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The head of the Moslem clergy of the village of Yandare, Imam Minkail, said: "If the authorities keep themselves aloof from the fight against ethnic strife, we, ordinary citizens, ordinary Moslems, will have to take it up ourselves."

Chief of the Department of the Federal Security Service in Ingushetia Sergey Koryakov refused to concretize what the arrestees were suspected of specifically - either of assisting rebels or taking part in clashes and other acts.

Chairman of the Organization for Karabakh Liberation (OKL) Akif Nagi and four OKL activists, Mursal Gasanov, Ilkin Gurbanov, Rovshan Fatiyev and Manef Kerimov, were arrested during an action of protest against Armenian servicemen's participation in a NATO conference to plan the 2004 Cooperative Best Effort military exercises.

Its participants were representatives of non-governmental organizations and political scientists from Abkhazia, Georgia and Russia.

Ingush authorities do not give any comments on the situation. A spokesman for the deputy head of the Ingush government responsible for refugees and internally displaced persons has said they have no information on such facts at all.

The Georgian media spread information today that several anthrax cases had been registered in the Zugdidi district of Georgia and that the infected beef had been delivered from the neighboring Gali district.

If the republican authorities do not try to prevent any attempts to fan ethnic strife, the situation can lead to the most unexpected consequences, local human rights activists think.

The ministry has not fulfilled a decision of the Nalchik City Court concerning the deportation of Hajji Bayram Bolat, a Turkish citizen, from Kabardino-Balkaria in August 2003.

After the captives' had returned to Russia from the Guantanamo base, they sent several more months in an investigatory isolator in Pyatigorsk.

In his appeal to the media, organizations protecting journalists' rights and offices of the OSCE and the Council of Europe in Azerbaijan, Mohammed Rzayev stated the reasons for his action.

All inhabitants of the refugee camp in the village of Altiyevo, including women and under age people, underwent an examination, which was accompanied by beatings and abuses.

Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Georgy Getsadze has announced it.

Aleksandr Cherkasov of the Human Rights Center Memorial also called reports about Ingush rebels into question. According to information he had, only one group acting in the area of the Nazran market was made up of Ingushetians, the composition of the other groups was mixed.

Among the dead, there are 23 civilians, 29 police officers, 10 Federal Security Service officials, 5 prosecutors, 19 servicemen, 2 Chechen Interior Ministry officials and 7 border guards.

Head of the OSCE Mission in Georgia Ambassador Roy Reeve emphasized that "Georgian journalists have turned to the OSCE Mission many times after the South Osetian authorities started hampering the coverage of the situation in the conflict zone."

Three of the arrestees had forged certificates of officers of the Chechen president's security service on them.

The Ingush president also claimed that the group of security forces in Ingushetia would not be considerably enlarged. "I don't think it is necessary to increase the strength of security agencies radically," he said.

Appeals to organize pogroms were heard in the village on Yandare, Ingushetia's Nazran district, during funerals of people who fell victims to the developments of the night of June 21-22.

As reported by the Ingushetia.ru website, Shamil Basayev or a man bearing resemblance to him was noted among the attackers.

The decision by the Ingush leadership to compensate for moral and material damage applies to both republican law enforcers and civilians.