| How many Chechens live outside the Chechen Republic? According to the Russian analysts, today from 100 up to 300 thousand Chechens live only in Moscow - nobody knows the exact number. However, there is an exact figure of apartments in Moscow, in which Chechens live - 80 thousand. Such figure of "the Chechen apartments" in the Russian capital was named by the press-service of the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs of Moscow, reporting about the check of a passport system "among the people of the Chechen nationality" after the events in the "Northeast". Taking into account that many Chechens live in Moscow not alone, but with families, it is possible to ascertain confidently, that not less than 200 thousand Chechens live in 80 thousand apartments. Basically they are representatives the old Soviet party activists, businessmen, representatives of former communistic "intelligencia" and their families. How many Chechens live in other Russian cities and regions? There is no quite enough data, but it is possible to deduce the average result. According to one of the puppet "official" sites, in the Pskov region 1050 Chechens live, in the Stavropol Territory - 13 thousand, in the Rostov region - 40-45 thousand, in the Sverdlovsk region - 1000, the same in the Nizhniy Novgorod region. In the Chelyabinsk region 2,5 thousand Chechens live. In the Kaliningrad region about 1000 Chechens live. There is a very large Chechen Diaspora in the territory of the Volgograd region - 35 thousand. Chechens live, basically, in rural regions and are engaged in agriculture: vegetable growing and animal industry. A small part of them, living in cities, is engaged in business and trade. A significant number of Chechens has settled in St.-Petersburg - up to 20 thousand. In the republic of Komi only 500 Chechens live. In the Tambov region - 4 thousand. There is a large Chechen Diaspora in the Tyumen region - 37 thousand people, 30 thousand of them are Chechens. Basically, they are oilmen with their families, who also during Soviet time went to work to the deposits of Urengoi, Yamal, and New Urengoi. Numerous refugees from the Chechen Republic joined them at the beginning of the war. In the capital of Bashkortostan, the city of Ufa , 1,5 thousand Chechens are registered. In Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region 6 thousand Vainahs live, 4,5 thousand of them are Chechens. In the Samara region there are 2 thousand Chechens. And in the neighbor Saratov region about 17 thousand Chechens are registered. In the Perm region, as it is informed, "several thousand" of Chechens live. It is usually more than two and less five thousand. Therefore we shall consider that in the Perm region 3 thousand Chechens live. In the Yaroslavl region there are 10 thousand Chechens, among them the majority is engaged in agricultural work, but there are also workers and businessmen. In the Tver region the Chechen Diaspora is not counted, it is simply informed, that a "thousand" Chechens live there, and that they settle in several villages. We shall conditionally consider that there are 3 thousand Chechens in this region. In the Astrakhan region not less than 40 thousand Chechens live. In Kalmykia, according to "The New Newspaper" there are 17 thousand Chechens. In Ingushetia, according to the puppet "chairman of the government of the Chechen republic of refugees" Mompasha Machuev, for June, 2005, there were 45 thousand Chechen refugees there (38 thousand in camps and 7 thousand in a private sector). In Karachaevo-Circassia up to 15 thousand Chechen refugees live. In Northern Ossetia (mainly in Mozdok) there are up to 11 thousand Chechens. In connection with the events in Borozdinovskaya, we have unexpectedly learned, that in Dagestan there are 100 thousand Chechen refugees, not including 70 thousand of local Chechens-Akkints. If to trust these data (they are taken from the Russian and puppet "official sources"), in 26 from 88 "subjects of the Russian Federation" there are about 700 thousand Chechens. If to consider, that in the remained 62 "subjects of the Russian Federation" at least 2 thousand of Chechens live, the total quantity of Chechens, living in the territory of Russia is more than 800 thousand people. It is difficult to judge, how much real this figure is. How many Chechens live in other post Soviet countries? Apparently, the most significant amount of Chechens has settled in Kazakhstan. According to the vice-minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan Ivan Otto, in this country there are more than 100 thousand Chechens with the Kazakhstan citizenship and 15 thousand refugees from the Chechen Republic. In Kyrgyzstan there are 15 thousand and in Ukraine - 20 thousand of Chechens