News

The main reason why some Russian politicians apply the rhetoric of nationalism and xenophobia is the ongoing war in Chechnya, stated Lev Ponomaryov, executive director of the all-Russian public Movement for Human Rights, on 26 February 2004, at the 1st All-Russian Assembly of Public Forces to Counteract Xenophobia and Extremism.

Police officers seized all posters that contained at least some criticism against President of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Only several dozens of tents are left in Bart, a camp for Chechen refugees situated in the Ingush town of Karabulak. Inhabitants of this temporary accommodation center leave the camp under pressure of the authorities.

We call your attention the open letter addressed by Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Aaron Rhodes to Prosecutor of the Republic of North Osetia Aleksandr Bigulov in connection with the abduction of Ruslan Soltakhanov, a driver for journalist Rebecca Santana.

The tent camps for refugees from Chechnya in Ingushetia will be liquidated in March, Deputy Head of the Chechen Interior Ministry's Migration Service Lema Bichuyev said to Interfax on February 28.

The HRW representative's trip is to result in the report on the media situation in Azerbaijan in the aftermath of the presidential election.

Picketers condemned the murder of an Armenian officer in Budapest and declared against efforts of some political circles calling to join Karabakh to Azerbaijan by force.

Timerlan Akhayev, an officer of the Chechen Interior Ministry, disappeared without a trace in Urus-Martan on February 23.

The information campaign to familiarize Meskhetian Turks compactly residing in the region with the conditions of their resettlement to the United States as refugees by the program carried out by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been taking place in Krasnodar Territory for the second week already.

Families of Chechen refugees who departed for Chechnya from the Satsita tent camp the day before yesterday have been forsaken in the street in fact.

On February 26, residents of the Prorvensky village published an open letter to the governor of the Kuban region, Aleksandr Tkachyov.

Foreign Minister of Abkhazia Sergey Shamba received Ivar Vikki and Irina Nezhinskaya, representatives of the UN Human Rights Office, on February 25.

The organizations disagree with some clauses of the governmental Anticorruption Strategic Program.

In her interview with the Interfax news agency, the chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group expressed the opinion that negotiations with Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov would barely resolve the conflict.

14 people went on a hunger strike because they had not received housing in return of that lost in the flood of 2002.

"When we talk about the autonomy, we mean that we are ready to introduce federal elements in relations between the centre and the autonomy," said the Georgian president.

Nearly 8,000 retirees in Chechnya are unable to receive retirement benefits for which they are eligible, announced Bogdan Istamulov, deputy director of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation for Chechnya.

The collection of signatures for the United Nations interim administration in Chechnya took place on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow on February 21 and 22. The action was arranged by members of the Transnational Radical Party.

Summarizing the visit of Terry Davis, rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to Stepanakert, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Nagorny Karabakh Ashot Gulyan noted in his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent that the rapporteur was especially interested in the problems of refugees in the context of the Karabakh settlement.

On February 23, about 4 thousand people held an authorized meeting in Dagestan. The main demand of its participants was that Akkinsky Chechens (Chechens who have originally been living in Dagestan) should be given their lands back and the Aukhovsky district of Dagestan should be restored.