OSCE GROUP COMES UNDER FIRE. A

mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which had come to Grozny to visit Chechen citizens who had earlier written to the OSCE, came under automatic weapons fire on July 22 in the Staropromyslovsky District of the capital. “The criminals used automatic weapons with silencers.” No one was taken into custody (Presscenter.ru, July 25; Infocentre.ru, July 24). While the identity of the attackers remains unknown, it cannot be ruled out that those firing at the mission were in fact representatives of the federal forces trying to rid the republic of Western “eyes and ears” at a time when thousands of Chechen IDPs are heavy-handedly being induced to return home. On July 7, Andera Arselli, a representative of the Danish Refugee Council, an organization frequently excoriated by spokesmen for the Russian power ministries, had his car damaged by an explosive device while he was traveling in Urus-Martan District (Lenta.ru, July 9).