The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Chechen Republic: official site.| | |All aboutChechnya| news| history| Actual News from Chechnya | || traditions| music | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------| | News update | # # Issue 168 | | | 20.02.04 | |Vladimir Zorin for tougher | | |terrorism punishment |Chechnya: news | arguments | facts | | | | |The Russian minister for |[3195] 20 February 2004 Plans for a student labour exchange | |national policy Vladimir Zorin |in Chechnya | |backs the State Duma's (lower |Professor Zargan Urkhayeva of Grozny State University has used| |house) initiative to toughen |a grant from a Chechnya aid foundation of the Russian and the | |punishment for terrorism. "The |American national academies of sciences to draft proposals for| |fight against terrorism requires|a student labour exchange in the Chechen Republic. The planned| |stronger counteraction against |exchange should provide Chechen students with opportunities to| |this evil on all fronts, |integrate into the labour force and hone skills as well as | |including tougher legislation," |make an odd ruble doing part-time jobs. The annual cost of | |Zorin told RIA Novosti. |running the exchange is estimated at 250 thousand dollars. | |"Terrorism is a danger number |This isn't actually that much, given a student population of | |one, and both society and |25 thousand on Chechnya's 14 campuses of Grozny State | |authorities agree with this," |University, the Grozny State Oil Institute, the Chechen State | |said the minister. "Hence, the |Pedagogical Institute and a private law college. The regional | |problem of terrorism should be |government says it can shoulder the project. | |addressed with an entire complex|[http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=diaryeng] | |of measures." At issue, Zorin |(more News from Chechnya...) | |continued, is not only the | | |sentence but also such |19 February 2004 Georgia and Russia to step up control | |mechanisms as the thwarting of |cooperation in Chechen part of border | |financial channels of terror and|Georgias President Mikhail Saakashvili has said that his | |the upgrading of training |country will be stepping up cooperation with Russia to prevent| |methods to raise citizens' |any armed groups or individuals from crossing the border | |vigilance in regard to this |either way. Any person who tries to cross the border arms in | |problem. |hand will be detained and brought to justice, Saakashvili told| |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ |Itar-Tass. When snow thawing begins in the mountains, there | |index.php?lng=§ion=Moseng] |may emerge the risk of armed groups penetrating into Georgia | |more...) |from Chechnya, Saakashvili said. The militants are posing a | | |threat to everybody, in the first place, to Georgia. | |Russia says returning Chechens |Saakashvili said that according to his sources currently there| |from the Netherlands will be |were no armed groups of militants from Chechnya in Georgia. | |treated fairly |Should they appear, the groups will be detained and disarmed, | | |Saakashvili said. | |The Russian Interior Ministry |[http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=diaryeng] | |said no reprisals will be |(more News from Chechnya...) | |initiated against the | | |law-obedient Chechen citizens |19 February 2004 Qatar tightens security after top Chechen | |who are to be deported to Russia|killed | |from the Netherlands. "The |Qatar has tightened security after last week's assassination | |Netherlands made the decision to|of a Chechen Islamist leader in the Gulf Arab state, a key | |deport the Chechen asylum |U.S. ally in the region. A car blast killed Zelimkhan | |seekers to Russia, guided by |Yandarbiyev, a separatist guerrilla leader linked by Moscow to| |their own laws. Russian law- |Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, as he left a mosque after | |enforcement agencies are acting |prayers in the capital Doha last Friday. "We had never had an | |on the basis of Russian law: if |act of terrorism on our soil. This incident has deeply shocked| |those who return to Russia do |us and forced us to rethink about our security strategy," a | |not have a criminal record, no |senior Qatari official said. Within three days of the incident| |legal action will be taken |Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani approved an | |against them, and their rights |"anti-terrorism" law which Qatar's consultative Shura Council | |will not be curbed," an Interior|had been already discussing. "We are investigating the | |Ministry spokesman told |incident from all angles, including the local angle, of which | |Interfax. He said that according|there is little possibility," an Interior Ministry official | |to international law, the |said. He said the possibility that foreign intelligence | |deporting country must provide |agencies had carried out the killing was also being | |the country of destination a |investigated. Yandarbiyev, 51, had been living in exile in | |list of the deported asylum |Doha for more than three years. He was the first Chechen | |seekers. "If such lists arrive, |separatist to be added at Russia's request last year to a U.N.