82 are missing," Dmitrii Grushkin of the Human Rights Centre Memorial told journalists in Moscow today. He said 89 Chechnya residents have been killed under various circumstances in Chechnya in 2005, according to the human rights advocates' information. "Our monitoring embraces just 25-30% of Chechnya's territory. Other areas, including the mountains, remain inaccessible for our officers. We estimate the total number of crimes against civilians in Chechnya may be 3-4 times higher than the information available to us," Grushkin said, quoted by Interfax. June 30th 2005 � Prague Watchdog "Mop-up" at refugee camp in Ingushetia INGUSHETIA � A mopping-up operation has been carried out in the MTF-1 Chechen refugee camp located near the town of Karabulak in Ingushetia. Unknown armed men in camouflage who drove up in two Gazel vans at approximately 8.30 a.m. arrested two refugees who were living in the camp, and one resident of Chechnya who had arrived on a visit the day before. According to the evidence of eyewitnesses, there were several men in camouflage, and all except one wore masks. Also, they were speaking Russian. According to one of the camp�s inmates, Magomed Saydumov, the men who arrived presented no documents, and were not accompanied by the area policeman. They conducted a search of the disused sheep pens where the refugees are currently living. They put handcuffs on 29-year-old Musa Saydumov, a native of the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, and drove away with him. They also put two other people into the vans: Suleyman Chachayev, an employee of the Chechen Interior Ministry, and Taus Dadayev, a native of the town of Urus-Martan. Waving their weapons in the air with shouts of "Keep back!", the unknown men drove away with the detainees. Later, Dadayev was made to get out at the OMON base in Karabulak. He was fined 1500 roubles for not having a registration stamp in his passport. Suleyman Chachayev was taken to Chechnya and put down in a field between the town of Shali and the neighbouring village of Germenchug. So far nothing is known of the location or of what happened to Musa Saydumov, say his relatives, who have now made an application to the local public prosecutor�s office. Translated by David McDuff. www.watchdog.cz RSF, 1er July 2005 AFP correspondent Ali Astamirov kidnapped exactly two years ago in Ingushetia Reporters Without Borders today called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to order the revival of the investigation into the disappearance two years ago of Ali Astamirov, Agence France-Presse's correspondent in Ingushetia and Chechnya, who was abducted by gunmen in front of fellow journalists on 4 July 2003 in the village of Altievo, 3 km from Nazran, Ingushetia's main city. "We are very worried about Astamirov because the investigation by the authorities in Nazran and Moscow continues to be paralysed," the organisation said, adding, "Reporters Without Borders will continue to campaign about this case until those responsible have been identified and brought to justice." Investigators in Moscov and Nazran have discovered nothing about Astamirov's abduction and, according to AFP's Moscow bureau, no one has ever been detained or questioned. Neither AFP nor Astamirov's family ever received any ransom demand and no one even tried to contact them. Aged 34 at the time of his abduction, of Chechen nationality and the father of two children, Astamirov had been working for AFP for a year. In the months prior to his kidnapping, he received anonymous threats and changed his place of residence out of concern for his security. AFP and Reporters Without Borders have repeatedly contacted the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the Russian government about the case. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without Borders has nine national sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide. Russians' Appeals to Court Bring Intimidation, Death Relatives of Missing and Dead Told Not to Go to Rights Body By Peter Finn Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, July 3, 2005; Page A15 NAZRAN, Russia -- Russians who appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after their relatives disappear or are killed in Chechnya or neighboring Ingushetia face constant threats to force them to drop the cases. In at least five instances, applicants to the court were themselves killed or had disappeared, according to lawyers, human rights groups, court records and relatives. In April, two men were taken from their homes by armed men after filing a case about the abduction of eight people in a Chechen village in 2004, according to Memorial, a Russian human rights group. The body of one of the petitioners was found in May. Members of his family are now living in fear and considering withdrawing the case, according to Memorial. * Photo: Adam Medov, a taxi driver in Russia, disappeared in June 2004. His wife has received threats for pursuing the case. (Family Photo) * Human rights activists say the incidents amount to a campaign of intimidation against the approximately 120 Russians from the North Caucasus who have sought the intervention of the court. The activists stop short of blaming the central government, suggesting that local officials may be acting on their own. The Russian government has denied any connection with the incidents. Last year, a coalition of human rights groups sent a letter to the court, which sits in Strasbourg, France, and hears claims of violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, which Russia signed effective in 1998. The letter detailed the killing and disappearance of two Russians from Chechnya who had appealed to the European Court as well as 12 examples of alleged beatings and threats. In an interview, Zalina Medova said she has received both death threats and offers of payoffs to press her to withdraw a filing with the court seeking action about her husband, Adam Medov, a taxi driver who disappeared in June 2004. "My answer was always the same," said Medova, the mother of two young children, one of whom was born after her husband disappeared. "Give me my husband and I'll drop the case." Jane Buchanan, until recently the executive director of the Russian Justice Initiative, calls the intimidation "a really disturbing and shocking problem." That group has filed close to 80 applications before the court. But Isa Gandarov, a lawyer at Memorial's office in the southern republic of Ingushetia, said two-thirds of potential applicants he sees decline to go forward with their cases when warned about the dangers of appealing to the court. Russian officials did not respond to last year's letter to the court. "If such a letter really exists, it is the European Court that is supposed to give a response to it in line with the procedures of the Court," Pavel Laptev, the Russian representative to the court, said in a written response to questions. Laptev declined to be interviewed in person. In submissions to the court, Russian officials have denied any involvement by state agencies or the military in specific cases of the killing, disappearance or intimidation of applicants. In his response to questions, Laptev wrote that these allegations "have not been confirmed after checking." One of the cases involves Medov, the taxi driver. In 2004, he was