News

"The Union of Chechen Journalists expresses a stern protest against the informational war started by some Russian politicians through the central media against the Chechen people," reads the statement.

"We consider the hasty conclusions and accusations, which are exacerbating people's grief and suffering and provoking ethnic hatred and aggression in our society, to be blasphemy," reads the statement.

Gunmen attacked a group of Russian army servicemen in Grozny and blew up an armored vehicle in Achkhoy-Martan on February 9, leaving two servicemen killed and two injured.

The Karabakh problem is territorial only in the sense that Azerbaijan has no legal or historic claims on Nagorny Karabakh, said Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian.

The organization is the winner in the Commonwealth nomination, which supposes the assessment of the nominees' activity in the field of preservation and development of national traditions.

On 8 February, refugees from Chechnya blocked a railway in the Austrian town of Gmuend for several hours as a sign of protest against possible deportation.

Federal Security Service (FSB) deputy director Vyacheslav Ushakov suggested studying the experience of the United States. The United States drafted a national patriotic platform after the notorious terrorist act of September 11 and afterwards enacted it into law.

The main demands of the oppositionists are: to speed up the investigation into the disturbances of 15-16 October and the handover of criminal cases to courts, and to hold the court hearings in large rooms, in the presence of the local and foreign mass media; and to oblige the authorities to fulfill all the recommendations by the Council of Europe and OSCE concerning human rights following the election of the new Azerbaijan president.

Participants opposed the closure of refugee camps planned for March 1. Over 200 refugees took part in the action. They still name lack of security guarantees in Chechnya as the main reason for them not to return.

The statement reads, in particular, "The European parliamentarians' initiative should be considered solely as a vivid demonstration of their distrust of Moscow's policy in Chechnya."

The statement reads, in particular, "Only a resolute change in the policy of the Russian leadership can bring peace and serenity to the Russian people."

A company commander, Mamitov Viktor, 1981, was killed as a result of the fire. The incident is under investigation now.

The authors believe the readers are given a chance to feel as participants in the honest and thorough discussion on the situation in the Caucasian region.

46 civilians, including women and old people, were shot dead in the course of the police operation in the village of Noviye Aldy on 4 February 2000. 10 more people, including a one-year-old child, were shot down in residential areas of Grozny adjacent to the village.

Inmates are fed 3 times a day, with the Chechen Labor Ministry and the International Committee of the Red Cross supplying the full complement of foodstuffs.

Alexander Litvinenko states that FSB is behind this and all the similar terrorist acts, and that President Vladimir Putin bears personal responsibility for the people's deaths.

The body of Major Khabilyayev was found in the morning of February 6 in Lisitsyna Street in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district, reported a spokesman for the Chechen Interior Ministry.

The Azerbaijan president specially stressed that the settlement is possible "only under the condition of restoring territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the withdrawal of invading forces from the occupied lands."

Chechen refugees temporarily living in the Pankisi Gorge will not welcome being unceremoniously transported to Russia like bandits, and their response to any illegal action may be "unpredictable", head of the Chechen International Human Rights Committee Aslanbek Abdurzakov told journalists on February 6.

Ms Politkovskaya also noted that at present they "do not load refugees onto carts, as it was in 1944", in order to forcibly evict them. "The first means is to cut off gas supply, and one will not be able to live in a tent for long. The other means is to constantly seize people they plan to evict," the journalist said.