News

January 17, 2004 19:50

• Turkish Minister of Culture denounces refusal to show film by Atom Egoyan "Ararat" in Turkey

  Erkan Mumcu emphasized that the showing of Ararat in Turkey was not prohibited after all. The matter concerns only the refusal of Belge Company to show the film in Turkey.

January 17, 2004 19:47

• Tsiza Gumba: UN could issue interim documents to citizens of Abkhazia

  "Due to the fact that the international community has not recognized our state for already 10 post-war years and Russia, along with other CIS countries, has introduced sanctions against Abkhazia, people in the republic have no fundamental rights secured by the Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to leave Abkhazia and to return to it," thinks Lawyer Tsiza Gumba, a former deputy of the Abkhazian Parliament.

January 17, 2004 17:48

• Charge brought against direction of Moskovsky Komsomolets in Astrakhan newspaper

  On January 15, the senior investigator of the Trusovsky District Prosecutor's Office of Astrakhan, Rashid Zhumgaliyev, brought a charge against Damir Batyrshin, former director general of Publishing House Media Prestizh Company, and Vladimir Nikonov, his deputy. The mentioned company published and distributed the Moskovsky Komsomolets in Astrakhan newspaper.

January 17, 2004 17:10

• Refugees in Bart camp receive ultimatum from authorities

  Chechen refugees living in the Bart tent camp in Karabulak, Ingushetia, were offered to leave the camp territory within 10 days.

January 17, 2004 16:51

• President of Ingushetia to visit Geneva to settle problem of Chechen refugees

  President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov is going to Geneva to discuss issues concerning the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Ingushetia to Chechnya.

January 16, 2004 20:41

• Georgian-Abkhazian peace talks within framework of Geneva Process to be continued

  In particular, the second meeting of working groups on security issues and a policy within the Geneva Process is designed for late February. This meeting was to be held in Tbilisi as early as the autumn of 2003, but it did not take place. The first meeting was held in Sukhum in the summer of 2003.

January 16, 2004 17:04

• Public organization "Nord-Ost" blames Doctor Leonid Roshal for telling lies

  The open letter to Doctor Leonid Roshal reads, "The statement "of an eye-witness" you made yesterday that the terrorists [in the Theatre Center] on Dubrovka provoked a storm of the theatre and the use of homicidal gas is comparable in its shamelessness with President Putin's statement that "the gas was innocuous"."

January 16, 2004 16:53

• International Helsinki Federation accuses Russian law-enforcement agencies of abduction of physical therapy practitioner in Ingushetia

  Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Aaron Rhodes addressed an open letter to Prosecutor of the Republic of Ingushetia Magamet Belkhoroev in connection with the abduction of Khamzat Osmaev, a popular physical therapy practitioner.

January 16, 2004 15:39

• Leonid Roshal: gas used to set hostages on Dubrovka free was not homicidal

  We call your attention to the response of Leonid Roshal to Irina Khakamada's statement concerning the investigation into the storm of the Theatre Center on Dubrovka.

January 16, 2004 14:52

• EU forces need corresponding UN mandate to take part in peacemaking operation in Abkhazia

  The EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Javier Solana, stated it at a press conference in Tbilisi on January 15.

January 16, 2004 13:59

• Book "Problems of Civil Society Development in the Republic of Dagestan" presented in Makhachkala

  Specific proposals concerning the forming of civil society institutions and environment which could help them to work more productively, as well as those concerning the development of interaction between authorities and civil society institutions were given at the presentation.

January 16, 2004 13:21

• Azerbaijan oppositionists to be held in custody for 3 more months

  The court decided to extend detention terms for Azerbaijan oppositionists arrested in connection with the October mass riots in Baku. They will be held in custody for three more months.

January 16, 2004 12:13

• Residents of Chechen village of Prigorodnoye detained

  Officers of Russian security agencies abducted two men during the January 10 "address purges" in the village of Prigorodnoye, the Grozny district.

January 16, 2004 11:59

• Resident of Pervomayskaya killed in bomb explosion

  A local was killed on January 12 in the village of Pervomayskaya, the Grozny (rural) district.

January 15, 2004 21:10

• Press conference "Competition for Peace Prize" to be held on January 16

  The prize will be presented to Russian peacemakers by Lord Judd, who is arriving from London especially for it.

January 15, 2004 21:07

• Local policeman beaten in Batumi for criticism against Adjarian authorities

  Unknown people forced Iokobadze out of the car when he was going home from work. They started beating him, saying "you are the one who dislikes Abashidze".

January 15, 2004 21:05

• Purge at central market of Grozny

  On January 14, the central market of Grozny was blocked by policemen. They let nobody enter of leave the territory of the market.

January 15, 2004 21:04

• Ruslan Gelayev not found among killed in Dagestan

  "Ruslan Gelayev, extremists' and foreign mercenaries' group leader, is not among the ten bodies of militants destroyed last December by the federal forces. We have recently found them in the places of hostilities," Shamkhal Aliyev, chief of the search-and-rescue unit of the Dagestani Rescue Team of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, said on January 15 upon return to Makhachkala from the Tsuntinsky district.

January 15, 2004 20:57

• Georgian Central Election Commission officially announces Mikhail Saakashvili's victory

  According to the final official data, Saakashvili won 96.27% of the vote.

January 15, 2004 19:47

• Known doctor and masseur Khamzat Osmayev abducted in Ingushetia

  On January 12, Russian security agents abducted Khamzat Kh. Osmayev, 1954, in the village of Pliyevo, which is a municipal district of the Ingush town of Nazran.