| |the persons listed will |list of groups and people with suspected ties to the al Qaeda | |definitely be checked with our |network. Qatar has barred media access to Yandarbiyev's son, | |data base and through other |the prime witness, who is receiving treatment for extensive | |channels," he said. The Dutch |burns at a local hospital. Gazeta.ru informs. | |authorities on Wednesday decided| | |to deport 26 foreign asylum | ------------------------------------------------------------ | |seekers, among them Afghans, | | |Somalians and Chechens, to their| Russia - Chechnya | |home countries. The | | |international organization Human| The pre-islamic customs, manifest in farming festivals | |Rights Watch urged Dutch | | |authorities to reverse the |New year's eve | |decision fearing these people | | |will face problems at home. |[223] | |Diderick Lochman, an expert of |The traditional way to celebrate New Year's eve goes way back.| |the Human Rights Watch's New |The kindling of a new flame was a matter of utmost importance.| |York headquarters, told Interfax|A new flame was to be burning in the fireplace when New Year's| |that reprisals may be taken |meal was cooked. A long log was put in the fire. Its length | |against these people at home. He|determined how long the family would be celebrating. As soon | |added that they must not be |as the log allowed the door to close, a New Year's party, with| |deported. ([http:// |many good things to eat and drink, with dancing and jesting, | |www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php? |could begin. Sooner or later, all logs got shorter, so that | |lng=§ion=Moseng] more...) |every family would sooner or later start celebrating . New | | |Year's logs were prepared in advance: a standing tree, most | | Chechen history |often an oak, was put to dry. It was a great sin to use fruit | | |trees for this purpose. The ancestors of today's Chechens | |Chechnya | Questions and answers|believed that the forces of evil stepped up action on New | | |Year's eve. They would, for protection, scatter things made of| |To Reader |steel in the cattle-sheds and their living quarters. A | |All about Chechnya, chechens. |plentiful meal offered guarantees for the family's wellbeing | |ChechenRepublic | news| history||in the year to come. All creatures, including mice, were to | |traditions| music |have their bellies full on New Year's eve. Wheat breads were | | |baked. The head, ritual bread was shaped as a circle, with | |This pamphlet is about Chechnya |lines radiating from its center. Breads with all kinds of | |, a Russian territory which has |filling in them were baked in addition to the magic one. The | |witnessed the most tragic events|eldest member of the family got a square-shaped one while the | |over the past decade. The book |guests were treated to round breads. Coins, grains of wheat or| |is the latest update on the |a spool of yarn might be hidden, for fortune-telling purposes,| |Chechen Republic . And this is |inside fancy breads. Other fortune-telling methods were | |very important, since a lack of |applied on New Year's eve. A man was, for example, chosen to | |fresh and accurate information |spend the night in the sanctuary. He would lie face down and | |about events in Chechnya |keep his ear pressed to the dirt floor and would, in the | |generates many distorted |morning, try to interpret what he had heard. The same kind of | |conceptions and rumours - both |fortune-telling is known in Russia. A Russian village-dweller | |within and outside Russia . For |would go to a crossroads, mark a circle and press his ear to | |example, that Chechen society is|the ground. If he heard a loaded sleigh swish heavily by, next| |allegedly inherently alien to |year's harvest would be good. If the sleigh seemed to be | |Russia , that pro-Russian |empty, the harvest would be poor. Chechens knew a very special| |elements in the republic are |method of fortune-telling. They would hold to light a ram's | |marginalised; and lastly, that |shoulder blade. Spots on the shoulder blade predicted whether | |Russian power structures are |next year's harvest would be good, what kind of weather they | |fighting the Chechen people, |were to expect and even family developments. A similar method | |rather than armed bandit groups.|of fortune-telling is known in China. Young girls took | |The reality, however, is that |advantage of New Year's eve in an effort to find out something| |only with the return of the |about their future husbands. A Chechen girl would bake three | |legitimate authorities are |very salty little breads. She would put two of them under her | |villages and towns being |pillow and eat the third. The person who gave her, in a dream,| |restored, children going to |a drink of water, was to become her husband. Young people or | |school for the first time in |teenagers would put on their sheepskin coats the wrong side | |many years, and pensioners |up, and either wear felt hoods decorated with horns or paint | |receiving long-forgotten |their faces black with chimney soot. Such dress parades, as | |pensions, i.e. a social rebirth |well as the custom of singing carols and begging for penny | |is underway. Lying ahead are a |gifts, are, incidentally, known, till this day, in many | |referendum on a new Chechen |countries of Europe and America. But horse races on the third | |constitution, and parliamentary |day of a new year are held in Chechnya only. The three winners| |and presidential elections. |should be given a horse, a saddle, a bridle, a whip or a piece| |These votes will be held, |of clothing. Nowadays, New Year's eve has nothing to do with | |despite continued attempts by |farming. Neither does it with Islam. People simply get | |bandit groups and their leaders |together on New Year's eve to say good-bye to the outgoing | |to scupper the process of |year and to welcome in a new and, hopefully, much better year.| |normalisation in the republic, |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?section=traditionseng& | |the latest terrorist act being |lng=eng] in detail ...) | |the bombing of the republican | | |government building. The war | Chechen tarditions | |being waged by Chechen | | |separatists against federal |The book "Vainakh Ethics" by Edi Isaev | |forces and more often than not |Edi Isaev on Customs and Traditions of Chechens The book" | |against their own co-citizens is|Vainakh Ethics " by Edi Isaevthe chechen character | |by no means a "national | | |liberation struggle of the |The book "Vainakh Ethics" by Edi Isaev is an utmost important | |Chechen people", but an episode |work at a time when the life in Chechnya is returning to | |in the overall offensive by |normal. Edi Isaev is a historian, Professor at the Chechen | |international terrorism on the |State University, writer and publicist directs his book to | |fundamental principles of modern|youth. In introduction he emphasizes: "The norm of Vainakh | |civilisation. The facts show |ethics is the code of wise truths of people that reflects | |that being a part of the Russian|their ideals." The book is educational. It contains the ideas | |Federation in no way threatens |on ethics by thinkers of various people and various times from| |the Chechen Republic 's cultural|Epicurus and Confucius A.S. Makarenko and L.N.Toltoi. The | |identity, the free use of its |second chapter is devoted to ethic norms of Chechens. The | |own language, and preaching |third chapter considers in detail traditional family ethic | |Islam. On the contrary, it was |code. The final chapter is devoted to Islamic ethic norms. | |during de facto "independence" |Materials from the book Vainakh Ethics by Edi Isaev is devoted| |from Russia that the Chechen |to customs and traditions of Chechens. | |people suffered a humanitarian |[http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion= | |tragedy on an unprecedented |bookvaineng&row=0] (more about chechen traditions...) | |scale. Hostage-taking, the slave| | |trade and plundering came to | Chechen cuisine | |form the economic basis of the | | |new regime, while chaos and war |All about Chechnya, chechens. ChechenRepublic | news| history|| |became the form of its political|traditions| music | |existence. We want to emphasise |"The Chechens, like the rest of the highlanders, avoid | |once more: Chechnya is part of |extremes in their eating and drinking habits. What they | |Russia , geographically, |usually eat is chureks or corn bread with mutton lard spread | |politically and |on it, and wheat stew with lard in it; water is their basic | |civilisation-wise. So a |refreshment." "...Unleavend wheat or barley bread baked on | |hypothetical triumph of radical |charcoal, milk and cheese constitute their daily menu; meat is| |Islamism on its territory would |eaten, very rarely, by the richest of the Chechens." That was | |be anti-historical. Such a |written about the Chechen eating habits in the 19th century. | |development would signify the |And it was not until the late 19th century that many | |establishment in the midst of |vegetables grown in Europe - tomatoes, cabbage, radish - had | |Europe of a Taliban-like regime,|found their way to the kitchen gardens of mountainous | |with all ensuing consequences |Chechnya. Chechen farming units have, since times immemorial, | |for the international community.