Summary of the main news related to the conflict in Chechnya. Compiled by Prague Watchdog.
Monday, June 2
Ingush President Murat Zyazikov dismissed the government of the Republic of Ingushetia, officially due to its low ambitions, especially as far as economic reforms are concerned.
Tuesday, June 3
Head of Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration Akhmad Kadyrov, who is after the March 2003 referendum being referred to as Acting President of the Chechen Republic, dismissed the republic's Moscow-backed government and asked Anatoly Popov, Premier of the dismissed government, to set up a new cabinet. Kadyrov fired also heads of local administrations and the Mayor of Grozny, Oleg Zhidkov.
Wednesday, June 4
Russia's State Duma passed in the second reading Russian President Putin's draft resolution on amnesty for the perpetrators of less serious crimes committed in Chechnya in the last ten years, adding genocide to the list of the serious crimes that will not be covered by the amnesty.
Thursday, June 5
A young woman blew herself up just next to a military bus carrying the staff to Russia's air force base in Mozdok, North Ossetia, which stopped near a railway crossing on its route to Mozdok. Almost twenty civilian staff and pilots died as a result of the explosion.
Friday, June 6
Russia's State Duma passed in the third and final reading Russian President Putin's draft resolution on amnesty for the perpetrators of less serious crimes committed in Chechnya since 1993. The proposed amnesty will apply to Chechen fighters who will lay down their arms by August 31, 2003, as well as to Russian soldiers and members of law enforcement agencies. Russian human rights activists criticized the amnesty, saying that it would not cover active Chechen guerrillas.
Some two dozen Chechen fighters ambushed a Russian military and police convoy in Argun, killing the deputy military commandant of Chechnya, Aud Yusupov. According to available information, at least several Chechen guerillas, as well as Russian soldiers and Chechen policemen and also at least two Chechen civilians died in the fight, which erupted in the afternoon in various places of the third largest Chechen town and lasted till the morning of the next day.
Eleven people, mostly children, died when part of a five-storey residential building collapsed in Grozny. Chechen Prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko said that the building collapsed because of gas explosion.
Saturday, June 7
Anatoly Popov, Premier of the Moscow-backed Chechen government, stated in Moscow that he will support the run for the Chechen presidency of Akhmad Kadyrov, head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration.
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