with the status of refugees. In Georgia 909 Chechen refugees are officially registered. In Azerbaijan according to the UVKB of the United Nations there are 9 thousand of Chechens. In Lithuania about 2,5 thousand Chechen refugees are registered. Even without taking into account refugees in Moldova, Belarus, Estonia and Latvia, the total of the Chechen refugees in the post Soviet republics reaches, as we see, more than 160 thousand people. And how many Chechens are in Western Europe and in the Near East? More than 30 thousand Chechens, according to the United Nations, live only in the countries of Europe. In Turkey, according to the correspondent of "The Komsomol truth" A.Evtushenko, 25 thousand Chechen refugees are officially registered. Approximately the same quantity of Chechens lives in Jordan, Syria and other Arabian countries. Thus, the total of Chechens outside the former USSR can be estimated in 80 thousand. Having summarized all these data, it is possible to make a conclusion, that outside the Chechen Republic - in Russia, on the post Soviet space, in Europe and in the Near East – there are 1 million 40 thousand Chechens. However, it remains in doubt how much it is possible to believe all these data. Salamu Talhigov, for Chechenpress, 02.07.05 http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/07/02/06.shtml eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 30/6/2005 Bomb orphans nine Alkhazur Gursayev, b. 1948, triggered a bomb in the forest near Samashki, Achkhoi-Martan district, on 20 June. The man sustained serious shrapnel wounds as a result. His son with whom went for firewood was not able to drag the wounded man home and he died on the way. Alkhazur Gursayev's nine children became orphans after his death. His wife had died in 1995. Local residents accuse federal forces of what happened. They say armoured personnel carriers had been stationed at about where Gursayev was blown up several days before, according to the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 29/6/2005 Events in Chechnya A group of servicemen triggered a mine in Chechnya's Nozhai-Yurt district. Two of them died and three were wounded, Radio Liberty says. One serviceman died and three were wounded when an armoured personnel carrier triggered a mine in Urus-Martan district earlier today. One military man suffered in a combat with rebels in the same district earlier. A federal unit destroyed two rebels in the Nozhai-Yurt district on 28 June. This is what the Regional Operations Headquarters for the Counter-terrorist Operation in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti. A 23-year-old serviceman was wounded in the combat. PRESS-RELEASE #1354 FROM JUNE 29, 2005 REPORT FROM NIZHNIY NOVGOROD Court postpones review of the suit to liquidate RCFS on request of the Ministry of Justice June 26, 2005. Judge Samartseva of the Nizhni Novgorod province court determined that the hearing regarding the liquidation of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society will be postponed to August 4. The decision was taken in a meeting with the plaintiff in the case, the Federal Registration Authority of the Nizhni Novgorod Province office of the Russian Ministry of Justice. The representative of the plaintiff, Aleksey Shubin, stated that at present RCFS has submitted all the required documents for review, and the officers need time to look them over. As reported earlier, on April 8, 2005, the Federal Registration Authority of the Nizhni Novgorod Province office of the Russian Ministry of Justice submitted a suit to the court requesting the liquidation of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Since February 28, 2005, the authority has been conducting an audit of RCFS. In the course of the audit the authority has, among other things, required documents regarding the financial activities of the organization. However, at the time of that request those documents were in the possession of the Nizhni Novgorod tax authorities, which was reviewing them, and could thus not be submitted as requested for legitimate reasons. This was certified by specialists at the Ministry of Justice. Nevertheless, acting deputy chief of the authority E.V. Istomina considered the non-submittal of the documents - held by another government agency - as a grave violation of the law, and submitted a suit to the court requesting the liquidation of the organization. On June 16, 2005, the tax audit of RCFS was finished and the documents were returned to the organization. On June 22, 2005, the documents were in turn submitted to the Registration Authority of the Ministry of Justice. Since then no additional documents have been requested by the plaintiff. By all appearances, the registration officials requested the postponement of the hearing in order to be able to correct their position, since it is now not possible to accuse the RCFS of failure to submit documents. RCFS submits complaint regarding the tax authority’s neglect to prosecutor June 20, 2005. