Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Thu, 20 Jul 2006 10:18:59 -0700
WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 349, July 20, 2006 CAUCASUS NEWS UPDATE JULY 20 CHECHNYA: MOSCOW PEACE BID TESTS REBEL RESOLVE Will Chechen militants take up the offer of an amnesty now that their most high-profile leader is dead? By Timur Aliev in Grozny AZERI RESIDENTS FIGHT EVICTION BY OIL COMPANY Thousands of unregistered homes at risk as oil firm seeks to reclaim land. By Idrak Abbasov in Sulu-tep NAGORNY KARABAKH WOOS TOURISTS The Karabakh Armenians aim to overcome security fears by trumpeting the region's ancient monasteries and beautiful scenery. By Ashot Beglarian in Stepanakert ARMENIAN PUPILS MARCH TO NEW STEP Pilot scheme criticised for turning schoolchildren into future soldiers. By Gegham Vardanian in Yerevan ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net *************** PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS & PHONE NUMBERS: 48 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 1050 RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/crs/rss.xml FREE SUBSCRIPTION. Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net *************** CAUCASUS NEWS UPDATE JULY 20 July 20 A number of people said to be involved in the operation to kill Chechen militant leader Shamil Basayev were given medals by Russian president Vladimir Putin. July 20 The death was announced of Stanislav Derev, former vodka magnate, mayor of Cherkessk and unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of Karachai-Cherkessia in 1999. July 19 Mahir Javadov, a former prosecutor from Baku was arrested in Munich on suspicion of helping organize an attempted coup d'etat in Azerbaijan in 1995. Javadov lives in Austria, where he received political asylum and was making a private visit to Germany. July 19 A new public organization was formed in Azerbaijan called "Council on Freedom of Speech in Azerbaijan" comprised of human rights activists, intellectuals and journalists. July 19 One traffic policeman was killed and another seriously wounded following a shooting incident on the border between Ingush and North Ossetia. July 19 Armenia's public services regulation commission approved the sale of the Armenian electricity grid, currently owned by the British firm Midland Resources to Interenergo B.V, a company belonging to the Russian electricity company UES. July 18 UN secretary general Kofi Annan named French diplomat Jean Arnault as the new head of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) with responsibility for overseeing mediation of the conflict in Abkhazia. Most recently, Arnault worked in Afghanistan as head of the UN mission there. July 18 The Georgian parliament named Irakly Alasania, formerly presidential aide on the conflict in Abkhazia, as Georgia's new ambassador to the United Nations. July 18 The Georgian parliament passed a unanimous resolution calling for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the conflict zones of Georgia. July 18 A group of Armenian newspaper editors expressed their concerns over recent pressure on the media in the run up to parliamentary elections. July 18 Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian began a visit to Bosnia-Hercegovina. July 17 A communiqué by the leaders of the G-8 in St Petersburg said that it was necessary to agree in 2006 the general principles of a peace settlement for Nagorny Karabakh. July 17 A meeting of the Joint Control Commission for South Ossetia due to take place in Tbilisi was called off after the South Ossetian side said it did not have sufficient security guarantees. July 15 Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's FSB, offered rebel fighters in the North Caucasus an amnesty if they laid down their weapons before August 1. Pro-Moscow president Alu Alkhanov suggested the amnesty should be extended until January 1, 2007. Separatist leaders called the appeal a propaganda ploy. July 15 Ambassador Andrzei Kasprzyk, who monitors the Karabakh ceasefire on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, presented a seven-page report on the disputed issue of fires in the occupied territories east of Karabakh. July 14 Two people were killed and four were injured by an explosion outside the house of Bala Bestayev, a parliamentary deputy, in the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia. Bestayev himself was unhurt. July 14 Georgian military police in the Gori region detained a car belonging to the Russian embassy in Tbilisi carrying Russian envoy and co-chair of the Joint Control Commission for South Ossetia Yury Popov and deputy head of Land Forces General Valery Yevnevich. The car was later permitted only to return to Tbilisi. Russia sent a note of protest to the Georgian foreign ministry. July 14 North Ossetian leader Taimuraz Mamsurov said that in case of Georgian aggression against South Ossetia, North Ossetian volunteers would help their ethnic kin. July 13 The Russian government said that in the Nozhai-Yurt region of Chechnya 13 rebel fighters had been killed in a special operation, two had been detained and