| Weng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot
17/1/2006 Abducted Chechen released after torture Officers of unidentified law enforcement agencies driving a UAZ and a VAZ-2107 vehicle brought away Beksolt Derbiyev from his home in Kotar-Yurt, Achkhoi-Martan district, on 15 January. Some of the military men wore masks and the others did not, according to eyewitnesses, the Council of Nongovernmental Organisations reports in a message received by Caucasian Knot. Mr Derbiyev was taken out into the street and then one of the abductors asked another one in a mask who was standing near him: "It's him?" The latter gave the affirmative answer. After that, they put Beksolt Derbiyev into a vehicle and brought him away. On the next day, after severe beating and torture, the abductors threw Mr Derbiyev out on the outskirts of Kotar-Yurt, his home village. There is information that he has some fingers and toes broken and his kidneys injured and that he is currently in a very grave condition. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 20/1/2006 People continue to disappear in Kabardino-Balkaria Another resident of the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, Zaur Pshigotyzhev, has gone missing, Caucasian Knot's correspondent has learnt from unofficial sources. Zaur Pshigotyzhev worked as a private taxi driver and seven days ago he did not come home, according to the source. His car was found in the forest near the Sosruko Mountain and he has not come back to date and his whereabouts remain unknown. Zaur Pshigotyzhev is also known to have earlier been detained on suspicion of being involved in the 13 October 2005 events in Nalchik. However, he was released after giving a written undertaking not to leave, as the investigation failed to find evidence of his involvement. No criminal case has been opened with regard to the disappearance of Zaur Pshigotyzhev and no one is searching for him, according to Zaur's parents. Local observes say, with concerns, that the "process has begun" in Kabardino-Balkaria, the same process as in Chechnya: abductions and enforced disappearances without trace. Relatives, lawyers concerned about Kabardino-Balkaria detainees By Jean-Christophe Peuch Russian officials say more than 60 people have been arrested on suspicion of participating, directly or not, in the 13 October deadly militant raids on Nalchik, the capital of the southern republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Human rights groups, in turn, claim the number of detainees is higher and that most of them have nothing to do with the unrest. Among those who were apprehended in the aftermath of the attacks is former Guantanamo Bay inmate Rasul Kudayev, who recently disappeared from his Nalchik prison cell. Another man, civic campaigner Ruslan Nakhushev, has been missing since early November. Relatives, colleagues, and lawyers are demanding that regional and federal authorities shed light on both men's fate. Nakhushev is the regional coordinator of the Russian Islamic Heritage (RIN), a Moscow-based civic movement that works toward promoting dialogue between religious communities. He is also the head of the Institute of Islamic Studies, a Nalchik-based nongovernmental organization that has been striving to mediate between regional officials and young Muslim dissidents who do not recognize the authority of the government-controlled Spiritual Board of Muslims. Nakhushev went missing on 4 November 2005, three weeks after the deadly Nalchik raids. Colleagues and relatives say he disappeared after meeting with investigators at the regional headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet KGB. Why Nakhushev -- himself a retired KGB officer -- was summoned to the FSB remains unclear. One thing is sure, though -- he disappeared without a trace. Whereabouts Unknown RIN deputy regional coordinator Susanna Varitlova tells RFE/RL that friends and relatives have repeatedly called upon Kabardino-Balkaria's President Arsen Kanokov and other officials to provide information on Nakhushev's whereabouts, but to no avail. "We know nothing about him," Varitlova said. "We don't know where he is. We know absolutely nothing. It is as when someone drowns." Days after Nakhushev was reported missing, the regional prosecutor's office charged him with links to the Nalchik raids and issued a search warrant against him. At the same time, Prosecutor Yury Ketov ordered that an investigation into his disappearance be launched. The probes are being conducted by the regional FSB and the Nalchik prosecutor's office, respectively. Some officials have told relatives and friends that they believe the civic campaigner is hiding outside Kabardino-Balkaria, possibly in Moscow, or Kazakhstan. But for Anuar Dikinov, who was hired as a lawyer by Nakhushev's family, these claims are baseless. "This is rubbish. This is wrong. Those are just speculations that have nothing to do with reality. I wrote to the [Russian] Prosecutor-General's Office to demand that they reverse [Ketov's] illegal order to open a criminal investigation against Nakhushev," Dikinov said. "Yesterday [16 January], I lodged a complaint with the Nalchik city court to that same effect. I can't even get a copy of Ketov's order. I asked the prosecuting judge and the [regional] prosecutor's office for a copy. They both refused, although I have the right to obtain a copy as a lawyer [for Nakhushev's family]." Fearing The Worst Many in Nalchik fear Nakhushev may have been killed. Aleksandra Zernova is a London-based lawyer who is helping Kudayev and other former Guantanamo Bay detainees who were captured in Afghanistan and returned to Russia for lack of evidence. She is helping them prepare a lawsuit against the U.S. administration. For some people, she says, Nakhushev's death is not just mere speculation. "All the information I have is based on what people I am in touch with in Kabardino-Balkaria. They tell me unbelievable stories of people who sit in their car and who are found later in the forest with a bullet in them. Nakhushev is not the only one who has disappeared," Zernova said. "One person I know [in Nalchik] was told -- not officially, of course -- where Nakhushev was taken and how his body was disposed of. [Local] reporters have been unofficially warned that should they investigate Nakhushev's disappearance, they would meet a similar fate and that their bodies would be dissolved in acid." Zernova's client Kudayev was arrested nearly two weeks after the 13 October raids and sent to a pretrial detention facility in Nalchik. Kudayev is officially charged with participation in the unrest. Relatives claim the young man -- who, they say, because of a physical disability is not very mobile -- could not have possibly taken part in the attack. But regional prosecutor Ketov told a 9 December press briefing he has no doubt that Kudayev is guilty: "Without going beyond what is authorized [by law] and without divulging any secret information, I can state that investigators have concrete facts showing that he was involved -- actively involved -- in the processes that took place [in Nalchik]." On 2 December, Kudayev's relatives had released pictures they said showed the inmate was being tortured in custody. Authorities have denied the accusations. Zernova says her client suddenly disappeared last month. On 16 January, a prison employee unofficially told her Kudayev had been transferred to a FSB detention facility in Pyatigorsk, a city in Russia's nearby Stavropol Krai. "This woman [prison employee] told me, under condition of anonymity, that Kudayev had been sent there by order of [Aleksei] Sovrulin, the head of the investigating team. I called Sovrulin, but he told me he was not authorized to talk to me and comment on that topic," Zernova said. On 19 January, officials at the prison in Pyatigorsk refused to speak to RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service. Calls to the Kabardino-Balkaria Interior Ministry remained similarly unanswered. Kudayev's mother, Fatima Tekayeva, on 19 January went to Pyatigorsk in an attempt to obtain information about her son. "I went to Pyatigorsk today to inquire about my son Rasul," she told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service upon her return to Nalchik. "I want to know where he is. But no one expressed willingness to talk to me. Other people there told me authorities are trying to isolate him. For what reasons, I can't say. No one wants to talk to me about [Rasul]. The only answer I got is: 'We're not authorized to talk to you.' That's it, short and clear." Zernova tells RFE/RL she vainly tried to obtain confirmation from Kanokov's office and government structures. She also says Kudayev disappeared shortly after meeting with Kanokov. "Arsen Bashirovich [Kanokov] visited him [in prison] on 14 December. Also present was [Dmitry] Kozak, the Russian presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District," Zernova says. "[Rasul] told them he was innocent, that he and his prison-mates had been tortured and that he was still being tortured. They listened to him and pledged to look into his case. After that he disappeared. He told his mother about this meeting in a letter. In it, he also says he was the only one to complain [to Kanokov and Kozak] and that the other detainees were afraid. He says he was the only one to complain and tell [them] all the truth." Tekayeva says prison officials a few weeks ago stopped taking delivery of the drugs her son needs for medical treatment. She also says she fears for her son's