News

Six members of the Center for Democratic Development, which unites branches of the country's leading opposition parties in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, went on a hanger strike on May 31 to protest against the pressure put on the opposition by the police.

Relatives of people abducted by officers of federal security agencies gathered in the center of Grozny and broke into the building of the Chechen government at about 1 p.m. on June 2. However, the building was cleared soon after it and the people were dispersed.

The Georgian side promises that the rotation of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion will be conducted within two weeks and all units not related to the peacekeeping forces will be withdrawn. The sides will hold a press conference after the meeting.

Inhabitants of the tent camp Satsita hold that the illegal actions of migration service officials are one of the ways to put pressure on the refugees.

PACE rapporteurs on Chechnya, Andreas Gross and Rudolf Bindig, head the delegation.

"Nagorny Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan rejected initial proposals presented by mediators because of different reasons," President of Nagorny Karabakh Arkady Gukasian said commenting on the results of the round table on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict that took place in Moscow in late May.

The chairperson of the Georgian parliamentary human rights commission, Elena Tevdoradze, is going to propose journalist Sozar Subeliani for the post of ombudsman.

According to refugees, migration service officials explain their denial to register them by a certain order received from Moscow.

A high-capacity explosive device mounted at the roadside went off when a column of federal forces, which consisted of one Ural truck and three armored vehicles, was passing by.

"In case Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a peace treaty, Russia's authority in the region will come to naught," said Vafa Guluzade, the former adviser to the president of Azerbaijan.

The administration explained the refusal by the fact that criminal cases had been opened in connection with meetings held by the opposition before.

According to official information, Zelimkhan Kadyrov died from a heart attack.

The Osetian population living in the area has been deprived of the chance to get living essentials for several days already," reads a report by the Committee on Information and Press of the breakaway republic of South Osetia.

Activists of the United Russia party branch in Chechnya assert 27 thousand signatures in support of Ruslan Yamadayev have already been collected in the republic.

The Georgian leadership has in fact imposed an economic blockade on South Osetia depriving it of the possibility to convey transit loads. At the same time, some remove Osetian villages situated in the Gori district are blockaded since police posts do not allow to convey essential foodstuff there, taking away even mineral water, cereals, and flour.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was absolutely right to deny refugee status to two Armenian turncoats who had arrived in Baku. This is an opinion of Svetlana Gannushkina, a board member of the Human Rights Center Memorial.

The Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic adjourned the pronouncement of the sentence to three residents of the republic who are accused of the terrorist attack on the Government House on December 27, 2002.

By information of Amnesty International, 27 people who do not want to go to the army are still imprisoned and another 5 are waiting for their sentence.

The Georgian president pointed out that political dialogue would certainly be established with the leadership of the breakaway republic.

It is known that First Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Migration Service Major-General Igor Yunash signed the order on May 25 according to which the tent camp for Chechen refuges Satsita, situated on the outskirts of the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia, must be liquidated on June 1, 2004. Satsita inhabitants got to know about this document on May 29.