that two policemen had died and six had been wounded. July 13 A group of residents evicted from their houses in the Armenian capital Yerevan as part of a reconstruction programme held a demonstration in front of the government headquarters. July 11-13 Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh visited Armenia. COMING UP... July 21-22 Georgian and Russian presidents Mikheil Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin will hold talks in Moscow during an unofficial meeting of leaders of the CIS. The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev and Robert Kocharian, are due to discuss the Nagorny Karabakh issue at the same meeting. CHECHNYA: MOSCOW PEACE BID TESTS REBEL RESOLVE Will Chechen militants take up the offer of an amnesty now that their most high-profile leader is dead? By Timur Aliev in Grozny The Russian federal government and its allies in Chechnya are seeking to exploit the death of militant leader Shamil Basayev by offering a new amnesty to rebel fighters. Just three days after the death of Basayev in Ingushetia on July 10, the head of the Russian intelligence service, the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev made a public statement, giving the fighters a deadline of August 1 to lay down their weapons. Patrushev said those who gave themselves up by this date would be guaranteed an "objective and unbiased examination of all the circumstances of their participation in illegal armed formations". Patrushev promised that those who did not agree to the amnesty would be pursued with great ferocity. The pro-Moscow leadership in Chechnya supported Patrushev's initiative, but suggested a more flexible time-scale. The prime minister and de facto leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said the pardon should be extended until September 1 to give the rebels more time to make up their minds. "The leaders of the fighters have practically all been destroyed," he said. "Now it's just young men, deceived by international terrorists who have remained in the mountains." Kadyrov said that fighters should be encouraged by the fact that his own chief of staff was an amnestied fighter. "There are many amnestied people in my entourage," he said. "The North and South regiments consist 99 per cent of [them] and they have been awarded various medals. "After the death of my father [former pro-Moscow president Akhmad Kadyrov] they said for a long time that they would be persecuted, but the opposite is true. They now work in the interior ministry of Chechnya and in the government." The pro-Moscow president of Chechnya, Alu Alkhanov, promised those fighters who surrendered that they would not be arrested. He suggested prolonging the deadline for the amnesty till January 1, 2007. This is not the first time an amnesty has been offered since Moscow's second military campaign in Chechnya began in 1999. There were similar offers in December 1999, 2003 and 2004. Many did lay down their weapons and joined the so-called Kadyrovtsy, loyal to the late Kadyrov senior, who himself fought on the rebel side in the 1994-6 conflict and who was killed by an explosion in May 2004. Many who refused to accept an amnesty suffered persecution and pressure, which has been documented by human rights groups. Doku Umarov, currently president of Ichkeria - as the unrecognised independent republic of Chechnya is called - scorned the pardon offer and told the Islamist website Kavkaz Center that the war would continue. His foreign minister, Akhmed Zakayev, now exiled in London, was less categorical, saying there needed to be a "political basis" to any negotiations between rebels and Moscow and called for negotiations without preconditions. "If Nikolai Patrushev's declaration is simply a demonstration of force, an offer to surrender to your enemy, it won't lead to anything," said Zakayev. "The language of ultimatums is not a good accompaniment for achieving peace and stability." Many people in Chechnya say that after the removal of the charismatic and influential Basayev, a large number of fighters will be tempted to take up the amnesty offer - if it is well organised. "An amnesty is a successful PR move by Russia," said Abdula Istamulov, head of the SK-Strategy Centre in Grozny. Zina Magomadova, a deputy in the Chechen parliament, said, "War is an abnormal condition for a person. People are tired of fighting." However, others are cautious about whether the removal of Basayev necessarily means peace for Chechnya. "I think that after the death of Basayev the situation will both change and not change," said Russian Caucasus expert Sergei Markedonov. "It will change in the sense that a charismatic leader, popular with separatists and Islamists and with the sponsors of Islamic radicals abroad, a talented organiser of a terrorist network, will not now be waging war against Russia. "It will not change because this is not just an issue of Basayev personally but of Basayevism as a socio-political phenomenon." Markedonov said that the situation in Chechnya had fundamentally changed in the last few years in a way outside experts had not noticed. He said