News

The OSCE monitoring group examining Azerbaijan's territory controlled by Nagorny Karabakh for the purpose of checking the implementation of the state settlement program continues its work.

Chechen law enforcement agencies are investigating an abduction of Aslan Maskhadov's closest relatives. Abductors have not been found, the whereabouts of the abducted people and their further destiny are not known.

Experts of the Rostov regional ministry of transportation and communication hold that the critical situation on the road is caused mainly by its technical condition.

On January 31, Russian mass media spread information about the death of Shamil Basayev referring to representatives of the Chechen diaspora in Azerbaijan.

"If the problem of political prisoners hasn't been solved in Azerbaijan by the April session of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), the country can lose its mandate in this organization," stated PACE rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan Malcolm Bruce.

Relatives of Muslim Attayev, leader of the extremist jamaat (group) Yarmuk killed in Nalchik, have filed an application with the Kabardino-Balkarian prosecutor's office to give them the bodies of his two children that are allegedly hided by instructions of the republican interior minister, some sources say.

An OSCE fact-finding mission set off for Stepanakert on January 30 to collect facts about the creation of Armenian settlements in seven districts of Azerbaijan adjacent to Nagorny Karabakh and controlled by Armenia.

Officers of the Chechen presidential security service, not Russian soldiers were killed when cars were blown up near the village of Alkhan-Kala, Chechnya's Urus-Martan district.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has declared admissible an application lodged by an internally displaced person (IDP) from Chechnya living on the territory of Stavropol Region.

Chair of the Umid (Hope) party Igbal Agazade, who is imprisoned now, may be at the head of the party list of this opposition party in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan.

"Efforts of the Council of Europe aimed at developing the South Caucasus, in particular establishing stability and long peace, are positive. Nevertheless, we think that the report by Mr Atkinson has some drawbacks on the whole, along with positive aspects," the spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said to journalists.

A rally was held in the capital of South Osetia, Tskhinval, in connection with Mikhail Saakashvili's recent speech in Strasbourg, in which he made a suggestion that South Osetia be granted a high degree of autonomy within Georgia.

The Caucasian Knot correspondent in Kabardino-Balkaria, who spent a whole day at the scene of a special operation to destroy a rebel group in Nalchik, is reporting details of the storm.

The trial against Sergey Lapin (better known under the nickname of Kadet), who is suspected of kidnapping Zelimkhan Murdalov in 2004, is underway.

The existence of regional interests and projects in the South Caucasus will not allow the resumption of hostilities, believes military expert Uzeir Dzhafarov.

At about 9 p.m. on January 25, Kabardino-Balkarian police officers encircled a five-story communal house in the suburbs of the republican capital, Nalchik. Members of the extremist jamaat (society) Yarmuk are reported to be hiding in it.

Chechen authorities and law enforcers deny their involvement in the happening, and Maskhadov's relatives (as well as many people in Chechnya) are convinced that the abduction was organized by officers of the Chechen presidential security service.

On January 24, the Georgian and South Osetian co-chairmen of the Combined Control Commission for the Resolution of the Georgian-Osetian Conflict came to an agreement concerning the exchange of hostages.

Ambassador Stephan Minikes pointed to some positive moments. In particular, he mentioned the fact that the Azerbaijan Central Election Commission dismissed several people for violations committed during the municipal election.

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) expresses its deep concern for the fate and whereabouts of Makhmut Magomadov who was detained by a group of camouflaged gunmen in Grozny on 20 January.