News

December 15, 2003 15:00

• 50 rebels burst through into Tsuntinsky district of Dagestan

  According to some versions, the rebels occupied one of the Dagestani villages. According to other data, the group of rebels was detected when they were trying to flee to Georgia.

December 15, 2003 14:31

• Georgian Interior Minister: situation in Pankisi Gorge may worsen

  Several days ago, the police found a depot with 84 unguided antitank missiles apparently left by Chechen guerillas in a forest near the village of Khalatsani.

December 15, 2003 14:00

• Prague hosts cultural events aimed at helping people from Caucasus

  Last week two cultural events took place in the center of Prague dedicated to Caucasians who either still live in their homeland under disturbing conditions, or left to seek shelter in the Czech Republic.

December 15, 2003 13:16

• South Osetian Prime Minister's aide denies information that Georgian special operations unit entered the republic

  On December 11, Russian mass media published information that the Georgian Security Ministry's special unit had entered the village of Megvrikisi in South Osetia.

December 15, 2003 12:40

• Murder of Yunus Yakubov - details

  On December 7, the day of the Russian State Duma elections, Yunus V. Yakubov, 1948, was killed in Gudermes. He was an observer for the Chechen regional branch of the United Russia Party.

December 15, 2003 11:58

• South Osetian State Security Committee head: special unit of Georgian Security Ministry troops did be in conflict zone

  As head of the State Security Committee of the Republic of South Osetia Colonel Oleg Alborov declared, the fact that a special unit of Georgian Security Ministry troops entered the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone on December 11 is true.

December 15, 2003 11:09

• Human rights activists in Yekaterinburg protested against war in Chechnya

  At the monument to the founders of the city, they mounted a stand informing of human rights abuses in Russia.

December 13, 2003 17:15

• Commission on women's affairs created in Chechnya

  The commission on women's, family and youth affairs has been created under the State Council of the Chechen Republic. The well-known teacher Napsat Yusupova is at the head of it.

December 13, 2003 16:44

• Human rights defenders receive legal training in Nazran

  According to one of the organizers, Vladimir Weissman of the International Helsinki Federation (IHF), the goal was to teach the proper way of writing applications to be filed with the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee and other international bodies.

December 13, 2003 16:30

• Rally to protest arbitrary enforced actions against Chechen refugees took place in Brno

  Members of the Nesehnuti public organization and the regional branch of Amnesty International organized a rally in front of the Russian Consulate in Czechia's second largest town of Brno on Thursday, December 11, to protest the arbitrary enforced actions taken against Chechen refugees in Ingushetia.

December 13, 2003 15:34

• Press freedom curtailed since Ilham Aliev's election as president

  Reporters Without Borders calls on Ilham Aliev to change direction in his government's policies toward the news media and to carry out reforms that would facilitate the development of a free and independent press.

December 13, 2003 14:45

• Russia to receive food aid for Chechnya

  James Morris, head of the World Food Programme, said he had just agreed a new 18-month programme to deliver food to Chechen residents, schoolchildren and those displaced by the conflict into neighbouring Ingushetia.

December 11, 2003 17:23

• Action against infringement of Turks-Meskhetians' rights in Krasnodar Territory

  Participants declared they would continue their struggle for human rights and were ready to resume the mass hunger strike. But this time they will do it throughout Krasnodar Territory, they said.

December 11, 2003 17:19

• Opposition activists arrested for participation in mass riots in Baku stopped hunger strike

  About 50 oppositionists held in Investigatory Isolation Ward 1 went on hunger strike last week, demanding that the authorities of the country meet recommendations by the OSCE on the non-admission of political persecution.

December 11, 2003 16:56

• Mass media coverage of interethnic relations in Stavropol Territory

  The information and analytical round table discussion "Mass Media in Stavropol Territory: Coverage of Interethnic Relations" took place at the Pyatigorsk Branch of the North Caucasian Academy of Public Service on November 27.

December 11, 2003 16:26

• Only handful of Chechen refugees voted in State Duma elections

  By human rights activists' preliminary estimate, the turnout did not reach even 1% of the displaced persons from Chechnya living in Ingushetia.

December 11, 2003 16:01

• Concert devoted to 15th anniversary of creation of Moscow Memorial

  The Memorial Society kept and keeps on playing a noticeable part in the making of civil society in Russia.

December 11, 2003 15:25

• Fine imposed on former head of military hospital in Mozdok

  The Pyatigorsk Garrison Court Martial pronounced sentence on the former head of the military hospital in Mozdok blown up by kamikaze terrorists.

December 11, 2003 14:53

• CRINGO Network Member NGOs met in Vladikavkaz

  NGO activists from Dagestan, Chechnya, Stavropol Territory, South and North Osetia discussed their plans of work for the next year, which includes human rights workshops and trainings for GRINGO Network in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, South and North Osetia.

December 11, 2003 14:34

• Investigative actions at site of explosion in Moscow completed

  According to preliminary information, the direct performers were three kamikaze women. Another woman is supposed to be an organizer, and the police are seeking for her now.