Actual News from Chechnya

News update

"A worthy candidate-the man to win popular sympathies," is what Vladimir Yakovlev, presidential envoy plenipotentiary to federal district South, says of Alu Alkhanov, nominated for Chechen presidency. "Alkhanov has been fighting banditry for many years. He is aggressive in it-the right way to do the job. He has an impressive record of peacetime work, too. He monitors paying damages for war-destroyed property. If Alkhanov does run, the presidential race promises him a good poll." An early presidential election in Chechnya has been appointed for August 29 after a Dynamo stadium blast of May 9 in Grozny, Chechen capital, took the life of republican President Ahmad Kadyrov.
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Seven Chechens suspected of organizing the June 4 bomb explosion at the Kirovsky market in Samara have been detained a at the regional main interior department told Itar-Tass. The police seized huge amounts of plastid, firearms, hand grenades and other ammunition The detainees were taken to a federal court in Samara. The judge ordered to arrest five of them on charges of illegal storage of weapons and ammunition. The other two detainees were set free on grounds that they were not linked to weapons storage. The blast at the Samara city market killed eleven people on June 4. forty-one victims were taken to hospital. The total amount of casualties, including the dead and the wounded, have reached 70. The makeshift explosive device was filled with 1.5 kilograms of plastid and a Bickford fuze. It was planted at the back wall of a trading container. In the meantime, the government of the Samara region has transferred 200,000 roubles to the account of a four-month-old orphan whose parents died in the Samara market explosion. The parents of Roma Iksanov went to the city market to buy new clothes for their newly born son last Friday and never came back home. Sergei Sychyov, the head of the Samara regional administration, told Itar-Tass that Governor Konstantin Titov had instituted a monthly allowance worth 2,000 roubles for the acquisition of food for the baby. The regional government will help the babys aunt (his mothers sister) to prepare all the papers required for custodianship and will render all other assistance to her. The babys father Rafael Iksanov, 30, the sergeant major of a patrol service of the interior department of the Sovetsky district, returned safe and sound from a mission to Chechnya two years ago. The government of the Samara region will pay 100,000 roubles to the families of the dead and 50,000 roubles to the wounded who are staying in hospitals. People who received out-clinic treatment will get 5,000 roubles. (more...)

Chechen history

Chechnya | Questions and answers

This pamphlet is about Chechnya , a Russian territory which has witnessed the most tragic events over the past decade. The book is the latest update on the Chechen Republic . And this is very important, since a lack of fresh and accurate information about events in Chechnya generates many distorted conceptions and rumours - both within and outside Russia . For example, that Chechen society is allegedly inherently alien to Russia , that pro-Russian elements in the republic are marginalised; and lastly, that Russian power structures are fighting the Chechen people, rather than armed bandit groups. The reality, however, is that only with the return of the legitimate authorities are villages and towns being restored, children going to school for the first time in many years, and pensioners receiving long-forgotten pensions, i.e. a social rebirth is underway. Lying ahead are a referendum on a new Chechen constitution, and parliamentary and presidential elections. These votes will be held, despite continued attempts by bandit groups and their leaders to scupper the process of normalisation in the republic, the latest terrorist act being the bombing of the republican government building. The war being waged by Chechen separatists against federal forces and more often than not against their own co-citizens is by no means a "national liberation struggle of the Chechen people", but an episode in the overall offensive by international terrorism on the fundamental principles of modern civilisation. The facts show that being a part of the Russian Federation in no way threatens the Chechen Republic 's cultural identity, the free use of its own language, and preaching Islam. On the contrary, it was during de facto "independence" from Russia that the Chechen people suffered a humanitarian tragedy on an unprecedented scale. Hostage-taking, the slave trade and plundering came to form the economic basis of the new regime, while chaos and war became the form of its political existence. We want to emphasise once more: Chechnya is part of Russia , geographically, politically and civilisation-wise. So a hypothetical triumph of radical Islamism on its territory would be anti-historical. Such a development would signify the establishment in the midst of Europe of a Taliban-like regime, with all ensuing consequences for the international community. The corporate author - journalists of the Russian Information Agency Novosti - have attempted to be as brief as possible on providing answers to the most-often aked questions (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 Russian ministries and departments that in one or another way are involved in normalising life in the republic.
Russian Information Agency Novosti
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Chechen economics

