News

January 06, 2005 23:37

• 396 abducted in Chechnya in 2004

  For the same period of time, 293 locals were found dead on the territory of Chechnya.

January 05, 2005 22:03

• Local functionaries 'take journalists as servants', says journalist

  The Kabardino-Balkarian Interior Ministry refused accreditation to Fatima Tlisova saying bluntly that the reason for it lay in her position as a journalist. In Karachaevo-Cherkessia, an attempt was made to accuse her of illegal receiving a pension and institute criminal proceedings against her.

January 04, 2005 23:26

• Policemen beat journalist

  Journalist Alan Parastayev, director of the Center for Humanitarian Studies and Initiatives, was savagely beaten on the Transkam road near the Osetia tourist center at about 11 p.m. on December 30, when he made an attempt to obtain from South Osetian law enforcers information about a column of cars they had detained earlier.

January 03, 2005 23:36

• Quality of oil pipeline under question

  In his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, head of the Monitoring Group to Examine Pipeline Systems in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Mais Gyulaliyev claimed that low quality pipes are used to construct the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeikhan oil pipeline.

December 30, 2004 23:52

• No meeting between Zhvania and Kokoity

  The informal meeting between Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and leader of the breakaway republic of South Osetia Eduard Kokoity that was much expected has not taken place. Mr Zhvania told journalists that "Mr Kokoity has a habit of changing plans at the last moment".

December 30, 2004 23:49

• 10 years since New Year's storm of Grozny

  The New Year's storm of Grozny in the winter of 1994 became one of the most tragic pages of the first military campaign in Chechnya.

December 30, 2004 23:45

• Azerbaijan president signs pardon decree

  This decree grants a pardon to 54 convicts, including Sardar Gamidov, the former head of Azerbaijan's Tertersky district executive power and brother of ex-minister of foreign affairs Iskander Gamidov.

December 29, 2004 23:56

• People go missing in Chechnya

  "Sessions of the Government, the Security Council, and the Interior Ministry are broadcast every day. Everybody claims we should fight hard against the abductors of people, but nothing happens in reality," an abducted man's close relative said.

December 29, 2004 23:31

• Bagapsh wants integration with Russia, equality with Georgia

  Asked about Abkhazia's future, Sergey Bagapsh said that the Abkhazian people had already chosen the way of independence and were not going to turn off it.

December 29, 2004 23:29

• Municipal officials expelled from opposition parties

  Those members of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP)who took part in the municipal elections regardless of the party's decision to boycott the elections will be punished, ADP secretary for ideology Aydin Guliyev told the Caucasian Knot correspondent.

December 28, 2004 23:55

• 500 to pilgrimage to Mecca from Ingushetia

  All arrangements for the action have almost been completed, officials of the Ingush Spiritual Administration of Moslems said.

December 28, 2004 23:31

• Human rights situation worsens in Azerbaijan

  Torture is a widely spread means of obtaining evidence in the system of the Azerbaijan Interior Ministry, and no police officer has been punished for it, human rights activist Leyla Yunus said.

December 27, 2004 23:47

• Investigation of attack on anti-drag department produces no result

  "The rumors that the attack on the Anti-Drug Department is an anti-Kabardian action organized by Balkarians are very alarming," head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center Valery Khatazhukov said.

December 27, 2004 23:16

• Azerbaijan ombudsperson reveals no torture

  For the period of its activity, the "fast response group" in the staff of the Azerbaijan ombudsperson has inspected over 150 temporary detention isolators and revealed no fact of torture.

December 24, 2004 23:55

• Armenian parliament to discuss sending soldiers to Iraq

  On December 23, at a closed session of the standing parliamentary commission on foreign relations, Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian submitted to the deputies the memorandum on mutual understanding "On the Commanders of the Multinational Division Forming a Part of the Stabilization Forces in Iraq and Resolution of Other Problems."

December 24, 2004 23:13

• Purge in refugee camp

  Today, officers of local and federal security agencies detained approximately 20 people during a joint "special operation" on the territory of the Rassvet refugee camp in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia.

December 23, 2004 23:15

• Opposition 'must show its strength' in 2005 parliamentary elections

  The Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP) offers the opposition to participate in the 2005 parliamentary elections as a united bloc.

December 23, 2004 23:03

• Lakoba to be Bagapsh's rival in presidential election

  The Abkhazian Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered the initiative group to nominate Yakub Lakoba as a presidential candidate, Abkhazian CEC Chairman Batal Tabagua told the Caucasian Knot correspondent.

December 23, 2004 23:01

• Group of Friendship Between Caucasian People created in Georgia

  A presentation of the Group of Friendship Between Caucasian People, formed of six deputies of the parliament, has taken place in the building of the Georgian parliament today.

December 22, 2004 23:41

• OSCE considers Azerbaijan municipal elections rigged

  The municipal elections held in Azerbaijan did not meet international standards stated in the 1990 Copenhagen Document, the OSCE Office in Baku has announced in a press release.