MORE WAR CRIMES IN THE COURTS. A

prosecutor attached to the Chief Administration of the General Procuracy of Russia in the North Caucasus, Mariya Semisynova, has called for the death penalty for Ramzes Goichaev (Gaichaev), a former resident of the Shatoi District of Chechnya, who is being tried in the Russian city of Pyatigorsk for having killed ten ethnic Russians in the settlement of Chervlennaya during the period 1997-1999. Goichaev has been charged with “genocide” (Article 213 of the Russian Criminal Code) as well as with other serious crimes. The court’s decision will be announced on April 18 (Lenta.ru, April 10).

The weekly Moskovskie Novosti has reported that the recent extradition to Moscow of two Chechen rebels sought by the Russian authorities, Ruslan Akhmadov and Badrudi Mutrazaev, who had concealed themselves in Azerbaijan, has “dispersed the illusions of the Chechen diaspora about a quiet life in Baku.” There are an estimated 10,000 Chechens living in Azerbaijan. Members of the diaspora wrote a letter to President Haidar Aliev protesting against round-ups of Chechens being conducted by the Azerbaijani police, often accompanied by blackmail and extortion. Alla Dudaeva, widow of the late president of Chechnya, Dzhokhar Dudaev, was one of those signing the letter (Moskovskie Novosti, no. 14, April 3-9).