Restoration of fuel and energy complex in Chechnya

The Russian industry and energy ministry has made a report about the restoration of the fuel and energy facilities in Chechnya for the 2000 - 2004 periods. These are the highlights. Oil and gas complex: The restoration work led to the destruction of over a hundred open oil-gushers, including more than 40 hot ones. 14 oil and gas deposits have been explored. As a result of the general repairs carried out in 2003, 16 oil wells have been prepared for exploitation. At the present time, 72 oil and gas wells are being developed and in progress is the repair of auxiliary equipment and transportation means. Gas delivery facilities: About 30 kilometers of gas pipeline and 800 kilometers of pipeline for delivering gas to consumers have been rebuilt and are functioning. All regions in the republic with gas pipeline are receiving gas and gas meters are being installed to track gas consumption. 14 out of the 18 gas distributing centers have been fitted with meters and 4 have gas reducers. The GIS Kumpli for measuring gas at the border with Dagestan has been commissioned and 36 honeycombs and 688 illegal tapping into the gas pipeline have been eliminated. Chechnya is getting uninterrupted gas supplies from other regions in Russia. More than 200 populated areas in which between 80 and 90 per cent of the population live now have electricity. Electricity is supplied to all consumers in a position to use it, including vital life sustaining facilities, such as administrative bodies, and hospitals. The restored transformers have a double reserve capacity guaranteeing a further development of the distributing network. Over 755 kilometers of a high voltage electricity line and 29 high voltage substations have been restored and 5,318 kilometers of distributing networks including 431 in Grozny are up and running. Restoration work is nearing completion on the high voltage line-Vladikavkaz-Grozny-Chir-Yurt, stretching for 214 kilometers. The first generating unit in the Argun Thermal power station with a capacity of 6 million watt has come on stream. Chechnya owes more than 3 billion rubles for already received electro-energy (more than 7,7 billion kilowatt hour)
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Issue 196
11.06.04

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

11 June 2004  Russia sees Zakayev trip to Norway as provocation
Russia considers the arrival of Maskhadovs political emissary Akhmed Zakayev in Norway as a provocation by those forces who disapprove of positive political tendencies in the development of the Russian-Norwegian dialogue, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. Russia was puzzled by reports on the arrival in Norway of Zakayev, who is suspected of grave crimes and who was put on the international most-wanted list, as well as by reports on his meetings with representatives of the Norwegian political establishment, the ministry emphasized. If this is once again explained by a certain bid to get objective data on the situation in the Chechen republic, the choice is by no means a happy one, a foreign ministry statement said. Zakayev left Russia back in 2001, and besides he can not be considered as a reliable source of information in principle, it added. Russia could recommend for those aims influential and real participants in the processes of political settlement as well as social and economic restoration underway in Chechnya, the Foreign Ministry statement emphasized. It is most likely, that the invitation of Zakayev was brought about by somebodys desire to balance visible positive tendencies in the development of the Russian-Norwegian political dialogue and cooperation, the ministry added. We consider this as a provocation by those forces who disapprove of such tendencies, the statement said. Zakayevs voyage to Norway looks all the more offensive in conditions when his allies continue condemned by the international community terrorist acts in the Chechen republic, the ministry stressed. They emphasized that Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov, in particular, was killed in one of those terrorist acts. The Zakayevs case has not been dismissed, Russia insists on his extradition or prosecution, the ministry reported. We expect that the official Oslo will not only clearly express its stance in the existing situation, but will fully fulfill its commitments as participant in the anti-terrorist coalition, the ministry emphasized.
(more News from Chechnya...)

11 June 2004  Last Chechen refugee camp in Ingushetia closes
Satsita, the last tent camp for Chechen refugees remaining in Ingushetia has been closed down. The last twelve people have vacated three tents and are on their way home. All refugees have filed voluntarily applications for returning home, Deputy Head of the Chechen Interior Ministry, Asu Dudarkayev, who is also head of the Chechen migration service, told Itar-Tass on June 10. Each member of a refugee family receives a lump sum of 1,000 roubles (around 35 U.S. dollars) to pay the travel expenses, he said. Originally around 5,000 had taken refuge in Satsita. By now most of them have returned to Chechnya, and some decided to move to temporarily accommodation centres in Ingushetia. Refugees from Satsita and the other two tent camps in Ingushetia have received housing at temporary accommodation centers in Grozny and other regions of Chechnya. Each such center has durable pre-fabricated panel houses. All those who have returned have received a notification of compensations for lost homes and property 350,000 roubles (around 10,000 U.S. dollars) to each family, Dudarkayev said. In the closed tent camp work is on to dismantle temporary buildings of the administration, school, mosque and some others. Since the lack of housing is a great problem in Chechnya, all these buildings will be assembled at new locations, the first deputy head of the Russian Federal Migration Service Department, Igor Yunash said. By the beginning of the next school year, a new school will open in Chechnya. Most of buildings from the tent camp will be transported to the village of Bamut, he said. The closure of Satsita puts an end to a whole period in the life of these people. Although they have lived these years in a friendly environment, still they were not at home, Yunash said. We are very glad we have helped these people live to the day when their dream of getting back home has materialized. There have been a total of six tent camps in Ingushetia housing 30,000 Chechen refugees for more than four years - a daily reminder of the conflict in the neighbouring republic.

