Eighteen persons disappeared in North Ossetia during the recent two years

A total of eighteen persons have disappeared in North Ossetia during the recent two years, five of them - during the last two months.

"Three of the missing persons are Chechens, the remaining ones are Ingushes. Although there are no eyewitnesses, the relatives are confident that their family members were kidnapped and that these events are the echo of the 1992 Ossetian-Ingush conflict. One of the missing persons was found monstrously assassinated. Protest meetings started in the Prigorodny District of Ossetia," the "Novaya Gazeta" writes today in its review of recent resonant kidnappings.

On April 3, 2006, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" addressed a letter to President of North Ossetia Taimuraz Mamsurov, quoted below:

"We know that the authorities of the Republic of North-Ossetia Alania (RNO-A) have done a lot to eliminate the consequences of the 1992 Ossetian-Ingush conflict. Thousands of people who had been forced to leave their homes returned to the places of their permanent residence and built their ruined houses anew (...).

All the higher concern is now caused by the acts of violence that have resumed from last summer in the Prigorodny District of the RNO-A and outskirts of Vladikavkaz. There are serious grounds to assert that these crimes were committed on the basis of ethnic enmity (...).

It is important to thoroughly investigate into all these crimes and name not only the performers but also the customers. But the main task is to clear out the fate of the kidnapped persons..."

The letter remained unanswered.