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Land mines and bombs killed more people in Chechnya last year than in Afghanistan or any other place in the world, according to a grim report released by an international watchdog Tuesday. A total of 5,695 people died in land mine and bomb blasts in Chechnya in 2002, compared to 1,286 in Afghanistan, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said. The report blamed both federal soldiers and Chechen rebels for the high casualty rate. "Fighting, replete with massive violations of human rights and laws of war, including widespread use of mines by both sides, continues," said the report, titled "Landmine...

Mikhail Metzel / AP   Head of Moscow-backed administration in Chechnya invited to Saudi Arabia       Chechnya's Moscow-appointed chief Akhmad Kadyrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow.     ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW, Sept. 4 — The head of the Moscow-appointed administration in Chechnya said Thursday he was invited to visit Saudi Arabia — an invitation interpreted as a gesture of support from the kingdom for Moscow in the battle against Chechen separatists.   div.showcase {font-family:arial;font-size:10px;color:black;margin-left:10px;}span.scBul {font-family:verdana;}a.scLink {text-decoration:none;}div.scSpon {text-align:center;}        The rebels in mostly Muslim Chechnya enjoy strong support among many in the Islamic world,...

Saturday, 6, September, 2003 (10, Rajab, 1424) Chechnya Russia’s Internal Matter: Abdullah P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News Staff JEDDAH, 6 September 2003 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday called for a peaceful solution to the Chechnya problem but described the crisis as an internal matter for Russia. “We look forward to a settlement of the protracted Chechen issue through peaceful and constitutional means within the framework of the Russian Federation,” the crown prince told the Russian Interfax news agency. Crown Prince Abdullah, who concluded his landmark three-day visit to Moscow on Thursday, highlighted...

<p>ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) &#8212; Two bombs exploded under a commuter train yesterday in southern Russia, killing at least four persons and wounding dozens of others, officials said.</p> <p>The bombs were planted on the tracks linking Kislovodsk to Mineralnye Vody in the Caucasus region. There were about 50 people in the third car of the six-car train, which was directly hit by the blasts, Railway Ministry spokesman Konstantin Pashkov said.</p>

TBILISI, Georgia -- Russia's federal minister for Chechnya on Tuesday promised housing and compensation to Chechen refugees if they return home from camps in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge. Heading a Russian delegation to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Stanislav Ilyasov spoke to Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and his government about ways to persuade the 3,500 refugees in the Pankisi Gorge to return to Chechnya. Ilyasov said Moscow would pay for the returning refugees to rent apartments and would pay compensation to those whose homes have been completely destroyed in the war. Refugees who cannot find work immediately would receive additional benefits, he...

VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia -- Federal forces on Thursday battled a group of Chechen rebels who were heading from Ingushetia toward North Ossetia, the North Ossetian Interior Ministry said. Ministry spokesman Alan Doyev said the military pushed the group of about 10 rebels back into Ingushetia's forested mountains near the village of Galashki. There was no report on casualties. Officials in both North Ossetia and Ingushetia said the fighting ended later Thursday, in an apparent indication that the rebels had fled. Chechen rebels have mounted similar incursions into regions neighboring Chechnya and launched suicide bomb attacks as part of their campaign...

Control of operations against Chechen rebels is to be handed over from the Federal Security Service (FSB) to the Interior Ministry on Monday. A Thursday meeting of the operations committee in charge of anti-rebel operations summed up the joint performance of the two agencies, an FSB spokesman said. "It was noted during the meeting that, as a result of anti-terrorist measures carried out under the guidance of the operations committee, it has been possible to neutralize the greater part of bandit ringleaders, to crush the bandit groups' main forces, and to disrupt their system of control and financial, material and...

VLADIKAVKAZ - Fighting in Chechnya and land mine explosions killed six soldiers and riot police and wounded 21 in the previous 24 hours, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Wednesday. The violence, a daily feature of life in the small southern republic, came as Chechen election officials begin registering candidates for the republic's Oct. 5 presidential election. The Kremlin has billed the race as a key step on the road to peace, a move that will establish more local authority in the independence-minded republic. The election, together with the adoption this spring of a new constitution that cemented...

<p>Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- A government minister in Russia's southern republic of Dagestan was killed by a bomb as he was driving to work in the capital, Makhachkala, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the Interfax news agency.</p> <p>Magomedsalikh Gusayev, the information and national policy minister, was killed when an explosive device placed in the road detonated, Interfax said, citing local government officials. His driver survived the blast, they said.</p>

VLADIKAVKAZ - Dozens of masked gunmen burst into a medical clinic near Chechnya and kidnapped five residents of the war-battered Russian region as they waited to see a doctor, police said Friday. Some 30 to 40 masked gunmen burst into the polyclinic at the Sunzha district hospital on Thursday, according to the Interior Ministry of the region of Ingushetia, next to Chechnya. Threatening to fire their weapons, the gunmen forced five people who were in the clinic's waiting room into two trucks. The gunmen are believed to have shot one of the captives with a pistol, and a doctor was...

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) -- Georgia may be forced into default because the country cannot pay its foreign debts, Prime-Tass reported, citing National Bank of Georgia President Irakli Managadze. Georgia had $1.7 billion in foreign debt at the end of 2002, according to the Central Bank's annual report posted its web site.

Chechnya Land Mine Kills Nine Russian Soldiers Fri August 22, 2003 04:12 AM ET MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nine Russian soldiers were killed when a land mine exploded near a column of Russian military trucks in rebel Chechnya, Russian news agencies said on Friday, quoting military sources. A military officer at army headquarters in Chechnya was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying two other soldiers were injured by the blast that hit the convoy on Thursday near the regional capital of Grozny. "Two unidentified men wearing military camouflage exploded a land mine placed in a light car," the officer said....

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - All of Georgia was without power for the entire day on Monday, and officials in the impoverished former Soviet republic were struggling to determine the cause of the blackout. Electricity went off at 7 a.m. in the entire country of 4.4 million people and was not fully restored until about 10 p.m. Periodic blackouts are common here - and rolling blackouts are regularly implemented to conserve power - but it was the first time in two years that the whole country was affected at once. ``We are trying to figure out what's happening,'' said Medeya Kakhadze,...

A remote mine allegedly triggered by Chechen rebels killed five Russian soldiers Friday while troops were conducting a search operation in the breakaway republic, the Interior Ministry said Friday. The radio-controlled mine was detonated in the Vedeno region of southern Chechnya when an armored personnel carrier full of Interior Minister troops rolled over the explosive device. The soldiers were killed immediately by the force of the blast, the ministry said. Five others were wounded. The Interior Ministry said it had stepped up control of its operations in Chechnya. Meanwhile in the Chechen capital Grozny, local police said that a small...

VLADIKAVKAZ - Twenty five separatist rebels were killed in a widespread Russian military operation in southern Chechnya, a spokesman for Russia's armed forces said Thursday. Preliminary estimates indicated that 25 insurgents were killed during a string of reconnaissance and search operations over the past 24 hours in Chechnya's Itum-Kale and Shatoi districts and the Argun Gorge, Col. Ilya Shabalkin told the Interfax news agency. Meanwhile, 10 Russian servicemen were killed in the same period in clashes with Chechen rebels and mine explosions, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said on condition of anonymity. Four soldiers were killed and another injured...

Chechnya Shows Signs of 'Palestinization' By VANCE SERCHUK FORWARD CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON — In the wake of this month's devastating suicide bombing of a hospital near Chechnya, diplomatic analysts have increasingly been speaking of the "Palestinization" of the Chechen conflict.In recent weeks, suicide bombings have suddenly become the most visible, if not dominant, métier of the Chechen resistance. Since mid-May, there have been eight successful or attempted suicide bombings in Russia. They have been responsible for more than 150 deaths — despite the fact that this kind of terrorism was virtually nonexistent in the Chechen conflict before last year. The sudden...

UK charity teaching Chechens to make bombs, say Russians -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Russia's FSB domestic security service on Thursday accused a British anti-landmine charity of teaching Chechen rebels explosives techniques and of spying on Moscow's military. The allegations, which came two days after a bomb killed eight people in a Moscow underpass, were denied by the Halo Trust mine clearance agency, which dubbed them a smear campaign. Some officials have blamed the Moscow bomb on Chechen rebels. The FSB, a successor body to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement: "The FSB has reliable information about the...

Anniversary brings pressure for release of Dutch aid worker By Ian Bickerton, Amsterdam and Reuters ends Published: August 12 2003 22:06 | Last Updated: August 12 2003 22:06 The US and European Union on Tuesday stepped up diplomatic efforts to secure the release of a Dutch aid worker kidnapped in the Russian republic of Dagestan a year ago. Arjan Erkel, a 33-year-old volunteer working for Médecins Sans Frontières, the international charity, was abducted by three armed men in Makhatchkala, the capital of Dagestan, bordering Chechnya, on August 12 last year. The Dutch ambassador in Moscow has written to Russian President...

We should not be surprised when rewarding suicide bombers causes this plague to spread. ........................................ On August 1, Russia suffered its eighth suicide bombing in less than three months. This time the target was a hospital; 50 patients and hospital staffers were killed. The previous attacks, whose targets included a religious ceremony and a rock concert, killed over 100 people. All were perpetrated by Chechens. What makes this sudden spate of attacks surprising is that though Russians and Chechens have fought two wars in the last decade, with the current one now in its fourth year, suicide attacks have until...

Russian Toll in Chechnya Put at 12,000 Agence France Presse MOSCOW, 9 August 2003 — More than 12,000 Russian soldiers have died in the nearly four-year war in separatist Chechnya, almost triple the officially disclosed figure, the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee rights group said yesterday. Valentina Malnikova, a representative of the respected group, told Moscow Echo radio that the figures included soldiers who died on their way to a hospital or from injuries at a later date — deaths that are not officially registered by the authorities. The estimate suggests that on an average, nearly nine Russian soldiers have died daily...