11 June 2004  Everybody needs sport
The expert on physical training and sport in the Sunzhensky regional administration, Musa Barshigov who has been trying to get as many people as possible to take interest in sport, is convinced about the importance of sport. Football, volleyball, athletics, and chess are well developed in the region. Weight lifting which in the past was regarded highly is being given a new lease of life. Sportsmen and the entire residents of the region are proud of their acclaimed fellow-townsmen masters of sport- the Saidullayev brothers, Ruslan Magomadov, trainer of young athletes, merited coach of Chechnya, Vakha Aliyevich Arsanukayev, who is teaching in the village higher secondary school. Unfortunately, the development of sport in the Sunzhensky region is hampered by the lack of equipment, premises and of course, finances. Under the circumstances the regional administration and sportsmen are trying to find a way out by themselves.
(more News from Chechnya...)

Russia - Chechnya

Chechen culture

The natural surroundings determined what kind of villages and housing units were to be built in the mountainous and flatland parts of Chechnya. Mountain rock was the main. and wood, clay and straw, the auxiliary building materials. Security was the chief concern of those who settled to live in mountain canyons: their villages were to be well protected. Besides, the highlanders were concerned about the availability of grass and grazing pastures, water, and, last but not least, arable land. Land ought not to be wasted, so houses were built even on top of mountain cliffs. One-storey houses with a flat roof constituted the widest-spread type of buildings in mountainous Chechnya. Two-storeyed houses and three-to-five-storeyed towers were occasionally built, too. Several buildings - the living quarters, a tower and the outhouses - made up what might be called a family holding. Their relative positions depended on the terrain. A mountain village looked a helter-skelter agglomeration of buildings. No straight streets cut through it. Land was scarce. It was divided between kins and no construction blueprints were ever drawn up. The more kinsmen, the bigger chunk of land a kin was entitled to get. As a result, there appeared blocks of family holdings: kinsmen settled to live side by side with one another. Every village had a main square which was dominated by a mosque. The main square was meant for public gatherings. Flatland villages eventually came to imitate the highlanders' planning methods. They stretched on the bank of a river or along a road and were far more populous. A mountain village had 20 to 25 family units whereas a village of flatland Chechnya, over 400. The Chechens usually built their long, flat-roofed, one-storey houses of mountain rock and, less frequently, of straw brick. It took a week to build this unpretentious shelter, and a week was all the time a Chechen could afford to spend on housing construction after his old house was destroyed by an enemy. Other construction materials were used in flatland Chechnya. The walls of the houses were made of a mixture of clay, chaff and fresh manure. The roofs were made of wooden poles covered with tree bark and a layer of clay. The clay was to be tamped with a special rammer, otherwise grass would grow on the roofs.
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Chechen tarditions

The book "Vainakh Ethics" by Edi Isaev is an utmost important work at a time when the life in Chechnya is returning to normal. Edi Isaev is a historian, Professor at the Chechen State University, writer and publicist directs his book to youth. In introduction he emphasizes: "The norm of Vainakh ethics is the code of wise truths of people that reflects their ideals." The book is educational. It contains the ideas on ethics by thinkers of various people and various times from Epicurus and Confucius A.S. Makarenko and L.N.Toltoi. The second chapter is devoted to ethic norms of Chechens. The third chapter considers in detail traditional family ethic code. The final chapter is devoted to Islamic ethic norms. Materials from the book Vainakh Ethics by Edi Isaev is devoted to customs and traditions of Chechens.
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Chechen cuisine

"The Chechens, like the rest of the highlanders, avoid extremes in their eating and drinking habits. What they usually eat is chureks or corn bread with mutton lard spread on it, and wheat stew with lard in it; water is their basic refreshment." "...Unleavend wheat or barley bread baked on charcoal, milk and cheese constitute their daily menu; meat is eaten, very rarely, by the richest of the Chechens." That was written about the Chechen eating habits in the 19th century. And it was not until the late 19th century that many vegetables grown in Europe - tomatoes, cabbage, radish - had found their way to the kitchen gardens of mountainous Chechnya. Chechen farming units have, since times immemorial, been self-sufficient, with only spices and sweetmeats being bought at the market. And, although they have become familiar with the cuisines of many other ethnic communities, the Chechen women cherish the very special culinary traditions of their own.
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