11:10, 1 October 2007

Less kidnappings registered in Chechnya

General Arkadiy Edelev, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia, has stated in Grozny that the number of crimes connected with kidnappings has dropped fivefold in Chechnya. Earlier, the employees of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" have also stated the reduction of this sort of crimes.

Speaking about the armed underground in Chechnya, Mr Deputy Minister has told that the leader of separatists Doku Umarov "and his foreign patrons are trying to exaggerate the number of their bandit groupings." However, in Arkadiy Edelev's words, we should be able to speak about the complete defeat of armed formations in the Republic only in the event that Chechnya "would have no alternative rulers like Umarov."

On September 28, the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" has disseminated its latest report that states that now there are much fewer kidnappings in Chechnya. Thus, according to human rights activists, while in May-August this year a total of nine kidnappings were registered in the Chechen Republic, during the same period of last year 53 persons were kidnapped.

Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent