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A survey of the
205th week of war
August 9-15, 2003
The situation with regard to the displaced persons has aggravated in
Ingushetia. The refugees are forced to leave the camps. Compulsion of
the refugees to leave the displaced-persons camps, intimidation
of the people who refuse to go back to Chechnya - all this, according
to the human rights activists, can lead to the unpredictable consequences.
Thousands of wretched people who lost practically all their property,
are alarmed at the statements made by the Russian authorities that all
displaced-persons camps on the territory of Ingushetia would be demolished
by 1 October. The refugees are well aware of the situation in Chechnya.
For this sole reason they agree to live on scanty humanitarian allowance
far from the ruins of their houses and homes, in order to survive and
maintain lives of their children. The Kremlin officials intend to hold
so-called "presidential elections" on 5 October in Chechnya. That is
why they want to get rid of such an obvious evidence of instability
in the republic as thousands of unfortunate Chechen refugees in Ingushetia.
One might as well threaten and beat the helpless women, even resort
to the "bulldozer policy" against the tent camps.
While the Russian officials and representatives of federal force structures
are waging war against the refugees in Ingushetia, the Chechen
Resistance fighters keep on destruction of the enemy in Chechnya. The
military operations are carried out all over the republic. According
to incomplete information of our agency, 103 occupants have been killed
and 166 have bee wounded for the last week. Besides that 10 armoured
troop-carriers and 4 trucks have been burnt down for the same
period. A fierce fighting took place on Sunday in the south of
the country, in the area of the villages Makhkety, Tevzany and
Agishba of Vedeno region, leaving killed 15 Russian servicemen
of special forces, and 20 others wounded. Because of heavy casualties
the occupants were given a help from the air. Two Chechen soldiers
were killed in the combat.
President Maskhadov commented on the recent attempt of Russia to hold
"elections" in the occupied republic. He reminded that all that was
during the first Chechen campaign in 1994-1996, but it did not change
anything. It only dragged on the war for many years, and increased the
casualty rate. The farce of the October 2003 elections cannot bring
the war to the end, neither can we call the "negotiations" conducted
by the Kremlin with the local marionettes a "political resolution to
the conflict". Russian leadership refuse to negotiate with those who
fight for independence and sovereignty of the Chechen Republic.
Putin's team, on the threshold of the presidential and parliamentary
elections in Russia, cannot give up its tactics. It will be a political
suicide of this team. The international community is quite another matter.
Aslan Maskhadov pointed out in his interview given to the Polish journalist
Kristina Rurchab-Redlih: "With respect to Chechnya, in my opinion, they
are acting according to the principle of double standards. Cynicism,
hypocrisy and unscrupulousness gain the upper hand when they touch on
a subject of Chechen problem. The Chechen tragedy has become a trump-card
for many western countries to maintain relations with Russia. As a result,
the international community should share the responsibility not only
for the bloodshed in Chechnya, but also for coming of the reaction forces
to power in Russia, unable to bring the war to the end.
S.Bakhaeva, Chechenpress
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