Police Attempt to Seize Mukhmed Gazdiyev, but Protesters Stop Them. Disabled Man Is Beaten.

ingushetiya.ru 24.11.2007 13:04

OMON forces have attempted to steam into the crowd of protesters and seize one of the protest organisers, a disabled person in the first category, Mukhmed Gazdiyev, who has both arms missing. But the crowd has beaten off the police attack. During the assault, OMON forces managed to beat up the elderly man.

The stand-off in Nazran continues. Ordinary residents of the republic are coming to the aid of the protesters, indignant at Zyazikov’s corrupt regime and the actions of the law enforcement agencies to disperse the peaceful protest.

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Protest in Nazran Continues. People Wounded. The Second Storm Is Beaten off

ingushetiya.ru 24.11.2007 12:27

OMON and police forces have just made a second attempt to disperse the protest at the bus terminal in Nazran. During this attack weapons were used by the police. Among civilians there are injuries. Under a shower of stones, fruit and eggs the OMON and police were again forced to retreat.

Protesters who have receive bullet wounds have still not been taken to hospital. They are receiving help from youngsters participating.

Protesters Beat off the First Attack by the Police and Troops

ingushetiya.ru 24.11.2007 12:19

Participants in the protest in Nazran assembled near the town bus terminal have beaten off the first storm by the police and special forces. At present they are throwing eggs at the police forces.

Shooting at the Bus Terminal. Police and Troops Attempt to Disperse Protesters by Force

ingushetiya.ru 24.11.2007 12:04

At Nazran’s bus terminal police and troops have opened fire in an attempt to disperse protesters. The situation is tense. People are being taken by force and driven away in armoured vehicles.

Activist, journalists kidnapped in Ingushetiya

Reuters

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) – One of Russia’s top human rights activists and a handful of journalists were beaten and briefly abducted from their hotel in the southern province of Ingushetia, a rights group said on Saturday.

Oleg Orlov of rights group Memorial said he and a film crew from REN-TV channel were taken from the hotel in Ingushetia’s capital Nazran by a group of armed and masked people who said they were from the security forces, dealing with terrorism.

“They kept us in a truck for several hours, then took us out of the truck outside the town and beat us. Then they drove away leaving us in a field,” Orlov told Reuters.

Ekho Moskvy radio station reported that one of the TV crew members had concussion.

Orlov said the kidnappers were from the security forces or the police, who he accused to employing scare tactics before a planned mass opposition demonstration across the country.

“It was a blatant action of intimidation, they get paranoid,” he said.

The police were not available for comment.

Russia’s opposition is planning to hold demonstrations across the country on Saturday to protest against a pro-Kremlin party’s stranglehold on politics ahead of a parliamentary election next month.

Demonstrators were planning to protest in Nazran, but the action was banned by the authorities after organizers said over 10,000 people were expected to attend it.

Violence is not rare in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus region, with barely a day passes without a shooting, bombing or kidnapping.

(Writing by Tanya Mosolova; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

People Gather for the Protest near the Town Bus Terminal

ingushetiya.ru 24.11.2007 11:50

The protest in Nazran has begun assembling near the town bus terminal. As our correspondent reports from the scene, several hundred people are rallying on the road near the bus terminal.

Soglasiya Square is closed. Because of this people are having to start the protest at the bus terminal.

REN TV Journalists Seized Again. They Have Been Driven away at Midnight along with Human Rights Activist Oleg Orlov, Beaten, and their Cameras and Documents Taken

ingushetiya.ru

The authorities of Ingushetiya have robbed them and taken away their documents and cameras.

We have already reported to you the happy conclusion to the story of the REN TV journalists in Ingushetiya.

This, alas, is not the end of it.

At around midnight people in camouflage burst into their hotel “Assa” in Nazran, covered their heads with black sacks and drove them away. They came to some deserted place, took their documents and cameras and said, “Now we will kill you”. However, they simply left them there. The journalists and human rights activist Oleg Orlov from “Memorial”, who was seized with them, managed to make their way by foot to the Cossack village Nesterovskaya in Sunzhensky district and to get to the police.

The Authorities Resort to Desperate Measures. In the Village of Surkhakhi a Search Is Conducted of Maksharip Aushev’s House

ingushetiya.ru 23.11.2007 17:18

The authorities are continuing to undertake desperate attempts not to allow Saturday’s nationwide protest in Nazran to be held. Today there were arrested and delivered to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the republic’s public prosecution office Karabulak resident Mukhmed Gazdiyev, the resident of the village of Surkhakhi Maksharip Aushev (the man who together with investigators exposed the activities of the “death squads”) and other people who the authorities think are involved in the organisation of the protest. In Maksharip Aushev’s house in Surkhakhi village a search is being conducted. Across the entire republic Magomed Yevloyev is being hunted, whom they believe to be involved in participating in the organisation of the protest. Yevloyev himself contacted the editorial by telephone and asked that these events be objectively covered.

The authorities are frightened and continue to make mistakes. So far, not one of the real organisers and participants of the new organising committee has been discovered by them.

Policemen and Officers of the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Mobile Unit Have Burst into One of the Offices in Nazran with the Aim of Arresting Magomed Yevloyev

ingushetiya.ru 23.11.2007 14:56

As one of our correspondents has just reported, several dozen officers of Nazran Municipal Department of Internal Affairs have burst into one of the commercial offices on Chechenskaya Street in Nazran with the support of a group of the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs mobile unit. They were looking for the owner of “Ingushetiya.Ru” Magomed Yevloyev. The chief of the Municipal Department for Internal Affairs in Nazran, Vakha Aushev, reported by telephone to our correspondent that the police and the forces assigned to it have been set the aim of arresting Yevloyev and delivering him to the Ingush Republic Minister for Internal Affairs. In his words, information has reached him that Yevloyev is in this office.

Having discovered that he is being hunted, Magomed Yevloyev made a number of phone calls to the mobile telephone of the Minister of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Ingushetiya Musa Medov (8-928-090-70-07), however Medov did not answer. Medov’s receptionist also refused to put Yevloyev through to him.

REN TV Group Is Arrested

ingushetiya.ru 23.11.2007 14:11

Half an hour ago in Nazran armed people claiming to be officers of Nazran’s Municipal Department of Internal Affairs arrested journalists in a filming crew for REN TV. It is not yet known where the journalists have been taken.

The situation in the republic is very tense. The population’s dissatisfaction with the current regime could spill out onto the streets at any moment. On Saturday there is planned a nationwide protest, which an initiative group headed by Mukhammed Gazdiyev intends to hold.