CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

The Week in Brief: Feb 26 - Mar 4, 2001

The Council of Europe human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles started his visit to Moscow and Chechnya.

U.S. State Department published a report on human rights practices in Russia stating that press freedom, torture and Chechnya remain serious concerns for the U.S.

The Dagestan Supreme Court began hearings in the trial of six people accused of causing the Sept. 4, 1999 explosion of an apartment building in Buinaksk.

Russian national TV and radio channels restarted broadcasting in Chechnya.

The Rostov District Military Court began hearing with Col. Yuri Budanov accused of abducting and murdering a Chechen girl in March 2000.

Chechen Minister of Foreign Affairs Ilyas Akhmadov urged the U.S., the EU, the Council of Europe and other organizations to initiate an international war crimes tribunal for the Russian crimes against Chechnya.

The trial with Col. Budanov was postponed till March 20.

The number of bodies discovered in a mass grave found on February 25 in a suburb of Grozny has risen to 48.

Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Igor Ivanov, appealed to the OSCE to return to Chechnya.

The congress of Chechen refugees, chaired by Ruslan Badalov, head of the National Olympic Committee, urged the United Nations to take control of their homeland.