15:48, 19 August 2003

Leader of Chechen refugees' public organization was released

On August 12 the Chairman of the International United Committee of Refugees from Chechnya Shirvani Gunayev was released in the village Sleptsovskaya in the Sunzhensky region of Ingushetia. He was detained by the officers of the Sunzhensky regional interior department in the tent camp "Sputnik" on August 10, 2003. According to the militia men, the cause of the detention was an examination of Gunayev's belonging to illegal armed units, which gave a negative result.

Gunayev's public activity since the beginning of the second military campaign was connected with the protection of human rights in the Chechen Republic, as well as with the solution of problems of refugees living on the territory of Ingushetia, in other regions of Russia, and in near and far foreign countries.

Activists from public organizations connect Gunayev's detention with his public activity directed at putting up the opposition to a new tide of mass breaches of rights and freedoms of Chechen citizens.

Source: Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship