| Health crisis brews in Russia's Chechnya 06 Mar 2005 02:03:00 GMT Source: Reuters Chechen children stand in front of their destroyed appartments in the Chechen capital of Grozny. Photo by STRINGER By Oliver Bullough GROZNY, Russia, March 6 (Reuters) - Viskhan Siriyev has not walked or talked since a bomb hit his house at the start of the Chechen war ten years ago. He is 16, but looks like a terrified and skinny eight-year-old. "He can't speak. He understands what you say but can't really move," said his 25-year-old brother Ruslan, standing in a room shared by five members of his family. Viskhan rolled his huge eyes at the wall and hid behind his thin arms, distressed by a stranger's visit to the hostel occupied by Chechens whose houses have been destroyed by the bombing. Doctors say such mental damage to children threatens to bring catastrophe to Chechen society. It affects hundreds of thousands of children and could have a greater long-term effect than the war's physical injuries. Sultan Alimkhadzhiyev, head doctor at the Republican Children's Hospital outside the Chechen capital, Grozny, compared the children's trauma to that suffered by the young hostages held at Beslan, where 330 people -- half of them children -- died at a school siege last year. "I was glad to see the help that the children of Beslan received. But our children have been suffering for 10 years not two days ... The kind of problems the children in Beslan had, we have across the whole republic," he said. "Almost all of the children, probably 80 percent, have psychological trauma. They have seen death, explosions. That's about 300,000 children." HEAVY COATS His hospital does not have the resources needed to treat such numbers. On a recent visit, patients and doctors wrapped themselves in heavy coats while a single open gas flare provided the only heat on the ground floor. Many parents have even taken their children home -- where the young patients go untreated -- to keep them warm. And the war's effects have not been confined to children. Doctors at city hospital No. 9 in Grozny's shattered centre, said people like Zelimkhan Ediyev were being injured by bullets and bombs almost every day. Ediyev said he was shot as he walked with friends through Grozny at night. He will be in hospital for a month. "It was around nine at night and I was with five or six friends. I do not know who shot me, it just happened," he said, a bullet-sized bloodstain on his bandaged thigh marking where he was hit. The 19-year-old was lucky not to join the tens of thousands of civilians killed in the decade-long separatist war, but doctors said his wound would be easier to treat than less visible damage caused by years of poor food and water. "There are stomach problems, people have not had enough food or have eaten bad food. They get stomach ulcers as a result. And then that has complications," said doctor Rozambek Nashkhoyev. "Then there are gynaecological problems that come about through stress. The psychological situation is bad, you understand." Alimkhadzhiyev said the weakness of new-born children and mothers was threatening a population collapse. "Every fourth or fifth child has a problem ... 75 percent of children that die, die before they are a month old," he said. "We have infant mortality higher than anywhere in the former Soviet Union. They are born weak because their mothers are already ill." He said official figures massively underestimated infant mortality, which could be as high as 50 per 1,000 -- more than double that of the rest of Russia and tens times higher than a Western nation like Britain. CULTURAL COLLAPSE Illness coupled with a decline in education standards could destroy Chechen culture and society as Alimkhadzhiyev knew it, he said. "I can remember when four-year-olds spoke Russian better than a child from Moscow. And now you get university students who don't even speak it," he said. "If you go to the cemetery now, you will see more small graves than big ones. The situation is scary," he added. "We need help, equipment, medicine. Even equipment people throw away would be dear to us. We need the help today, if we get it in five years it will be too late," he said. Russia's Chechens Top UN List of Asylum Seekers Created: 03.03.2005 15:05 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:06 MSK, MosNews Russians, primarily Chechens, were the largest single group of asylum seekers heading to developed countries in 2004, a UNHCR report has stated. The number of people seeking asylum in richer countries dropped sharply for the third year in a row in 2004, Reuters news agency reports. Overall numbers fell by an average of 22 percent across 38 developed countries, including 19 percent in the 25-nation European Union, 26 percent in North America, and 28 percent in Australia and New Zealand, compared with 2003, the agency said earlier this week. The report said the largest single group of asylum seekers — a total of 30,100 — came from Russia. They were mainly from Chechnya, where Russian troops have fought a fierce war against separatist insurgents for almost a decade. Akhmed Zakayev, a spokesman for Chechnya's separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, is the highest-profile Chechen figure to have been granted asylum in the UK. Tycoon Boris Berezovsky, wanted in Russia on charges of fraud and theft of state property, has also been granted asylum by London. After the Chechens, the next largest group seeking asylum in 2004 were from Serbia and Montenegro —- many of them from the Kosovo province which is under international administration after Serb forces were forced to withdraw at the end of the 1990s. Muscovites Hold Rally in Memory of Beslan Victims, Organizer Detained Created: 03.03.2005 16:19 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:40 MSK, MosNews Six months after the Beslan school siege a handful of protesters gathered near the building of North Ossetia's representative office in Moscow. One of its organizers, Marina Litvinovich, was detained by police, a MosNews correspondent reported from the scene. The Moscow protesters held placards reading "Beslan will happen again if we remain silent"; "Enough lies, enough blood, enough Putin!". "Dzasokhov, resign and let people live!" read one placard addressed to the president of North Ossetia. The activists also held up large photos of the hostages taken on Sept. 3 when the school was stormed by Russian security troops. Marina Litvinovich, who organized the rally, told journalists that members of Yabloko's youth organization had joined the demonstration. Beslan residents also gathered near the building of School No. 1, almost completely destroyed by explosions during the September siege, to pay homage to the victims. Over 150 people gathered in the gym where over 1,000 hostages were held by a group of terrorists at the beginning of the school year. Another meeting in memory of the Beslan victims was held in St. Petersburg. Russia says US rights report was biased 02 Mar 2005 17:55:19 GMT Source: Reuters MOSCOW, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday a U.S report that contended Russia's human rights record had worsened was biased and distorted reality. The Foreign ministry said the State Department annnual world human rights report was out of step with the warm atmosphere at last week's summit between U.S President George W. Bush and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The report published on Monday included sections expressing concern about Putin's tightening grip on power, limits on press freedom and rights abuses in Chechnya, where Moscow is fighting separatist rebels. "The assessments on our country can in no way be called objective. They are based on arbitrary interpretations of the facts and sometimes even on rumours," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The whole report looks politically-biased," and "distorts beyond recognition" the real state of affairs in Russian society, said the ministry. The statement asked why the report made no mention of the U.S. military's ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees or of electoral irregularities and race discrimination in the United States. "Unfortunately, (the report) .... once again gives us reason to say that double standards are a characteristic of the American approach to such an important theme," it said. At a news conference after their summit in the Slovak capital Bratislava, Bush and Putin carefully avoided focusing on disagreements over human rights and the future of democracy in Russia. Nationalist commentators in Russia said the State Department report was designed to redress the balance for Bush not attacking Putin over the issue at their meeting. Under Putin, a former spy, Russia has become increasingly sensitive to foreign criticism of its human rights performance. It says it abides by generally accepted standards on human rights and democracy. RUSSIA: CPJ seeks to halt intimidation in Chechnya March 4, 2005 TO: His Excellency Vladimir Putin President of the Russian Federation The Kremlin Moscow, Russia Via Facsimile: 011 7 095 206 5137/206 6277 Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned about an ongoing campaign by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and prosecutors to intimidate and obstruct the work of independent journalists reporting on the ongoing war in and around the southern republic of Chechnya. The FSB and prosecutors have launched a series of politicized criminal investigations against journalists covering human rights abuses in the North Caucasus. They appear to be part of a broader campaign by the Kremlin to suppress independent reporting on the war and create an image that life in Chechnya is returning to normal. The Nizhny Novgorod regional FSB has recently intensified its persecution of Pravo-Zashchita (Rights Defense), a monthly newspaper reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya. The newspaper is published by the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS), a non-governmental organization based in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod and distributed in the North Caucasus and several other Russian cities. On November 26, 2004, the Nizhny Novgorod regional prosecutor's office summoned Pravo-Zashchita Editor in Chief Stanislav Dmitriyevsky to be questioned about articles the newspaper published earlier in the year that included statements made by Chechen rebel leaders calling for peace talks. The March 2004 edition of Pravo-Zashchita included a statement made by the London-based Chechen rebel leader Akhmed Zakayev, and the April-May 2004 edition included an address made by Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov to the Strasbourg, France-based European Parliament. On January 11, the Nizhny Novgorod regional prosecutor's office launched a criminal investigation against Pravo-Zashchita in retaliation for publishing those statements. Nizhny Novgorod prosecutors consider the statements to be calls for extremist action, the Moscow Times reported. The criminal case is being investigated under Article 280 of Russia's Penal Code, which forbids calls for the overthrow of the government, and Dmitriyevsky could face up to five years in prison if convicted. On January 20, FSB agents questioned Dmitriyevsky about the newspaper's sources of financing, how he obtained the two statements, and who authorized their publication, according to local press reports. (The newspaper is supported by the U.S.-government funded National Endowment for Democracy.) Later that day, four FSB agents raided the office of the RCFS without a search warrant, seizing registration documents, back issues, and work contracts for RCFS staffers in Nizhny Novgorod and Chechnya, according to local press reports. Following the raid, journalists and human rights organizations expressed concern that the organization's Chechnya-based correspondents were at risk of abduction, torture and disappearance. "Being questioned in Chechnya is a lot different than being questioned in Nizhny Novgorod," Dmitriyevsky told The Moscow Times. "Even if they [the correspondents] are not physically beaten, they could be pressured into ending their journalistic activities." Oksana Chelysheva, editor at the Information Center of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, told CPJ in a telephone interview that FSB agents questioned the eight other RCFS employees based in Nizhny Novgorod in the weeks after Dmitriyevsky was questioned. On February 23, the FSB notified three current and former RCFS employees based in Chechnya that they would be called as witnesses in the criminal case against Pravo-Zashchita, Chelysheva told CPJ. In a separate case, both FSB and Interior Ministry officials in North Ossetia's capital of Vladikavkaz have targeted Yuri Bagrov, an independent journalist who moved from Georgia to Russia in 1992 and in recent years has covered the North Caucasus for The Associated Press and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). In August 2004, FSB agents raided Bagrov's apartment and office, confiscating personal documents and work-related material. The raid occurred days ahead of Chechnya's August presidential elections, when authorities were eager to hide voting irregularities, and followed a number of politically sensitive articles by Bagrov about Chechen rebels and a wave of mysterious abductions in Ingushetia. In December 2004, a Vladikavkaz court convicted Bagrov on criminal charges of using falsified documents to obtain Russian citizenship. Bagrov, an ethnic Russian, was fined and his personal identity documents were confiscated; authorities restricted his travel to the city of Vladikavkaz and prevented him from attending press conferences. The Supreme Court of North Ossetia rejected the journalist's appeal and the FSB is seeking his deportation, although police officials responsible for deportations have said that they are not planning to expel him from the country. Chechenskoye Obshechestvo (Chechen Society), an independent weekly based in Ingushetia's capital of Nazran, has been harassed for reporting on human rights abuses committed by pro-Moscow Chechen forces as well as Russian soldiers and security forces. In July 2004, police officers tried to pressure Editor in Chief Timur Aliev to close the weekly. When he refused, the state-run printer in Nazran was instructed to stop printing the weekly in the run-up to August elections held in Chechnya. The FSB has consistently played a central role in the Kremlin's reprisals against the independent media. The recent FSB and police actions against Pravo-Zashchita, Chechenskoye Obshechestvo and Yuri Bagrov, are alarming because they reflect an escalation in a broad campaign of intimidation and harassment of journalists and media outlets reporting on the Chechen conflict. These FSB and police actions are contributing to a dramatic decline in press freedom under your tenure and we call on you to reverse these repressive policies and ensure that government officials protect Pravo-Zashchita, Chechenskoye Obshchestvo, and Yuri Bagrov from unlawful persecution. