Actual News from Chechnya

News update

Population and infrastructure of thirteen Chechen districts and three districts in the republican capital of Grozny were affected as a result of floods that swept across the republic on May 9-10. According to the republican Emergencies Ministry, 643 people were evacuated from 143 fully destroyed houses. More than 1,192 houses were inundated. All in all, over 5,000 residents of the republic suffered from the floods over those days. A landslide-prone situation emerged in Duba-Yurt village, Shali district, department chief at the Chechen Emergencies Ministry Ruslan Abazov told Itar-Tass on Sunday. A landslide threatens 50 private houses in the village. Torrential waters in the republic damaged nearly 50 pedestrian and highway bridges and washed away more than 400 kilometres of roads, Abazov noted. Restoration work is now underway across the entire republic. Efforts are made to strengthen protecting levees on rivers. The ministerial services continue to work in the emergency regime, because weathermen forecasted a new wave of floods in nearest days, Abazov said. According to preliminary information, the damage from the floods in Chechnya amounted to 600 million roubles. However, experts believe that the sum may rise after detailed study.
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Four gunmen were destroyed last night in a special operation, carried out by officers of the Chechen Interior Ministry in the Staropromyslovsky district of Chechnya. According to preliminary data, one of the killed gunmen is former vice-president of the so-called Ichkeria republic Vakha Arsanov, Tass learnt from Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Sultan Satuyev. According to the deputy minister, the reputed gunman was visually identified by local resident who knew him well. The killed has a domestic passport for some others name. The deputy minister noted that a medical examination would have the last say on the identification. The incident took place last night at 23.25. The gunmen were blockaded at a private house and spurned down a proposal to surrender. They were killed in a brief clash. Police found a pistol, three submachineguns at the place of the clash, two of them had been stolen during an attack on the Ingushetia Interior Ministry on the night of June 20, 2004. Other gunmen are being identified. (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
(in detail ...)

Chechen economics. An Entrepreneurs Table Book Published in Chechnya

An Entrpreneurs Table Book with a circulation of 5,000 copies has been released in the Chechen Republic. Its appearance comes in the nick of time, as according to specialists, there about 5,000 small businesses, including farming collectives. This sector of the economy employes nearly 100,000 farmers. Over the next five years the Chechen leadership is targeting to double the number of small business and increase the number of employees up to 250-300 thousand people. The Republic has set up a modern support infrastructure for small business and developed programs of development and support of small entrepreneurship. And the most important thing is that there are dynamic people, ready to undertake small business. It is precisely for those people that An Entrepreneurs Table Book has been released. Its compilers include Shaarani Shuaipov Committee Chairman on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Chechen government, and Magomed Shovkhalov -- Fund Director in support of small entrepreneurship of the Chechen Republic.
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Issue 289
17.05.05

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

17 May 2005  3,300 newborns in just one year
The Gudermes central district hospital has been found to be Chechnyas best medical institution. The head doctor Idris Baisultanov says the staff should be given credit for the achievement, since all of them are very good doctors, nurses and orderlies who are keen on medicine and caring for patients and who continually seek to improve their professional skills. Idris Baisultanov feels that although his hospital has won the title of Chechnyas best district hospital, they did nothing that any other hospital staff wouldnt be able to do. First of all, they analyzed the medical situation in the district, singled out the more important problems and worked to clear them up. First and foremost, they focused on the network of medical institutions in the countryside, namely on obstetric aid stations and ambulance stations. The hospital got down to restoring them and providing the stations with the necessary equipment. The past two years have seen a major improvement in the resource base of the district medical institutions, which now boast better diagnostic means, a grater scope of medicines administered to patients, more convenient wards, improved treatment and better food. First aid can now be administered quickly to whoever may need it, since four rural polyclinics have been equipped with ambulance cars to perform as substations of the first-aid-station. Although the head physician quickly enumerates the achievements, one can see it took them a great deal of time and effort to accomplish what they did. Today the Gudermes central district hospital boasts a casualty department, a department of surgery, a gynecology department, a urology department, resuscitation department, infectious disease department, maternity ward, pathologic pregnancy department and a department of new-born pathologies. The first city hospital has been used as a basis for a therapeutics department and a department of paediatrics. Late last year the tuberculosis department was reinforced with a TB dispensary. The rural district hospital in the Oiskhary village can treat 50 patients in the maternity ward, therapeutics department and the department of paediatrics. Then rural hospital in Engel-Yurt boasts the same departments. A 15-cot day treatment department has been opened at the district maternity welfare centre. The head doctor is especially proud that 3,300 babies were born in the district last year in what proved a perfect reason for their mums and dads, their grandmothers and grandfathers, and, of course, medical workers to celebrate. Today the Gudermes region boasts 564 medical workers, including 131 doctors, who provide effective protection against any disease for those building a peaceful and prosperous Chechnya.
(more News from Chechnya...)

16 May 2005  Bomb confiscated from man in Dagestan
A man has been detained in Makhachkala, the capital of the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, and a powerful improvised explosive device has been confiscated from him, a local law enforcement source told Interfax on Saturday. The man was detained at around 11:00 p.m. Moscow time on Friday, the source said. He has been charged with the illegal purchase and possession of weapons, ammunition, explosive substances and explosive devices. Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov has confirmed reports that a man was detained in Makhachkala and an explosive device was confiscated from him. A similar bomb was used during a terrorist attack in Kaspiisk on May 9, 2002, Magomedtagirov told Interfax.
(more News from Chechnya...)

16 May 2004  Police car fired on in Chechnya, 3 policemen wounded
A police car was fired on by unknown people from automatic arms in Chechnyas Staropromyslovsky region. Three policemen got injuries in the attack, Itar-Tass learnt at the republics law enforcement bodies on Monday. The incident occurred at the crossroad near a secondary school building on Sunday night. Policemen opened response fire, however, bandits managed to escape. Two wounded policemen were hospitalised, and the third one was given out-patient medical aid. A probe in the incident is in progress.
(more News from Chechnya...)

Russia - Chechnya

Chechen culture

The fifth filial of Mikhail Y. Lermontov - the great Russian poets museum opened in an ancient house in the village of Paraboch of the Shelkovki Region in Chechnya . The house is nearly 250 years old and it belonged to a local landlord, retired general Akim Khastatov whose wife Yekaterina Stolypina was a distant relative to Lermontovs grandmother Yelizaveta Arsenyevna. The latter visited Khastatovs estate several times. And she took along young Mikhail, whom she raised after his mothers death. In 1837 during his exile to the Caucasus, Lermontov revisited the home of his relatives. In 1841, he went there for the last time shortly before his death. The building has been well preserved. In 1990 restoration work was begun to make a museum of the great poet. But the events of the past decade postponed all restoration work. Fortunately the building wasnt damaged in the course of hostilities. But it is in need of maintenance. The most important thing that its internal architecture, the living room, window shutters and certain items that the poet may have touched, have all been preserved. In 2004 museum personnel was formed. Svetlana Temirbulatova a learned person and a known philologist in Chechnya was appointed the museums director. The employees will be allocated part of the museum as a working area. The employees will engage in search of items and materials of Lermontovs time and complete the museums exposition. As soon as the building is passed over into the Chechen Culture Ministry care, restoration and maintenance work will get underway. Later on it will receive its first visitors.
(chechen culture ...)

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.
(more about chechen traditions...)

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.
(in detail ...)

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