Chechnya: news | arguments | facts
02 May 2007 Pipeline repaired, gas reaches Dagestan's Khasavyurt - ministry
Gas supplies resumed to Khasavyurt, Dagestan, at 8:30 a.m., Moscow time, on Monday, the Emergency Situations Ministry's southern regional center told Interfax.
"The local gas pipeline was repaired on Sunday evening, but gas reached households on Monday morning," the center said.
Earlier reports said that a gas pipeline, running to Khasavyurt and four populated areas near Khasavyurt, broke down at about 1 a.m., Moscow time, on Sunday. The district affected has a population of 100,000.
Preliminary reports indicate that an explosive device went off nearby, damaging the pipeline, Kavkazregiongaz distributor company earlier informed Interfax.
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02 May 2007 DNA studies will be needed to identify several Chechnya helicopter crash victims
The bodies of the servicemen who died in a helicopter crash in Shatoi district of Chechnya have been brought to a forensic laboratory, the military prosecutor's office in the North Caucasus told Interfax on Sunday.
"The bodies of 18 servicemen were flown to an army laboratory. The identification of some of the bodies will require DNA studies. Relatives will have to contribute biological materials for the purpose," a spokesman said.
"The final conclusions about the cases for the crash may be made within a month's time," he added.
"Investigative operations at the crash scene continue and involve representatives of the Air Force headquarters, experts as well as military investigators. They have to study big quantities of materials, including helicopter fragments," he said.
Eyewitnesses are being interviewed, he added.
"The helicopter was not flying alone. The crash was witnessed from other aerial vehicles. There were also people on the ground in the crash area," the spokesman said without identifying who those people had been.
"There were quite many eyewitnesses," he said.
"All the documents related to the flight mission, weather conditions and the technical state of the helicopter available in Khankala are being studied," he said.
"We are trying to find out what the weather was like in the landing area and whether the standard of crew training permitted it to perform its mission in those circumstances," the spokesman said.
The Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashed on Friday in south Chechnya killing 18 servicemen.
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02 May 2007 Chechen Presidents First Decree
As Ramzan Kadyrov promised on his inauguration day, the first decree he would sign after taking the presidential office would be the concept of the Republics state national policy.
Movsur Ibragimov, the minister of national policy, the media and information, whose ministry conceptualized the decree, believes this is by no means accidental. For all the troubles afflicting Chechnya previously stemmed from inadequate national policy or even the lack of it. The new Chechen President believes that it is vitally important to put proper emphasis on the relationships among various peoples and nationalities inhabiting Chechnya and numbering nearly forty.
The President is focused on making the national policy pursued in the Republic recognized by each resident, Chechens, Russians, Kalmyks, Jews, Tartars, Nogais, Ingush, Armenian, who should all feel at home in Chechnya.
The concept endorsed by the President presents a system of views and principles on the activities of state authority in the Chechen Republic in the field of national relations. It encompasses a broad range of various issues and directions.
It is incorrect to assume, the minister noted, that the concept merely deals with the issues of inter-ethnic relations. The relations directly affect the living conditions of all nationalities and peoples inhabiting the Republic. Therefore it is necessary first and foremost to ensure proper living conditions for Chechen residents, provide proper education, conditions for cultural development, health and environmental protection, scientific development and more. All of these are laid down in the concept.
The concept pays special attention to ensuring peaceful and tolerant conditions of life in Chechnya, return of ethnic Russians to the Republic. The concept makes it clear that both the residents and authorities of the Republic are vitally interested in its implementation.
M. Ibragimov believes that if Chechnya is inhabited by native Chechens, we would not be able to develop as fast as other entities of the Russian Federation can. As before in Chechnya there are certain spheres of industry, science which Chechens themselves wouldnt want to enter and these jobs were filled mostly by the Russian speaking population of the Republic. We are interested to live and work together.
Movsur Ibragimov recalled in this connection that he himself had been taught by Russian teachers. They taught him the Russian language, history, culture and all that was necessary for a decent person to live. And now know the culture of Russian and other nationalities who inhabit Chechnya, he feels comfortable in communicating with them. On the other hand, being ignorant of the culture of neighbor people, it is hard to reach mutual understanding with them, the minister believes.
Of course, the return to Chechnya of those who currently reside outside the Republic is linked with the solution of complex problems, such as employment and housing. Today, destroyed houses in Grozny as in most other parts of Chechnya are shrouded in scaffolding works. The goal set by the President to speed up the reconstruction of housing is being successfully implemented and this opens wide opportunities for solving the housing problem for those who return to the Republic. And as the Republics economy is
picking up, new jobs are becoming available.
According to M. Ibragimov, each ministry and agency in the Republic have begun developing their own specific programs to implement the concept of national policy. Subsequently, by agreement with the presidential office, the ministry of national policy, media and information will collate them all together and submit to the government of Chechnya. The year end will be the deadline for this effort so as to be able to allocate in the 2008 budget the funding necessary for the implementation of programs of the Chechen
Republics national policy.
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Russia - Chechnya
Chechen history
Chechens one the worlds most ancient people
Chechens (self-assumed name " nokhchi" ) are the world" s most ancient people with unique anthropological type and culture. They are the largest ethnic group in the North Caucasus (more than 1 million people). The neighbouring Ingush people are very similar in genotype, culture and religion. Together they form the Vainakh people related by blood, common history, territorial, economic and cultural links and language.
Vainakhs (Chechens, Ingushes) are aborigines of the Caucasus and speak Nakh, a language that belongs to the Iberian-Caucasian language family. The Vainakh (Chechen) ethnic and cultural complex was formed on the basis of various aboriginal people. Historically the Chechen community was formed as multi-ethnic and it kept absorbing ethnic elements of nomadic people and neighbouring high-landers, the evidence of which being the non-Vainakh origin of many Chechen clans.
The history of Chechnya can be described as a continuing struggle for freedom and independence against outside enemies, in which periods of prosperity alternated with defeats and new attempts to revive the statehood. In the early Middle Ages (4th-12th centuries) Chechens had to take up arms to defend themselves against invaders from Rome, Sasanid Iran, Arab Caliphate and Khazar Kaganate. The centuries-long struggle forged a military union of highlanders and laid the foundation for their statehood.
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Issue 454