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society turned in a complaint to the prosecutor, accusing the Federal Tax inspection office in Nizhni Novgorod of neglect. According to RCFS, the tax officials violated the procedural time period for reviewing the petition to close the administrative case. The case of administrative violation regarding the alleged failure to pay taxes was brought by L.F. Barskova, main state tax inspector of the Nizhni Novgorod district in the city of Nizhni Novgorod. On June 16, simultaneously with the submission of the complaint, RCFS was charged with back taxes in the amount of more than one million rubles. On June 28 RCFS submitted to the tax inspector’s office a petition to close the administrative proceedings against its executive director Stanislav Dmitrievskiy. In accordance with article 24.4 in the administrative violation code of the Russian Federation, a written petition is subject to immediate review and decision. However, when RCFS representatives arrived at the tax inspector’s office in the Nizhni Novgorod district to find out the decision, the head of the review department Larisa Komleva stated that the petition had still not been processed and therefore not been reviewed. (From our correspondent) PRESS-RELEASE #1356 FROM JUNE 30, 2005 REPORT FROM INGUSHETIA Three people are detained at MTF-1 refugee camp In the morning of 30 June 2005, service personnel of force agencies, the majority of which were servicemen of Ingushetia’s OMON, subjected three residents of MTF-1 refugee camp (Ingushetia’s Karabulak town) to an unauthorized detention and then took them away to an unknown destination. The detained people were Chachaev Suleyman (born 1981), Saydumov Musa Salamovich (born 1976) and Dadaev Taus Sup’anovich. All the three detained men are forced migrants from the Chechen Republic. Two of them, Dadaev and Chachaev, were released the same day. The whereabouts and the destiny of the third detained man remain unknown. According to eye-witnesses, some twenty five force agents arrived at the refugee camp. They were moving in two “Gazel” mini-vans without any license plates. The majority of them were Ingushetia’s OMON servicemen. There were eight servicemen of the Russian federal forces in the group and four servicemen in masks who spoke Russian with the Chechen accent. They entered barrack ¹6, seized three refugees, handcuffed them, took out and drove away to an unknown destination. Taus Dadaev was released by 11 am. Forced migrants living in the refugee camp appealed to the prosecutor of Karabulak town Magushkov I. with oral complaints about the accident. However, they were told that the force agents had a warrant from the prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor also told that Suleyman Chachaev who happened to be a serviceman of the law-enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic had been also released. At about 1 pm Chachnaev called his relatives over the phone and informed them that he had been released by the military somewhere between the Shali district center and the settlement of Germenchuk of the Chechen Shali district. There has been no information about the fate Musa Saydumov. According to the brother of the detained man, Musa has been detained by the Russian military but they have always released him before. (From our correspondent) REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Achkhoy-Martan district. Father of nine children died on a mine On 20 June, 2005 Gursaev Alkhasur Baudinovich (born 1948) stepped on an unidentifiable explosive device planted at the outskirts of the village of Samashki of the Chechen Achkhoy-Martan district and died. He lived in Samashki village in Proletarskaya Street. Gursaev and one of his sons went to a neighboring forest to chop the firewood. The man was badly wounded when a landmine exploded. His son tried to drag his father home but he didn’t manage to. Alkhasur Gursaev died on his way home. His nine children are orphans as their mother died in 1995. The local people blame the Russian military for this death. According to them, there were a few armored personnel carriers at the site where a landmine exploded some days before the tragedy. (From our correspondent) PRESS-RELEASE #1358 FROM JULY 1, 2005 REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Shlkovskoy district. A police office is set up in the village of Borozdinovskaya On 1 July, 2005, a police office was set up in the village of