News

A committee to defend the rights of arrested Sakit Zakhidov, an opposition satirist journalist, was formed at today's sitting of the Council of Editors and representatives of journalist and human rights organizations of Azerbaijan.

Yesterday, on June 25, non-government organizations held a silent action in Sharden Street (a street in Tbilisi, close to the embankment, where the most popular cafes in the Georgian capital are open).

When opening the "round-table" discussion, Valery Khatazhukov, leader of the Kabardino-Balkaria human rights center, stated that, so far, it had been impossible to discuss torture publicly, since the republic's political regime itself used to be source of numerous unlawful actions.

Today, the Caucasus still faces the consequences of numerous conflicts which brought about complicated problems of displacement and migration and a destructive socio-economic situation. Several conflicts are in a deadlock.

The "Caucasian Knot" editorial office has received a joint open letter of the International Helsinki Federation on Human Rights, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Moscow Helsinki Group in protection of Osman Boliev, a well-known human rights activist from Dagestan, addressed to Rashidkhan A. Magomedov, prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan.

The protests of Pyatigorsk (Stavropol region) residents on the issue of city construction have resulted in the creation of a city duma commission on monitoring the construction development of the resort city, which is going to exercise its powers until the Pyatigorsk general plan has been approved.

On Monday, June 26, pickets in protest against torture applied by the Dagestan law-enforcement agencies with regard to persons under investigation are to be held in Makhachkala.

Yesterday, June 22, the Lenin district court of Rostov-on-Don considered the law suit on compensating moral and material damage, filed by the "Mother's Rights" foundation on behalf of the father of Alexander Artiushin, a regular army soldier from Moscow who had been killed in the army.

On June 21, a 20-year-old man was beaten in the Staropromyslovsk district of the Chechen capital by officers of law enforcement agencies.

Novella Jafaroglu, an Azeri human rights activist, has demanded that the government of Iran should not violate the rights of Azerbaijanis who form the majority of the country's population.

Armenia has joined the UN Convention against Torture, reports today Grisha Grigorian, head of information and public relations section of "Human Rights Activist.

On June 20, Refugees' Day was marked in Azerbaijan. This Day was marked for the first time on June 20, 2001 upon a decision of the UN General Assembly.

Several days ago a group of officers from unknown law enforcement agencies came to the "Malkhaz" temporary camp for forced migrants in Nazran (Ingushetia) to capture and take to an unknown place Khamzat Temirsultanov, a refugee from Chechnya.

The participants of the conference "The rights of Moslem minorities and threats of Islam extremism" held yesterday in Vladikavkaz, Northern Ossetia, have made a reconnaissance trip to Ingushetia.

Anzor Maskhadov, the son of Aslan Maskhadov, the diseased president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, has left Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for Germany.

The Moscow city court recognized as legitimate the issue of a sanction for arresting Fail Sadretdinov, Moscow notary acquitted on the case of murder of Paul Khlebnikov, chief editor of the Forbes magazine Russian version.

The first interrogation of Osman Boliev, leader of the human rights organization "Romashka," in relation to the new criminal case initiated against him, fixed for today at the internal affairs unit of Khasavyurt (Dagestan) has not taken place.

Today, the students of the "Independent Azerbaijan" university, who are on hunger strike, have formed a committee to defend their rights.

Residents of Roshni-Chu village in Urus-Martan district, Chechnya, ask international human rights organizations for assistance in setting free their fellow-villager.

More than 20 professors and lecturers were forced out of Tbilisi state university building by Georgian police on Tuesday night.