News

September 10, 2003 23:58

• Conference on problems of "frozen conflicts" will be held in Kishinev

  Problems of the Nagorno-Karabah, Abkhazian, and Pridnestrovsky conflicts, as well as the situation on Cyprus will be discussed at the conference.

September 10, 2003 23:55

• New temporary accommodation centre for displaced persons has been opened in Grozny

  Other four apartment houses for those who had to stay in the tent camps on the territory of Ingushetia after their dwellings had been destroyed will be opened in Grozny before the end of September, acting Chechen President Anatoly Popov said at the opening ceremony.

September 10, 2003 23:54

• Council of Europe calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to meet commitments entered into by them when they joined organization

  The Monitoring Group of the Council of Europe particularly underlined in its report published in Strasburg that Armenia must pass the laws on the mass media activity and Azerbaijan must release all political prisoners.

September 10, 2003 23:53

• Political prisoner pardoned the other day has expired in Azerbaijan

  Nadir Bagirov served 10 years in jail, and his death was caused by tuberculosis. Bagirov was, to all appearances, infected with it in one of the jails.

September 10, 2003 12:53

• Russian human rights defenders refuse to act as observers in Chechnya

  Speaking at a press conference in Moscow on September 9, Svetlana Gannushkina, Lev Ponomaryov and Yury Samodurov stressed that their human rights groups would continue as before to send their members to Chechnya on fact-finding missions but they would not act as official observers in these elections.

September 10, 2003 12:48

• Re-registration of refugees will be conducted from September 10 till November 15

  The re-registration of refugees that do not have Russian citizenship and exchange of old identity cards for new ones will be conducted in North Osetia from September 10 till November 15.

September 10, 2003 12:47

• 750 thousand rubles are allotted for construction of new power line that will lead to refugee settlement

  The other day during his meeting with power engineering specialists of the Republic of North Osetia - Alania the Russian President's Envoy for Osetian-Ingush Conflict Settlement Kulakovsky decided to allot 750 thousand rubles for the construction of a new power line that will lead to a refugee settlement. The settlement in question is 250 trailers situated on the border between Ingushetia and North Osetia.

September 10, 2003 12:44

• Organization for Karabah Liberation urges UN to stir up efforts for conflict settlement

  The appeal reads that the UN Security Council adopted enough of decisions to settle the conflict. The present inactivity of the Council member states, as well as of the UN itself under such conditions "causes defensible discontent of the Azerbaijan public".

September 10, 2003 12:42

• 5,565 people fall victims to antipersonnel mines in 2002 - more than in any other country

  This was reported by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

September 10, 2003 12:40

• Council of Azerbaijan Editors calls on Defense Ministry and Public Prosecutor's Office to prevent pressure on journalists

  The appeal was caused by the clash of the police with a group of oppositionists and journalists that took place in front of the Baku Police headquarters on September 8. As a result several people, including media workers, suffered.

September 10, 2003 12:37

• Lithuanian Commission on Journalistic and Publishing Ethics has not found calls for terror on Chechen separatists' website

  "The materials published on the website "Kavkaz-Center" should be interpreted as a certain incitement against occupation Russian authorities in Chechnya and beyond its limits, however there is no incitement against the Russians and Christians themselves - this is the basic difference", declared the chairman of the commission.

September 10, 2003 12:34

• Armenian parliament passed Law "About the Institution of Human Rights Defense"

  As one of the authors of the draft, Parliament Vice-Speaker Tigran Torosian, reported, henceforth the ombudsman is appointed for a six-year term, he has no right to interfere in a trial, but he may introduce motions for fair treatment within the limits of the European norms on human rights.

September 09, 2003 23:42

• Georgian servicemen injured in Iraq will undergo treatment in US

  Four sappers from the Georgian peacekeeping contingent stationed in Iraq have been transferred from a hospital in Kuwait to the United States for medical treatment. The Georgian Defense Ministry stated such a decision had been taken upon the recommendation of their US colleagues.

September 09, 2003 23:40

• Armenian parliament voted for abolition of death penalty in county

  The National Assembly of Armenia ratified by 92 ayes with 1 nay Protocol 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights providing for the death penalty abolition.

September 09, 2003 23:37

• Azerbaijanians in Georgia are demanding settlement of social problems

  On September 8 residents of the Jandara village in Eastern Georgia, mainly ethnic Azerbaijanians, held a rally protesting against local authorities.

September 09, 2003 23:36

• Opposition members scuffled with police in Baku

  Members of Azerbaijan's opposition Popular Front Party clashed with police in Baku on Monday. The incident occurred in front of the Baku police headquarters.

September 09, 2003 20:57

• Five young Chechens were captured and taken away in unknown direction in Ordzhonikidzevskaya village

  To all appearances, the unsanctioned detention of Kerimov, Patsayev, and Idigov is a way to put pressure upon Vagap Tutakov, the special representative of the Parliament of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the PACE.

September 09, 2003 20:56

• Armenia must respect rules of Council of Europe, including those for death penalty abolition, says representative of this organization

  Ziman Christoph noted Armenia had joined the Council of Europe voluntarily and undertaken concrete obligations, so it must respect the rules of this organization, including those for the unconditional death penalty abolition.

September 09, 2003 17:32

• Chechen human rights activists are going to boycott presidential election

  They made such a decision at the meeting of Chechen non-government organizations in Nazran on September 7.

September 09, 2003 17:28

• Second court sitting on case of "Kavkaz-Center" was held in Vilnius

  Having briefly examined the course of the mission execution, the judge decided to carry over the date of the sitting for three weeks.