Persoverzicht Tsjetsjenië - augustus 2005

• 2005-08-31
• Europa in de wereld

2 augustus 2005

- Chechnya’s Znamenskoye terror attack solved - official: Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov yesterday stated that the 19 July terror attack on police in Chechnya’s Znamenskoye village that killed 15 people has been solved. He added that the detained perpetrators testified that Basayev financed the attack. (RG, Izvestia, Gazeta, Novye Izvestia, Interfax)

- Over 50% of Russians sceptical about normalization in Chechnya: According to a poll carried out by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), 51% of respondents do not believe that the situation in Chechnya would be normalized soon. 28% of those polled took the opposite view. A poll carried out by the Levada Centre showed that some 55% of Russians admit the possibility of Chechnya’s seceding from the Russian Federation. (Izvestia)

3 augustus 2005

- ABC accreditation not to be renewed – MFA: In a statement issued yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the accreditation of ABC News in Russia would not be renewed after it expires and stressed that contacts between ABC and any Russian government agency were undesirable. The move followed the broadcast by the channel of an interview with Chechen warlord Basayev. US State Department acting spokesman Tom Casey is quoted as having expressed the view that ABC and other media “should have the opportunity for freedom of expression and have the right to report as they see fit”. (Interfax, RIAN, RG, Izvestia, Kommersant, Vremya novostei, MT)

- Democrats to run in Chechen vote: At a press conference yesterday in Moscow, Duma member and leader of the Republican Party Vladimir Ryzhkov and head of the liberal Our Choice movement Irina Khakamada announced their parties’ intention to jointly contest the parliamentary election in Chechnya, which is due to be held on 27 November, and to set up a faction in the republic’s parliament. The media note, however, that Yavlinsky’s Yabloko plans to run independently. (Izvestia, NG, Gazeta, Vremya novostei, Vedomosti, MT, Interfax)

4 augustus 2005

- ABC to lose accreditation in early 2006 – MFA: The Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday said that ABC News would completely lose the right to work in Russia in the beginning of 2006. A diplomat at the US Embassy in Moscow stressed that the US administration was not planning to take restrictive measures against Russian journalists in response to the Russian MFA’s decision not to extend the accreditation of ABC. A Foreign Ministry representative pointed out that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Andrei Babitsky had violated both Russian and international law when he interviewed Chechen warlord Basayev. However, according to the management of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Babitsky was on vacation when he conducted the interview. (Interfax, RIAN, RG, Izvestia, Vedomosti, NG, ABC)

- Chechen Vice-Premier outlaws gambling business: Dailies, Izvestia in a frontpage article, report that Chechen 1st Deputy Prime Minister [and current Acting Premier] Ramzan Kadyrov has outlawed all gambling businesses in the republic and demanded that all gambling facilities be dismantled within one week. He underlined that the gambling business contradicts Islam and poses a “negative impact on the youth”. (Izvestia, Kommersant, Vedomosti, Novye Izvestia)

5 augustus 2005

- Chechen Muslim clergy declare war on Wahhabism; police tighten security: (i) At a joint meeting with Chechen law enforcement officials yesterday in Chechnya’s village of Tsentoroi, the republic’s top Muslim leaders declared a jihad – a holy war – on Wahhabism. Chechen mufti Sultan Mirzayev is quoted as having pointed out that the decision aims at “letting those who fight terrorism and Wahhabism know that what they are doing is right”. He also urged Chechnya’s clergy to launch an information campaign to stop young people from joining separatists. (ii) In a front-page article, Nezavisimaya gazeta reports that Chechen police have tightened security in the republic between 4 and 10 August amid rumours of possible terrorist attacks around the 9th anniversary since a rebel offensive in the region. (Kommersant, Gazeta, NG, Interfax, RIAN)

9 augustus 2005

- Chechnya to change leader?: In a front-page article, Nezavisimaya gazeta asserts that an “operation was launched to provide Chechen 1st Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov with the status of the top official in the republic”. The term of office of incumbent President Alu Alkhanov expires in 3 years. Observers believe, however, that Kadyrov has every chance to control the new Chechen parliament that is due to be elected in the end of November. (NG)

