News

February 13, 2004 17:23

• Azerbaijan is ready to start negotiating Karabakh problem from beginning

  "Today there is no principle that both the sides accept in the Karabakh settlement, therefore Azerbaijan has full authority to start from the beginning," said Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Vilayat Guliyev.

February 13, 2004 16:30

• Office of Chechen human rights representative may reopen

  There is a possibility that the office of Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, special envoy for human rights in Chechnya, which was officially terminated by President Putin a month ago, continue its activity in the republic later this year.

February 13, 2004 16:09

• Satellite press conferences Yerevan-Baku

  On February 6 and 10, two more satellite press conferences Yerevan-Baku were held within the framework of the project of the Yerevan and Baku Press Clubs "Possible Resolutions of the Karabakh Conflict: Expert Evaluations and Media Coverage".

February 13, 2004 15:51

• 70 Bailovskaya prison inmates continue hunger strike

  The number of prisoners taking part in the hunger strike at the Bailovskaya prison has risen to 70. A further 7 activists of the Musavat party and Azerbaijan Popular Front, not in prison, are also taking part.

February 12, 2004 18:03

• Regional administration picketed in Krasnodar

  Residents of the Krimsky district picketed the regional administration in Krasnodar on February 9.

February 12, 2004 17:28

• Ex-chairman of Abkhazian Supreme Soviet declares for war with breakaway republic

  Former chairman of the Abkhazian Supreme Soviet Tamaz Nadareishvili declares against the signing of the agreement between Georgia and Abkhazia that the war will not be resumed.

February 12, 2004 17:00

• Symbol of Freedom awarded to head of Krasnodar human rights organization

  The ceremony to present the 2003 Symbol of Freedom, a sign of public recognition instituted in the field of human rights, will be held at the Marble Hall of the House of Journalists in Moscow on February 17.

February 12, 2004 16:20

• 23 February is International Day of Actions Against War in Chechnya

  The Antiwar Club and Committee for Antiwar Actions have issued a statement in which they called upon everybody to "join the actions aimed at the cessation of war in Chechnya, establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration in Chechnya and political settlement of the conflict" on 23 February, the day of memory of people fallen victims to Stalin's deportation.

February 12, 2004 16:01

• 120 refugee families returned from Ingushetia to North Osetia in 2003

  120 families of displaced persons returned to the places of their former residence on the territory of North Osetia for 12 months of 2003, according to the data by the Ingush State Committee on Refugees and Displaced Persons.

February 12, 2004 15:32

• Volunteer for Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship detained in Ingushetia

  A volunteer for the interregional NGO Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship, Alkhazur Batayev, was detained in the tent camp for Chechen refugees "Satsita" by officers of Ingushetia's Sunzhensky district police department on February 10.

February 12, 2004 15:04

• FSB hunts for Chechen bards' songs

  FSB (Federal Security Service) officers wage a fierce struggle against songs by Chechen singers in Ingushetia. It is prohibited to sale cassettes with songs by Timur Mutsurayev, Khas-Magomed Khadzhimuradov and Islam Alimsultanov in the republic.

February 12, 2004 14:16

• Georgians living in Rostov take part in Dovitoba national holiday

  Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Caucasus Professor Nikolay Avdulov called this day a holiday of wisdom, good and education.

February 12, 2004 14:06

• Azerbaijan human rights activists point to necessity to change priorities of their activity

  "It is essential that we stop concentrating our attention on setting 10-15 political prisoners free. It is time to switch over to the solution of really urgent problems of the country's population," said Tamilla Kerimova, a member of Helsinki Citizens' Assembly National Committee of Azerbaijan.

February 12, 2004 13:29

• Baku police disperse unauthorized picket of opposition

  Action participants demanded that the arrested editor-in-chief of the opposition Yeni Musavat newspaper, Rauf Arifoglu, and a contributor of the Baki Khabar newspaper, Sadig Ismailov, be released.

February 12, 2004 12:16

• Olivier Dupuis: war in Chechnya can be stopped with help of UN

  On 6 February, the European Parliament member, Olivier Dupuis, issued a statement in reply to the accusation by Russian President Putin against the Maskhadov administration.

February 12, 2004 11:18

• Ella Pamfilova: Chechen refugees in Ingushetia are under psychological pressure

  According to the chairwoman of the presidential commission on human rights, unidentified people have threatened refugees with FSB (Federal Security Service) if they refuse to leave tent camps within two weeks.

February 12, 2004 11:11

• US journalist found in North Caucasus

  An American journalist presumed missing in the North Caucasian region of Russia for three days was seen "alive and kicking" on Wednesday morning.

February 12, 2004 10:49

• UN bars Chechnya to aid workers

  The United Nations has told the Kremlin not to expect any increase in its or other aid agency staff in Chechnya until a kidnapped Dutch aid worker has been released.

February 11, 2004 23:27

• Death penalty replaced with "slow death"

  During the six years since the abolition of capital punishment, at least 30 inmates serving life sentences and four prisoners sentenced to death who were subsequently amnestied, died, i.e. nearly every fourth.

February 11, 2004 21:17

• Abkhazian Defense Ministry denies information of Georgian media about oppression of Georgians in Abkhazian Army

  "People of different nationalities serve in the Abkhazian Armed Forces, and Georgians do to. But no one of them have been oppressed and even more so subjected to torture because of their nationality," reads a press release by the Ministry of Defense.