life. Meanwhile, Kabardino-Balkaria's Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court's decision to bar three Nalchik lawyers from representing detainees arrested in the wake of the October raids. In November, the Nalchik municipal court sidelined Irina Komissarova, Inna Golitsyna, and Larisa Dorogova after they complained their clients were being tortured in custody. The three lawyers have said that they will appeal last week's ruling before the European Court of Human Rights. (RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service correspondent Aminat Kardanova contributed to this report) RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies Vol. 7, No. 2, 23 January 2006 Maskhadov's Body Sought Jan 24, 2006 BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Relatives of slain Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov on Tuesday appealed to Europe's top human rights watchdog to help them force Russian authorities to release his body. Prosecutors have said Maskhadov had been buried secretly, in line with federal law barring the release of bodies of people considered terrorists to relatives. In a statement, Maskhadov's widow Kusama, his son Anzor and his daughter Fatima called on the Council of Europe to help them recover Maskhadov's body. Maskhadov was killed during a security operation in March in Chechnya. (AP) January 24, 2006 Tuesday 1:00 PM MSK Chechen parliament sets up commission for missing people GROZNY Jan 24, Interfax - Chechen People's Assembly Speaker Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov has been appointed head of a commission to oversee searches for people listed as missing in the republic. Chechen Parliament deputies Maj. Gen. Ibragim Suleimanov and Magomed Khanbiyev were appointed commission deputy chairmen. Up to 3,000 people are still listed as missing in Chechnya, Abdurakhmanov told Interfax. "Searching for missing people is one of the most acute and burning problems facing the Chechen population. There is not a single person in the republic who has not encountered this issue one way or the other, because missing people are somebody's relatives. We believe that it is impossible to speak about total stability and harmony in society until this problem is resolved," he said. "Certainly, deputies cannot replace law enforcement agencies and personally search for missing people and investigate such instances. But we have the right to demand that those who are paid to do this job do so," he said. tm md January 23, 2006 Monday 2:36 PM MSK Human rights monitoring in Chechnya must be resumed - Bindig STRASBOURG Jan 23, Interfax, - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Rapporteur on Chechnya, Rudolf Bindig, said human rights monitoring in Chechnya must be resumed. In an interview with Interfax Bindig said that he had proposed setting up a commission in the State Duma to probe instances where individuals who had flagrantly violated human rights escaped prosecution. PACE's winter session, which opens in Strasbourg on Monday, is expected to hear Bindig's report on the situation in Chechnya. Bindig said that his proposal is laid down in a draft resolution which PACE is to debate. The report urges the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers to resume monitoring of human rights in Chechnya, suspended in spring 2004, and to discuss the consequences of Russia's insufficient cooperation with the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee. Bindig said that he will not present his report personally as his term as a PACE deputy expires on Monday. Sd la PRESS RELEASE Council of Europe to debate Chechnya The desperate situation in Chechnya is back on the agenda of the Council of Europe. On Wednesday 25 January the Parliamentary Assembly is due to debate a report on human rights violations in the Chechen Republic. The report documents numerous cases of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest, torture and murder that occur in a climate of impunity. It calls on the Council of Europe to face up to its responsibilities and resume monitoring of the human rights situation in Chechnya. In a separate move deputies from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have pledged to set up a special commission to work towards changing the attitude of international organizations on the problem of Chechnya. The commission is being established by Rudolf Bindig, the German parliamentarian who compiled the report on human rights violations, together with Estonian parliamentarians Andres Herkel and Marko Mihkelson. The creation of the commission is a direct response to the hunger strike of Chechen human rights activist Said-Emin Ibragimov. Ibragimov, a former Chechen ñommunication minister and champion boxer, is president of