10 augustus 2005

- Kadyrov denies presidential ambitions: Chechnya’s 1st Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov dismissed assertions about a political struggle in the republic and his alleged ambitions to become Chechen president. He noted, with this regard, that “there is no alternative to Chechnya’s President Alu Alkhanov”. (Interfax, RIAN)

- Inter-ethnic conflict reported in Dagestan: Some dailies report about a fight between ethnic Chechens and ethnic Avars in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district, in which over 20 people were beaten after failing to resolve some “personal disputes”. Chairman of the Chechen State Council Taus Dzhabrailov is quoted as warning of the danger of fuelling ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus. In the meantime, local prosecutors have qualified the incident as hooliganism. (Kommersant, NG, Interfax)

- Ingushetia bans gambling: The media report that the Ingush authorities have decided to close gambling facilities in the republic following complaints from religious leaders and NGOs - a week after a similar decision was taken by the Chechen authorities. Ingush President Murat Zyazikov is quoted as having described gambling as “not typical of the Ingush mentality”. (Interfax)

- Regions to get more financial support: The trilateral commission that comprises members of the government, the Duma and the Federation Council yesterday approved a scheme for the redistribution of federal subsidies to the regions in 2006. The total size of such subsidies is to grow by 38% (compared with an 8% increase this year) to reach RUR1.3trillion ($46bn), as the federal centre now accumulates more financial revenue. E.g. with the abolition next year of excise warehouses for alcoholic beverages in the regions, 80% of all ‘vodka money’ will be directed into the federal centre’s coffers. Part of the revenue earned by 19 ‘region-donors’ (oil-reach Tyumen occupies the 1st place with Moscow in second place) will be directed to the poorest regions of the North Caucasus (Chechnya and Dagestan) and Evenkiya (Central Siberia). Prosperous Tatarstan and Bashkortostan will also get almost the same financial support as the poorest regions (6.5.bn and 10.2bn, correspondingly versus $15bn), which Finance Minister Kudrin described as “the federal centre’s payment for Russia integrity”. (Izvestia, Kommersant, Vedomosti).

11 augustus 2005

- Defence Ministry publishes death toll in Chechnya: According to the data posted on the Defence Ministry’s official web site, 14 military servicemen died in Chechnya in July 2005, including 12 men killed in combat. Since the beginning of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya in 1999, a total of 3,459 military servicemen have been killed and 32 troops have gone missing. The Ministry also informed that, since the beginning of this year, 9,142 crimes have been committed in the Russian armed forces. (RIAN, Izvestia, MT, www.mil.ru)

12 augustus 2005

- Interior Ministry on counter-terrorist operation results in South Russia: (i) The Interior Ministry yesterday announced that law enforcement agencies had killed 29 alleged militants and arrested 961 people, who were on the wanted list of suspected criminals, in special operations in the Southern Federal District in June-August 2005. (ii) According to a poll carried out by the state-owned VTSIOM agency, 32% the Russian public and 38% of respondents in the Southern Federal District suggested that a powerful armed force should be built in the Northern Caucasus. 23% of Russians supported the idea of direct presidential rule in the region. Only 14% of respondents believe that economic and social assistance to the region could be a solution to its problems. (iii) A poll carried out by another pollster, the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), showed that Russians named only three South Russian regions as relatively “calm” - the Krasnodar and Stavropol territories and the Rostov region. Chechnya and Dagestan are seen as the most unstable regions. (Interfax, RIAN, Vedomosti)

- Special unit to fight organised crime in Chechnya: (i) Vremya novostei reports that Russia’s Interior Minister Nurgaliyev has ordered that a special unit in charge of the fight against organised crime be established within the system of Chechnya’s law enforcement agencies. According to the daily, the unit will focus on the fight against abductions and banditry. (ii) The media report that the homes of three Chechen police officers were set ablaze in Chechnya’s Vedeno district yesterday. (Vremya novostei, Kommersant, Novye Izvestia)

