Women's meeting in Chechnya suspended

The women from the villages of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya who blocked the Rostov-Baku federal route to protest against recent detentions of their fellow-villages suspended their protest action on June 19. It happened after Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Khizir Tepsayev had come to the scene and addressed the protestors. He assured the women that all groundlessly detained residents of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya had been released. The last three detainees are held by the Chechen police and will be released soon too, he said. Having been given evidence that 25 out of 28 detained people were really free, the women decided to wait until the release of the other three people.

Besides, details of the purges in Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya which led to the protest action have become known. On June 15, at about midnight, gunmen came in two Uaz cars to take three Sernovodsk residents, Ayndi Mazayev, Magomed Nakayev and Ruslan Paraulidze. The gunmen start to beat the young people. Ayndi lost consciousness, and the attackers decided he wad dead. They stopped the beating and took away Nakayev and Paraulidze. To all appearances, they decided to come back to take Ayndi Mazayev's body. But he had regained consciousness and managed to get home by that time. Early in the morning of June 16, gunmen rushed into the Muzayev family's house. Ayndi's relatives say the people who rushed into their house were Chechens. They did not even demand that Ayndi show his documents. Ayndi's parents followed the abductors after awhile. They heard a single shot in approximately twenty minutes and found the bloody body of his son soon afterwards.

Editors note: See also the article "Chechen women block federal route".