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We await your reply. Sincerely, Ann Cooper Executive Director Join CPJ in protesting this attack on the press. Write or fax to the address above. © 2005 Committee to Protect Journalists. http://www.cpj.org E-mail: info@cpj.org http://www.cpj.org/protests/05ltrs/Russia04mar05pl.html Russian occupation soldiers destroy computer club in Chechnya On March 2nd, at approximately 10pm in Achkhoy-Martan, a regional center of the Chechen Republic, Chechen traitors together with Russian occupation forces attacked a computer club located on Nuradilova Street. As a result, the adolescents who were in the club were beaten, and one person, Umar Dimayev, was fatally shot. All the club’s equipment was destroyed. According to ORCHD, a group of traitors and russian soldiers drove up to the computer club in four vehicles. After breaking into the building, Chechen traitors together with Russian soldiers began to severely beat everyone in the club. At the time of the attack, there were eight people in the facility. Among those beaten were: a student of the Economics Department of the University, Muslim Tokayaev, a 25 year old who has been an invalid since childhood; Islam Bagayev, 11 years old; Iliskhan Estemirov, 13 years old; and Kyurdzhi Notayev, 16 years old. When he was being detained by one of the soldiers, Umar Dimayev was shot dead. According to eyewitnesses, when the soldiers were pushing Dimayev into one of their vehicles, he reached for a pistol and shot it twice. In response, the solder opened fire, as a result of which Dimayev was killed. Dimayev injured one of the Russian occupation soldiers. According to the inhabitants of adjacent houses, the detention of the people in the computer salon was accompanied by indiscriminate firing from automatic weapons. Residents began responding to the adolescents’ cries for help. In order to frighten people away, the soldiers began firing indiscriminately. After being beaten, the adolescents were put into the soldiers’ vehicles and driven away to an unknown location. They were released that night. On March 3rd, the burial of Umar Dimayev was held in Achkhoy-Martan. Prima 2005-03-05 http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2005/3/4/31392.html The Chechen Invalids in Baku Temporarily Stopped the Action of Hunger-strike As the Chechen mass-media has already reported, on February, 22, a group of Chechen invalids and ill people, living in Baku, began the action of hunger-strike. The participants of the action charged representatives of the United Nations in Baku of infringement of their rights, and also in infringement of the rights of refugees stipulated in the Convention of 1951. We shall remind that the day before yesterday the representatives of the Chechen refugees should have met the management of the representation of the United Nations in Baku. And yesterday the coordinator of the action Aslan Kaziev informed that the representatives of the United Nations, who had accepted Chechens and listened to all their requirements. According to Kaziev's words, refugees complained of refusals to give them the status of refugees, and also of too scanty monetary help: "The Meeting was very intense, and we were said, that our requirements were fair, however we could not give you the status of international refugees. For this purpose it is necessary to carry out special investigation with each refugee, and only after that this status can be given to us”. The coordinator of the action demanded from the heads of the representation of the United Nations the official document confirming the lack of the status. As he said, this document was necessary for them for application to the international organizations: "We were said, that for reception of this document we could come in a week. In a week we shall see, if the promises of the employees of the United Nations were truthful. At the same time the management promised to reconsider the problem of increase of monetary help. Within three months the help, which is rendered to refugees, will be increased. For example, those people, who received 300 thousand manats, would receive 350 thousand manats, those people, who received 490 thousand manats - 600 thousand (one dollar costs about 5 000 manat). According to Kaziev's words, the representatives of the United Nations asked to stop the action of hunger-strike. Having left the office of the United Nations, he asked the compatriots to stop the action. The majority of the starving did not want to stop the action: "Many of them do not trust these promises, they say, that if it is necessary, they will continue the action for two months". Kaziev said, that participants of the action agreed to wait not for two months, but for one week. If in a week the promise of representatives of the United Nations is not accomplished, the action will be continued: "If we are not given the official document about refusal to give the status, we shall not believe any their word. The head of the press centre of the representation of the United Nations Vugar Abdulsalimov says that the management, having listened to the requirements of participants of the action, is going to fulfill the promises: "They have