Since 17 April Kazbich Chechenskii, a Chechen refugee, has been on hunger strike in the village of Duisi, in the Pankisi region of Georgia. The 43-year-old writer and commentator has set up a tent in the very centre of the village, demanding that he and other Chechens who sought refuge from the war in Georgia, should be allowed to move on to other countries. This hunger strike is a final attempt to draw attention to the growing suffering of several thousand people, who have been forced to leave their homes and now have nowhere to go. Full Story...
During the first war in Chechnya in 1994—1995 our father fought against Russian occupants. He died heroically in June 1995 while commanding Chechen army troops. In early November 1999 the advance of federal occupant forces made me retreat deep into the mountains, leaving at home my 16-year-old brother in hope they would not touch the boy. But his youth did not save him. In the spring of 2000 he was forcedly taken away by federal troops and “disappeared”. Since then he has not been heard of. In the mountains I joined armed resistance groups led by Khamzat Gelayev … Full Story...
"Can you put up with jokes?" a woman is asked during a job interview when the interviewer finds out she has an African husband. "You sing well but we can’t give you the prize. Look at yourself! Our song contest is called "Our home is Russia"! a female contestant was told by the
judges. "Don’t bother to shake off the dirt, your clothes are now the colour of your skin," a teacher said to a schoolgirl while she was trying to shake the dirt off her clothes after falling over. All these incidents are to do with the plight of children born from interracial
marriages. Full Story...
Those who killed Sergei Yushenkov will escape justice but not because our police are weak or incompetent. His killers will not be found because they should be searched among those whose duty is to catch murderers and to defend constitutional rights. But their interpretation of law, of how it should be applied to benefit the public is totally different from that of normal people and the one which shared Sergei Yushenkov gunned down on April 17. Full Story...
According to Western media reports from Seoul, the United States and North Korea will meet on April 23 in Beijing, China, for high-level talks over the North’s nuclear program. The crisis erupted six months ago that day: on October 16 of last year US diplomats announced that the North Korean leadership admitted in private talks that they do run a secret nuclear arms program, which they officially claimed to have frozen in 1994 in exchange for construction of light-two water reactors and supply of fuel . Then North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors, carried several missile tests, and finally declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Full Story...
For the second year running, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights rejected the draft resolution on Chechnya. The resolution sponsored by the European Union countries was backed by 15 commission members. 21 countries voted against it, and 17 proved to be indifferent to this issue and abstained from the vote. Full Story...
On April 15th, Washington lifted the entry ban for 8 senior Belarussian diplomats. On the following day, an analogical decision was made by ministers of foreign affairs from 14 EU countries. Eight high-ranking Belarussian diplomats had been put on the "no-entry" list in November 2002. This was the Western countries' response to Minsk's refusal to issue visa extensions to OSCE officials, which, in effect, meant the OSCE mission was thrown out of Belarus. Full Story...
The Burmese-Indian border area is the place where hundreds of children have been completely deprived of education. There is no single school for children on the Burmese side of the border. Instead of taking classes, these children help their parents and elders in crop cultivation. “Our children would have to go to Indian schools covering a stretch of 30 km, ” said their parents. “We have been requesting the military authorities to set up a school in our area but in vain.” According to locals who wished not to be named, the ruling junta in Burma does not want the poor to be more literate. Full Story...
In August 2000 several hundred Tajik families were forcedly resettled by Uzbek troops from mountainous areas in the Saryassiya and Uzun districts to the Sherabad district within the same Surkhan-Darya region. The Uzbek government explained its re-settlement scheme by the necessity to evacuate locals from what has become a combat zone of Uzbek regular troops and militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. 360 families got accommodation in the village of Zarbdor on the territory of the Istiklol collective farm. Full Story...
The US-led coalition forces have entered into the heart of Baghdad. There were people on the streets waving white flags, demonstrators both cheering allied troops and displaying aggressive caution. But whatever the response, the coalition’s victory is now the fact.
 Full Story...