News

On the day of the visit to Abkhazia of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, two explosions took place in Sukhumi and Gagra. The latter killed Liudmila Surina, 52, in situ and wounded David Metreveli, 25, who later died.

Philip Crawly, PR undersecretary of state, said on August 11 that the United States are deeply worried about the news items coming from Chechnya about kidnapping and murder of human rights defender Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov.

The Council of Europe (CE) has expressed is concern of the murder of human rights activists Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov in Chechnya.

The statement of the Ekaterinburg city NGO named the "Ekaterinburg "Memorial" Society" passed in the context of the murder of Zarema Sadulayeva, leader of the NGO "Let's Save the Generation", and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov says that this other cynical murder of human rights activists in Chechnya indicates a complete revelry of violence and inability of the administration of the republic to control the situation in the region.

As reported by Gregory Karassin, deputy minister of foreign affairs of Russia, at a meeting with journalists, where the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was present, the process of refugees' return to South Ossetia is possible only provided the due safety conditions in the places of their former residence are created; however, Georgia is stubbornly hampering it.

By the outcomes of today's meeting in London of Dukvakhi Abdurakhmanov, chairman of the parliament of the Chechen Republic, with Ahmed Zakaev, leader of the government of non-recognized Ichkeria in exile, it was decided to hold the World Congress of the Chechen Nation.

A source in the Russian representative office of the UNICEF said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov, assassinated in Grozny, when working in the regional NGO "Let's Save the Generation", were helping children who had suffered from the warfare in the territory of the republic.

The evicted refugee families, who lived in Malgobek, want to meet President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov. According to Vakha Chapanov, head of the IA "Maximum", the refugees want to be received by the President in order to settle their problems.

Zarema Sadulayeva, leader of the youth NGO named "Let's Save the Generation", and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov, abducted in the afternoon on August 10 and found murdered in the morning on August 11, were brought to one of district militia divisions in Grozny. This was stated by a member of one of local human rights organizations.

The assassinated Chechen human rights defender Natalia Estemirova gave evidences, which could help inspectors to reach the customers and change the course of investigation into the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. However, she was never summoned to the court.

The mining of the territory of South Ossetia during last year's August events was chaotic; the Russian party has no mine field maps; therefore, demining will take a lot of time. This was stated by General-Colonel Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff of Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Arman Babadzhanyan, editor-in-chief of the oppositional newspaper "Zhamanak" (Time), who was released from custody before term on August 4 because of his poor health, in the next few days will go for treatment abroad.

The car, from which unknown criminals shot dead Abdulmalik Ahmedilov, editor-in-chief of the "Sogratl" newspaper in Dagestan, was noticed by eyewitnesses for several days near the house of the journalist, as they told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Abkhazia has closed its border with Georgia running on the Inguri River; now the crossing is only possible over the main Inguri bridge with a special permit. This was announced today in the course of another five-lateral meeting on prevention and investigation of Abkhazian-Georgian border incidents by Ruslan Kishmariya, head of the Abkhazian delegation and plenipotentiary envoy of Abkhazian President in the Gali District.

Today in the afternoon, journalists were removed from the courtroom, where the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria is considering the criminal case on the events on October 13, 2005, in Nalchik.

On August 9, a local resident aged 16 was kidnapped by unknown persons in the Shali District of Chechnya. At night on August 10, he was found assassinated.

After the amnesty, 21 political prisoners are still in custody in Armenia. The greatest bewilderment in human rights activists is aroused by holding behind bars of a French citizen Sarkis Atspanyan, a veteran of the Karabakh War. This was emphasized at a press conference on August 11 by Vardan Arutyunyan, a member of the Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners' Rights.

The international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed its serious concern of the murder in Chechnya of two activists of the NGO "Let's Save the Generation".

The international human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) does not believe that Russia is ever capable to open the murder in Chechnya of the leader of the NGO "Let's Save the Generation" Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said that, according to the authorities, the husband of the murdered Chechen human rights defender Zarema Sadulayeva, had earlier been a member of illegal armed formations (IAFs), which could be the motive of the double murder.