temporarily stopped the action. For this time we once again shall study their requirements. We hope that all problems will be solved". M.Aliev, Baku , Azerbaijan Chechenpress , the Department of letter 05.03.05 http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/03/05/02.shtml 2005-03-05 11:17 Women-doctors must be acquitted of suspicion MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti) - Alexander Torshin, the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, had to interfere to settle the situation that arose after the interior ministry published information that women doctors working in Ingushetia were terrorists. The description of 14 women, members of the International Medical Corps, who are working in Ingushetia that neighbors Chechnya, was posted on web sites and in public places in Moscow, the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg. The inscription under their photographs reads that they are on the wanted list on suspicion of engaging in terrorist activities. On Friday, Mr. Torshin met the women at the Federation Council to finally settle the matter. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev, Federal Security Service (FSB) officials, and human rights ombudsmen. "The situation has not been finally settled to date. The erroneous information has not been removed yet," Mr. Torshin told reporters after the meeting. Mr. Torshin learned about it last year. He took efforts to amend the situation under his control and believed the problem had been resolved. However, the information about the women is still in place in some districts, although senior interior ministry officials have admitted it was a mistake, while Moscow's city interior department offered its apologies to the women. "Regretfully, we create problems out of nothing and hold people off," said Mr. Torshin. "Such incidents show that our interior bodies do not stick to some system in their activities and lack mechanisms of implementing adopted decisions. Their mistakes are due to a difficult situation in the country which is aggravated by the terrorist threat," said Mr. Torshin. Mr. Yedelev promised to correct "the technical mistake and remove the erroneous information on the International Medical Corps doctors from web sites and public places immediately. Mar 5 2005 1:52PM Thirty abduction in Chechnya in 2005 - Memorial MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - Thirty people have been abducted in Chechnya in 2005, and 17 of them are still missing, the Memorial human rights center told Interfax. "According to incomplete information, 30 cases of abductions of Chechen residents were recorded in January and February. Ten of these people have been released, 17 are missing, and one was found dead. The two others are currently under investigation," Memorial's Dmitry Grushkin said on Friday. Memorial also found out that 22 Chechen residents were killed in the first two months of 2005, Grushkin said. "Among them are 13 peaceful civilians, 5 members of Chechen law enforcement and security agencies, and one guerilla. The identities of three more people are unknown," Grushkin said. "This data is not complete. Our monitoring embraces only 30% of Chechnya's territory. Even on this 30% of the territory, we can't record all crimes," he said. LE MONDE 27 February 2005 In Orléans, the spectacular arrest of two Chechen refugees By Régis Guyotat, our regional correspondent in Orléans Two Chechen refugees were arrested in Orléans on 15 February by agents of RAID (Research, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion) and officials of the Essonne [a French region] Departmental Director of Public Security (DDSP). Not less than ten police officials, hooded and dressed all in black, burst into a central Orléans apartment where several Chechen refugees and asylum seekers were living. According to those close to the two arrested men, the representatives of the law fired three shots at the moment of the assault – two at the door on the landing, and one into a dividing wall. The two arrested men, brothers aged 24 and 25 years respectively, had recently obtained refugee status. They were taken to Evry, in the Essonne region, and examined under caution for alleged assault and theft. They were then put in prison, but the Evry public prosecutor's office declines to say in which penitentiary they have been incarcerated. They are accused of having committed a mugging in July 2004 at Corbeil-Essonnes at the home of a Russian exile. "Objectively," says the Evry public prosecutor's office, "this is a matter of intermediate seriousness." So why, therefore, was it necessary to call in the RAID officers for these arrests? "They are our neighbours at Bièvres," the Essonne DDSP explains. "When there are operations that are a little out of the ordinary, we go on them as training exercises. In this case there was no absolute necessity." "THESE ARE YOUNG INTELLECTUALS" This kind of intervention has the appearance of an anti-terrorist operation, in the perceptions of the two arrested men's relatives, who do not understand what has happened. The