15 augustus 2005

- Five servicemen killed in ambush in Chechnya: (i) The military commander of Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district Col. Alexander Kayak and four other military servicemen are reported to have been killed in an attack near the Chechen village of Roshnichu on Sunday. According to the media, the servicemen were investigating an attack by rebels on the home of the head of the village administration. (ii) Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov is quoted as saying on Saturday that seven policemen have been arrested in Chechnya on suspicion of involvement in rebel groups and attempted kidnapping. (iii) A sister of a Chechen rebel warlord, Doku Umarov, was abducted on Friday in Chechnya by armed people. A representative of the Memorial human rights organisation is quoted as having suggested that this was another case of so-called counter-taking of hostages aimed at exerting pressure on rebel leaders. (iv) According to media reports, the father of an Ingush businessman and rival of incumbent Ingush President Murat Zyazikov in the 2002 presidential vote in the republic, Alikhan Amirkhanov, was kidnapped on Friday in Ingushetia. Ingush police said ransom was the motive of the abduction. (RG, Kommersant, Izvestia, Vremya novostei, Gazeta, Novye Izvestia, MT, Interfax, ITAR-TASS)

16 augustus 2005

- Death toll in Chechnya conflicts stands at 160,000 - official: (i) At a press conference yesterday in Moscow, Chairman of the Chechen State Council Taus Dzhabrailov said up to 160,000 people, mostly non-ethnic Chechens, along with 30,000-40,000 ethnic Chechens, were killed in the two conflicts in the republic. The total death toll includes also those killed among Russian servicemen, policemen and rebels. Izvestia quotes an official from the Russian Ombudsman's office, Georgy Kunadze, who stressed that the figure provided by Dzhabrailov is much higher than estimates by Russian NGOs which put the death toll among civilians and servicemen in Chechnya at 90,000. (ii) According to Dzhabrailov, up to 1,000 militants are currently operating in Chechnya, including up to 150 foreign mercenaries, while over 7,000 militants have voluntarily surrendered weapons in the republic since 2000. He dismissed reports that many former guerrillas had joined the Chechen police. (iii) Dzhabrailov reiterated that parliamentary elections in Chechnya would be held at the end of November, adding that the exact date will be set by President Putin's decree. (iv) The Chechen official also announced that unemployment in the republic stands at 80%. (Interfax, RIAN, Izvestia, Gazeta, NG, Vremya novostei, Novye Izvestia, MT)

- Blast in Chechnya kills one; police officer attacked in Ingushetia: (i) According to Chechen police, a 12-year-old boy was killed and at least 11 other people were injured in a car blast yesterday in Chechnya's capital Grozny. An official with the Chechen Government is quoted as having suggested that the republic's Prime Minister Sergei Abramov might have been the target of the bombing. (ii) The media report that head of the Nazran police department Dzhabrail Kostoyev was wounded in an assassination attempt on his life yesterday in Ingushetia. (Interfax, Gazeta, Kommersant, Izvestia, Vremya novostei, Novye Izvestia, MT)

17 augustus 2005

- Clashes with guerrilla group in Chechnya; policeman killed in Dagestan: (i) According to Chechen security service officials, over 10 alleged militants of a 40-member guerrilla group, which is part of the unit led by Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, were killed yesterday in Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district. The group is suspected of attacking the car of the district’s military commandant. (ii) The media report that a police officer was killed yesterday in Makhachkala, Dagestan. (iii) According to the Interior Ministry of the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, a large-scale terrorist attack outside the police headquarters was prevented yesterday in the republic’s capital Nalchik. (Interfax, Kommersant, Novye Izvestia, Vremya novostei)

- HR activist says PACE Chechnya roundtable in Russia pointless: A representative of the Memorial human rights centre, Svetlana Ganushkina, has called holding in Russia of a roundtable on Chechnya under the auspices of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe “pointless”, as moderate separatists, who “should not be mixed with terrorists”, would probably be excluded from such a discussion. (Interfax, Gazeta)

19 augustus 2005

- Clashes with guerrillas in Chechnya; Dagestan blast wounds four: (i) Chechen police yesterday reported that the leader of a Chechen guerrilla group of more than 20 people named Kazbek Batalov had been killed in a special operation in western Chechnya. The group was allegedly involved in the recent raid on the house of the head of the village administration in Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district and the assassination attempt against the district military commandant. (ii) Four policemen from Stavropol (Southern Russia) are reported to have been injured when their bus was blown up yesterday in the Dagestani capital Makhachkala. (Interfax, RG, Kommersant, Gazeta, Izvestia, Vremya novostei)

