News

January 14, 2004 14:55

• Soma Radio in Sukhum launches series of programs on social issues

  For the first time, Soma Radio, Sukhum, has launched a series of programs devoted to social issues. The project is being implemented with the help of the British NGO Conciliation Resources.

January 14, 2004 14:26

• French islamists enlisting volunteers for war in Chechnya were put under examination

  They were arrested last week in the suburbs of Lyons, France.

January 14, 2004 14:03

• Abkhazian refugees seize administration building in Tbilisi

  Some 20 refugees from Abkhazia seized the building of Tbilisi's sanitary service on the nights of January 12-13. The refugees said they would stay inside the building until Georgia's authorities helped them return to Abkhazia.

January 14, 2004 13:57

• Stavropol police frees kidnapped girl

  The Stavropol police have freed a 14-year-old kidnapped girl, whom the bandits have been holding locked up for fourteen days. A source at the Information Office of the Stavropol Territorial Interior Department informed that the bandits had wanted to get a ransom of half a million rubles for her release.

January 14, 2004 13:38

• General elections in Chechnya to be held in October or November

  The new Chechen parliament will consist of two chambers: the Council of the Republic and the National Assembly; each will have 61 deputies.

January 13, 2004 23:45

• Association of Russian Diplomats deputy chairman: parties of Karabakh conflict are in deadlock

  Vladimir Kazimirov notes in his article that despite the fact that a long-standing standstill in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have been explained by the inconvenience of the pre-election climate in Armenia and Azerbaijan for the last years, no ray of hope can be seen after the elections too.

January 13, 2004 23:10

• Human rights defenders press for discharge of Secretary General of the Azerbaijan Chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association

  On December 1, 2003, Ilgar Ibragimoglu was summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office to give evidence in connection with the October events, there he was arrested as a person suspected of organization of mass riots and offering resistance to the police.

January 13, 2004 17:03

• Speaker of Abkhazian Parliament expects new Georgian president not to unleash war

  "We declare for the good-neighbor relations with Georgia, when the parties are equal in rights, and we would like the new Georgian authorities to understand it," said Nugzar Ashuba.

January 13, 2004 16:18

• Chechen Interior Ministry: shelling of government building in Chechnya can be result of inattentive handling of weapons

  "An operative-investigative group is working at the scene of the incident. The main version is negligence when handling weapons. The territory is highly protected, therefore the version concerning the terrorist attack is of small possibility," head of the information department of the republican Interior Ministry Ruslan Atsayev said. The investigation considers all versions of the incident, the Chechen Prosecutor's Office announced.

January 13, 2004 16:07

• Having been denied visas, Armenian servicemen still left for Baku

  Without giving any comments, the Azerbaijan Embassy in Tbilisi refused to grant the Armenian officers the visas to take part in the conference forestalling NATO's military exercises that are to take place in Baku.

January 13, 2004 14:15

• Unhappy with bombing verdict family will sue in Strasbourg

  "Yesterday's conclusion of the bombing trial in Moscow left us with feelings of profound dismay and frustration. We believe that justice has not been served, but the continued cover-up of a heinous crime has reached a new horrific proportion," reads the statement of Tatyana and Alyona Morozova, daughters of a woman killed in the 1999 apartment bombings.

January 13, 2004 12:46

• Film by Russian director about explosions of apartment houses to be presented at Sundance Film Festival

  Disbelief, a documentary directed by Andrey Nekrasov of Russia, will be presented at the international Sundance Film Festival, Utah, the U.S. This festival is one of the main independent film forums in the world. Disbelief is devoted to the explosions of apartment houses in Moscow in the autumn of 1999.

January 13, 2004 11:56

• Abkhazia's proposals on resumption of Georgian-Abkhazian settlement to be delivered to new Georgian president

  A source at the UN office in Tbilisi reported that this package of new proposals was to be handed in to Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Georgia Heidi Tagliavini during her visit to Sukhum on January 12.

January 12, 2004 21:11

• Interior Minister of Adjaria denies existence of political repressions in republic

  "Nobody in Adjaria is persecuted by political motives. The Interior Ministry will always act within the limits of the law, regardless of who violates the law," declared the Adjarian Interior Minister during a specially convoked briefing.

January 12, 2004 19:56

• Statement by Akhmed Zakayev on non-participation of Chechens in international terrorism

  The appeal reads: "There can be only one explanation why the West is making such efforts to discredit the Chechen Resistance and is untiring in its attempts to link it with "international terrorism" - the Western politicians and state leaders are seeking a pretext for not interfering in the genocide of the Chechen people which is being carried out by Putin's criminal clique before the whole civilized world. Everything is happening as in the Chechen proverb: "Before gobbling her cub baby bear, the she-bear dragged it through the mud.""

January 12, 2004 19:00

• Office of human rights NGO in Ingushetia searched

  An unauthorized search was conducted in the office of the Institute of Political Culture "Lamast" in Ingushetia at about 6 a.m. today.

January 12, 2004 18:09

• Fire in Chechen refugee camp "Satsita"

  A fire happened in the tent camp of Chechen refugees "Satsita" in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya on January 10. A tent for ten people, which the Batiyev family having many children lived in, was completely burnt down as a result of it. Six people who were in the tent when the fire started had time to run out.

January 12, 2004 18:05

• Detention of resident of Roshni-Chu village - details

  A resident of the Roshni-Chu village Amagov was detained in his house by Russian servicemen on December 28, 2003.

January 12, 2004 16:29

• Abducted Board of Directors Deputy Chairman of United Georgian Bank set free

  Information on the whereabouts of the abducted banker was received from the three people arrested in the morning of January 10 on suspicion of the crime.

January 12, 2004 15:55

• Mikhail Saakashvili ready to cooperate with Adjarian leadership

  He noted that the presidential election had been held on the territory of Adjaria. Both the people of the autonomy and its head, Aslan Abashidze, contributed to it. Abashidze "took a judicious stand" on this issue, according to Saakashvili.