Borozdinivskaya of the Chechen Shelkovskoy district to establish law and to secure people. A police captain Emiev Magomed Bashirovich was appointed the chief of the police office. There are nineteen servicemen at the police office. The Criminal Investigation Department and the orderly department have been organized. The head of the administration I. Zin’kovskaya made an order to station the police office in an abandoned building situated near the district administration. Residents of Borozdinovskaya hope that the police office will secure them from arbitrariness and gross violations of their rights perpetrated by various force agencies. We remind that on 4 June 2005 a large-scaled special operation was carried out by “Vostok” battalion servicemen in which eleven residents of the village were abducted (see our release ¹1337 from 21 June 2005). They arbitrarily and violently treated all the other residents of the village. Protesting against violating their rights and seeking safety, many residents of the village left their village and crossed the administrative border with Dagestan where they set up a tent camp not far from the town of Kizlyar. (From our correspondent) Grozny. A cache is discovered in Grozny On 29 June, 2005 the service personnel of Grozny Oktyabrsky district police office carried investigative actions in Kishinyovskaya Street and discovered a cache containing two hand grenades, an antitank mine, a grenade cup charge PG-7, four electric detonators and some 200 live cartridges. As of the present moment, the IC RCFS obtained information from an anonymous source at the Ministry of the Interior that is investigation is being carried to establish the owner of the cache. Additional information on missing people in Chechnyaa On 24 June, 2005 at about 2 am unidentified people in masks abducted Eskaev Muslim Sultanovich from his house in the village of Gekhi of the Chechen Urus-Martan district at 2 Kirov Street. As of the present moment, there has been no information about the d\whereabouts and the destiny of the abducted man. On 23 June a teenager girl Adaeva Zharadat Jamaldinovna (born 1991) went missing in the settlement of Savel’evskaya of the Chechen Naur district where she lives at 1 Aslanbek Sheripov Street. On the day of her disappearance Zharadat went out of the house and made for the school. Nobody has seen her since that. The same day unidentifiable people in camouflage seized Umarov Ramzan Movldinovich (born 1972) at the crossroads of Pervomayskaya and Slobodskaya in Grozny. Then they took him away in an unknown direction. Umarov is a resident of the village of Bratskoye of the Chechen Nadterechny district. The perpetrators also seized his GAS 31029 car. On 14 June Rabueva Zalina Badrudinovna (born 1989) living in the Chechen Itum-Kali district left her house and never came back home. (From our correspondent) PRESS-RELEASE #1361 FROM JULY 4, 2005 REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Shatoy district. Concentration of forces in Itum-Kale district On 3 July, 2005 at about 3 pm the surroundings of the settlement of Dekhesty of the Chechen Shatoy district were subjected to the missile strike by Russian military helicopters. At the same time, a lot of service personnel of the Russian federal forces were being concentrated in the settlement. The air strike caused panic among the residents of the village. According to the local people, a lot of military helicopters moved to the direction of Itum-Kale every day at nighttime in the period from 26 June till 3 July 2005. Locals think that the federal side is concentrating its forces in this area to carry out a large-scaled military operation against Chechen guerrilla movement. A release of an abducted resident of Yukerch-Keloy On 2 July 2005 Amkhat Asuev (aged 27), a resident of the village of Yukerch-Keloy of the Chechen Shatoy district was released after he had been abducted by unidentified armed people on 25 June 2005 (see our release ¹1347 from 26 June 2005). There was a mistake in the previous report about Asuev’s abduction: his name is Amkhat, not Alikhan. According to Asuev’s relatives, the man was found at the outskirts of Khankala settlement after he had been severely beaten. Khankala is the place where the main headquarters of the Russian troops in Chechnya is situated. The IC has not managed to get precise information about the place where Asuev was kept. His relatives think that Asuev was kept somewhere in the territory of the Chechen Gudermes district. As of the present moment, Amkhat Asuev’s state of health is not serious. (From our correspondent) The Beslan terrorist confirms victims' statements Kulayev case [passage omitted] Yesterday, Ludmila Pliyeva and Zita Sidakova were answering court's