Persoverzicht Tsjetsjenië - december 2005

• 2005-12-30
• Europa in de wereld

2 december 2005

- Maskhadov accomplices convicted : Some dailies report that Chechnya’s Supreme Court yesterday sentenced four closest aides to Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov to prison terms from 5.5 to 15 years on several charges, including organising an armed mutiny. (Izvestia, Kommersant, RG)

7 december 2005

- Fradkov visits Brussels : Russian Prime Minister Fradkov and other ministers are planning to discuss Russia's implementation of a new visa agreement and other issues during their visit to the European Commission in Brussels. According to The Moscow Times the talks will also touch on the Middle East peace process and the political situation in Russia, especially the recent elections in Chechnya. The EU didn't send elections monitors to observe the 27 November parliamentary elections there. (MT, Interfax, Kommersant, Gazeta, RG)

8 december 2005

- No United Russia helm for Kadyrov? : As media reports Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has been elected head of the republic's branch of the United Russia party during the conference in Gudermes on Tuesday. Kadyrov's candidacy was overwhelmingly supported by the political council of the party's Chechen branch. However, according to Kommersant, the General Council of United Russia in Chechnya could not agree with this decision as they proposed another candidacy (Ruslan Yamadaev, a member of the State Duma). (Kommersant, Interfax)

9 december 2005

- Strasbourg Court hears first disappearance case : The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday heard that Russian forces allegedly detained and killed a young man while capturing a Chechen village, in the first disappearance case from Chechnya to be dealt with by the court

- The Moscow Times reports. Fatima Bazurkina filed the complaint at the court in 2001, after she saw television footage of Russian officers interrogating her son as troops were taking over the village of Alkan-Kala. The officers ordered soldiers to shoot and "finish off" her son, Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev, at the end of the footage, her lawyers said. The court will take several months to reach a ruling, court spokeswoman Stephanie Klein said. (MT)

- Human rights activists urge EU to press Moscow over Chechnya : Members of Russian and international human rights watchdogs have criticized the European Union for its soft stance on Chechnya. The EU underestimates threats to regional security posed by the unsettled conflict in Chechnya and is turning it into a "forgotten conflict' in Europe, human rights activists said in their letter to the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The letter was signed by the Memorial group, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Demos centre, Moscow Helsinki Group, International Federation for Human Rights, Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and the Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. (Interfax, MT)

12 december 2005

- Chechen security council chief dies in fire : The media report that Secretary of the Chechen Security Council Rudnik Dudayev died in the fire in Grozny yesterday. Chechen envoy to Moscow Ziyad Sabsabi denied reports that the official died in an act of sabotage. (Kommersant, Gazeta, RG, Vremya novostei, Interfax)

13 december 2005

- Putin visits Grozny, speaks in Chechen parliament : (i) Dailies report broadly about an unannounced visit by President Putin yesterday to Grozny, where he addressed the first session of Chechnya’s bicameral Parliament and discussed the economic development of the republic with President Alkhanov and acting PM Kadyrov. The media point out that Putin’s statement that Russia is “the most consistent and loyal defender of the interests of Islam” elicited “a storm of applause”. He identified “starting the reconstruction of Grozny” as one of the main tasks and ordered the Chechen authorities to take measures to stop abductions. (ii) The media report about the election of Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, former minister of agriculture of Chechnya, as chairman of the People’s Assembly (lower house of the Chechen Parliament) and the election of Akhmarhaji Gazikhanov as chairman of the Council of the Republic (upper house of the Chechen Parliament). Also yesterday, Chechen deputies appointed Valery Kuznetsov, who has been working as acting prosecutor for several months, to the post of the republic’s Prosecutor-General. (RG, Izvestia, Kommersant, Gazeta, NG, MT, Vremya novostei, Interfax)

- DM publishes non-combat losses : The Defence Ministry yesterday revealed that 120 military servicemen were killed in accidents or crimes in November. The Ministry cited traffic and other accidents, suicides and crimes among the main causes of non-combat deaths in the army. Nine soldiers were killed in Chechnya last month, 5 of whom were killed in combat. (Interfax, RIAN, RG)

14 december 2005

- PACE committee discusses report on Chechnya : Several dailies, including Rossiyskaya gazeta in a front-page article, report about a meeting in Paris of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs to discuss inter alia a draft report prepared by Rudolf Bindig on human rights violations in Chechnya for the coming PACE session in end-January. In view of head of the Duma International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev, the report does not take into account positive changes in Chechnya, notably the parliamentary elections and law enforcement agencies’ efforts to counteract crime. Nezavisimaya gazeta publishes an interview with Bindig. (RG, NG, Novye Izvestia, Gazeta)

