BRIEFS

–DAGESTAN VIOLENCE UNABATED

A bomb apparently detonated by remote control blew up a police car in central Makhachkala on May 10, killing one police officer in the car and wounding a boy and a girl who were walking by, the Associated Press reported, quoting a Dagestani Interior Ministry spokeswomen. Earlier, the spokeswoman, Marina Rasulova, had told the agency that three people had been injured in the blast and that all three were in the car when the explosion occurred. However a duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry headquarters for southern Russia, Sergei Petrov, said the car was empty and that one person was killed and another wounded – both pedestrians – in the blast. On May 5, four people were wounded in two blasts that took place 15-20 minutes apart. “The two night explosions were aimed at the crews of police patrol services,” the deputy head of the Makhachkala’s Interior Ministry directorate, Abdurakhman Kerimov, told Interfax.

–CHECHEN REFUGEES GREET BUSH IN TBILISI

A group of Chechen refugees in Tbilisi reportedly held a demonstration on May 10 along the route that President George W. Bush’s motorcade took to the Georgian capital’s Freedom Square, where he delivered a speech to tens of thousands of Georgians. The Ukrainian website Ekspert-Tentr (expert.org.ua) reported that the demonstrators held Chechen and American flags as well as placards with pictures of the late Chechen leader Djokhar Dudaev and appeals to the American president to help Chechnya achieve independence. Several placards accused Russia of genocide in Chechnya. The website quoted one demonstrator as saying: “We hope that George Bush will apply maximum effort and influence Russia, which today is carrying out genocide of the Chechen people; that the world community in the person of George Bush will today be able to bring about a political resolution of the problems of the Chechen side.” Gazeta.ru reported that some 30 Chechen refugees demonstrated on Tbilisi’s Freedom Square in support of the American president’s visit to Georgia. The website quoted the refugees as saying that they wanted to be together with the Georgian people for the event because Chechens will benefit if Georgia becomes a strong state.