Summary of the main news related to the conflict in Chechnya. Compiled by Prague Watchdog.
Monday, July 29
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) announced that UN agencies suspended aid operations in the North Caucasus due to the kidnapping in Chechnya of Russian aid worker Nina Davidovich, who heads Nazran-based non-governmental organisation Druzhba, a implementing partner of the United Nations Children’s Fund. The suspension is valid for two days in the Republic of Ingushetia and is indefinite in Chechnya, OCHA said.
Tuesday, July 30
Georgian border guards announced that a Russian helicopter bombed the Pankisi gorge in Georgia. Representatives of the Russian air force denied any involvement in the attack.
Wednesday, July 31
The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation summoned Georgia's ambassador to Moscow Zurab Abashidze, claiming that Georgia failed to prevent a recent attack on the Russian territory, which according to Russia was carried out by Chechen fighters based in the Pankisi gorge. The Georgian Defence Ministry accused a group of Russian soldiers of making an incursion into the Kodor gorge, in the northwest of Georgia. Representatives of the Russian Defence Ministry said they were unaware of any such incident. Georgian President Eduard Shevarnadze said that armed Chechens have nothing to do in Georgia and have to leave the Pankisi gorge. The United States expressed its firm support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
29 per cent of Russians support the continuation of the military operations in Chechnya, a drop by 9 percentage points since January 2002, while 61 per cent of Russians think it is time to start peace talks, a rise by 10 percentage points since January 2002, according to today's results of an opinion poll carried out by the Russian Centre for Public Opinion and Market Research (VCIOM) among 1,600 respondents in late July. A crushing majority (86 per cent) of Russians think that Chechen fighters are connected with international terrorist organisations, VCIOM said.
Thursday, August 1
Lieutenant-General Sergei Makarov became the acting commander of the Unified Group of Russian Troops in the North Caucasus and will within "a regular rotation of staff" replace in the post Colonel-General Vladimir Moltenskoi, who has gone on holiday and will become Deputy Commander of the North Caucasus Military District in charge of emergencies, according to rather indirect reports in the Russian media.
Since the beginning of the year some 40 criminal case proceedings have been launched against members of the Chechen police who committed an offence or crime, the Moscow-appointed Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic Nikolai Kostyuchenko said.
General Georgy Shpak, the commander of the Russian airborne troops, said that the Russian military is prepared to attack suspected bases of Chechen fighters in Georgia. On the same day Kakha Imnadze, a spokesman for Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, said that suggestions by Russian officials that Moscow could attack Chechen fighters' bases in Georgia are de facto call to war.
Friday, August 2
UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said that following a request from Georgian authorities and for security reasons UNHCR had temporarily suspended its aid activities in the Pankisi gorge, which hosts some 3,800 Chechen refugees. UNHCR, which in the past often suspended its activities in Pankisi, said it hoped to resume work soon.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that the Chairman-in-Office of OSCE in Europe, Portuguese Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz, has expressed his serious concern over the current escalation of tension between Georgia and the Russian Federation and urged both participating States to refrain from any steps that could further increase tension and to solve the problem in the spirit of OSCE principles.
Saturday, August 3
Some 360 people were killed and 320 are listed as missing in Chechnya in the first six months of this year and since October 1999 a total of 1,500 people have been reported missing, Chechnya's Moscow-backed Prosecutor Nikolai Kostyuchenko said.
Georgian border guards arrested seven Chechens in the vicinity of the Georgian-Russian border. The Chechens claimed that during a fight in the Russian territory they were encircled and therefore had to cross the border to Georgia.
Sunday, August 4
Chechen news agency Chechenpress reported that top Chechen commander Hussein Esabayev and some of his subordinates were killed in a fight with the Russian military in the Itum-Kala and Shatoi districts. The Chechen fighters operating in the two districts have not entered them from Georgia, representative of the operative command of the Military Committee of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria R. Arsnukayev told Chechenpress.
Georgian border guards arrested another small group of Chechens who had just arrived in Georgia from the Kerigo Gorge in southern Chechnya.
The views expressed on this web site are the authors' own, and don't necessarily reflect the views of Prague Watchdog, which aims to present a wide spectrum of opinion and analysis relating to events in the North Caucasus.
