News

The main goals of the May 17-19 visit of Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to Azerbaijan were to study the living conditions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and to attract the attention of the world community to the unsettled Karabakh conflict and its heavy humanitarian consequences.

Today, the International Conference "Andrei Sakharov: Concern and Hope of 2011" dated to the 90th birthday of Andrei Sakharov was opened in Moscow. Its participants have already stated the relevance of Sakharov's ideas for the modern Russia.

Lack of proper inquiry into crimes committed in Northern Caucasus may create a dangerous precedent for future generations, Thomas Hammarberg, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, said at a briefing held within the Moscow Sakharov Conference.

Today, young mothers with children have held a picket near the building of the Central Bank today held a picket, demanding the authorities to address the shortage of places in kindergartens. As reported by the city UVD, the authorized action was attended by about 35 women with children.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the Ministry of Justice to monitor enforcement of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as Strasbourg Court by its location. A significant share of these decisions has to do with the affairs of Northern Caucasus.

Today, the Shamil District Court of Dagestan has sentenced three policemen, accused of brutal beating of Makhmud Akhmedov, 14.

Today, at its plenary session, the Georgian Parliament has unanimously adopted the resolution "On Recognition of Circassian Genocide Committed by Russian Empire". Ninety-five MPs have supported the resolution, as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports from the Parliament's session hall.

At night on May 20, a security officer from the UVD (Interior Department) of Krasnodar shot dead a drunken driver while checking his documents. this was reported by the press service of the Investigatory Department for the Krasnodar Territory of the ICRF (Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation).

The City court of Tbilisi selected pretrial detention for 40 days as a preventive punishment for the leader of the youth branch of the "Georgian Party" Shota Yamanidze. Yamanidze was detained by the police of Tbilisi on May, 18, for accusation of purchasing, storage and use of narcotic drugs.

On May, 16, a video recorded by representatives of Circassian diaspora in the USA appeared on the Net. It demonstrated a flash-mob organized by American Circassians against Russian consulates in the USA. The flash-mob was called "May, 21 - a call for action. Where is Circassia?" and timed to an anniversary of the Russian-Caucasian war.

No less than 116 persons became victims of armed confrontations in Northern Caucasus in April. 71 people out of them were killed and 45 got wounded. These are the totals of calculation by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

A picket dedicated to signing of the peace agreement between Chechnya and Russia in 1997 will be held in Helsinki on May 27 near the Russian Embassy in Finland. It will be attended by refugees from Chechnya and Ingushetia, citizens of Finland and activists of various international human rights organizations.

Hotel "Assa" in Nazran was the venue of the meeting of Ingush rights defenders and relatives of missing persons with Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.

The Migration Service of Norway continues passing refusals of asylum to refugees from Chechnya. It often happens that some Chechen family members are granted asylum, while other members are rejected. One of the refugees, who asked not to disclose his name for security reasons, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about such case. Local rights defenders confirm that such cases are not unique.

In the course of the session of the Lenin Federal Court of Makhachkala, the journalists of the newspaper "Chernovik" were found innocent.

The judicial investigatory on the criminal case against the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" Oleg Orlov, accused of slandering the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov is over. The trial is entering the stage of debates; the start thereof is scheduled for June 9.

In the opinion of journalist Zoya Svetova, the author of the book "Innocent Found Guilty" about the fate of Zara Murtazalieva, sentenced in 2005 on charges of terrorism, and scientist Igor Sutyagin, convicted under the article of espionage, Zara Murtazalieva will not get her conditional early relief (CER).

The dean of the Chechen State Pedagogical Institute (CSPI) in Grozny extorted bribes from students on the pretext of the need to invest money to the Public Foundation named after Akhmad Kadyrov.

Dibir Nabiev, a member of the Bar Association "Kavkaz", has stated his intention to strive for punishing the policemen of the Kizlyar ROVD (District Interior Division), who had forced him to leave the ROVD building. He wrote about it in his application to the Dagestani Public Prosecutor.

The unemployment level in the republics of Northern Caucasus is almost four times higher than in Russia on the whole, Alexander Zhukov, Vice-premier of Russia, reported at a conference in Essentuki devoted to the situation in labour market in North-Caucasian Federal Okrug. Zhukov criticized the regional administrations for not exploiting the assets allotted on reduction of unemployment.