News

At the international conference, now held in Grozny, Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman for human rights in the Republic, has presented his report enumerating multiple facts of violation of human rights and freedoms in Chechnya in the course of armed actions.

Today, on February 28, 2007, the city of Grozny has hosted a sitting of the Committee for Security, Legal Order and Interaction with Power Agencies under the Parliament of Chechnya.

Today, several dozens of Chechens, who resettled to Azerbaijan after the start of military actions in Chechnya, have picketed the Baku office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the "Mashr" Association of Kidnapped Relatives (Ingushetia) has refused to take part in the international conference on human rights, which will open tomorrow, on March 1, in the city of Grozny, capital of Chechnya.

In Abkhazia, they have perceived with irony the messages of Georgian mass media about certain alleged skirmishes between supporters of the president and vice-president of the Republic, the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" reports.

On February 28, the Court for Grave Crimes has continued the proceedings of the case of Ali Insanov, ex-Minister of Public Health of Azerbaijan, and a group of his former subordinates.

President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili has stated today in Brussels that he rejects any parallels between settling the Kosovo status problem and the situation with South Ossetia и Abkhazia.

Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner of the Council of Europe (CE) for Human Rights, who is for the second day touring North Caucasus, had no meetings with human rights defenders.

The aim of six projects is to revive the social and political dialogue between the government of Georgia and the society on the issues that worry the refugees: integration of internally displaced persons (IDPs) into the current Georgian society and capacity building of the NGOs who work with IDPs.

A court trial has started in Sochi of OMON (Special Militia) members of the Head Department of Internal Affairs ("GUVD") of the Krasnodar Territory accused of excess of powers during the mass clean-up ("zachistka") in the "Druzhba" (Friendship) children's camp, which was committed in summer of 2006.

While Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, EU Commissioner, is getting ready to attend the human rights conference in Grozny, capital of Chechnya, Russian human rights defenders continue to boycott Ramzan Kadyrov's invitation.

Ruslan Bashirli, chairman of the "Eni Fikir" Movement, who is serving his penalty in Azerbaijan, was beaten, shaved clean and put into the dungeon.

The Russian Embassy has drawn attention to mass media reports about a statement made by Mr. G. Targamadze, Chairman of the Committee for Defence and Security of the Parliament of Georgia, that Mr. V. Kovalenko, Russia's Ambassador to Georgia, allegedly held some negotiations with a number of Georgian political parties on the issue, as one could understand, on Georgia's neutrality and its non-accession to NATO.

The Tver Inter-District Procuracy of Moscow has requested documents from the Human Rights Centre "Memorial," clarifying who and on what funds had published a manual for the Russians willing to send a complaint to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The public circles of Chechnya are expressing their extreme concern of the fact that brothers Yunus and Yusup Arsamakov, kidnapped on February 8, 2006, have not been found so far.

The lists of the State Commission for matters of prisoners of war, hostages and missing people contain 800 residents of Nagorny Karabakh. General-Major Victor Kocharyan, Chairman of the Commission, told about it in his interview to the Public Television of Nagorny Karabakh.

The Нuman Rights Watch Organization is insistently calling Ilkham Aliev, president of Azerbaijan, to take steps to stop the policy of impunity for the violence applied to journalists, and to ensure the observance of the country's international legal obligations in the sphere of freedom of expression and freedom of press, runs the message of Holly Cartner.

Anthony Brenton, British Ambassador to Russia, has stated that in his opinion the investigation of the poisoning case of ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko will be completed in the coming few weeks.

As of today, more than 60,000 refugees have returned to Abkhazia. President Sergey Bagapsh has announced the fact on air of the Abkhazian TV in answer to the question on when the return of refugees would start to the whole territory of the Republic.

In the evening on February 23, at the meeting of the president of Georgia with representatives of Georgian mass media in Tbilisi's Sacrebulo (self-ruling body), M. Saakashvili stated that "certain citizens of the country who stand against Georgia's accession to NATO lack wisdom."