NOVEMBER 2005

rom: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/29/2005 8:58 AM
Russia: Human Rights Groups Spurn Chechen Poll
Tuesday, 29 November 2005
By Claire Bigg
Chechnya -- elections (par 27 Nov 05) girl waits/posters
A girl waits for her mother at a polling station in Grozny on 27 November
(AFP)
Russia's leading human rights organizations refused to monitor the 27 November parliamentary elections in Chechnya, the first to be held in the war-torn republic since the Kremlin launched its second campaign to crush separatists in 1999. Rights groups have said monitoring the election process would equate to giving legitimacy to a poll that they charge was flawed from the start.

Moscow, 29 November 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Chechnya's legislative elections should have taken place two years ago, but they were postponed several times for fear separatist rebels may disrupt the vote.

The poll, however, passed without violence. Officials have hailed the vote as a sign that things are returning to normal in ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/30/2005 11:59 PM
 "Globalization or ethnic self-identification" -  conference of "not recognized countries" takes place in Switzerland
30.11.2005
The vice-speaker of Abkhazian parliament Alexander Stranichkin and the chairman of the committee on inter-parliamentary and external communications of Abkhazia Beslan Butba, as well as representatives of Mountain Karabakh, Pridnestr, South Ossetia would take part in the international scientific-practical conference "Multiculturism and ethno-political models of the XXI century". The conference is organized by the NGO "the Free Europe". It opens tomorrow, on December, 1st, in Switzerland.

As IА REGNUM correspondent in Sukhumi informed, participants of the conference would consider some contemporary questions - "Globalization or ethnic self-identification", "Integration or self-determination of nations", "Peace-making process or intervention in affairs of sovereign states", and discuss, whether they could avoid such oppositions. It is supposed to lead within the work of the conferences three plenary sessions on the themes: "Multiculturism in the epoch ...
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rom: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/1/2005 2:06 AM
CAUCASIAN KNOT / NEWS

23/11/2005
Suspects in Nalchik attack ill-treated - HRW

Below is a full-text version of a Human Rights Watch report of ill-treatment with respect to Nalchik attack suspects.

Russia: Suspects in Caucasus Attack Ill-Treated
Lawyers Illegally Removed From Cases of Abused Suspects in Nalchik

(Moscow, November 18, 2005)–Russian law enforcement officials have used ill-treatment to coerce confessions from suspects in the October 13 armed attacks in the Northern Caucasus city of Nalchik, Human Rights Watch said today.

During a fact-finding trip to the region, Human Rights Watch researchers collected convincing evidence that at least eight persons who were detained on suspicion of participation in the attacks were subjected to ill-treatment that in some cases may amount to torture.

"Russian law enforcement routinely uses torture in its counterterrorism operations," said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "The illegal practice of fighting one human ...
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