October 2000
Summary of main news related to the conflict in Chechnya.
1 October
Interior Ministers of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed in Sochi agreements on the intensification of the fight against terrorism and arms and drug traffic in the four countries -- Interfax
One year has passed since the Russian Army launched its "anti-terrorist" operation in Chechnya
2 October
The trial against Andrei Babitsky, Russian reporter working for Radio Liberty who was detained earlier this year and accused of using forged documents, started in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala 3 October
Chechen field commander Isa Munayev, military commandant of Grozny at the beginning of the second war, was killed during fights in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. 4 October Over 160,000 Russian passports were issued to the inhabitants of Chechnya. – Russian State Statistical Committee 5 October A total of 2,472 Russian soldiers were killed, 7,076 wounded, and 26 are reported missing in the military action in Chechnya between Oct 1, 1999 and Oct 4, 2000. In the past week 20 soldiers were killed and 48 wounded. -- Manilov A total of 124 unidentified bodies of civilians and Russian soldiers who died in the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya were finally burried in Grozny after being stored for four years in railway carriages in the Chechen capital. Aslanbek Aslakhanov, a recently elected Chechnya’s deputy to the State Duma, accussed Russian federal forces of abuses and corruption and demanded their withdrawal, referring to the officially declared completion of the military stage of the anti-terrorist operations. – Radio Liberty 6 October A court in Makhachkala convicted Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky of using false documents and sentenced him to a fine of the equivalent of 470 $, but immediately granted him an amnesty under a previous parliamentary order. Babitsky said he would appeal to Dagestan's Supreme Court and, if need be, to the Russian Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Chechen police, now numbering 2,000, will not have 7,000 policemen as planned earlier but twice as more. -- Kadyrov 7 October Chechen General Baudi Bakuyev was killed in a figth in southern Chechnya. In presenting his third autobiographical book on the Russian ORT television, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin said he felt responsible for the lost lives during the first war in Chechnya, which he, however, considered necessary. Kadyrov arrived to Moscow to meet with Russian as well as Chechen representatives living in the Russian capital. 8 October
Russian forces seized a TV videoarchive of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria consisting of several dozens of videotapes showing the life of the republic since 1995 till today. -- Interfax
9 October
Russian Foreign Ministry officially condemned as „unacceptable" the meetings in Washington between the US State Department representatives and Chechen Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov during his third visit to the USA. Russian Foreign Ministry officially accused Georgia of supporting terrorists, hinting at Chechen separatists, a move caused by the World Congress on the Environmental Impact of the Russian Military Agression against the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria held several days before in Georgian capital Tbilisi and organised by the All-Caucasian Green Movement. Chechen administration decided to start issuing passports of the Russian Federation to all citizens of the Chechen Republic, counting on issuing 900 passports daily. Passports issued under the rule of Aslan Maskhadov have been declared invalid.
11 October Moscow announced that the local administration in Chechnya will move from Gudermes to Grozny by November 1. 12 October A car bomb exploded in front of the Oktyabrski district police station in Grozny, killing 10-15 people on the spot.
The Ingushetian Migration Service stopped supplying warm food to refugees from Chechnya as it run out of funds. Food suppliers refused to sell more food on credit, as the Service already owes some 400 million rubbles. 13 October Akhmad Kadyrov, head of Chechnya’s administration, announced he would keep cooperating with Beslan Gantamirov. „Gantamirov is my deputy and we will work together," Kadyrov said. -- Interfax
The number of victims of the Thursday blast reached 17. 14 October At the moment 39 oil rigs on fire in Chechnya and the country is on the brink of ecologic catastrophe, experts say. -- Interfax 15 October
Staff of the 9th Grozny district hospital said many of the victims of the Thursday blast could have been saved if there were at least elementary aid conditions. The hospital had neither blood, nor anaesthetics. -- Interfax 16 October
Antonio Russo, an Italian radio journalist covering Chechnya, was found dead near the Georgian town of Gombori (35 kilometres north-east of Tbilisi).
