News

December 23, 2003 16:43

• Citizen of Sukhum abducted, then set free

  The 25-year-old citizen of Sukhum, Tamaz Gogokhia, who was taken hostage by a Georgian gang on December 12, has been released.

December 23, 2003 16:17

• Congress of Women of Karachaevo-Cherkessia

  The key result of the meeting is that all women's NGOs in Karachaevo-Cherkessia united into the Association of Women of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Congress participants approved a statute of the new organization and elected its board.

December 23, 2003 16:15

• Head of village administration fell victim to terrorists in Gali district

  The body of Gagida village administration head Abel Gogua, who disappeared on December 20, was found with traces of violent death on the border between the villages of Nanargali, the Gali district and Ganmukhuri, the Zugdidi district on December 21.

December 23, 2003 14:00

• Chechen intelligentsia discussed republic's prospects for peace

  The round table "Peace Process: Myth or Reality" was held by the Chechen intelligentsia in Grozny on December 19. The aim of the event organized by the Lam cultural center was to discuss changes in the political situation in the aftermath of the presidential and State Duma elections in Chechnya.

December 22, 2003 20:51

• Basayev stands behind all terrorist acts with kamikazes

  Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolay Patrushev stated it.

December 22, 2003 20:48

• Political processes in Georgia contribute to worsening of situation in Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone

  Participants in the quadripartite Georgian-Abkhazian meeting held at the Ingur check-point on December 18 described a situation in the border districts as "the one tending to worsen".

December 22, 2003 18:39

• Chechen children need psychological assistance

  Although the war action made everyone suffer, the most vulnerable section of the population - children - appear to be the hardest hit.

December 22, 2003 18:17

• Unknown individuals shot down policemen in Grozny

  According to the Interior Ministry, unknown individuals fired automatic weapons at the policemen in the Zavodskoy district of the city at 7:05 p.m. Moscow time last Sunday. An Interior Ministry operations major and his partner, a sergeant of the police force, were killed on duty.

December 22, 2003 18:10

• 26-year-old woman hostage released in Chechnya

  The hostage, Oksana Bolshakova, was released in the course of the militia operation in the village of Shaami-Yurt. The woman was kidnapped in February 2003 in Budyonnovsk , Stavropol Territory and then taken to Kizlyar, Dagestan.

December 22, 2003 17:33

• OLK leader: unpleasant surprises expect Armenian servicemen who intend to come to Baku

  "But the responsibility will rest with the Azerbaijan authorities that agreed on the arrival of the hostile country's servicemen," stated Akif Nagi.

December 22, 2003 16:12

• Refugees in Pankisi Gorge area fear of provocations from Russian special services

  According to chairman of the Chechen International Human Rights Committee Aslanbek Abdurzakov, in difficult periods of the Georgian-Russian relations, the theme of the Pankisi Gorge always emerges as one of the means to either destabilize a situation in Georgia or put pressure upon it.

December 22, 2003 15:35

• Workers engaged in construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Jeikhan oil pipeline are on strike in Georgia

  Due to the action, construction works are ceased in the towns of Rustavi and Marneuli, which are mainly populated by Azerbaijanians.

December 22, 2003 12:06

• Konstantin Zatulin: "Turkey should really take into account the fair demand of the descendants of Genocide victims to compensate their damage"

  The fact that the Swiss Parliament joined the countries that recognized the Armenian Genocide in the beginning of the XX century in the Ottoman Empire is a victory of both Armenians and the Armenian Diaspora world wide and of all the human beings knowing the history.

December 22, 2003 11:35

• Bombing attack on possible shelter of rebel group in Dagestan

  Results of the action are unknown yet. On December 22, at daybreak, federal forces resumed their search for rebels.

December 20, 2003 18:28

• Regional operations headquarters perverted true reasons of death of two Chechen teenagers

  On December 11, 2003, some information agencies reported that two teenagers, residents of the village of Prigorodnoye, were killed while placing a landmine. Members of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" have conducted their own investigation and ascertained the real circumstances of the young boys' death, which completely contradict the version of the regional operations headquarters.

December 20, 2003 17:14

• PACE to debate about problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan at January session

  Despite the fact that the Azerbaijan leadership unambiguously deny the presence of political prisoners in the county, the international community, particularly the Council of Europe, view this matter from a diametrically opposite prospective.

December 20, 2003 16:20

• Georgian authorities deny visa to Radio Liberty correspondent Andrey Babitsky

  As the journalist himself reported, he applied to the Georgian Consulate in Vienna on behalf of the radio station last Friday, December 19, asking to grant him a visa to cover the presidential election in the republic. Consulate officials assured him the procedure was purely formal and the question would be settled soon.

December 20, 2003 14:08

• Akhmed Zakayev: Russian oil blinds West to Chechen issue

  "The West is flirting with Putin and this of course is linked to its need for Russia's energy resources," Akhmed Zakayev said. "This is clearly pragmatism but in this case it is criminal pragmatism, in fact a form of racism. Chechnya is part of Europe but where else in Europe would the West allow such human rights abuses to go on for such a long time?"

December 19, 2003 18:52

• Two thirds of people in Chechnya consider compensations for lost housing to be distributed by unscrupulous people, according to closed survey

  In the village of Goy-Chu (former Komsomolskoye), which was completely destroyed during the second Chechen war, 68% of respondents said they had to "share" their compensatory money with functionaries, and 33.5% gave them a half of the sum they received.

December 19, 2003 16:34

• Partly Free Country status given to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova

  Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are those post-Soviet countries that are given Not Free Country status in the report "Freedom in the World 2003" prepared by the Freedom House human rights organization.