…AS DISAPPEARANCES ARE REPORTED ELSEWHERE IN CHECHNYA…

The Chechen Times, citing the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, reported on November 26 that security forces detained two men during a zachistka in the Avtorkhan district of the capital, Grozny, on November 22. Earlier, on November 18, security forces had detained two young people during a zachistka in the same district. The father of one of them said he still knew nothing about the fate of his son.

Meanwhile, the Chechenpress news agency’s website on November 29 published an appeal by the Chechen Human Rights Center to the United Nations, the OSCE, the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, concerning the kidnapping of Fatima Pashaeva, a resident of the village of Starye Atagi, by “unknown armed persons in camouflage” on November 18. According to the appeal, the kidnappers, who numbered more than twenty and arrived in four cars, were so “confident of their impunity” that they “acted without covering their faces.” The kidnappers reportedly referred to her 26-year-old son Rizvan Pashaev, an invalid who has not seen his family in two-and-a-half years and is apparently outside Chechnya.

In an indirect indication that Fatima Pashaeva’s son was at one time involved with the rebels, the appeal stated: “Relatives and friends have not lost hope that Fatima is alive. But besides that, they are disturbed by the fact that the practice of capturing and holding relatives of participants in the Chechen resistance is continuing despite the fact that these illegal acts, provoked by the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, have been condemned by the world community and international organizations.”