The Russian Audit Chamber started a large-scale revision of financial and economical activities of Chechen administration for the period from January till October 2000.
17 October
Moscow said that it planned to transfer the ownership of oil sector in Chechnya to Russian state firm Rosneft to “avoid rampant corruption as it reconstructs of the sector.”
18 October
Bislan Gantamirov was appointed mayor of Grozny.
Akhmad Kadyrov, head of Chechnya's pro-Russian administration, might be shortly replaced by Gennady Troshev, commander of the North-Caucasian military district – Nezavisimaya Gazeta
19 October
Aslanbek Aslakhanov, Chechnya’s Deputy to the State Duma, called on the lower house to stop „the genocide of the Chechen nation“ and to establish real law and order in the republic.
Pro-Russian Chechen officials warned that the conflict between Chechen rebels and Russian forces could drag on for decades.
70 cases of hepatitis are registered in refugee camps in Ingushetia. Physicians fear for epidemics as there is a lack of specialists and medicines.
20 October
There are 173,000 Chechen refugees in the territory of Ingushetia – Ingush migration service
Between 60 and 80 Chechen fighters crossed the Georgian border near Ingushetia and are moving inside the country – press service of the Georgian President
22 October
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata arrived in Moscow for talks on the situation of 170,000 officially registered Chechen refugees in Ingushetia who are to spend the second winter in the neighbouring republic.
Alarming development of 283 cases of TBC among Chechen refugees in Ingushetia has forced the ministry to open a field hospital in "Severny" tent camp.
23 October Magomed Saydaliyev, one of the most respected villagers of the Goyty village in the Urus-Martan district, was killed in his house during the weekend. Most of the Chechens who got into Georgia tree days ago surrendered to Georgian authorities. Many of them were transported to a hospital with wounds and chilblains.
25 October
An IL-18 transport airplane, carrying servicemen and their families, crashed near the Black Sea port of Batumi, Georgia. All 83 (86?) people aboard have been killed. The reasons for the crash are being investigated.
26 October Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a 99-page report entitled „Welcome to Hell" saying that Chechens detained by Russian forces have been killed, beaten, raped and degraded and that widespread abuses continue. 25 Chechens who got into a Tbilisi hospital applied to Georgian authorities to grant them status of refugees, claiming that they do not belong to guerilla units.
27 October The Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) released a report saying that torture was becoming generalized, detention camps were multiplying, mass graves regularly being uncovered and 18,000 people missing in Chechnya, often after being arrested at checkpoints.
28 October On the eve of a four-day visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to France for the European Union-Russia summit, French daily Le Figaro published a petition signed by 250 European intellectuals, saying Russia’s campaign in Chechnya is a „wretched and cruel war" and calling on French President Jacques Chirac and top European politicians to publicly condemn Russian actions in Chechnya.
29 October Lecha Magomadov, a Chechen politician and a leader of a Chechen branch of the Russian political party Yedinstvo, called at the party’s second meeting in Veliky Novgorod, Russia, for a quick completion of the anti-terrorist operations in Chechnya and for a withdrawal of the Russian army. A fifth general meeting of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly on human rights, protection of ethnic minorities and peaceful resolution of regional conflicts started in Baku.
30 October
President Vladimir Putin opened the EU-Russia in Paris summit on the use of Russia’s natural gas and oil reserves by the EU, on European security and defense policy, and on the need to find a political solution in Chechnya with respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia.
Hundreds of people led by the French philosopher Andre Glucksmann gathered in Paris to protest against the „dirty and imperial" war waged by Russia in Chechnya.
Explosion in cafe Elite in the Chiri-Yurt village on Oct 29 killed four Russian servicemen and two local staff on the spot. One serviceman and one woman died later in a hospital.
31 October
A motorcade of Akhmad Kadyrov, head of Chechnya’s administration, was shot at by federal forces near the Bachi-Yurt village in the Kurchaloyevski district. Neither Kadyrov nor his security were wounded.
In Gudermes the police prevented an assassination attempt on Kadydov by a man carrying explosives.
Compiled by Prague Watchdog
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