Chechnya: news | arguments | facts
12 January 2006 Security chief of late Chechen separatist leader surrenders
Amirkhan Yandarbiyev, the security chief of late Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, and his two bodyguards surrendered to local authorities Friday.
All the three are nephews of Yandarbiyev, former vice president of Ichkeria - the name separatists use for "independent" Chechnya.
On surrendering, the Chechens said they wanted to return to peaceful life and work in their republic, which was devastated by two military campaigns in the 1990s. The former separatists had lived outside Russia until now.
Yandarbiyev died in a car bombing in Qatar in February 2004. Two Russian agents were later convicted of his killing in a local court but released to Russia five months later. Once at home, they were reportedly decorated, but there have been no official announcements on what happened to them upon their return.
Charges were brought against Yandarbiyev as well as two other separatist leaders - late Shamil Basayev, and Akhmed Zakayev who is currently residing in London - for masterminding the siege of a Moscow theater in October 2002. About 1,000 people were then taken hostage and more than 100 died during the operation to release them, according to official statistics.
Yandarbiyev was also wanted in Russia for organizing "an armed militant invasion" of Russia's southern republic of Daghestan in 1999, which led to the second federal campaign against separatists.
RIA Novosti
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12 January 2006 January 15 ends effect of the State Dumas resolution on the amnesty to members of illegal armed units
A total 439 militants have voluntarily laid down their arms and stopped resistance in Chechnya.
Numbers of surrendering members of armed groups have been increasing as the deadline of the amnesty, January 15, is nearing, Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov told Itar-Tass on Friday.
January 15 ends effect of the State Dumas resolution on the amnesty to members of illegal armed units. It has been a deeply thought-out action intended primarily for a part of the youth who found themselves under the influence of a hostile ideology and do not know anything but arms. Militants initially took a waiting stance. However, a number of those who voluntarily lay down arms have begun increasing with time. The largest group, about 50 militants, has given up arms in Gudermes in August, then 35 former
militants came with surrender in November. Representatives of (Aslan) Maskhadov among them, Kadyrov said.
Our main purpose is the return to the peaceful life of even one more man. If 400 well-armed militants having an experience of guerrillas action have preserved as many lives and remained alive themselves, then the amnesty has the right to be called effective, he stressed.
Most of surrenders were registered in the Grozny, Gudermes and Vedeno districts, Kadyrov said.
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12 January 2006 Three militants killed in operation in South Russia
Three militants have been killed in a 14-hour police operation that ended Thursday in Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus, a deputy Russian interior minister said.
The operation to apprehend an armed group in the capital of the republic, Makhachkala, began at 8:00 p.m. Moscow time (5:00 p.m. GMT) Wednesday. The militants returned fire from an apartment block surrounded by Russian forces. Earlier reports said four militants were killed in the operation.
Arkady Yedelev said Shamil Gasanov, nicknamed "the lame," who was on the Federal wanted list, was killed in the operation along with Dagir Gadzhiev and a militant with the surname Khalid.
The deputy minister said the Gasanov-led group had been involved in attacks on police officers.
As part of the same operation police raided another apartment believed to be used by the group early Thursday, and found explosives, detonators, a map showing police stations in the city, and Islamist Wahhabite literature.
A police source said earlier in the day that no fatalities or injuries among law enforces during the operation had been reported.
Although the active phase of the North Caucasus antiterrorism campaign officially ended in 2001, periodic bombings and clashes between gunmen and federal troops still disrupt Chechnya and nearby regions, including Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachayevo-Circassia.
The commander of Russia's Joint Forces in the North Caucasus, Colonel-General Yevgeny Baryayev, earlier said about 700 gunmen continue to operate in Chechnya and neighboring regions.
Following the killing of Chechnya's leading terrorist, Shamil Basayev, on July 10, 2006, Russian authorities announced a partial amnesty July 15 for militants who were not involved in major atrocities.
A law granting amnesty to militants and servicemen guilty of offenses during the North Caucasus antiterrorism campaign came into force in late September 2006. About 400 militants have accepted the surrender offer since its announcement, mainly in Chechnya.
RIA Novosti
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