17:32, 17 June 2006

Residents of Sergen-Yurt in Chechnya hold a meeting against power authorities arbitrariness

On Friday June 16, more than three hundred residents of Sergen-Yurt village in Shalinsk district of Chechnya held a meeting which lasted several hours, with a demand to set free their detained fellow-villagers.

The "Radio Freedom" reports that on Friday night Chechen military officers beat four young people and took them to an unknown place having claimed that they were suspected of arranging a major hiding place with fire-arms. The fellow-villagers assert that the young men are not guilty.

According to the radio channel, Bek Basanov, chief of the Chechen department of the Ministry of Justice, met with the meeting participants. He brought one of the detainees and promised to find the others. Later, Chechen militiamen took to an unknown place one more resident of Sergen-Yurt.

For reference, according to the "Memorial" human rights centre, 40 people have been killed and 103 residents of the republic kidnapped in Chechnya during the period from January to May 2006.