BRIEFS

–KADYROV WANTS TEMPORARY SHELTERS CLOSED DOWN

Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has called for all the temporary accommodation centers in Chechnya to be closed down as soon as possible, claiming that they are “breeding grounds” for crime, drug use and prostitution. Ekho Moskvy radio on April 19, citing the Memorial human rights group, noted that a majority of the residents of Grozny still do not have permanent residences and quoted Civil Support Committee Chairwoman Svetlana Gannushkina as saying that the residents of two temporary accommodation centers in Gudermes had been asked to leave even though they had no place to go to or even in which to leave their belongings. As for Kadyrov’s claim that the centers are hotbeds of crime and vice, Gannushkina noted that they are inhabited mainly by families with many children and elderly people.

–MOSQUE ATTENDEES TARGETED IN KARACHAEVO-CHERKESSIA

Dozens of mosque-goers in Karachaevo-Cherkiessia “have been subject to arrests, beatings and repeated searches,” the Los Angeles Times reported on April 16 in a report from Karachaevsk, the republic’s capital. “Lists of Muslims suspected of militant tendencies have been compiled by the authorities,” the newspaper reported. “Citizens here say they contain the names of almost everyone in the republic who has a beard or goes regularly to a mosque. Being named on the list, they say, means constant visits from the police, and trouble with everything from negotiating security checkpoints to buying home insurance.”

–THOUSANDS KILLED OR MAIMED BY LANDMINES

UNICEF and European Commission said in a joint statement released in Moscow on April 4 that over 3,030 people have been injured or killed by landmines in Chechnya during the last 11 years. More than 690 people have been killed during this period, 132 of whom were children, the statement read. April 4 marked the first International Mine Awareness Day.