In this issue...

- Five civilians killed in Chechnya's Duba-Yurt

- Court examines conflicting autopsy reports

Earlier stories...

- Russia: Turkey is not doing enough against Chechen sympathizers

- Bomb heavily damages police building in Chechnya

FIVE CIVILIANS KILLED IN CHECHNYA’S DUBA-YURT

GROZNY - Five civilian residents of the Chechen village of Duba-Yurt were killed in the early hours of Wednesday, Gazeta.ru reports.















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Interactive

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Related links:

- Crisis in North Caucasus

- Chechen Republic Online

- Chechyna: A Land in Conflict

- Human Rights Watch: Chechnya







News sources:

- Chechnya liks

- chechnya.ru - official site

- Institute for War & Peace Reporting







The Russia Journal weekly links:


- Read the earlier news about Chechnya from the RJ ticker.







- Fighting flares in Chechnya (01 Jul, 2000)

- Chechnya is about restoring constitutional order, rights’ (05 Jun, 2000)

- Can we believe the government on Chechnya? (08 May, 2000)

- At what cost the war in Chechnya? (06 Mar, 2000)

- Europe gives Chechnya deadline (21 Jan, 2000)

- West, Russia spar over Chechnya (22 Nov, 1999)

- Chechnya not another Yugoslavia (04 Oct, 1999)

- Russia, Chechnya on brink (27 Sep, 1999)

- Chechnya: Impotent Fury (22 May, 1999)

- Bandits' Code of Honor: Chechnya (05 Apr, 1999)








The Russia Journal Top News links:


- EU condemns human rights in Chechnya

- Chechens rally in ruined Grozny

- Seven servicemen killed in Chechnya

- Putin wants fast Chechnya action
- Russians begin to bury bomb victims

- Up to 20 dead in Russia blasts
- U.S. warned on plans for Chechen talks

- At least seven civilians killed in Chechnya












About "fifteen armed men" appeared in the village at about 2:30 a.m., the Shali district police department said on Thursday. The gunmen spotted five civilians on Mira street - the central street of the village - and "shot them all to death with automatic weapons," the police said.

An investigation is underway and criminal proceedings have been instigated under Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (terrorism).
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COURT EXAMINES CONFLICTING AUTOPSY REPORTS

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - Judges in the trial of a Russian tank commander accused of abducting and murdering and an 18-year-old Chechen woman called witnesses Wednesday to assess two conflicting autopsy reports.

The conflicting accounts are key in the closely watched case, the first against a Russian soldier accused of human rights abuses in Chechnya

Col. Yuri Budanov is charged with abducting Heda Kungayeva from her family home near the Chechen village of Tangi-Chu and murdering her.

Budanov has admitted to strangling the yoine Budanov's defense.

On Wednesday Capt. Vladimir Lyanenko, a forensic specialist with the Russian Defense Ministry, said he examined Kungayeva's body as it lay on a stretcher in the open air of a military field hospital in western Chechnya, soon after the March 26, 2000, killing.

A copy of the autopsy report without a stamp or signature was given to the victim's mother Rosa Bashayeva, a Russian military prosecutor official testified Wednesday.

Bashayeva earlier said this copy indicated her daughter had been raped. A signed copy from military prosecutor's office submitted to the court had no mention of rape.

Lyanenko, whose work was the basis for both reports, told the court details of his autopsy without making a judgment on the rape issue.

Outside the building, he told the Associated Press that signs of abuse were evident on the body.

Human rights groups have greeted the trial but say Russian authorities have ignored hundreds of other abuses. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has said at least 1,300 civilians have been killed since Russian troops rolled into Chechnya in 1999 to fight a separatist movement in the southern province.
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Earlier stories:

RUSSIA: TURKEY IS NOT DOING ENOUGH AGAINST CHECHEN SYMPATHIZERS

MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized Turkey for failing to crack down on supporters of the rebel Chechen cause, suggesting that the Turkish government could head off such incidents as this week's seizure of an Istanbul hotel by pro-Chechen gunmen.

"The latest incident ... calls forth serious concern," the ministry said in a statement issued late Tuesday. "The Russian Federation has more than once directed Turkey's attention to the possibility of similar actions on the part of extremists and groups located on the territory of Turkey that offer support of various kinds to Chechen terrorists."

It urged Turkey to take "the most decisive measures" against such groups.

Thirteen gunmen stormed the five-star Swissotel in the heart of Istanbul late Sunday to protest Russia's "bloody attacks" in the Caucasus. They later surrendered and released all their hostages unharmed.

It was the second attack on Turkish soil orchestrated by 32-year old Muhammed Tokcan, a Turkish citizen of Chechen extraction. In 1996, Tokcan hijacked a Turkish Black Sea ferry for four days to try to force Russia to stop its military offensive in Chechnya.

The Chechen struggle against Russia has been popular in Turkey and as many as five million Turks can trace their roots to the Caucasus Mountains region where Chechnya is located. Pro-Chechen groups in Turkey have held rallies and helped bring scores of wounded Chechens to Turkish hospitals.

In March, Chechens hijacked a Russian plane from Istanbul and diverted it to Saudi Arabia. Saudi security forces stormed the plane, and a Turkish worker, a Russian stewardess and one of the hijackers were killed.
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BOMB HEAVILY DAMAGES POLICE BUILDING IN CHECHYA

NAZRAN, Russia - A bomb ripped through a police department in the town of Gudermes in Chechnya early Wednesday, wounding three people, a government official said.

Investigators were sorting through the rubble of the two-story building housing the local Interior Ministry's department for combatting organized crime in the wake of the 5:50 a.m. explosion, said an aide to Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three ministry workers were hospitalized, he said. The bomb, which authorities blamed on rebels fighting the Russian government, was apparently equipped with a timer and had the explosive force of about one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of TNT, the official said.

Until a few days ago, Gudermes was the seat of the pro-Russian civilian administration in Chechnya, where Russian troops are trying to stamp out resistance by separatist guerrillas. The administration has moved its headquarters back to the regional capital Grozny.
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