|been self-sufficient, with only spices and sweetmeats being | |The corporate author - |bought at the market. And, although they have become familiar | |journalists of the Russian |with the cuisines of many other ethnic communities, the | |Information Agency Novosti - |Chechen women cherish the very special culinary traditions of | |have attempted to be as brief as|their own. | |possible on providing answers to|([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?section=kitcheneng&lng=| |the most-often aked questions |eng] in detail ...) | |(above all posed by a foreign | | |audience) about the Chechen | - | |issue. Hence the book's title: "| | |Chechnya : Questions and |## | |Answers". It draws heavily on | | |information provided by various | Copyright [http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng] | |Russian ministries and | CHECHNYA FREE.RU | |departments that in one or | | |another way are involved in | | |normalising life in the | | |republic. | | |Russian Information Agency | | |Novosti | | |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ | | |index.php?section=answerseng&lng| | |=eng] in detail ...) | | | | | | Chechen economics | | | | | |Russian scholars and college | | |professors try to help Chechnya | | | | | |[4047] The Institute of | | |ethnology and anthropology of | | |the Russian Academy of Sciences,| | |the Academy's Complex Research | | |Center in Grozny , the Chechen | | |Ministry of Industry, | | |Transportation and | | |Communications, and the Chechen | | |Humanitarian Aid Foundation have| | |held a nationwide conference in | | |Moscow . They aimed to find out | | |what scholars and college | | |professors of the Russian | | |Federation could do for the | | |reconstruction and development | | |of the Chechen economy. The | | |International Foundation for the| | |the revival and development of | | |Chechen State University had | | |done much in the effort to | | |arrange this conference. The | | |conference brought together | | |policy-makers, scholars, and | | |journalists of Russian and | | |Chechen background. Dr.Dena | | |Batayev addressed industrial | | |recovery and prospects for | | |housing construction in Chechnya| | |. In Batayev's view, Chechnya | | |was really doing something in | | |this field, and, in terms of the| | |immediate needs of the Chechen | | |republic, it was necessary, to | | |rebuild 25% to 30% of the plant | | |that used to turn out housing | | |construction materials: several | | |steel concrete plants and the | | |Argun plant for prefabbed | | |housing construction. All the | | |other plants must, in | | |Dr.Batayev's view, be reoriented| | |for solid housing construction | | |which is best suited for | | |seismic-sensitive Chechnya . | | |Reconstruction and construction | | |projects require a complex | | |approach - such was the basic | | |message of Dr.Batayev's speech. | | |Construction projects require | | |financial backing but Chechnya | | |has enough material reserves and| | |an adequate number of working | | |men for a full-scale | | |construction and reconstruction | | |effort. It all boils down, as it| | |always does, to the problem of | | |cadre. Experts in housing | | |construction are trained at the | | |Construction Department of the | | |Grozny Oil College named after | | |Dr.Dmitry Millionschikov. Sergei| | |Arutyunov, who heads the | | |Caucasus Department of the | | |Institute of Ethnology of the | | |Russian Academy of Sciences, | | |also addressed the conference. | | |He is confident that fundamental| | |research in Chechnya will return| | |to, if not surpass, its level of| | |the 90's of the past century, | | |thanks, in a great measure, to | | |the relative stabilization of | | |the situation. Arutyunov pins | | |hope on the Chechen | | |intellectuals who ought to | | |safeguard and enrich the | | |cultural potential of Chechnya. | | |([http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ | | |index.php?lng=§ion= | | |economeng] more...) | | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------| | [http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ | | |index.php?section=projectrus&lng|[mail][mailto:info@chechnyafree.ru] [mailto] | | =eng] [about] | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=news.media.chechnyafree&email= http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com