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Blast Destroys Russian Building in Chechnya
MOSCOW, June 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A blast equivalent to five kilograms of TNT destroyed a Russian administration building in a southern region of war-torn Chechnya Sunday, Interfax news agency reported.
The explosion, which occurred in the early hours in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, caused no injuries, the report citing the Russian military command said.
It was the latest in a series of Chechen fighter attacks against pro-Moscow officials stationed in the region.
Though Russian forces have taken control of much of Chechnya, including the capital Grozny, following a campaign begun on October 1, 1999, Chechen fighters launch daily attacks on Russian soldiers and local pro-Moscow administrators, whom they consider traitors.
Similar resistance attacks forced the Russian government to end a military operation after its troops suffered a humiliating defeat during the 1994-1996 war with Chechnya, in which some 80,000 people died.
Chechen freedom fighters have been struggling for independence for the Muslim region for centuries.
The Kremlin has so far refused offers to negotiate from Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected President of the Chechen Republic in January 27, 1997.
According to the Chechen Republic online, the elections were held under the terms of the agreements reached between the Chechen Republic and the Russian Federation on 31 August 1996 after the Russian forces' defeat.
The agreement followed another deal signed in November 1996. Under the deal the two sides declared a cease-fire that was meant to end four centuries of hostilities and Moscow agreed to postpone the question of full independence to the year 2001.
As the deadline for settling the independence issue loomed, Russian President Vladimir Putin made his path to power on a policy of toughness towards Chechen fighters, starting a military intervention in the republic on October 1, 1999.
On Thursday, two dozen refugees from Chechnya joined a hunger strike to demand an end to the 9-month old Russian military campaign which forced them out of their homes to the neighboring Russian region of Ingushetia, the Associated Press reported.
The strike has gone on since June 14, with protesters demanding a troop pull-out and negotiations with Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov.
Weakened by the fasting, protesters were lying in a separate tent they had set up between two refugee camps in Ingushetia. The protesters included four children, the youngest of them nine year old.
"I'm ready to die of hunger for this war to stop," said 45-year-old Koka Khachukayeva. "We are already being killed, and we want people to hear us."
"I want to go home, but I don't want to go to a home where there is a war," Khasena Meizhaidova, 12, said as she joined the hunger strike.
The governor of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev said that Russian authorities had been warned well in advance that living conditions for refugees were quickly deteriorating.
"We knew that the situation with the refugees was bound to get worse," said Aushev. "The only way out of this is to open peace talks with elected leaders, including Maskhadov."
The Kremlin office dealing with Chechnya refused to issue any comment about the hunger strike in the Sputnik camp, the French News Agency AFP reported.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the war left a third of Chechnya's population - more than 260,000 people - displaced within Chechnya and another 170,000 are living in difficult circumstances in neighboring Ingushetia.
The international Human rights watchdog group said that humanitarian organizations cannot operate effectively in Chechnya because of the climate of insecurity.
On May 15, HRW released a 24-page report on the Russian atrocities in Chechnya, accusing Moscow of burying evidence of extra-judicial executions. In the report, the organization documented the Russian government's botched investigation of a mass gravesite discovered late February 2001.
The report followed another resolution by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights last April in which the organization expressed grave concern about human rights violations in Chechnya and strongly condemned the use of disproportionate force, torture and summary executions perpetrated by Russia's forces.
The resolution stopped short of calling for an international commission of inquiry.
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