News

Razu Nurullayev, deputy chairman of the Party of the People's Front of Azerbaijan (PPFA), reports detention of about 80 persons during today's picket organized in Baku by oppositionists from the block "Freedom". He noted that the detainees were brought to the Sabail District police stations. However, according to Kyamil Velishev, deputy head of the police department of this district, there were no detainees.

On April 25, Khizar Bokov, a resident of Karabulak (Ingushetia), who was taken away from his house by power agents on April 21 to some unknown place, was let off home. Under unofficial data, all this time he was kept at Division 6 for counteracting extremism of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department).

In Yerevan, in the evening on April 23, the "Dashnaktsutyun" Party held a rally that ended with a mourning torch march to the memorial to Armenians' genocide victims, which attracted several thousands of participants. They held posters "No to Armenian-Turkish Protocols!"

Heavy drenches in the region Mtskheta-Tianeti (Eastern Georgia) have caused landslips and landslides of mountain slopes. Mountain rivers overflowed the banks and flooded a number of villages, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

International organizations welcome the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) about release of the Azerbaijani journalist Einullah Fatullaev and call the official Baku to immediately fulfil the decision.

Today, on the Memory Day of the victims of Armenians' genocide of 1915-1922 in the Ottoman Empire, Yerevan and other dwelling settlements of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and foreign countries with Armenian Diasporas will hold traditional mourning actions commemorating the genocide victims.

As reported by a source in law enforcement bodies, in the city of Khasavyurt, Dagestan, a grenade was thrown into the house of a local resident, a worker of the recreation centre.

Fatima Bokova, a resident of Karabulak, reports that under unofficial information her son Khizar in kept in Division 6 of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department), in charge of counteracting extremism. Earlier, the woman had informed human rights activist that on April 21 he was kidnapped by power agents from their house.

The political elite of Turkey is still in search of answer to the decision of Armenia to stop the process of ratification of Armenian-Turkish Protocols. Hardly the Ankara's answer to this decision will be tough, believes Ruben Melkonyan, a well-known turcologist and deputy dean of the department of oriental studies of the Yerevan State University.

A fortnight-long strike at the ferroalloy factory in the city of Zestafoni and seven manganese mines in Chiatura started on April 23. In total, about 6000 persons take part in it. Miners and factory workers were supported by the leaders of the Association of Trade Unions of Georgia.

On April 23, a self-made explosive device was found and neutralized near the building of the Lenin ROVD (District Interior Division) in Rostov-on-Don.

At night on April 24, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Rescuers' Service of Georgia undertook the second round of evacuation of Velistsikhe village residents from the Gurdzhaani District because of threat of breakthrough of the dam in the Cherem Lake.

Ethan Zuckerman, a senior researcher at the Berkman Centre "Internet and Society" of the Law Department at Harvard and founder of the non-commercial organization "Geekcorps" and hosting company "Tripod", notes that it is often very difficult, and at times even impossible to define, who has organizes a hacker's attack - the government, amateurs upon a govt's sanction, or certain hostile persons. Therefore, one should be properly ready in advance how to counteract them.

Tomorrow, on April 24, Kalmykia will hold a civil protest action against xenophobia and fascism in the context of the murder in Russian capital at night on April 21 of Dolgan Nikeev, a student of the Moscow State Open University.

At their session on April 22, the MPs of Karachai-Circassia passed in the final reading the law "On Measures to Prevent Neglect of and Offences by Minors in the Karachai-Circassian Republic", which restricts minors' stay in public places.

The International Secretariat of the World Organization Against Torture (WOAT) has addressed Russian leadership with a request to interfere with the situation with Albert Saaev, who was convicted in Moscow for hacking the official websites of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, and was taken away to Grozny.

In the opinion of Susanna Dudieva, head of the "Beslan Mothers" Association of Terror Act Victims, the investigation of the terror act in Beslan was deliberately "braked" and will be further protracted. Discontent with the course of investigation was also voiced by Ella Kesaeva, leader of the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan". Alexander Khalin, head of the investigatory group, does not agree with them.

In Ingushetia, Ms Bokova, F. M., a resident of Karabulak accuses power agents of kidnapping on April 21 of her son Bokov, Khizar Batredinovich, born in 1986, right from their house. The woman has addressed human rights entities and organizations asking to help in searching her son.

As reported today to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Svetlana Isaeva, head of the NGO "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights", Gyulnara Rustamova, one of the activists of the NGO, has left it aiming to create a new human rights entity.

Remains of two residents of Chechnya captured by Russian militaries in the course of "zachistka" (cleanup operation) in spring 2002 were found in the Shali District. The Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has restarted the criminal case, which was suspended several years ago because of non-establishment of the persons involved in this crime.