the Peace and Human Rights international association. He began his hunger strike on 10 December 2005 outside the PACE building in Strasbourg, calling for an independent, international commission to investigate the root causes of the Russo-Chechen war and to propose a just resolution to the conflict. On 18 January, after a Council of Europe official handed Ibragimov written confirmation of the Council’s commitment to discuss Chechnya, Ibragimov declared a temporary halt to his 39-day hunger strike. He said he would resume the hunger strike if international organisations failed to tackle Chechnya’s problems. Said-Emin Ibragimov is to take an active part in the work of the commission on Chechnya. Ibragimov was supported in his hunger strike by Chechen refugees throughout Europe. Some expressed their solidarity by joining him outside the PACE building in Strasbourg. Kamil Khalikov began a hunger strike himself on 9 January to back Said-Emin Ibragimov’s demands. The blind 47-year-old was on hunger strike in a Red Cross camp in Belgium. Contacts: Said-Emin Ibragimov: tel. +33 633 116 636 Committee to support Said-Emin Ibragimov Peace and Human Rights Association Rudolf Bindig’s report on human rights violations in Chechnya - http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc05/EDOC10774.htm Jan 25 2006 1:54PM Georgian PACE delegation criticizes Russia over Chechnya human rights situation STRASBOURG. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Representative of the Georgian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Elena Tevtoradze has leveled severe criticism at Moscow over its activity in Chechnya, which she said are human rights violations. "One should stop chaos and call to account those who, under the cover of fighting criminals, keep on violating human rights," she said on Wednesday in Strasbourg at a PACE session discussing human rights violations in Chechnya. Tevtoradze accused Russian authorities of manipulating information about the human rights situation in Chechnya "due to media censorship." Moreover, she spoke in favor of supporting a draft resolution prepared by the Assembly, which assumes the resumption of human rights monitoring in Chechnya by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 18/1/2006 Caucasians hated most among ethnic minorities "Our monitoring shows that there were around 25 killings and more than 200 assaults on an ethnic basis last year. Thirteen were killed and 99 suffered in the second half of the year alone. Racist crimes have already been committed this year too. A citizen of Uzbekistan, an ethnic Armenian, was beaten on 7 January and an Armenian citizen was killed on 9 January in Moscow," Mr Alexander Brod, Director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, said at a press conference organised by the Bureau at the RIA Novosti press club earlier today. Mr Emil Pain, a well-known political scientist and leader of the Centre for Studies in Xenophobia and Extremism, says that xenophobia with regard to migrants and natives of North Caucasus, Caucasus in general, and Middle Asia currently prevails in Russia. "Just two persons in the Moscow prosecutor's office work on ethnically motivated crimes. They certainly cannot embrace the whole wave of such crimes which take place practically every day. Another problem is poor qualification of prosecutors who do not know authors and xenophobic publications, etc. It is therefore easier for them to deny opening a criminal case with regard to an ethnically motivated crime or to qualify it as hooliganism," Alexander Brod says. As an example, he mentioned an incident in Rostov when a young man came to a synagogue holding the neck of a broken glass bottle and threatened those present. In spite that in doing so he was crying out anti-Semitic slogans, a criminal case under the article "hooliganism" was opened against him. "No expert institution which would help both the investigation and the court evaluate such crimes has been set up to date. Discussions have been under way for five years already," Mr Brod resents. Speaking about the denial of opening a criminal case against the organisers of the nationalistic march in the centre of Moscow on 4 November 2004 with slogans against natives of the Caucasus and other ethnic minorities, Mr Yevgeny Proshechkin, chairman of the Moscow Antifascist Centre, said: "The prosecutor's office fails to see Nazism yet another time... But the worst is — look at what slogans the prosecutor's office believes good, lawful: 'Russia for Russians,' 'Moscow for Muscovites,' 'Russian Power in Russia,' — this is in a multiethnic state where the Constitution reads that the only source of power is the multiethnic nation." Ms Alla Gerber, President of the Holocaust foundation, believes that the Russian