- Inter-ethnic conflict reported in Astrakhan region: In a front-page article, Kommersant reports that eight houses of ethnic Chechens were set on fire and several dozens of people were beaten in a village in the Astrakhan region (South Russia) as an act of revenge for the murder of an ethnic Kalmyk. Head of Chechnya’s State Council Taus Dzhabrailov is quoted as saying that Chechen and Astrakhan regional authorities have agreed to cooperate in investigating the incident. Electronic media today report that some 400 policemen from the neighbouring Saratov and Volgograd regions have been dispatched to the village in addition to Interior Ministry troops units to settle the conflict. (Kommersant, Lenta.ru, RIAN)

22 augustus 2005

- Putin promises to sign decree on parliamentary vote in Chechnya : Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a working meeting on 21 August with Chechnya's President Alu Alkhanov, Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov and Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov that he will sign a decree to set the date of the republic's parliamentary elections for 27 November 2005. The meeting took place at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Sunday. On Saturday, in heavily guarded ceremonies, Chechen and Russian officials unveiled a new monument to Akhmad Kadyrov in a square in Grozny. Ramzan Kadyrov did not attend the ceremony because, according to Alkhanov, “he would not be able to control his emotions”.

- Police, soldiers patrolling Astrakhan village after clashes : More than 1,000 law enforcement officers are patrolling the village of Yandyki in the Astrakhan region on Friday, where clashes occurred between ethnic Chechens and Kalmyks. The clashes erupted after a young man of Kalmuk origin was killed in a scuffle at a local bar on 16 August.

24 augustus 2005

- Chechen parliamentary elections set for 27 November: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting the date for Chechnya’s parliamentary elections for 27 November 2005. According to Taus Dzhabrailov, Chairman of the Chechen State Council (provisional parliament), the upcoming elections “should change the current situation whereby 90% of Chechnya’s residents maintain an attitude of ‘wartime neutrality’ towards the authorities. Further ignoring the population’s wish to bring its representatives to the parliament could lead to an explosive situation”, he said. Gazeta notes that the organisation of parliamentary elections in Chechnya has already been delayed for longer than a year.

- Reconstruction agency brought under Chechen authority: Chechen President Alu Alkhanov hailed a decision by Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to remove the state enterprise that is responsible for reconstruction projects in Chechnya (often referred to as ‘Direktsia’) from federal government jurisdiction and to place it under the authority of the Chechen government. Moving the Directorate to Grozny will make money allocated for the economic restoration of Chechnya safer, Alkhanov said. According to the Chechen President, two billion roubles will be spent on construction projects in Chechnya in 2005.

30 augustus 2005

- Free legal aid scheme to be tested: The government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta publishes a front-page article about the launch of a pilot scheme to test free legal aid to citizens whose income falls below the official poverty line. The scheme will be tested from January 2006 for one year in ten regions, including Moscow and Chechnya.

31 augustus 2005

- Servicemen’s not-guilty verdict annulled: The Russian Supreme Court’s military board annulled the not-guilty verdict handed to Captain Eduard Ulman and his subordinates for the killing of 6 civilians at a checkpoint in Chechnya in 2002. The not-guilty verdict, which was pronounced in a jury trial in May, caused a wave of protest in Chechnya. Ulman and his group were acquitted on the grounds that they had followed “shoot-to-kill” orders from their superiors. Now the case is going to be re-opened in a new trial.

- Chechnya abductions figure falls: The number of abductions in Chechnya has dropped significantly, according to federal security officials in North Caucasus. Col-Gen. Yedelev, who is commands the federal forces’ anti-terrorist operations in the N. Caucasus announced that 513 abductions were officially reported in Chechnya in 2003, 164 in 2004 and 79 in the first half of 2005. However, the human rights group Memorial gives different figures. Their monitoring showed that 152 people were abducted in Chechnya in the first 6 months of this year: 58 of them were freed or bought for ransom, 6 were founded dead, two were being held in places of detention, and 86 disappeared. Memorial is able to monitor only about 25-30 percent of the territory of Chechnya. (The Moscow Times)