Summary of the main news related to the conflict in Chechnya. Compiled by Prague Watchdog.
Monday, July 8
A car carrying two staff members of the Danish Refugee Council, a policeman and a driver hit a landmine near the village of Komsomolskoye in the Urus-Martan district but fortunately the people on board suffered only light injuries.
Tuesday, July 9
International medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemned "the forced relocation of displaced Chechens and Russians to temporary locations in Grozny". The recent closure of a camp in Znamenskoye, in northern Chechnya, was accomplished by an organised campaign of harassment and coercion by the authorities, which left people with no option but to move out, MSF's press release said.
Russia will by October deploy 3,000 motorised troops near Sleptsovsk in Ingushetia to prevent Chechen fighters to use the Ingush territory as a rear-base for their operations, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Kosovan said.
Former Russian Interior Minister Anatoli Kulikov criticised in Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta Russia's conduct in Chechnya, saying the number of soldiers and police killed in the conflict is comparable to Soviet losses in Afghanistan (1979-89), which according to official figures numbered some 15,000. Kulikov criticised also the presence of conscripts among Russian troops in Chechnya and called for a change in Russia's military tactics.
Wednesday, July 10
Chechen news server Chechenpress published a decree of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov by which Maskhadov on May 20, 2002 reappointed Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev to the post of the envoy of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Muslim countries in order to "activise Ichkerian foreign policy in Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East." Yandarbiyev, who after the killing of the first Chechen President Jokhar Dudayev was acting Chechen president (April 1996-January 1997), was appointed to the post already in late 1999 but then Maskhadov called him off.
General Alexandr Pavlyushenko was installed as the military commander of Grozny by Akhmad Kadyrov, head of Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, Kadyrov's press department announced. Pavlyushenko, who used to work at the General Staff of the Russian Defence Ministry, replaced Vladimir Filatov.
The constitutional committee within Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration said it had completed work on the draft Chechen constitution. The draft, which is based on the proposal of Akhmad Kadyrov, provides that the republic is part of the Russian Federation, bears the name of „Chechnya“, and has two official languages, Russian and Chechen.
Thursday, July 11
Lord Frank Judd, co-chairman of the Joint Working Group on Chechnya of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Russia's State Duma, which was holding its meeting in Moscow on July 10-12, complained to Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov that Russian authorities have failed to complete their investigations of mass graves in Novye Aldy, Chernoreche, Khankala, and Alkhan-Yurt. Ustinov said that the investigations were going on.
Tent refugee camps in Ingushetia will be liquidated by the beginning of the heating season, Premier of Chechnya's pro-Moscow government Stanislav Ilyasov told a news conference in Moscow. There are 130,000 Chechen refugees in Ingushetia now, of whom 36,000 are staying in tent camps, Ilyasov added.
Friday, July 12
Russian and Chechen non-governmental human rights organisations said they ended their participation in regular meetings with representatives of federal and local bodies on human rights situation in Chechen, claiming that due to the reluctance and obstructions of the authorities the meetings failed to fulfil their purpose. Representatives of the Kremlin expressed regret over the decision, calling the meetings beneficial.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed native Chechen Abdul-Khakim Sultygov (42) as human rights commissioner for Chechnya. Sultygov, a member of the State Duma's nationalities committee who specialised in Chechnya, replaced Vladimir Kalamanov, who had become Russia's ambassador to UNESCO.
Human rights activist and former State Duma deputy Ella Pamfilova was appointed to the post chairwoman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission. Pamfilova, who criticised the first Russian-Chechen war (1994-96), replaced Vladimir Kartashkin. Pamfilova said she would invite non-governmental human rights organisations to cooperate with her.
Saturday, July 13
No major events.
Sunday, July 14
Georgian security services extradited to Russia Adam Dekkushev, who was wanted by Russian authorities for alleged involvement in thus far unexplained apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999. Russia attributes the bombings, which claimed the lives of several hundred civilians, to Chechen terrorists, while Chechen fighters and some Russians attribute them to Russian secret services.
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