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"People of different nationalities serve in the Abkhazian Armed Forces, and Georgians do to. But no one of them have been oppressed and even more so subjected to torture because of their nationality," reads a press release by the Ministry of Defense.

In no more than an hour after the detention, the military tried to deny the fact itself that the young men were taken into custody. However there were witnesses who saw the detainees being conveyed to the territory of the former farm.

The book "Human Rights Monitoring" was presented by Saida Godjamanly, director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, at the office of the Bureau on February 9.

Abkhazian State Security Service Chairman Givi Agrba holds that the Georgian party committed a gross violation of the Moscow Ceasefire Agreement of 14 May 1994.

Representatives of the Danish Refugee Council explained to the displaced persons that they took such a step because they feared they would be likely denied access to refugee camps in the near future.

Several locals were reportedly detained in the course of the "purge".

Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia Vladimir Titarenko took the oath at a session of the republican National Assembly.

The press release on the occasion reads that the draft suggests increasing pressure on Russia in such issues as human rights, a situation in Chechnya, media freedom, and cooperation in the cause of preservation of the environment.

A journalist's disappearance has been reported by the consul of the US Embassy. He turned to the Moscow police asking for help overnight.

Russian President's Commission on Human Rights is preparing materials on the problems of people displaced from the Chechen Republic to Ingushetia and will hand these documents over to the President.

Greenpeace Russia won in the Russian Supreme Court the suit to abolish the part of the resolution of the Russian Government by which it withdrew 33,222 hectares of land from the Sochi National Park (including 11,000 hectares of land of the reserved zone, where any economic activity is prohibited) and gave it to the Sochi All-Republican National Natural Reserve.

We call your attention to the statement by Nikolay Khramov, secretary of the Russian Radicals movement, member of the Transnational Radical Party General Council, in connection with the 6 February terrorist act in the Moscow metro.

"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.