violence of the raid has upset the locality where numerous immigrants live. "There are lots of asylum seekers who visit that apartment, if only to drink some tea, get warm and, above all, fill out their asylum dossier, because it's not easy to write when you are out on the street," says Ahmed, a spokesman for the Chechen community in Orléans, where around fifty families have found lodgings. The two arrested men had been awarded refugee status in France at the time of their arrival in the country, in January 2004. One of them had obtained a dentist's diploma in Grozny, and his younger brother was a student at the faculty of education. They had been obliged to flee when their family came under suspicion of having sheltered a "rebel". Ahmed explains: "These are young intellectuals who left their own country in order to live a normal life, in a normal country." Ahmed is concerned for the health of one of the two brothers, who has heart problems, and who would have received a beating at the time of his arrest. The Comité Tchétchénie, in Paris, has denounced the "mounting police pressure" which has been applied in recent months to members of the refugee community in France. "There is a suspicion in relation to anything with a Chechen connection in the minds of certain officials, in particular the police," a committee representative says. "In their view the fact of being Chechen nourishes suspicions about terrorist activities. That helps the Russian state and Vladimir Putin in their search for ways to support their thesis according to which there is no struggle for independence in Chechnya, nor any Resistance – only bands of terrorists." Translated by Jeremy Putley March 5th 2005 · Prague Watchdog Illness rate in Chechnya five-to-ten times higher than in Russia By Timur Aliyev NAZRAN, Ingushetia - The number of illnesses in Chechnya exceeds that of other regions in Russia by five to 10 times, stated Mussa Dalsayev, the republic's chief substance abuse and addictions officer. He explains that this catastrophic situation is due to several reasons, one of which is the constant stress under which Chechens live. "There is something we call psychological burnout. One can be under severe pressure without being aware of it, and so eventually burns out." Dalsayev also insists that the number of social diseases such as tuberculosis, mental disorders, drug addiction, alcoholism and HIV is on the increase. He compares the current state of the health sector with the years 1991-95 when all services of the Chechen Ministry of Health lost state support and were later obliterated during military operations. The doctor thinks that none of the medical facilities that are now being reconstructed conform to today's requirements; plus the amount of medical equipment available is practically zero, and the qualified medical staff on hand is insufficient. According to Dalsayev, in order to improve the present situation a systematic reorganization of the entire healthcare system is needed. This consists of each hospital in the republic having a qualified staff and that the Chechen Ministry of Health must be continuously financed. Timur Aliyev is Prague Watchdog's North Caucasus correspondent and also the editor-in-chief of the Chechen Society newspaper. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 4/3/2005 Witness in Ulman case confesses to firing control shots The North Caucasian District Court Martial has questioned a witness for the prosecution, Private Ivan Melekhin, today in Rostov-on-Don during a retrial in the case of the group of State Intelligence Agency special operations soldiers under the command of Captain Eduard Ulman. The special operations soldiers are charged with shooting down six civilians in Chechnya on 11 January 2002. The witness said he had fired control shots at the victims by the order of one of the defendants and had assisted in gathering and conducting a search of the bodies, reported the website Gazeta.Ru. http://www.24hours.ge/index.php?n=205&r=4&id=1074 N205 (34) Tuesday, March 1st, 2005 Society Zviad Ruadze Chechen Refugees Call Ministry Corrupt Anxiety among Chechen residents in the Pankisi Gorge over the status of refugees has reached its peak. Chechen refugees are blaming the Ministry of Refugees and Placement for keeping incorrectly registered lists. In order to find out about this, the Deputy Minister went to the Gorge together with Public Defender Sozar Subar. The situation later became chaotic at the Cultural House in the village of Duisi after a refugee woman placed her two-year-old ailing infant in front of the Public Defender and left the scene. It became necessary to call the Patrol Police to settle the incident. Anxiety over the refugee status started among Chechen refugees in August of 2004, when the Ministry of Refugees and Placement requested registration of the refugees once more. Despite the fact that procedures that were fully carried out according to registration norms, Chechen citizens appeared without refugee status, but it was given to local residents. Chechen refugee Mzia Musaeva said, "I am