that in many ways the greatest threat to Moscow came from the government it had itself appointed. "We shouldn't be talking about a war. There is no war in the sense of a military confrontation between two organised forces. There is terrorism and partisan activities [which you often can't tell apart] and there is organised separatism [by the Kadyrov government] - the creation under Russian jurisdiction of a territory de facto independent of federal authority," remarked Markedonov. Present-day Chechnya, he went on, presented two political challenges to Russia. "The first challenge is that Chechnya today has become part of a Caucasus-wide Islamic project and the idea of ethno-national separatism has slipped away. As for the second challenge - in Moscow you have to understand that colonial rule of Chechnya, as opposed to a modernisation programme or incorporating it as part of Russia, is leading to it being lost." Chechen political analyst Nadirsotta Elsunkayev warned of another danger, saying that the death of Basayev would increase the influence of al-Qaeda in the North Caucasus. "Basayev and Bin Laden were antagonists," said Elsunkayev. "Basayev and his people were orthodox Muslims and they shared the beliefs of the King of Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden on the other hand was one of those Sunnis who wanted to spread the influence of Islam. But while Basayev was alive, Bin Laden did not interfere in the Caucasus and limited his activity to Central Asia. But back in 1998 he said that in 2003 he would move to the Caucasus." The analyst said that the rebels were now suffering a serious crisis. "Doku Umarov is insufficiently charismatic to unite all forces in the North Caucasus under his leadership. After the death of Basayev his links with the King of Saudi Arabia have been broken. Now he either needs to build bridges with Europe, in other words with Zakayev - but then he won't get any money - or to go with al-Qaeda. "If al-Qaeda comes to the Caucasus, fighting could last for decades. It will be an intractable guerrilla war without end." Timur Aliev is IWPR's Chechnya Editor. AZERI RESIDENTS FIGHT EVICTION BY OIL COMPANY Thousands of unregistered homes at risk as oil firm seeks to reclaim land. By Idrak Abbasov in Sulu-tep Late last month, desperate scenes were enacted in a small settlement outside Baku. Two well-built young men pulled a sobbing, pregnant woman and her two small children out of a one-bedroom house scheduled for demolition. The settlement of Upper Sulu-tep, near the village of Khodjasan, is just 15 kilometres from the centre of the Azerbaijani capital Baku. At the height of summer, it is an arid spot, with no grass growing or trees visible. But now there are four huge oil wells, each with a wide black, treacly pit next to it. Everywhere, there is the stink of oil and gas. For a month now, the Binagadi Oil company has been demolishing houses here, sometimes with the help of the regional authorities and the police. They are all on land on which Binagadi Oil is working, and almost all the residential buildings here were built without the required permits. The majority of the people who live nearby are either from the poorest sections of society or refugees. Almost a month has gone by since the demolition work started. More than 200 homes have already been knocked down. Local resident Adalat Seidov estimates that there are between ten and fifteen thousand houses in the area inhabited by as many as 60,000 people, all of which could be potentially affected by the oil company's campaign. Desperate residents say they have nowhere else to go. "Where am I supposed to take my family? Whose door will I knock on?" asked Nizami Bagirov, who comes from the Lerik district in southern Azerbaijan on the border with Iran. Bagirov says that he fought in the Nagorny Karabakh war and then used to earn a small income doing hard physical work in a nearby stone quarry. A few years ago, he decided to build a house for himself, his wife and two small daughters. "One of my colleagues lives in Sulu-tep," said Bagirov. "He suggested I build a one-bedroom house there. We found an empty plot of land and built a house for me." However, he has now lost his home on the grounds that he had no formal permission to build it. Lawyer Fuad Agayev says Bagirov's rights have been abused. "Regardless of whether a house has been built illegally or not, to destroy it you need a court order," he said, adding that the oil company had no right to demolish houses themselves and the court should also provide Bagirov and his family with temporary accommodation. The authorities declined to give IWPR any precise information about the demolitions. Binagadi Oil, which owns the land, used to be part of the state oil company SOCAR. Anar Gurbanov, a lawyer for the firm, said it is drilling for oil on land in four fields, but three of them had been taken over illegally. He said they were losing substantial sums as a result. Gurbanov admitted that authorisation from a court was necessary in order to destroy buildings and insisted that the company sought such orders for demolitions. However, he