Monday, September 19, 2005

The Prague Watchdog Weekly Newsletter, No. 38

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THE PRAGUE WATCHDOG WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, No. 38 (September 19, 2005)
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1) THE WEEK IN BRIEF (September 12 - 18)

September 12 - Akhmad Avdorkhanov, a top Chechen guerrilla commander and ex-head of the security guard of the late Ichkerian President Aslan Maskhadov, was killed in a battle in Chechnya, according to the September 18 report by pro-guerrilla website Kavkaz-Center and subsequent confirmation by Russian news agencies referring to the Moscow-backed Chechen Vice-Premier Ramzan Kadyrov.

September 12 - Representatives of major Russian political parties met in Grozny and Chechen Election Committee chairman Ismail Baykhanov stated that all political parties represented in Russia's State Duma will take part in the November 27 parliamentary elections in Chechnya.

September 13 - About ten people, mostly officers, were wounded when Chechen guerrillas used grenade launchers to shell the building of the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic in the center of Grozny.

September 13 - Valery Kuznetsov, Moscow Region Deputy Prosecutor, replaced Vladimir Kravchenko as Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic.

September 14 - Chechen police and guerrillas clashed in the town of Argun, with several dead on both sides. Shamil Muskiyev, deputy of Chechen resistance leader Abdulkhamid Sadullayev, was killed in the battle.

September 15 - Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson arrived in Gudermes to open a boxing tournament. He was invited there by Ramzan Kadyrov, the First Vice-Premier of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.

September 15 - Residents of Novye Atagi started blocking the federal motorway "Kavkaz" to protest against the abduction of ten young men from their village by members of the Moscow-backed Chechen security forces.

September 16 - The property of the federal state-run company "Directorate for Construction and Reconstruction in the Chechen Republic" was handed over to the Moscow-backed Chechen government.

September 16 - Three blasts took place in Ingushetia's Nazran, Nesterovskaya and Alkhasty, one blast in North Ossetia's Prigorodny district near the border with Ingushetia. There was no casualties in any of the incidents.

September 16 - The lawyer of Zara Murtazaliyeva, a Chechen student sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for an alleged bombing attempt in Moscow, said he had filed a complaint about her unfair trial in Russia to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.


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2) UPCOMING EVENTS

September 19-30 - Warsaw (Poland): The ODHIR and the OSCE Chairmanship will host the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting.

September 27 - Gudermes (Chechnya): The Kremlin-backed Chechen government will organize a music festival with some Russian rock stars taking part. The event was postponed from July 5 for security reasons.

For more upcoming Chechnya-related events go to http://www.watchdog.cz/calendar.

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3) REGIONAL REPORTING

Residents of Novye Atagi block "Kavkaz" federal highway (by Lecha Sadayev, September 16)
They decided to take this step after members of Chechen security forces carried out house-to-house searches in their village and took away 10 young men.
http://www.watchdog.cz/index.php?show=000000-000008-000001-000406&lang=1

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4) ATTACKS ON HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
Monitoring attacks on the rights defenders whose work is connected with the Chechen conflict.

Link: http://www.watchdog.cz/attacks

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5) LATEST ADDITION TO OUR LINKS LIBRARY:

Obyedinyonnaya gazeta (http://www.ob-gaz.ru/) - A Moscow-based Chechen newspaper. In Russian.

For more Chechnya-related links go to our Links library ( http://www.watchdog.cz/links ), which is being continuously updated.


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Prague Watchdog Weekly Newsletter is a publication of Prague Watchdog. If you wish to subscribe (unsubscribe) to it, please send us an e-mail to mail@watchdog.cz. The newsletter is usually sent out on Monday evenings.

Prague Watchdog launched its website in August 2000 and its aim is to collect and disseminate information on the ongoing conflict in Chechnya, focusing on human rights, media coverage, political situation and relief aid.

Visit us at http://www.watchdog.cz. For the Russian version, go to http://www.watchdog.cz/russian.
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