questions. - When we drove up, victim Pliyeva recalled, near the school, stood that old GAZ-66. It was simply in the poor state - its tattered tarpaulin was faded to the extreme degree... The people in camouflage jumped out from the truck and immediately began to shoot. Among the boyeviks there were those women in the black. I even had a time to see on them their pants under their long skirts. From the truck one of the terrorists began to throw out some knapsacks, in which, as it apperead to the Mrs. Pliyeva, there was nothing heavy, since they "landed softly, and a boyevik picked them up completely without any straining". Mrs Pliyeva described that approximately 12PM on 1 September, she and several more relatives of the hostages began to compose the lists of people, who were located in the school. - According to our calculations at that moment, there were 988 people in the school, and in the evening, when we again composed the lists, it came out 1088. And they had lied to us all those times. This lie wasn't lie for good [cause]. As that, that the representatives of authority told us that the hostages were getting water and food . - About what else did they lie to you? - asked Taymuraz Chedzhemov, the victims' attorney. - About that, that there was no demands from the boyeviks whatsoever The former hostage Zita Sidakova whose husband was shot down on the first day by the boyeviks, did not hide her attitude towards defendant Kulayev. - You scum, you make from yourself a good one? - she said to the defendant. - I don't want so that they would shoot you, I want so that you would rot for your whole life. The victim described about the fire in the gymnasium: - There very many got burnt alive. I understand, that this is very difficult for you to hear this, she turned to the women sitting in the courtroom, but the wounded ones, and there was a lot of them there, they'd burnt alive. Taymuraz Chedzhemov, the attorney of the victims asked her to describe what happened in the hall before the assault. - The children were drinking their urine said Mrs Sidakova, and after a little silence, she turned up to Kulayev. - Do you hear, you reptile [gadina]? During the assault the fighters placed the children on the windows and they forced them to wave some rags. Two boys were killed in the front of my eyes. Shooting was from the outside. But the boyeviks like robots, they shot without stopping. Only when they reloaded, read some prayer, shouted "Allah Akbar" and they began again to shoot. And smile all over the face. When the questioning has ended, Soslan Kochiyev, the attorney of the victims, asked Nurpashi Kulayev, why he refused to give his statements after his detention. - I've never refuse to give my statements - answered the terrorist. - Even in the basement, where they beat me up, I told them everything. Everything what they told me to sign it, I was signing. - A what demands had the Colonel ( the leader of terrorists. - K)? - In the first day he said that he wants that they take the army out of Chechnya, and wanted Dzasokhov (former president of North Ossetia Aleksandr Dzasokhov. - K) and Zyazikov (president of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov. - K). - What do you think, if they would come, would they shoot them? - I think, that they would not kill them. The Colonel promised to spare their life and he said that for every one of them he will let go 150 hostages. - So did they call for them to negotiate ? - the attorney specified. - Yes, answered defendant Kulayev. Zaur Farniyev for Kommersant, Vladikavkaz Chechen People Need Peace, Not Just Reconstruction Aid UNPO Press Conference on Initiative of EU Aid to Chechnya Although the Russian-Chechen conflict is over two centuries old, tensions between the two states are still running strong. Today, the Chechen people are subject to routine human rights abuses in the form of torture and execution. Beset by poverty, disease and psychological trauma - products of the Russia invasion - they struggle to rebuild their lives and their country. The UNPO Conference on the Russian-Chechen conflict comes at a critical time. The EU is currently negotiating the granting of 20 million euros in “development aid” to Chechnya to establish education, health, and employment initiatives. While France, the UK, and Germany support the proposal for aid, critics argue that Russia - and not Europe - should be held responsible for reconstructing Chechnya. Even the name of the proposed fund is mired in controversy. Chechens and critics of the proposed fund suggest that labelling the money “development aid” rather than “humanitarian aid” denies the urgency of the Chechnya’s post-war state. Some suggest that the label propagates the Russian claim that