was unable to provide evidence of any such paperwork, and some residents said they'd received official notification to vacate their houses, not from a court but the authorities and Binagadi Oil. One resident fighting eviction is Khavyar Jafarova, a refugee from Zangelan region, which is now under Armenian occupation. "They only gave us a verbal warning, we haven't seen any paper work. I have lived here for twelve years - the authorities should give me back my house in Zangelan. Even though I'm a woman, I fought for my country. I will fight to the last here too," she said. "I have lived here for seven years, and I have all the paperwork," objected Khumar Velieva, a refugee from Armenia. "I bought the land from the municipality, and the construction was approved by the regional authorities." The head of administration of the village of Khojasan said the land was only leased to Velieva for temporary use. Unauthorised house building in the greater Baku area is a widespread phenomenon, as the population of the largest city in the Caucasus continues to grow. According to a presidential decree, a census will be carried out in Azerbaijan in 2009. An anonymous source in the cabinet of ministers told IWPR that it will be conducted not according to place of registration but to where people are actually living at the time. The source adds that before the census takes place, the government wants to solve the problem of residents living in homes built illegally in Baku and surrounding areas. Many unauthorised houses will be demolished and others will be legalised. Idrak Abbasov is a journalist for Ayna newspaper in Baku. NAGORNY KARABAKH WOOS TOURISTS The Karabakh Armenians aim to overcome security fears by trumpeting the region's ancient monasteries and beautiful scenery. By Ashot Beglarian in Stepanakert Twelve years after war ended in Nagorny Karabakh, the unrecognised republic is seeking to attract greater numbers of tourists to enjoy its unspoilt scenery and medieval churches. Large sums have been invested in the tourism sector, especially by businessmen from the Armenian diaspora. The Swiss firm Sirkap Armenia has built several hotels at a cost of more than 1.5 million US dollars. There's been a big increase in the number of hotels, as memories of war recede. There are now more than 20 in Nagorny Karabakh, half of them in the capital Stepanakert. Two new ones, with about 100 rooms between them, are being built in the town's central square. The old capital of Shushi (known by the Azerbaijanis as Shusha), which was heavily destroyed in the war in 1992, is also being re-developed. A Soviet-era 11-storey hotel is being rebuilt and is expected to open its doors again within the next two years. In addition, there are plans to reopen the sanatoria that attracted thousands of summer visitors in former times. Karabakh's foreign ministry says that the number of tourists is increasing by 30-40 per cent every year and that last year there were 5,000 from more than 60 countries. The majority - around 70 per cent - were ethnic Armenians from around the world. For many people, Karabakh is still a war-zone and most western governments advise their citizens against travelling there on grounds of safety. It is still part of the internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan. This is enough to deter curious visitors. Nic Keulemans, a tourist from Belgium, said he was overwhelmed by the scenery in Karabakh, although he was still a little worried about the problem of mines. "The monasteries are also interesting," he said. "I visited Gandzasar and the church in Shushi. On the whole my impressions were good. I didn't like the fact that because of the war there was limited access to certain territories. I think mines and unexploded ordnance still present a certain danger. They can be on fields, hills and remote mountain paths. And that gets in the way of organising a real holiday." Sergei Shakhverdian, head of both the Aspar tourist firm and the recently created Agency for Tourism Development, sees one of his roles as reassuring foreign visitors. "The main thing is to convince people that it is safe in Karabakh and that is what we are consistently doing," he said. Karabakhis point out that their home region is packed with attractions that are all the more attractive for being virtually unknown to the outside world. They include 1,700 architectural monuments, including 600 monasteries and 500 churches, ruined palaces, castles and forts. Shakhverdian said that the mass of medieval religious sites also made Karabakh a very special place for Christian pilgrims. He pointed out that the region contains the grave of the early Christian saint Elisei; that the 13th century Gandzasar monastery claims to have the head of John the Baptist; and the ancient Amaras monastery has the mausoleum of St Grigoris. The tourism industry is still very much in its infancy in Karabakh. The government budget allocated for the sector for this year is just 4,000 dollars. Although the scenery is a major attraction, visitors say that there is very little infrastructure for staying outside the