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A press conference was held at the Center for the Protection of Human Rights on March 11. It focused on the situation that has arisen at the republican Kabalkteleradio company, which has broadcasted no programs in the Kabardian and Balkarian languages since January.

The Caucasian Knot correspondent learnt about it from the Group's Karabakh coordinator.

Mikhail Trepashkin, a former officer of special services and known lawyer, was arrested in October 2003. He was charged with disclosing state secrets.

The training for journalists and NGO activists was devoted to the work of the mass media in a pre-election period.

The police detained Yevgeny Frumkin, Elena Batenkova, and Mikhail Kriger, who protested against the war in Chechnya. They were conveyed to the Tverskoye police department.

On the night of March 11, Khavani Usmanova, a 51-year-old local, was detained by Russian security agents in the course of "address purges" in Gudermes.

The situation in the republic is still "extremely difficult", said the head of the delegation, Rudolf Bindig.

The Institute of Peace and Democracy, an Azerbaijan human rights organization, issued a statement devoted to the trials against oppositionists arrested in the autumn of 2003.

Twelve people who have been working in the field of peacemaking for a long time and have been advocating nonviolent approaches to the resolution of the Chechen conflict nominated for the prize.

The meeting "For Russia Without Putin" was held on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow on March 10.

One of the leaders of the opposition organization Democratic Adjaria, Tengiz Apkhazava, who had disappeared in Batumi several days ago, returned home at daybreak on March 11 savagely beaten.

Another deadline for dismantling the Sputnik refugee camp in Ingushetia expired on March 10; but unsurprisingly, only 20 families left the camp.

An assassination attempt on the Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Sultan Saduyev and Deputy Justice Minister Mussa Yevsultanov was made in Grozny.

Meanwhile, Moscow Helsinki Group chairwoman Lyudmila Alekseyeva said "refugees are being forced to return to Chechnya from Ingushetia."

Ali Temirbekov, press secretary of the republican prosecutor's office, announced it.

According to Christian Strohal, Director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) official Tbilisi should use the possibility it has due to the "Rose Revolution" to establish contacts between "the electors and the elected".

By its decision, the Sukhumi Court set the detainees free from the courtroom because it saw no crime in their actions.

In the afternoon of March 10, armed men in military camouflage abducted 19-year-old Bislan Dokuyev from the Satsita refugee camp, located near Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia.

Mass detentions of relatives of Umar and Magomed Khambiyevs, who had occupied high positions in Aslan Maskhadov's government earlier, started on February 29 in the villages of Meskety, Benoy, and Turty-Khutor.

The round table discussion "The Institution of Observation at the Elections: Purposes, Tasks, and Outlook" was held in Stavropol on March 5.