The Month in Brief - April 2006April 1
A taxi driver was killed and one soldier was injured in a mine attack against border guards in Nazran, Ingushetia.
April 3
Chechnya's Moscow-backed parliament approved the republic's 2006 budget amounting to 19 billion roubles.
Valery Kuznetsov, Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic, announced that 57 corpses had been found during the reconstruction of the Kirov Park in Grozny. The dead were alleged victims of artillery shelling and bombardment during Russia's offensive in 1999-2000.
A group of German plastic surgeons arrived in Grozny for nearly two weeks to operate on 120 Chechen children.
April 6
The European Commission announced that it had approved a 22 million EUR humanitarian aid package to support victims of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya, namely internally displaced persons and vulnerable groups in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan as well as Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan. Last year's assistance was 26.3 million EUR.
The North Caucasus District Military Court sentenced Russian contract soldier Aleksei Krivoshonok to 18 years in prison for killing three Chechen civilians in the village of Staraya Sunzha in November 2005.
April 7
British national Andrew Robert Harker was detained at the "Kavkaz" check-point on the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetiya and ordered to leave Russia in three days.
April 9
Bulat Chilayev, who works as a driver for the Russian human rights NGO "Grazhdanskoye sodeydstviye" and lives in the Ingush village of Sernovodsk, and Grozny resident Aslan Israpilov were kidnapped on the federal road "Kavkaz" near Sernovodsk.
April 10
Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, arrived in Grozny to assess the refugee situation in the region. A day later in Moscow he said that the UNHCR would open an office in Chechnya as soon as security conditions allow.
One guerrila and two policemen were killed in a shoot-out in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala.
April 11
Chechen guerrilla leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev appointed Amir Aslanbek head of the Anti-Terrorist Center.
Two guerrillas were killed and one arrested in Nazran, Ingushetia's largest town. Two policemen died as a result of the operation.
April 12
Having withdrawn from Chechnya a reconnaissance detachment, the Russian airborne forces (VDV) have completed their participation in the military campaign in Chechnya, said General Aleksandr Kolmakov. Over 350 paratroopers have been killed and over 1,000 injured since September 12, 1999.
April 14
The Russian Interior Ministry appointed Alibek Delimkhanov and Muslim Ilyasov commanders of its two new Chechen battalions. The Grozny-based battalion "North" will have over 700 men and the Vedeno-based "South" will have over 500 men.
April 15
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed Chechen Premier, called for the withdrawal from Chechnya of the operational investigation bureau ORB-2, whose members unlawfully arrest people and torture them. This Grozny-based unit is subordinated to the Russian Interior Ministry.
April 18
US Ambassador to Russia William Burns was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry where he received a letter of protest over the conference "Sadullaev’s Caucasian Front: Prospects for the Next Nalchik" organized by the Jamestown Foundation in Washington on April 14.
Four residents of the Sayasan village in Chechnya's Nozhai-Yurtovsky district were abducted by law enforcers and two of them were found dead later that day, according to a report by Russian NGO Grazhdanskoye sodeystiye.
April 19
The Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov called for the prompt distmantling of temporary accommodation centers in Chechnya, claiming they harbour criminals and idlers. At his request a special commission was set up to inspect these facilities.
April 21
The guerrillas who are fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in the Northern Caucasus will stage effective attacks across the whole Russia, stated Chechen propaganda chief Movladi Udugov in an interview published by the Prague-based website Caucasus Times.
Some Chechens commemorated the 10th anniversary of the killing of Jokhar Dudayev, Chechnya's first President (1991-1996), by Russian forces.
The day of the Chechen language was celebrated for the first time in Chechnya. The Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov said that 81 years ago the first issue of the Chechen-language newspaper Daimokhk was published.
April 24
Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, speaker of the lower chamber of the Moscow-backed Chechen parliament, called for the reunification of Chechnya and Ingushetiya to overcome the problems with determining the border between them. And a new region that would include Chechnya, Ingushetiya, and Dagestan should be created later, he added.
April 25
A shoot-out took place in the government compound in the center of Grozny between security forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov and the Moscow-backed Chechen President Alu Alkhanov.
Umupazil Omarova, a civil law lecturer at the Dagestani State University, was appointed human rights commissioner of Dagestan by the republic's parliament.
April 26
Chechen resistance leader Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev signed a decree appointing Issa Askhabov his special envoy to European countries, according to reports by Chechenpress and Daymohk.
April 28
Chechen resistance leader Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev signed a decree removing Ramzan Ampoukayev from the post of director of the department for relations with the Vaynakh diaspora, according to reports by Chechenpress and Daymohk.
Two residents of Chechnya were killed in a police operation in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria.
April 29
The "Kadyrovtsy" force does not exist any more because members of the Anti-Terror Center and Kadyrov's security service were moved to the Chechen battalions "North" and "South" under the command of the Russian Interior Ministry, stated the Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov on the ill-famed fighters loyal to him.
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. (T)
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