government is building a "fence" around the nation. The law tightening government control over nongovernmental organisations which took effect yesterday is an important element in this construction, in her view. "All this leads to this country becoming a sort of island again where some country-specific disgraces of local importance will be happening. I think we are not going to be saved this way, it will lead to very grave consequences," says the writer. Author: Vyacheslav Feraposhkin, CK correspondent PRIMA News 20.1.2006 Procuratorship calls for four years imprisonment for Dmitriyevsky RUSSIA, Nizhniy Novgorod. On January 18th, in Nizhniy Novgorod, the District Attorney asked the court to sentence Editor- in- Chief of the newspaper “Human Rights”, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, to 4 years in a penal colony. Dmitriyevsky is charged with publishing an open statement from Ahmet Zakaev and Aslan Maskadov in the newspaper. Today’s court session was the final stage of process – final arguments. The District Attorney, Maslovam accused Dmitriyevsky of propagating information about the Russian- Chechen conflict that reflects the point of view of Zakaev and Maskadov. Justifying the need for a rigid sentence, she referred to international human rights standards, an increase in xenophobia in the country, and the need for tolerance. She also focused the court’s attention on what she called Dmitriyevsky’s attempts to use the court as scene for the statement of his political views. Dmitriyevsky, according to her, feels complete impunity. Both defenders of Dmitriyevsky demanded a just sentence. In their presentations, they showed the falseness of the charge that Dmitriyevsky’s action kindled international and racial dissension, as well as numerous other contradictions in charges, procedural issues in the preliminary hearings, and nonconformity of the charges to the standards of the Russian Constitution and international law. The attorneys pointed to the practice of the European Court for Human Rights, analyzing in detail different precedents concerned with the protection of freedom of speech and the rights of journalists. Stanislav Dmitriyevsky criticized the expert report of L.Kislenko, accusing it of elementary illiteracy and incompetence. For instance, it calls Russians and Chechens different races. Demonstrating ignorance of Russian grammar, it argued that in the word combination "Putin’s regime", Dmitriyevsky specifically wrote the word "Putin" in lower-case, not with a capital, in order to express a negative attitude to the President of Russia. Dmitriyevsky gave many other proofs of the incompetence of the expert, whose conclusion is the basis of the charge. He demanded a just sentence. The trial was held in open court in the Sovietsky region of Nizhny Novgorod. Identification was required to enter the courtroom. The surnames of all of those who observed the proceedings were recorded by the court in a special book. At the January 18th session, about 30 people were present in addition to those directly involved on the proceedings, among whom were many well-known Moscow human rights activists. Before the process began, approximately ten local activists of the movement “Our” picketed the buildings of the court with posters charging Dmitriyevsky with treason and friendship with terrorists. On January 18th, closing arguments ended. The defendant’s final statement and the issuing of the sentence were postponed until February 3rd. Translated by OM Kenney PRIMA-News Agency [2006-01-18-Rus-36] You can sign the petition at the following address: http://www.cjes.ru/actions/action.php?p_id=1&l=en. Support Stanislav Dmitriyevsky! Petition Just a decade ago, journalists in Russia were heard and listened to. Their reports and opinions were waited for and discussed. There was demand for independent information. Journalists and human rights activists had real influence on the authorities (among other things, they did a lot to end the first war in Chechnya). In the several years, the words "Russian journalism" are perceived differently as journalism is becoming increasingly "nationalized," to be more exact, increasingly state-controlled. The number of sources of information that are independent of the state propaganda is decreasing. Television and radio are mostly state-run and only some newspapers maintain independent views and are not subjected to censorship. The most controlled information is information coming from the Chechen Republic, where, despite official reports, people still get killed and go missing. One of the few independent and alternative sources of information on the events taking place in Chechnya is the newspaper Pravo-Zashchita, which was founded by the public association Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society (NOPCh). On September 2, 2005, the Nizhny Novgorod prosecutor's office charged the paper's editor-in-chief Stanislav Dmitriyevsky with crimes envisioned by Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code ("fanning ethnic, racial or religious feud in combination with abuse of office"). Dmitriyevsky is facing three to five years in prison if convicted of the charges. The criminal case against the journalist was opened in January 2005 based on the publication in Pravo-Zashchita of addresses made by Chechen separatist leaders Akhmed Zakayev and Aslan Maskhadov, which contained calls for a peaceful settlement of the Russian-Chechen conflict. Those publications sharply criticized the Russian government, the Russian army, and personally President Vladimir Putin. Human rights activists consider these charges to be politically motivated and aimed at liquidating the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech. On November 15, 2005, the international human rights watchdog Amnesty International issued a statement, in which it expressed concerns about the pressure put by various public structures on NOPCh and said it intends to give Dmitriyevsky the status of a political prisoner if he is convicted of the charges. The trial began on November 16, 2005. On December 15, Dmitriyevsky gave his testimony in court and answered questions the parties' questions. In his testimony, he categorically denied all the charges and said he not only does not consider himself guilty, but is insulted by the prosecutor's office's accusations of racism and xenophobia. One day before the trial, the Nizhny Novgorod region's court rejected the lawsuit filed by the Justice Ministry's Main Registration Department for the Nizhny Novgorod region, which sought the liquidation of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. There is an information war going on against NOPCh in Nizhny Novgorod. Its staff are being threatened with violence (the Nizhny Novgorod region's interior affairs department opened criminal case No. 155200 on October 7, 2005 on the basis of those threats). On August 15, 2005, the Federal Tax Service's inspection for the Nizhny Novgorod Nizhegorodsky District issued Decision No. 25 to prosecute NOPCh for a tax violation. On September 12, 2005, Justice Yevgeniya Belyakova of the Nizhny Novgorod region's Arbitration Court issued a ruling suspending that decision. Apparently, the authorities are doing everything to do away with one of the independent sources of information on events taking place in the Chechen Republic and put its editor-in-chief Stanislav Dmitriyevsky in prison. Is Pravo-Zashchita being penalized only for trying to tell people what the state propaganda is not telling them? Do you agree with it? If you don't, sign this statement, support Stanislav Dmitriyevsky! Case Materials [Sorry, only russian] RCIA reports Grozny rural district. Chechen Republic Report # 976 One of the abducted women was killed with a shot at her head On 24 Janaury 2006 the Nizhny Novgorod-based editorial office of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency received information about the abduction of two women in the village of Ken'-Yert of the Grozny rural district. The abducted women, Mazaeva Larisa Khalilovna (born 1989) and Kuduzova El'sa Yusupovna (born 1968), are registered as residents of Kalmykiya, according to a source within the Ministry of the Interior of the republic. According to the law-enforcement agencies, both women were snatched away on 18 January 2006 by a group of unidentified armed people in camouflage and masks. There were reportedly seven perpetrators in the group. They burst into house No43 in Yuzhnaya Street and captured the two women there. At the edge of the village El'sa Kudusova was set free by the perpetrators. The body of the young woman was found lying at the edge of the road in the vicinity of the settlement of Nadterechnaya. The woman was killed with a shot at her head. (From our correspondent) Nizniy Novgorod Report # 971 The European Parliament appealed to Russia to drop all the charges in the criminal case against Dmitrievsky 20.01.2005. Strasbourg. The European Parliament adopted the resolution on Chechnya after the elections and civil society in Russia in its plenary session. The resolution contains the call to drop the charges against the chief editor of the “Pravo-zaschita” newspaper and the executive manager of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society Stanislaw Dmitriesvky. The information was disseminated by the “Russian radicals” movement (http://www.radikaly.ru/news-3796.html). The amendment concerning Dmitrievsky was introduced by Emmo Bonino, the deputy representing “the Panella's List” (Italy) and the leader of the