a citizen of Chechnya and I have all the documents to prove it. After this new registration, the Ministry suddenly annulled my document that proved my refugee status. They tell me that the reason for this is that is that I am not included in the registered lists, and therefore I do not deserve refugee status. On what basis did they create these lists, where the Chechens themselves are not included and our refugee status is suddenly given to locals? The Ministry has used this registration for their own benefits." Due to blunders related to their status, the Chechen refugees appealed several times to the United Nations Office, the Ministry of Refugees and Placement, and other NGOs, but with no results. Finally, they held large-scale protests, again without results. The Chechen refugees blame all of this on the Deputy Minister of Refugees and Placement, Jambul Khozrevanidze, calling him corrupt. Among those denied refugee status was Chairman of the Writers' Union of Chechnya, Suleiman Gemashvili, who said, "The main problem is Jambul Khozrevanidze. He created incorrect lists and used the registration for his own personal benefit. These are not groundless accusations from our side - we will all prove that he is corrupt." Public Defender Sozar Subar went to the Pankisi Gorge to learn about the Chechens' problems, accompanied by Khozrevanidze. The situation became tense at the Duisi Cultural House, where the refugees had gathered, when one of the refugees left her two-year-old infant. 25-year-old Lia Gaurgashvili did this after being denied refugee status by Khozrevanidze despite the fact that her baby is half Chechen. "My husband left for his mother's funeral in Chechnya and I have not seen him dead or alive since then. I have one ill child who has dislocated pelvis. To say nothing of taking the child to the doctor, I often don't even have money to feed the child. According to the law, we could get some aid in order to survive, but they have refused to give it to us. If my child does not deserve the status, despite his Chechen descent, than I cannot keep him anymore. For how long must I watch the child's terrible condition? I will leave the child here, and anybody who is willing can take care of him." The Patrol Police were called, but the dispute did not end between Khozrevanidze and the Chechens. The Chechen refugees accused the Ministry of illegally trading with refugee status, blaming Khozrevanidze even for this. Despite several violations of law cited by the refugees, Khozrevanidze called these accusations groundless. Regardless of Lia Gaurgashvili's extreme action, Khozrevanidze still held that ill child did not deserve refugee status or aid, stating, "The charges these people have brought against me are groundless. There might be errors in the list of those registered, but this is due to technical reasons, and the percentage is very small. The Ministry will check the lists once again and correct these technical mistakes. As for the lady who left her child, she does not deserve refugee status because she is a local resident." It was decided at a meeting with the Public Defender and representatives of the Ministry of Refugees and Placement in the Cultural House of Duisi that in several days a commission would be created headed by Public Defender Subar, uniting representatives of all villages in the Pankisi Gorge and verifying the lists registered by the Ministry. According to Subar, "We will re-check the lists according to which the Ministry of Refugees and Placement issues refugee status. In case of violation, we will appeal to the respective organs immediately. We want to end such violations of law permanently, and the people must determine who is right and who is wrong." This will be the third registration carried out by the Ministry of Refugees and Placement. According to the Chechens, each registration contained some sort of legal violations, but this time 400 Chechen families were left without refugee status. Disabled Chechen War Veteran Returns Medals to Russian Defense Minister Created: 05.03.2005 MosNews A disabled Russian veteran of the Chechen war has sent his decorations to the defense minister, the Gazeta daily reported on Saturday. Retired warrant officer Gennady Uminsky sent his medals to Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov by mail as a form of protest against a court ruling which told him to seek compensation for his combat injuries from separatist fighters and not the Russian government. He also sent the defense minister a letter in which he wrote that the prosecutors who were dealing with his case were trying to change the subject from the problem of thousands of Russian soldiers who had come through the war in Chechnya to Uminsky's personality. He added that he did not intend to give up his legal case. Earlier this year a court official in the southern Russian city of Oryol told Uminsky that his compensation claims for the injuries he received in Chechnya must be directed against Chechen separatist fighters and not the Russian authorities. The court hearings into the case are continuing. |