He said that the crime was committed around 4 o'clock in the morning in the village of Chechen-Aul. According to preliminary information, the bandit group consisted of 10 people.

Mr. Atsayev added that the murdered - two elders and their sons - did not hold any administrative posts, nor participated in the work of law enforcement bodies; therefore the motives of these murders are unknown.

At the same time, he pointed out that police officers already have "some information, which gives hope for a quick solution of the crime."

© RIAN

September 27th 2003 · Prague Watchdog

Number of Chechens on hunger strike in Inghushtia increased

Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus – Eight more people joined the hungerstrike on Thursday in the Bella refugee camp in Ingushetia, raising thetotal number to 26.

The strike began on September 19 (see Prague Watchdog's report), and thefirst to announce it was human rights activist Nurdi Dalayev.

The striking refugees want authorities to stop intimidating the peoplewho don’t want to return to Chechnya.

“Conditions in Chechnya are unsafe for our return, so we refuse to leavethe camps,“ stated the protestors.

According to Dalayev, a protest meeting will soon be organized, but herefused to say exactly when this will take place.

http://www.watchdog.cz

hi pakistan

September 27 2003

Hooded gunmen kill four villagers in Chechnya  

GROZNY: A group of hooded men carrying automatic weapons broke into a house in a village near the Chechen capital Grozny overnight and killed four members of the family living there, local interior ministry officials said Saturday.

The gunmen, numbering six or seven, shot dead 72-year-old Alvi Khamzatkhanov, his son and a cousin then made good their escape, a foreign news agency reported citing the local officials.

It was the third such killing in the village of Chechen-Aul, just southeast of Grozny, in less than a month, officials said.