Briefs

Isa Yamadaev: Sulim Yamadaev is Alive and on the Mend

In an interview with the Rosbalt News Agency on May 4, Isa Yamadaev, the brother of former Vostok battalion commander Sulim Yamadaev, said Sulim was awaiting a second major operation for wounds inflicted by a March 28 assassination attempt in Dubai but that his life is no longer in danger. Isa said the operation involved a bullet wound in the neck that had left his brother unable to speak. Yet he said that Sulim’s condition had improved after one operation and quoted Sulim’s wife as saying he is now able to speak. Isa and other relatives have insisted that Sulim is still alive even though Dubai police and other authorities in the United Arab Emirates insist that he died at the scene of the shooting in Dubai. Meanwhile, the Russian bureau of Interpol said on May 4 that it has not yet received any documents from the UAE regarding the search for Russians suspected in the attack on Yamadaev. Last week, seven Russian citizens, including Adam Delimkhanov, the State Duma deputy and cousin of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, were put on Interpol’s wanted list at the request of the UAE in connection with Sulim Yamadaev’s murder (North Caucasus Weekly, May 1). Earlier, Dubai’s police chief accused Delimkhanov of organizing Sulim Yamadaev’s assassination (North Caucasus Weekly, April 10 and 17).

Amnesty International: Human Rights Still Violated in North Caucasus

Amnesty International charged on May 7 that little has been done to improve the human rights situation in Russia during the years since President Dmitry Medvedev took office, and that the situation has even worsened in some areas in that period. “Instability and armed clashes remain hallmarks of the North Caucasus region where the legitimate aim of tackling violence by armed groups is being pursued by means which violate international human rights law,” the London-based human rights group wrote in a press release. “People continue to be forcibly disappeared or abducted, arbitrarily detained, tortured or even killed while in detention. The recently proclaimed end of the ‘counter-terrorism operation’ in large parts of Chechnya is seen by the authorities as a step towards normalization. However, Amnesty International considers that normalization is not possible without full accountability for the grievous human rights violations that have taken place in the region.”