main two towns, as there are no campsites and no car rental available. The tourist agents say they dream of developing Karabakh as a ski resort, but that would need huge amounts of investment. The ministry of territorial management has begun a partnership with the tourist development agency of Armenia, which provides the only route into Karabakh for visitors - a road from Yerevan to Stepanakert, which is 360 kilometres long. The minister, Armo Tsaturian said, "The development of tourism in Nagorny Karabakh would receive a significant boost if there was an air-link." In order to attract new visitors, the Karabakh government is publishing a new guidebook. It is also promoting Karabakh at tourist exhibitions. In May, the government here rented a pavilion at the big tourist exhibition in Moscow, where they handed out promotional material and offered visitors Karabakh wine to taste. The opening of the display turned into an angry confrontation, when a group of Azerbaijani students sitting in the hall protested loudly. But Shakhverdian denied reports that the pavilion had closed after the protests. "Information that the Nagorny Karabakh display in Moscow had been shut down came from the Azerbaijani embassy in Russia," said Shakhverdian. "Right from the start of the exhibition, the embassy of Azerbaijan reacted very strongly to our presence and tried to persuade the organisers to close the display, but when they understood that it wouldn't work they demanded that at the very least the name of our display was changed from the Nagorny Karabakh Republic to Nagorny Karabakh. "However, to its credit, the Moscow government did not give in to blackmail and the exhibition passed off normally, according to our plans." Shakhverdian said that the furore surrounding the event had actually attracted more visitors to the Nagorny Karabakh pavilion, curious to know what had caused all the fuss. He hoped some of those visitors would make their way to Karabakh itself. IWPR's Baku office contacted Azerbaijan's foreign ministry spokesman, Tahir Tagizade, for an official reaction to the campaign to attract tourists to Karabakh. Tagizade said that Azerbaijan was "not in principle against advertising the tourist attractions of Nagorny Karabakh because Nagorny Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan and soon after the restoration of the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan this advertising will be beneficial to the region". However, Tagizade warned foreigners visiting Nagorny Karabakh without official permission from Baku that they risked being barred from Azerbaijan. Ashot Beglarian is a freelance journalist based in Stepanakert. Azerbaijan editor Shahin Rzayev in Baku contributed to this report. ARMENIAN PUPILS MARCH TO NEW STEP Pilot scheme criticised for turning schoolchildren into future soldiers. By Gegham Vardanian in Yerevan "Right turn! Left shoulder forward! Quick march!" shouts military training instructor Karo Ambardzumian, although his subordinates are not soldiers but 11- and 12-year-old children at a school in the Armenian capital Yerevan. Although military training is compulsory for pupils aged 16 to 18 in Armenia, only School No. 99 has introduced it for younger children. Groups involved in children's rights are worried about the effect an early dose of militarism will have on young minds, not least because the 11 other schools where the government now plans to roll out a similar pilot scheme cater for children from vulnerable backgrounds. Headmistress Ludmila Margarian originally introduced the weekly military classes as a way of bringing a group of unruly boys to heel. "There were many boys in this class. We thought they lacked discipline and decided to make it a class with a military bias," she said. "When they're in uniform, they are more organised and have a greater sense of responsibility." The 18 boys and eight girls in the class have learnt how to march, stand in formation and dismantle Kalashnikov assault rifles, and are now learning combat skills. "We are studying military science," said Sarkis, 11. "We learn how to crawl round enemies and kill them." Sarkis's grandmother Susanna Martirossian said parents had heartily welcomed the scheme. "My grandson is delighted," she said. "He knows that he's going to be a general, that he's a military man. We are happy too, because he's learning what a soldier's responsibilities are, he feels like a soldier and wants to pursue an army career." Hranush, wearing her uniform and with her hair tucked under a camouflage cap, said, "The boys come to school in uniform, and so do we. It isn't bad. We are learning how to help our homeland when the need arises." Another girl, Aelita, added, "We've learnt how to handle a machine-gun, and studied some aspects of military strategy, tactics, and ways of surrounding and defeating an enemy. "I'd say the girls are treated more leniently than the boys, and they get good marks more easily." The school's military instructor Karo Ambardzumian, a former paratrooper and Soviet frontier guard, says it is best to start as young as possible, "It's difficult to train