The UN World Food Programme announced that in a week they would resume food supplies to Chechen refugees living in camps and recognised spontaneous settlements in Ingushetia after federal authorities, which were charged with supplying food to these places as of early May, failed to do so.
The healthcare system in Grozny has been partially restored, with almost 800 doctors working in Grozny’s eight operational hospitals and 16 clinics, said Boris Gribenyuk, first deputy director of Zaschita (Protection), the All-Russian Centre of Emergency Medicine under the Russian Ministry of Healthcare and the Ministry of Emergencies. Throughout the republic, more than 1,730 medical doctors work in 305 medical institutions.
Tuesday, May 22
No major events.
Wednesday, May 23
Chechen politician Abdullah Bugayev, who used to work as a federal inspector in the Southern Federal District, was appointed Vice-Premier in the pro-Russian Chechen government in charge of liasing with the Russian military and law enforcement bodies in Chechnya. -- Interfax
Thursday, May 24
A two-day meeting of the special working group of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which was established after PACE’s part-session in January 2001, started on the premises of the Senate of the Czech Republic in Prague, with a discussion about the launch of tackling the conflict in Chechnya by political means on the agenda.
Vladimir Kalamanov, the Russian President's special envoy for human rights in Chechnya, said at present his office lists 616 applications concerning unlawful actions of Russian servicemen with regard to the Chechen population. Criminal cases have been launched on all these facts and twenty-three cases have already been considered in court and sentences passed, Kalamanov said.
Dik Altemirov, former Minister of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria who in 1996-97 cooperated with the OSCE mission led by T.Guldiman, was detained in Grozny by Russian forces on alleged accusation of connection to guerilla fighters. Dik Altemirov currently works for various human rights organizations, mainly the Human Rights Center Memorial.
Friday, May 25
The Council of Europe (CE) could assist Russia to design Chechnya's new constitution, said CE Secretary General Walter Schwimmer during his visit to Moscow on the occassion of the 5th anniversary of Russia's entry in CE.
Saturday, May 26
Russian Interior Ministry's authority for the fight with organised crime arrested Khazmat Idrisov, who since spring 2001 has been working as Vice-Premier in charge of Chechnya's building sector in the pro-Moscow Chechen government, on suspicion of embezzling state funds in the period of the first Chechen President Djokhar Dudayev and his successor Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Idrisov was installed by Chechnya's pro-Russian administration head Akhmad Kadyrov but the installation had not been approved yet by the head of the Southern Federal District, Viktor Kazantsev.
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