The Week in Brief: Oct 23 - Oct 29, 2000Mon, 23 Oct 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. Tue, 24 Oct No major events. Wed, 25 Oct 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. Thu, 26 Oct 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. Fri, 27 Oct 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. Sat, 28 Oct 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. Sun, 29 Oct 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.
Compiled by Prague Watchdog |
