Released Chechen Fears of `Secret Extradition'

/Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2005-01-05 18:37:05

Aslan Khanchukaev, ethnic Chechen, was released on January 5, after serving his sentence in Tbilisi prison.

Khanchukaev was in a group of 13 Chechens, who were arrested by the Georgian border guards for illegal crossing the border and possession of arms in August, 2002.

In July, 2003 Tbilisi District Court acquitted four of them, including Khanchukaev. But they remained imprisoned, since they were accused of organizing disorders in the jail on October 4, 2002. Three other Chechens will be released in coming days, according to the Georgian media.

Detained Chechens organized riot in the prison shortly after their five compatriots were handed over to Russia by the Georgian authorities, protesting against the extradition.

Last February court also acquitted two others – Bekkhan Mulkoev and Husein Alkhanov, who also were in the group of 13 Chechens detained by the Georgian border guards in 2002.

However, shortly after their release both of them mysteriously disappeared and on February 19 the Russian Federal Security Service reported that the Russian law enforcers detained two Chechens –Mulkoev and Alkhanov at the Georgian-Russian border. The news triggered protest of the Chechen community in Georgia, which accused the Georgian authorities of kidnapping two Chechens and secretly extraditing them to Russia.

On January 5 the relatives of released Aslan Khanchukaev appealed the Georgian human rights groups to closely watch the situation involving released Chechens, as they fear of, as they put it, "secret extraditions."



Jan 4 2005 11:12AM

Six go missing in Chechnya - Interior Ministry

ROSTOV-ON-DON. Jan 4 (Interfax) - Six people have gone missing in Chechnya over the past 24 hours, sources in the republic's Interior Ministry told Interfax by phone on Tuesday.

Five of them were abducted by unidentified gunmen, law enforcement sources said.

A group of gunmen entered the apartments of Oil Institute student Said-Akhmed Makayev and teacher training school student Timur Tsakayev in Grozny's Leninsky district, kidnapping the two men and seizing a VAZ- 2106 car, the Interior Ministry sources said.

Daud Magomadov was abducted in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district, while locomotive engineer Adam Magomedov was kidnapped in the town of Argun.

Shamsudin Vitigov, a United Russia party member, went missing at Grozny's central market under unclear circumstances.

A search operation is in progress.


5.01.2005

Russia urged to protect rights in Chechnya

Moscow, Russia. Observing human rights in Chechnya is crucial to restoring order there, a leading Russian human rights activist told Interfax news agency.

«If all problems in the area of protecting human rights are resolved, the pace at which Chechnya is being restored will accelerate," Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva told the news agency Monday.

She said security agencies must act in compliance with the law and observe the people's constitutional rights.

The process of reviving Chechnya's social sector has scored a number of successes recently, Alexeyeva told Interfax. Schools have been opened and hospitals repaired.

«Many Chechen residents have started to repair their own houses, in spite of the fact that few people have received compensation for destroyed houses and property," she added. «People are tired of poor living standards. They want to live a normal life."

The Memorial human rights organization has put the number of residents kidnapped in Chechnya in 2004 at 384. «Of them, 182 people have been freed, 22 have been found dead, and 173 are still listed as missing," Memorial spokesman Dmitry Grushkin told Interfax. UPI

http://chechentimes.org/en/news/?id=24906


Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO)

2005-01-03

Chechen Republic of Ichkeria: Mashkadov relatives kidnapped in Grozny


Open letter from Chechen leaders to the European Parliament

Dear Mister President Borrell, dear deputies,

We address to you, as leader of one of the most active European Institutes, that obtained large and deserved authority with the Chechen people for its principle attitude on the protection of human rights.

As known, the Chechen leadership headed by President Aslan Maskhadov steps into the forefront against terrorism and fights for many years against Russian state terrorism and the genocide of the Chechen people.

Last week, Russian special services and criminal gangs, supported by the Kremlin and led by the notorious Chechen Kvisling, Kadyrov the younger, took as hostage in Grozny and other cities and villages the family of the President of the Chechen Republic Aslan Maskhadov. Among them are his brothers Lechi Maskhadov, 76 years old, Lyema Maskhadov, 68 years old, his sister Dzhovzhan Abdu1kadyrova (Maskhadova), 69 years old, and also two cousins: Adam Reshiev, 60 years old, and lkhvan Magomadov, 63 years old . Besides, during the last weeks the hostage-taking of women, elderly and children reached a massive character. This happened after the declaration of the prosecutor-general Ustinov on "The collective responsibility of "terrorists"".

A massive, and politically motivated kidnapping of people is taking place in the open. This is considered to be an attempt to solve political problems, using terrorist methods, which is a grave violation of all norms of international law and a barbaric act of state terror, which needs to be immediately condemned in very strong wordings.

Therefore we ask you to undertake acute measures, in order to guarantee safety to the family of the political leader of Chechnya and to all other hostages.

We ask you to demand from the president of the Russian Federation, Mr.Putin, to immediately release the kidnapped civilians, including the relatives of AsIan Maskhadov, President of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria.


Yours sincerely,

Umar Khanbiev, Minister of Health, general representative of the President of ChRI abroad Selim Beshaev, first vice-chair of the Parliament of ChRI Lyema Saralyapov, ad-interim Chair of the Parliament of ChRI, Khamid Yangulbavev, deputy of the Parliament of ChRI Apti Shkhgiriyev, deputy of the Parliament of ChRI Khizri Batsuyev, deputy of the Parliament of ChRI


http://www.unpo.org/news_detail.php?arg=14&par=1699