CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Major document control underway in Grozny

By Timur Aliyev

GROZNY, Chechnya - A major check of citizens’ documentation was carried out on the morning of July 20 in the centre of Grozny. The city’s central market was surrounded by armoured vehicles, while checks were carried out by servicemen from the Russian Interior Ministry as well as by the special police OMON from the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic.

Eyewitness reports say two young people were detained and taken away.

The documentation checks in Grozny are part of a large-scale operation to find guerrillas, launched by a decree from Ramzan Kadyrov. The Kremlin-backed Vice-President of the Chechen Republic issued the decree a day after the July 19 destruction of a police car by an explosion in the village of Znamenskoye, northwestern Chechnya, in which eleven policemen were killed. Three other local residents also died, and twenty-four people were injured.

(MG/E,T)