News

Kakha Katsitadze, a Georgian political scientist, does not believe that the States are seriously considering any transfer of Guantanamo inmates to Georgian prisons; he thinks that this is an initiative of local authorities.

The resident of Dagestan, who disappeared right from his workplace on August 17, was found on August 19 among the "trophies" of a special operation. Over 20 bullets were extracted from his body, which had numerous traces of violence. As reported by the HRC "Memorial", the body would not be given out to relatives, until it is proved that the man was not involved in terrorism.

Today, in the square in front of the house of government of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, relatives of kidnapped persons have held their rally. According to different sources, from 50 to 200 persons took part in it demanding to stop kidnappings and murders of young people in the republic.

In the evening on August 24, activists who rallied in the Chistoprudny Boulevard in Moscow to commemorate Natalia Estemirova on the 40th day after her murder demanded resignation of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Kobuleti City Court has set free on bail Rati Milorava, son of Eka Beseliya, secretary general of the oppositional party "Movement for United Georgia", while her brother Sergo Beseliya will have to spend two months in pre-trial custody.

On August 23, in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), when a local district militiaman was moving in his car, a powerful explosive was triggered. The militiaman did not suffer; and as reported by a source in the republic's power bodies, the culprits have been established.

Explosions of terrorists-suicide bombers in Chechnya and Ingushetia; persecutions of human rights activists in Northern Caucasus; detention by Georgia of foreign ships sailing to Abkhazia; Georgia's exit from the CIS - look up these and other events in the review of the week of August 17-23 in the Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On August 23, in the submontane Achkhoy-Martan District of Chechnya, a local minor was wounded by explosion of unidentified ordnance.

On August 23, in the course of a combat clash that burst out in the Shali District of Chechnya, a soldier of the Internal Troops of Russian MIA was lost, and four militaries were wounded.

It was reported by Moscow law enforcement bodies that they detained a citizen of Azerbaijan, suspected of kidnapping, together with his four accomplices, of a compatriot with further extortion of some 800,000 US dollars from him.

Young members of a number of Armenian NGOs have addressed the president, prime minister and speaker of the parliament with an appeal to immediately publicly defend Mariam Sukhudyan, who is accused of disseminating false information about sexual harassments of pupils by a boarding school teacher.

The Chechen MIA believes that militants are committing terror acts with the use of suicide bombers with the aim to distract power agencies from broad-scale special operations in the mountains. President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has stated that in no case the intensity of operations conducted against armed underground groupings will go down.

In Astrakhan, a magistrate judge of the Kirov District has recognized local resident Nadiya Fokina guilty of hooliganism and sentenced her to a fine of 500 roubles; on August 17, she criticized Alexander Zhilkin, Governor of the Astrakhan Region, in the presence of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, when the former demonstrated a repaired embankment to the latter.

Experts of some Chechen NGOs stick to the opinion that relatives and family members of the two suicide bombers, who blew themselves in the afternoon on August 21 in Grozny killing four employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya and a young woman, are under threat of punitive and repressive measures.

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov said, at his first press conference after his return to the republic that would have been ready to pardon the terrorist who had attempted on him, should the latter have remained alive.

Georgia has expressed its readiness to accept prisoners from the American base in Guantanamo within its territory. This information was disseminated today by some Georgian and American media.

Today, President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov, who interrupted his rehabilitation course at a sanatorium near Moscow, has arrived in his republic. He made this decision because of aggravated situation in Ingushetia.

On August 21, after a triple rejection, the Yasamal District Court of Baku has accepted the claim of the NGO "Centre for Election Monitoring and Teaching Democracy" (CEM&TD) against the Ministry of Justice.

Human rights activists have condemned the actions of power agents of Ingushetia under a simulated evacuation from the Republic's Clinical Hospital in Nazran. The training alert was announced there on August 21; however, at first, only law enforcement bodies knew about it, while ordinary people took the mess for the reality and were strongly frightened.

Employees of the Prosecutor's Office of the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd Region, have revealed 25 local residents sick of tuberculosis. They had evaded examination and treatment; therefore, now they will be forced into treatment.