In this issue...

- Authorities: 19 servicemen detained for alleged civilian killings in Chechnya

Earlier stories...

- OSCE returns to Chechnya 06/15/2001

- Authorities: 19 servicemen detained for alleged civilian killings in Chechnya

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian authorities on Monday announced the detention of 19 servicemen on suspicion of killing civilians in Chechnya - a move that comes amid international accusations that Russia is unwilling to prosecute military abuses.

The servicemen are suspected of killing civilians in the Chechen capital Grozny, according to a statement by Chechnya's pro-Russian administration. The statement, which was carried by the Interfax news agency, provided no other details, saying that discussion of the cases might stoke protest in the republic.















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Related links:

- Chechnya - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

- Crisis in North Caucasus

- Chechen Republic Online

- Chechyna: A Land in Conflict

- Human Rights Watch: Chechnya

- History of Chechnya

- Institute for War & Peace Reporting







News sources:

- Chechnya links

- chechnya.ru - Official Russian government site

- Kavkaz news center - Official Chechen rebel site

- Jihad in Chechnya by Azzam Publications - Official Chechen rebel site







The Russia Journal weekly links:


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







Latest RJ weekly article:

- FSB dictates as Chechnya rages on(25 May, 2001)






- 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 Opinion:

- FSB dictates as Chechnya rages on - Alexander Golts (05/25/2001)

- Previous Alexander Golts articles for RJ about Chechnya













Several men and women have been found shot or stabbed to death in Grozny in recent weeks. Russian officials have previously blamed gangs of outlaws, and said the killings were motivated by robbery or by an attempt to punish cooperation with pro-Russian authorities.

Meanwhile, an envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Monday urged the Russian military to stop alleged abused of civilians' rights in Chechnya.

Gerard Stoudmann, a top OSCE human rights official, noted an "increasingly large number of complaints from refugees and residents of Chechnya about the violations of their rights by federal power bodies," the Interfax news agency reported.

Federal troops in Chechnya routinely seize local men, women and teen-agers from the streets or their homes as suspected rebels or sympathizers, and rights groups say some have been tortured or killed. Russia denies the accusations, but authorities have been reluctant to launch a large-scale investigation.

Russian forces have controlled most of Chechnya for months, but have been unable to crush resistance by rebels, who continue to fire at federal positions and plant land mines daily.

Chechen rebel commanders said Monday they hoped that U.S. President George Bush would press Russian leader Vladimir Putin to stop the abuses, but that they abandoned hopes of international pressure following the two presidents' weekend summit.

"Every time people representing huge powers meet, they analyze the profits they can derive from their relations, and they always forget about small people," said rebel field commander Akhmed Basnukayev.

Another rebel commander, Daud Akhmadov, claimed responsibility for the downing of two Russian planes that were lost over Chechnya's southern mountains last week. The wreckage of the two Su-25 craft was found near the southern Itum-Kale town, the Russian military said, but the cause of the crash has not been determined as rescuers were unable to reach the site.

"There has not been a possibility so far the reach the crash site due to very difficult terrain - abrupt ascents, rocks, deep gorges and a dense forest," Russian Air Force commander Vladimir Mikhailov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

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Earlier stories...

- OSCE returns to Chechnya

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) - The chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe headed for war-ravaged Chechnya on Friday to re-establish the organization's presence in the rebel region where it once played a key diplomatic role.

OSCE Chairman Mircea Geoana, who is also Romania's foreign minister, arrived in the Caucasus Mountains city of Vladikavkaz on his way to reopening ceremonies in Znamenskoye, a town in northern Chechnya where the Council of Europe already has stationed three human rights monitors.

"We hope that our return will symbolize the return to the period when, on the local level and on the international ... level, we'll be able to provide more help and more assistance to the people" of Chechnya, Geoana told reporters before boarding a helicopter.

"We hope that the presence of the OSCE will be perceived by everyone in Chechnya as a positive signal."

The OSCE played a prominent role in bringing Russian commanders and Chechen rebels to the negotiating table in the 1994-96 war, which ended with a Russian withdrawal. But the OSCE pulled out of Chechnya in early 1999 after kidnappings and other violence became rampant.

The Russian military returned to the breakaway republic in fall 1999, after rebel raids into a neighboring Russian region and a series of bombings in Russian cities that killed about 300 people.

Earlier this year, the Russian government said there was no political obstacle to the OSCE's return. Moscow is sensitive to what it views as outside interference in an internal matter, and has rejected calls for talks with rebel leaders.

Akhmad Kadyrov, head of the pro-Moscow civilian administration in Chechnya, was expected to attend the opening of the OSCE office, the Interfax news agency reported. Local authorities will ensure "maximum security" for the new office, the head of Chechnya's government, Stanislav Ilyasov, was quoted as saying.

Ilyasov said OSCE workers would "be provided with safe and unbarred access to any point in Chechnya if they notify the republic's leadership about the destination of their movement in time," he was quoted as saying.

Some humanitarian organizations remain leery of returning to Chechnya, where as recently as January a Doctors Without Borders worker was abducted by unidentified gunmen and held for 25 days.
"This is a very serious problem," Geoana said. "We have to work together with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. We have agreed on a couple of details about the security of the OSCE people, and we have to protect our people."

OSCE workers have already been aiding refugees living in a tent camp in Znamenskoye, 60 kilometers (36 miles) northwest of the Chechen capital Grozny. The organization has also been distributing filters to clean water in Grozny and providing medical and other humanitarian aid to refugees.

Russian troops occupy most of the region and they have halted large-scale rebel operations. However, they face constant sniping, ambushes and bombings by rebels, and civilians continue to accuse the Russian forces of human rights abuses during repeated military and police searches for alleged rebels.

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