15 december 2005

- Chechen MPs suggest Grozny be renamed : The lower chamber of the Chechen Parliament, the People’s Assembly, yesterday unanimously approved a proposal to ask the federal Government to rename the Chechen capital Grozny to Akhmad-Kala in memory of the slain Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. The media quote acting Chechen PM Ramzan Kadyrov, who opposed the idea of renaming and called the restoration of Grozny the best way to commemorate his father. (Izvestia, Kommersant, Gazeta, NG, RG, MT, Vremya novostei, Interfax, RIAN)

- Russia loses case in European Court of HR : The European Court of Human Rights has announced its ruling in the case of Ilyas Timishev, a Chechnya-born Russian citizen, versus Russia. Russia was ordered to pay to the plaintiff about 6,000 euros because a traffic policeman did not let him go to Nalchik in 1999 and his children were not allowed to go to school on the ground that they did not have official registration in Kabardino-Balkaria. (Kommersant)

- ‘Mines Are Hurting Children’ exhibition : In a front-page article, The Moscow Times reports on a “Miners Are Hurting Children” exhibition organised in Moscow by UNICEF and the European Commission’s humanitarian aid office ECHO. According to UNICEF figures provided by the daily, 612 children have been injured by land mines or other unexploded ordnance and another 126 children have died Chechnya since 1995. (MT)

21 december 2005

- Probe launched into Chechen children poisoning : According to media reports, more than 50 children and teachers have been hospitalized due to a “mysterious disease” in Chechnya’s Shelkovskaya district. Chechen prosecutors have launched criminal proceedings under charges of violating sanitary and epidemiological regulations resulting in massive poisoning. Officials do not rule out that nerve gas might have caused poisoning. (Interfax, Kommersant, Novye Izvestia, NG, RG, Vremya novostei, Izvestia)

- European Court to consider abduction of Ichkerian parliament speaker : The European Court of Human Rights has accepted four complaints from Chechen residents, including a complaint filed by the mother of Ruslan Alikhadziev, the former speaker of the separatist Ichkerian/Chechen parliament, regarding the disappearance of her son in 2000. (Kommersant)

22 december 2005

- Defence Minister on Chechnya’s restoration : At a meeting with the Chechen authorities yesterday in Moscow to discuss Chechnya’s social and economic development, Vice-Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said that about 2.5 million square meters of housing in Grozny is unsuitable for restoration and should be pulled down. (RG, Kommersant, Gazeta)

- Over 70 affected by mysterious disease in Chechnya : According to the latest media reports, more than 70 people, most of them schoolchildren, have been affected by an unidentified disease involving poisoning symptoms in Chechnya's Shelkovskaya district. Investigators are considering poisoning from a kind of nerve gas as a possible cause. (Interfax, Izvestia, Novye Izvestia, NG, Gazeta)

23 december 2005

- Chechen disease of psychosomatic nature? : According to media reports, cases of poisoning from an unspecified substance that affected schoolchildren in Chechnya’s Shelkovskaya district were confirmed in another Chechen district. Interior Troops Commander Col. Gen. Nikolai Rogozhkin rejected allegations that military activities could have caused the disease. Some experts pointed to a possible psychological cause of the disease. (Interfax, Izvestia, Kommersant, Gazeta, NG, Vremya novostei)

- Interior troops to form new battalions in Chechnya : The Commander of Russia’s Interior Troops Col. Gen. Rogozhkin announced a plan to form two special battalions in Chechnya staffed with local contract servicemen. According to the officer, the number of Interior Troops in Chechnya would not be reduced, at least until mid-2006. (Interfax, RIAN, MT)

- DM to deal with Chechnya’s reconstruction : In a front-page article, Nezavisimaya gazeta reports that Vice-Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov will be in charge of the restoration of Chechnya. He will take over from Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref. (NG)

- Beslan trial : Maskhadov was due to mediate?: The media provide the evidence by a witness in the Beslan case who stated that Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was ready to come to Beslan to mediate at talks with the terrorists who seized the school. (Interfax, Gazeta, Vremya novostei)

26 december 2005

- Chechen disease still undiagnosed : The media continue to report about an unspecified disease that has affected dozens of people, most of them school children, in Chechnya’s Shelkovskaya district. Some medical officials called the disease of “psychogenic nature”, adding that it was caused by “continued emotional strain”. (RG, Kommersant, NG, Izvestia, Novye Izvestia, Vremya novostei)

29 december 2005

- Chechnya’s socio-economic development discussed : Some dailies report about yesterday’s meeting in Grozny with the participation of Presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak and key members of the Chechen Cabinet to discuss the socio-economic development of the republic and the reconstruction of Grozny. (RG, Vremya novostei)