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Two Russian soldiers were killed and five others injured when a radio-controlled mine exploded in the village of Tsa-Vedeno in the Vedeno district. Meanwhile, a 16-year-old schoolboy was killed and three others injured in Urus-Martan by an artillery shell launched by the Russian military.

The purges were caused by the murder of Chersi Gatayev, deputy chief of the Achkhoy-Martan district police department, and his driver, Inderbiyev, which was committed by a group of unknown people on a road between the villages of Davidenko and Noviy Sharoy on March 19.

The funeral of Ilyas Khatatayev was held on March 19 in the village of Serzhen-Yurt, Chechnya's Shali district. The man was killed by a gunman in camouflage uniform in broad daylight in the center of Grozny the day before.

A Russian contract soldier opened fire without provocation in a Chechen village, killing two local men.

The national cultural center of Osetins living in Kabardino-Balkaria held a conference in Nalchik on March 21.

In accordance with the plan of the exercises, mobilization reserves will be called up on the first day for the purpose of personnel replacement.

A complaint lodged by the Movement for Human Rights with the Moscow City Court in connection with the case on the hostage taking on Dubrovka was expected to be considered on March 24, but court officials "confessed they had lost the complaint," head of the movement Lev Ponomarev said to the Ekho Moskvy Radio.

The dead body of Iskra Morokhia, an officer of the Security Service of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in exile, was found on March 18 with multiple bullet wounds in the village of Chuburkhindzh, Abkhazia's Gali district.

On March 17, chief of the Georgian State Security Ministry's investigatory department Mr Gviniashvili announced they had no evidence of Dudayev's involvement in the terrorist act. Nevertheless Marek Dudayev is still in the hands of the Georgian law-enforcement agencies.

As expected, the escalation of tensions between Batumi and Tbilisi has not eased.

The Adjarian leader insists that the period for the preliminary voter registration before the parliamentary elections of March 28 be extended.

The action for refugees' return to the "zone closed for the Ingushetians" is conducted under the aegis of the Office of the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Resolution of the Osetian-Ingush Conflict.

Mothers of captive Taliban fighters extradited from the Guantanamo base, the US, to their native land turned for help to the sub-delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Northern Caucasus on March 18, asking to visit their imprisoned sons in Pyatigorsk, where they are being held. They said their sons were subjected to beatings there.

A group of Osetins living in the Akhmetsky district of Georgia arrived in South Osetia on March 18 to meet with authorities there.

There are three priority areas to be financed under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) microprojects programme: support to the rule of law and the fight against corruption; the fight against torture; and combating discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities.

Unknown people shot down Chersi Gatayev, deputy chief of the Achkhoy-Martan district police department, and his driver on March 19.

"1,654 residents of the Chechen Republic have got compensations for lost housing and property for the last six months. Another 4 thousand people are expected to get compensations till the end of March," chairman of the Chechen governmental committee for compensation payments and displaced persons Abubakar Baybatirov said in his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent on March 20.

During his visit, which will last till March 27, Heikki Talvitie will meet with the Armenian political leadership.

On March 19, five contributors to the Yeni Musavat newspaper suspended the hunger strike they had started on March 15. "The editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Rauf Arifoglu, who is held in Bailovsky Investigatory Isolation Ward No 1, addressed an appeal to the hunger strikers, asking them to stop it," reported Yeni Musavat deputy editor-in-chief Gabil Abbasoglu.

The founders see the main task of the organization in providing moral, legal and financial assistance to displaced persons and socially vulnerable residents of the Stavropol region.