Chechnya was never at war. The UNPO conference, entitled “The Real Story Behind European Aid to Chechnya”, provided a forum for representatives of the Chechen government and European parliament to discuss peaceful resolutions to the ongoing crisis in the Caucasus. It also enabled participants to voice their opinions on the aid planned for Chechnya. The press conference opened with remarks from the Former European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Ms. Emma Bonino and the leader of the Transnational Radical Party Mr. Marco Pannella. Former Commissioner Bonino criticized the new European initiative for reconstruction in Chechnya, pointing out how the Russian government could use this move of the European Commission in order to justify its policy towards Chechnya. The Chechen delegation, led by Mr. Umar Khanbiev (General Representative abroad) and Apti Bisultanov (Minister for Social Affairs), met during its visit to the European Parliament with MEPs Vytaunas Landsbergis (Former President of Lithuania), Bronislaw Geremek (Polish Liberal Democrat), Toomas Ilves (Estonian Socialist), Bart Staes (Belgian from the Green Group), Satu Hassi (Finnish from the Green Group). After the press conference Mr. Umar Khanbiev, General Representative abroad of the Chechen President, released the following statement: "The Chechen Government welcomes any initiative to support the Chechen People, but the proposal of the EU Commission will clean out the real reasons for the Chechen tragedy. This initiative will be seen by the Russian side as a sanction for the policy of genocide in Chechnya and [...]war crimes and human rights violations. The Chechen Government is ready to take part in the development and realisation of programs if the EU will recognize the right to self-determination of the Chechen people. A reconstruction project during a war will not achieve its goal. Chechen People need Peace, not only reconstruction aid." http://www.unpo.org/news_detail.php?arg=14&par=2732 July 5th 2005 · Prague Watchdog Spate of abductions of women in Chechnya By Ruslan Isayev CHECHNYA – In the past two months, 13 women have been abducted in the republic, according to Chechen human rights organisations. Nine went missing in May, one of which was under the age of 18. The abductions follow a usual pattern in that masked men in army fatigues snatch a certain individual and drive off with them. Some of the women are later found dead, but in most cases the search for others leads nowhere. According to psychologists, the recent rash of kidnappings relates to the current conditions prevalent in Chechnya. Permissiveness gives rise to impunity, which deviants make use of. However, many abductions are carried out in order to extract information about suspected guerrillas. www.watchdog.cz July 7th 2005 · Prague Watchdog Chechen activists rally in Grozny to seek retrial in Ulman case By Ruslan Isayev GROZNY, Chechnya - A rally took place in Grozny on Wednesday against the court decision of the jury which in May this year acquitted a group of Russian spetsnaz soldiers under the command of Eduard Ulman. Chechen human rights activists and NGO representatives gathered on one of Grozny’s squares and demanded not only a retrial, but also the transfer of the court proceedings to Chechnya – the scene of the crime. The protest action lasted almost all day. Anyone who wished to was able to sign on the spot the petition addressed to the Prosecutor General and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation demanding that the acquittal verdict be overturned. The action’s organizer was the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship. The organization’s co-chairman Minkail Ezhiyev said that by their decision to acquit the killers of peaceful civilians who were not guilty of anything, the jurors had showed how remote they are from the problem of Chechnya, and that they apparently consider Chechens to be second-grade human beings. “The purpose of our action is to draw the attention of public opinion and to bring about the overturning of this decision, a change in the composition of the jury, and the transfer of the trial to Chechnya,” Ezhiyev noted. It will be recalled that a group of GRU spetsnaz soldiers under the command of Captain Eduard Ulman was charged with the murder of six residents of Chechnya in January 2002. At a retrial the North-Caucasus Military Court in Rostov-on-Don acquitted the accused men on the basis of a jury verdict which found that they had been following the orders of their superiors. On June 2 2005 the relatives of the innocent civilians who died at the hands of the spetsnaz soldiers filed a writ of appeal against the acquittal. Translated by David McDuff. www.watchdog.cz |