News

"Article 49 "Freedom of Assembly" of the Constitution has been suspended in the republic in fact after the presidential election of 15 October 2003 and the clashes between demonstrators and the police that followed the election on 15 and 16 October," reads the statement.

Hundreds of people abroad and only a few in Russia responded to the peacemaking action arranged by the offices of Human Rights Center "Memorial" in Nazran and Grozny.

"Today there is no principle that both the sides accept in the Karabakh settlement, therefore Azerbaijan has full authority to start from the beginning," said Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Vilayat Guliyev.

There is a possibility that the office of Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, special envoy for human rights in Chechnya, which was officially terminated by President Putin a month ago, continue its activity in the republic later this year.

On February 6 and 10, two more satellite press conferences Yerevan-Baku were held within the framework of the project of the Yerevan and Baku Press Clubs "Possible Resolutions of the Karabakh Conflict: Expert Evaluations and Media Coverage".

The number of prisoners taking part in the hunger strike at the Bailovskaya prison has risen to 70. A further 7 activists of the Musavat party and Azerbaijan Popular Front, not in prison, are also taking part.

Residents of the Krimsky district picketed the regional administration in Krasnodar on February 9.

Former chairman of the Abkhazian Supreme Soviet Tamaz Nadareishvili declares against the signing of the agreement between Georgia and Abkhazia that the war will not be resumed.

The ceremony to present the 2003 Symbol of Freedom, a sign of public recognition instituted in the field of human rights, will be held at the Marble Hall of the House of Journalists in Moscow on February 17.

The Antiwar Club and Committee for Antiwar Actions have issued a statement in which they called upon everybody to "join the actions aimed at the cessation of war in Chechnya, establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration in Chechnya and political settlement of the conflict" on 23 February, the day of memory of people fallen victims to Stalin's deportation.

120 families of displaced persons returned to the places of their former residence on the territory of North Osetia for 12 months of 2003, according to the data by the Ingush State Committee on Refugees and Displaced Persons.

A volunteer for the interregional NGO Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship, Alkhazur Batayev, was detained in the tent camp for Chechen refugees "Satsita" by officers of Ingushetia's Sunzhensky district police department on February 10.

FSB (Federal Security Service) officers wage a fierce struggle against songs by Chechen singers in Ingushetia. It is prohibited to sale cassettes with songs by Timur Mutsurayev, Khas-Magomed Khadzhimuradov and Islam Alimsultanov in the republic.

Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Caucasus Professor Nikolay Avdulov called this day a holiday of wisdom, good and education.

"It is essential that we stop concentrating our attention on setting 10-15 political prisoners free. It is time to switch over to the solution of really urgent problems of the country's population," said Tamilla Kerimova, a member of Helsinki Citizens' Assembly National Committee of Azerbaijan.

Action participants demanded that the arrested editor-in-chief of the opposition Yeni Musavat newspaper, Rauf Arifoglu, and a contributor of the Baki Khabar newspaper, Sadig Ismailov, be released.

On 6 February, the European Parliament member, Olivier Dupuis, issued a statement in reply to the accusation by Russian President Putin against the Maskhadov administration.

According to the chairwoman of the presidential commission on human rights, unidentified people have threatened refugees with FSB (Federal Security Service) if they refuse to leave tent camps within two weeks.

An American journalist presumed missing in the North Caucasian region of Russia for three days was seen "alive and kicking" on Wednesday morning.

The United Nations has told the Kremlin not to expect any increase in its or other aid agency staff in Chechnya until a kidnapped Dutch aid worker has been released.