grown-ups. A child is like unbaked dough, and you should teach them things from a very early age." "I always dreamed of creating such a class," said Ambardzumian. "As the saying goes, if you want peace, prepare for war. I try to explain to them who will defend our motherland from, and how. Children learn all these things when they dismantle or assemble a gun." School No. 99 is located in a poor area on the outskirts of Yerevan, serving a community in which many pupils come from one-parent families. Mikael Danielian, who chairs the Helsinki Association human rights group, is disappointed if not surprised by the trend, given that Armenia sees itself as being on a war footing since the dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh remains unresolved. "If children and their parents see no reason to complain and they're prepared to accept the rules of the game, then there's no big violation of rights," he said. "But it's bad that the country is being built by soldiers. This is a country where young people are soldiers; such a thing was only possible in the Soviet Union or in an Islamic country." The education ministry seems pleased with the programme at School No. 99, and plans to expand the scheme by making military training a core curriculum item in 11 schools across Armenia. The ministry has selected "special schools" - whose pupils mostly come from difficult backgrounds - to take part in the project. "Our basic aim is to gather children from the streets who for one reason or another don't attend school regularly, and who want to enter military college but have never had the chance, and enable them to study military matters in depth," said Vachagan Aslanian, a specialist on military training at the National Institute of Education. "In future, all classes [at the 11 schools] will take intensive military training courses," said Aslanian. "Each school will cater for one district. Pupils from elsewhere who want to get intensive military training will be allowed to transfer to these schools." Aslanian said parental permission would always be sought before putting children into military training. Critics of the military classes remain unhappy about the scheme despite such assurances. "I can see what's going on," said Danielian. "These are difficult children who spend a lot of time on the street, and they are being turned into military types. This is an old Soviet-era method." Emil Saakian, public relations coordinator for UNICEF in Armenia, went further, pointing out, "Article Four of the Armenian children's rights law is being violated, which says children have equal rights. Children who for some reason end up at special schools are being pressured to follow a military path. A child's right to choose his own future is being abused." Saakian went on, "Children's... future is being determined by someone else.... I understand the country needs good soldiers, but it also needs good scientists, doctors and other specialists. Who says that soldiers alone are needed to keep the country safe, and that other professionals don't contribute to defending the country?" Meanwhile, the schoolchildren have found an immediate and practical application for their new battlefield skills. "The military training lessons help us when we have fights with other classes," explained schoolboy Varazdat. "We even have scraps with older pupils, and we can help out our own guys." Gegham Vardanian is a journalist with Internews in Yerevan, Armenia. For photographs of School No. 99 visit http://www.iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=322400&apc_state=henpcrs ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net *************** IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the international community with a unique insiders' perspective on events in the North and South Caucasus. Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across the region every week. The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus programme, which supports local media development while encouraging better local and international understanding of the region. IWPR's Caucasus programme is supported by the British government, the Norwegian government, the European Commission and the Finnish government. The service is currently available online in English and in Russian. For further details on this project and other information services and media programmes, visit IWPR's website: www.iwpr.net Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Project Coordinator and Editor: Tom de Waal; Senior Editor: John MacLeod; Regional Director and Editor: Margarita Akhvlediani in Tbilisi; Editor/Trainer: David Stern; Associate Editors: Shahin Rzayev in Baku, Seda Muradian in Yerevan, Valery Dzutsev in Vladikavkaz and Timur Aliev in Nazran. The Institute for War & Peace Reporting is a London-based independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and democratic change. 48 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 1050 The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. ISSN: 1477-7959 Copyright (c) 2006 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE No. 349