The Month in Brief - September 2005

October 10th 2005 · Prague Watchdog

September 1-3

People in the North Ossetian town of Beslan and the whole Russia commemorated the September 2004 school hostage tragedy and mourned its victims.

September 2

Representatives of the Beslan Mothers Committee and relatives of the victims of last year's Beslan school siege met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin to "talk openly" about the hostage tragedy and the course of its investigation which they consider protracted.

A vehicle of the Russian Interior Ministry forces was blown up in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. Four people, including civilians, were killed.

September 5

A team of investigators led by Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov arrived in North Ossetia to inspect the investigation of the September 2004 Beslan school massacre. The team's creation and arrival followed the September 2 meeting of the Beslan victims' relatives with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking at a government meeting in Grozny, the Moscow-backed leader of the Chechen Republic Alu Alkhanov criticised the low quality of reconstructed buildings in Chechnya.

September 6

Celebrations of September 6 as the Day of Civil Accord and Reconciliation were organized in Chechnya by the Moscow-backed Chechen authorities, while supporters of the collapsed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria remembered the Independence Day.

September 7

The Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic announced that in a recent operation in Chechnya, Magomed Vagapov, aka "Executioner", who commanded the guerrilla group of the Goyti village in the Urus-Martanovsky district, and two other guerrillas were killed in Chechnya.

September 8

Russia will keep using all means available to achieve the extradition of Akhmed Zakayev and Ilyas Akhmadov, said Anatoly Safonov, Russian President's special representative for international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime, about the two political representatives of the Chechen resistance who found shelter in Great Britain and the USA, respectively.

A cultural evening in memory of Akhmat Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of the Chechen Republic assassinated in 2004, took place in Moscow.

A Russian Interior Ministry serviceman was killed when unknown attackers opened fire at an APC on the environs of the Dagestani town of Khasayurt.

September 9

The "Friendship Train" with the Moscow-backed Chechen offcials as well as Chechen artists, writers and journalists, which departed from Grozny on July 22 and then visited about twenty Russian regions, arrived in Moscow.

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.

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.

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

Russia paid compensations to the first six Chechens who had filed complaints about Russia's human rights violations in Chechnya to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, according to the September 30 announcement by representatives of the Memorial human right center.

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.

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.

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.

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.

September 17-24

Alu Alkhanov, the Moscow-backed leader of the Chechen Republic, made an official visit to Jordan and Syria.

September 20

Three policemen were shot dead in Ingushetia's village of Karabulak.

September 20-21

Representatives of several dozen Chechen public organizations established in Bern, Switzerland, the Chechen Civil Society Forum in order to consolidate Chechen civil society and enable Chechen NGOs direct access to European institutions.

September 22

Chechen lawyer and human rights defender Lida Yusupova was awarded the 2005 Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize "in recognition of her brave and unrelenting efforts to document human rights violations and act as a spokeswoman for the forgotten victims of the war in Chechnya."

September 23

Dozens of local and Chechen students of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University clashed in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. The Chechen students were supported by Chechen policemen, who used their firearms.

September 28

Over 2500 people have been registered in Chechnya as dissappeared, stated the Moscow-backed Chechen President Alu Alkhanov. Margaret Killerby, head of the Council of Europe's Department of Crime Problems, who met Alkhanov in Chechnya, said that the Council of Europe would build a forensic-medical laboratory to help the authorities examine and identify exhumed bodies.

Investigators have discovered a thousand illegal requests for compensation for destroyed housing and lost property in Chechnya, stated the Moscow-backed Chechen President Alu Alkhanov. On September 30 Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov spoke of "hundreds of persons who had filed illegal requests".

Former top Chechen guerrilla commander Magomed Khambiyev, who surrendered to the Moscow-backed Chechen authorities under unclear circumstances in March 2004, became number two on the SPS party list for the November 27 parliamentary elections in Chechnya.

September 29

At least one third of oil that is produced, refined, and transported in the Chechen Republic is stolen and then mostly sold in the neighbouring republics, announced the North Caucasus press center of the Russian Interior Ministry, referring to the result of a large-scale police operation.

Russian arts TV channel "Kultura" started broadcasting in Chechnya.

Two policemen were shot dead in their car by unknown perpetrators in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. Two children staying nearby were killed as well in the incident.

Compiled by Prague Watchdog. Along with these monthly summaries, we also publish weekly summaries, distributing them on Mondays to the subscribers of our free weekly newsletter.

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