The Month in Brief - April 2005
April 4
Kim Murphy, chief of the Moscow bureau of the Los Angeles Times, who covered, among other things, the Beslan tragedy, won the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for her "eloquent, wide ranging coverage of Russia’s struggle to cope with terrorism, improve the economy and make democracy work."
No one - neither the local authorities, law enforcement agencies, or human rights defenders - knows the exact number of abducted people in Chechnya, said Aslambek Aslakhanov, Russian President's Aide on the Northern Caucasus.
April 5
Two guerrillas and a small child were killed in an operation carried out by Dagestani and Chechen security forces in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt.
Registered unemployment in Chechnya is 80 percent, said Abdula Magomadov, Economic Development and Trade Minister of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.
April 7
Chechnya's Moscow-backed leader Alu Alkhanov signed a decree according to which Chechen youths born in 1978-80 would be drafted into the army this spring.
April 8
The Chechen Republic's budget for 2005 has been approved with expenditures of 10.771 billion roubles and a deficit of 243 million roubles, announced Luiza Khachukayeva, First Deputy Finance Minister of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.
April 12
The European Court of Human Rights announced its earlier ruling in the case of Shamayev and 12 Others v. Georgia and Russia according to which both countries did violate some rights of the Chechens who were detained at their border in 2002.
April 15
A battle took place between Chechen guerrillas and Russian elite forces in Grozny's Leninsky district, leaving several dead on each side.
A Moscow court sentenced an airline employee and a ticket scalper to 18 months in prison each for aiding the terrorists who in August 2004 caused explosions on two Russian airplanes that killed all 90 people on board.
April 20
Federal forces and Chechen and Dagestani policemen conducted a special operation in the Dagestani village of Batash, killing three alleged guerrillas.
April 22
Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Shepel announced that the late Chechen resistance leader Aslan Maskhadov was burried - according to the law on terrorism - in an unknown place.
April 23
Chechnya's Moscow-backed leader Alu Alkhanov joined the Russian political party United Russia ("Yedinaya Rossiya").
April 28
Over 2,500 people have been kidnapped or disappeared without trace in Chechnya since the beginning of the second war (1999), said Chechen Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Chernyayev.
April 29
Four guerillas were killed in a shoot-out in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria.
April 30
The Ingushetian authorities and police prevented an opposition rally in Nazran from taking place.
Compiled by Prague Watchdog. Along with these monthly summaries, we also publish weekly summaries, distributing them on Mondays within our weekly newsletter. (T) |