Transnational Radical Party. The text of the approved amendment says, “…Q. having regard, whereas the trial of Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, who has been accused of having published in his newspaper Aslan Mashkadov's appeal for peace in Chechnya and consequently faces five years" imprisonment, resumed on 18 January 2006, [the European Parliament] … 19. Calls for the dropping of all charges against Stanislaw Dmitriyevsky and calls on the Russian authorities to respect the freedom of the media and journalists”. The full text of the resolution in the Russian language will be soon published at the web site www.radikaly.ru. You can find the full English version of the resolution at the web site of the European Parliament http://www.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade3?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2006-0026+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=0&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y&LSTDOC=N According to the previous reports, Dmitrievsky was officially charged on 2 September 2005 under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “for inciting to hatred or enmity”. Dmitrievsky is facing a five-year term of imprisonment for allowing the re-publication of the peace appeals by Aslan Maskhadov and Akhmed Zakaev in the “Pravo-zaschita” newspaper. Both appeals contained the tough rhetoric against the policy of the Russian authorities, its armed forces and personally President Vladimir Putin in the North Caucasus. Human rights defenders consider all the charges preferred against Dmitrievsky politically biased and aimed at the curtailing the constitutional guarantee for the freedom of speech. On 15 November “Amnesty International” made an open statement in which they stated that Dmitrievsky will be declared a prisoner of conscience in case he is convicted. (From our correspondent) Achkhoy-Martan district. Chechen Republic Report # 967 A resident of Achkhoy-Martan district center is suspected of being involved into activities of the armed groups On 12.01.2006 at dawn in Achkhoy-Martan district center unidentified armed people burst into one of the houses and snatched away Adlan Khamzatov (born 1983). The man was taken away to an unknown destination. A few days later his relatives managed to establish that Adlan had been detained by the service personnel of Achkhoy-Martan police office under suspicion of being involved into activities of the so-called unlawful armed formations. As of the present moment, the police are reportedly trying to establish whether the man is really connected with the Chechen combatants. In Adlan Khamzatov’s relatives’ words, he has had no connections with members of the Chechen armed resistance movement. (From our correspondent) Grozny. Chechen Republic Report # 966 Abducted man is released the same day On 13 January 2006 in the settlement of Katayama located within the precincts of Grozny representatives of an unidentified force agency moving around in two UAZ vehicles burst into the house No14 in the 1st Tovarnyy Lane and drove Gaziev Khasan Isaevich (born 1985) away under gun point. Some hours later the man was released in the area of Minutka Square (Oktyabrsky district of Grozny). According to the testimony of the released man, the perpetrators subjected him to beating and interrogation. (From our correspondent) Moskow Report # 963 A Chechen girl has been operated on in Moscow On 17.01.2006 Zareta Suleimanova (born 1986), a resident of the village of Tazen-Kala of the Chechen Vedeno district, underwent an operation in the Burdenko Research Institute of Neurosurgery in Moscow. The operation was carried out by Professor Alexander Potapov and assistant surgeons Alexander Kravchuk and David Gundba. The operation lasted for more than four hours. It was a plastic surgery to reconstruct the bones of the left part of the girl's forehead and temple as well as the edge of her left eye. We remind that Zareta Suleymanova is suffering for the outcomes of the serious aftereffects of the wound that she received when a Russian military helicopter launched a missile that hit the house in the village of Tazen-Kala in which Zareta and her two younger brothers were sleeping. The girl received bad wounds at her head and one of her brothers was killed whereas her next younger brother was wounded too. They were immediately taken to Grozny hospital #9 where doctors did their utmost to save the girl's life but they didn't manage to keep her eye (see O.R. from 14.12.2005 and from 10.01.2006). Zareta feel well after the operation. According to Alexander Potapov, if her wounds heal properly, they will consider the possibility to carry out prosthesis of her left eye. (From our correspondent) http://www.ria.hrnnov.ru/eng/index.php |