picked up while on the job in Ingushetia. He became one of at least 3,000 people who have disappeared in the region in the last five years since a second war broke out in Chechnya, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch. The group said Russian or Chechen security forces were responsible for most of the abductions. The conflict has spread to neighboring republics, including Ingushetia and North Ossetia, where last year Chechen separatists seized a school in which 330 people, most of them children, were killed. On the evening of June 17, 2004, road police in Ingushetia stopped two cars headed for the nearby Chechen border. Six armed men were in the vehicles. After noise was heard from the trunk of one of the cars, it was opened for inspection. Inside, the officers found Medov, his hands bound, according to a statement of facts written by the European Court in April. A second man was in the trunk of the other car. The six armed men claimed that they were officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the domestic successor of the KGB. Still, the road police were suspicious. They consulted with a local prosecutor and then took the men and their prisoners to a nearby police station, according to court documents. But the six men and their prisoners were all ordered released by the acting Ingush interior minister, Abukar Kostoyev, according to an account of the incident written by the Russian general prosecutor's office. They got back into their cars and drove into Chechnya. On June 21, the Medov family was informed by letter by a deputy prosecutor in Ingushetia that Medov was detained by "officers of the FSB Department for Chechnya under the command of Lt. Col. Beletskiy V.V." But on July 7, the head of the FSB in Chechnya wrote to say that Medov had not been detained by his officers and that his department had no knowledge of his whereabouts. The agency also said it had no officer named Beletskiy. With agencies of the Russian state flatly contradicting each other, Medov's wife, Zalina Medova, applied to the European Court of Human Rights. Threats and offers of payment to back off soon followed, she said in an interview. Medova, a soft-spoken 25-year-old wearing a light-colored veil over her hair, said the first message was conveyed in January by a distant cousin. He telephoned and told her that some Russian officials, who he said had contacted him, wanted her to withdraw her case. She refused, she recounted, but she continued to hear from the cousin. In February, the cousin introduced her to a man who described himself as a former major in the FSB. The man said her filing with the European Court threatened the careers of some senior Russian officials. He told her to withdraw it because there was no point in proceeding; her husband was dead, he said. The major, who never gave his name, said he didn't "want the children to be left without the mother," according to Medova and papers filed with the court. The calls continued, and there began to be suggestions that she might receive money for her cooperation. In March, she received a final warning. Her cousin called her at home and said several senior officers in the Russian security services were standing beside him. They said they were willing to pay her $30,000 if she withdrew her complaint. If not, the cousin said, she might be killed. In April, the European Court formally asked the Russian government whether there had been "any hindrance by the State" in Medov's case. Russia has until July 25 to reply. In the interview, Medova, a restless son sitting on her lap, said her husband had no connection with terrorist or armed groups. "We are a quiet family," she said, rejecting an assertion in one government document that her husband was detained on "suspicion of having committed grave crimes." In any case, human rights activists point out, a person under suspicion of terrorism or related crimes is still entitled to due process under Russian law. Applicants appeal to the European Court as a last resort, after they have exhausted their opportunities in their home country. The court first decides whether to communicate the complaint to the Russian government. After the government replies, the court then rules whether it will admit the case for a full hearing and a decision. The whole process can take years. The court is facing a huge backlog of cases. Last August, it formally gave priority to all cases related to the conflict in Chechnya, a decision that appeared to have been motivated, in part, by reports of pressure on applicants, according to the Justice Initiative. In addition, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, whose member states set up the court in 1959, passed a resolution last year expressing "outrage" about a number of cases in which applicants had been killed or had disappeared. Marzet Imakayeva and her husband, Said-Magomed Imakayev, applied to the court in February 2002, about 14 months after their 23-year-old son disappeared in Chechnya. That June, the Imakayevs' home was raided by men in uniform, and Said-Magomed Imakayev was detained. He hasn't been seen since. Military and prosecution officials continued to harass Imakayeva and have accused her of financing terrorism, according to court records. Imakayeva, her son, daughter and grandson moved to the United States as refugees in 2004. "I was constantly followed by military vehicles," Imakayeva said in a telephone interview. "The lawyers who worked with me warned me to be careful. To save my remaining children, I had to leave." In submissions to the court, the Russian state at first denied any involvement in Said-Magomed's disappearance, saying he was kidnapped "by members of one of the terrorist organizations acting in Chechen Republic" who used Russian military uniforms as a disguise. The Russian authorities later revised that statement to say her husband "had been detained by soldiers in accordance with the law" but was later released. In another case, Zura Bitieva, a human rights activist in Chechnya, appealed to the court, saying she was tortured while in custody in January and February 2000. On May 2003, Bitieva, her husband, Ramzan, her son Idris and her brother were shot and killed at their home in the early morning. In April 2004, yet another applicant, Yakub Magomadov, vanished. Magomadov, who lived in Moscow, had petitioned the court over the disappearance of his brother, Ayubkhan, in Chechnya in 2000. "All he did was search for Ayubkhan," said Eliza Magomadova, a sister of the two missing men. "That's why they took him." In a letter to the court, Laptev said investigators, after various checks, had found no trace of Magomadov. The most recent killing and disappearance of applicants stemmed from an incident in early 2004 when eight people were detained in a Chechen village by unidentified men whom residents described as "military men," according to Memorial. The bodies of the eight and another person were found in a shallow grave nearly two weeks later. Two relatives of one of the dead men appealed to the European Court. In April of this year, armed men broke into their home and took them away. Human rights workers asked that the two not be identified to protect the remaining family members. The body of one of the men was found in a river in Chechnya in May. The other man is still missing.