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Katayama residents hold protest rally against "oil regiment" in Grozny

By Timur Aliyev

GROZNY, Chechnya - Residents of the Katayama suburb of Grozny, along with members of Chechen human rights organizations, held a rally in Grozny on May 9-11 in front of the premises of the so-called "oil regiment", a unit protecting oil pipelines.

The group protested the May 5 kidnapping of two Chersiyev brothers by members of this unit who openly said the brothers were taken hostage because one of their relatives is a guerrilla fighter. The protesters were also told that the men would be released after the fighter surrenders to the authorities.

According to Nataliya Estemirova of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, this incident confirms that the Russian prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov’s recommendation to legalize hostage-taking by state agencies as part of the fight against terrorism was effectively put into practice. Further proof of that, she added, was the May 6 abduction of the parents of Chechen field commander Dokka Umarov.

Last year Ustinov recommended that counter-abduction of terrorists' relatives be carried out as a means of fighting terrorism and should be made into law. He made the controversial proposal to the Russian State Duma in late October, nearly two months after the Beslan tragedy, but Russian deputies rejected it.

(T,E)