| <ABKHAZIA | EUROPEAN UNION> |
Key developments since May 2001: Russian and Chechen forces continued to use antipersonnel mines. UNICEF and the ICRC continued mine risk education and survivor assistance programs in the North Caucuses. In 2001, there were at least 154 civilian casualties caused by landmines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance.
In September 1991, Chechnya declared independence from Russia, and adopted the name Chechen Republic “Ichkeria.” On 11 December 1994, the Russian Federation (RF) sent troops into Chechnya where mines were used extensively in the fighting by both sides. Although peace agreements were signed in August 1996, relations remained tense and deteriorated to the point of Russia sending troops back into Chechnya in September 1999. Chechen forces evacuated Grozny in February 2000 and the conflict entered a guerrilla war phase. Fighting, replete with massive violations of human rights and laws of war, including widespread use of mines by both sides, continues.[1]
See Landmine Monitor Report 2001 for details regarding production, trade, and stockpiling of antipersonnel mines in Chechnya; no new information is available.[2]
Russian officials admit to large-scale use of mines in Chechnya, describing the conflict as a “mine war,” but have repeatedly rejected allegations of the indiscriminate use of mines by the Russian forces.[3] In early 2001, a Russian military official reportedly said at a press conference that Russian forces had sown more than 500,000 landmines in Chechnya.[4] In July 2002, a Chechen official claimed that Russia had sharply increased its use of mines in 2002, planting as many as one million in the past five to six months; he claimed Russia has planted a total of approximately three million mines during the second Chechen war.[5]
Again in early 2002, Russian officials stated that the requirements of Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) are taken into account when mines are used in Chechnya (even though the Russian Federation is not party to CCW Amended Protocol II). They claim that all minefields are fenced and marked to prevent civilian casualties, and that once active military operations are over, minefields are cleared.[6]
Neither past nor current reports coming out of Chechnya substantiate these claims. For example, in January 2002, the Commandant of the Leninskaya neighborhood of Grozny, Colonel V. Dushukhin, told Landmine Monitor he did not have any information on the mined areas or maps of minefields. He said mine clearance is only carried out when requested, for example, to clear a shell or a mine from a house or yard.[7] In Landmine Monitor field research in January 2002, villagers in a district near the border with Georgia said they could not tell where the minefields begin or end.
In August 2001, Russia described its mine use in Chechnya and Tajikistan to Landmine Monitor: “Mine barriers have been laid to blockade specific base areas used by [rebel] units and to close movement routes and convoy paths across the state border, using fragmentation-action antipersonnel mines with self-destruction mechanisms and control options that comply with requirements in [Amended Protocol II].... Mines are emplaced primarily on sectors of the border where difficult physical and geographical conditions do not permit other forces or methods to be employed effectively, where there are virtually no local inhabitants, and to protect and guard positions and places where border divisions are stationed.”[8]
According to Chechen officials, in 2001 and 2002, the Russian Army continued to mine areas and paths leading to their troop positions, paths to checkpoints, around commanders’ offices and governmental agencies. Many places that the Army lists as “suspicious” are also mined. The purpose of this mining is to restrict access through specific checkpoints to control the population. There are 700 checkpoints and about 20 large and middle-sized Army garrisons in Chechnya. Temporary military camps periodically appear and disappear in different parts of Chechnya and land around these camps is usually mined.[9]
There is also concern that with many different Army and Police detachments, as well as contracted militaries from different parts of Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States countries (including Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine), engaging in the fighting in Chechnya and rotating out on a frequent basis (every three to six months), forces may lay mines without providing their replacements with proper mapping and other information.
During a June 2002 trip to Chechnya, Olara Otunnu, the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said “insurgent groups continued to enlist children, paying them to plant landmines and other explosives, and to target civilians perceived to be cooperating with the government administration.”[10]
In interviews with Landmine Monitor (Russia), Russian engineers who have served in Chechnya have stated that mine use by Chechen rebels increased during 2001 and 2002. They view this as predictable because the Chechens view mine warfare as effective and because of the ready availability of components for the production of improvised explosive devices.[11] These engineers believe Chechen combatants are increasingly relying on IEDs, perhaps in part because of the lack of mass-produced landmines, but also because of the abundance of artillery shells, grenades, explosives, and other components necessary for makeshift production of homemade mines.[12]
Ongoing use of mines by Chechens is such that Russian Army deminers monitor and carry out mine clearance in Grozny and the main roads in Chechnya every day. Roads used by Russian Army military columns are the only ones that are demined by Army Engineer troops. Col-Gen. Nikolay Serdtsev, Chief of Russia’s engineering forces, said in April 2001, “Every day our sappers discover and disarm 10-15 landmines set by rebels for activation by wire and radio and camouflaged as cellular telephones, radio receivers, tape recorders, and other objects.”[13] From 3-9 September 2001, the Russian Army reported that it had neutralized approximately 270 explosives, including 32 landmines.[14]
Several times Landmine Monitor researchers were involuntary witnesses to explosions of armored vehicles by IEDs in Grozny (on Zhukovskaya Street, Pervomaiskaya Street and Staropromislovsky highway). In these cases, Russian Army officers opened fire and detained all people in the nearby area. There were numerous reports in 2001 of Russian Army retaliation resulting in civilian casualties following military casualties from rebel-laid IEDs.[15] According to one media source, in 2001, there were an estimated 500 incidents, mostly from IEDs, involving armored vehicles resulting in 87 Russian Army deaths[16]
With the renewed fighting, it is impossible to get accurate information about mined areas, but given that very limited mine clearance took place after the 1994-96 war and given the continued mine-laying by both sides, the mine problem can only be getting worse each day.[17]
During his June 2002 trip to Russia, Otunnu called Chechnya “one of the most landmine-polluted zones in the world.” After touring Chechnya and neighboring regions, he said, “We estimate that 500,000 landmines have been planted in Chechnya, which makes it one of the most landmine-polluted zones in the world, especially given its size.”[18]
Previous editions of Landmine Monitor have provided details on areas known and suspected to be mined, and on the lack of marking of known mined areas. Landmine Monitor conducted field research in Vedensky in January 2002, interviewing over 100 local inhabitants. The Vedensky district and the Argunskiy canyon on the border with Georgia are particularly dangerous mine-affected areas. The local population believes the land surrounding all 26 villages in Vedensky to be mined, and they report a high number of mine casualties.
Russian Army units are stationed near the villages and their bases are protected by minefields. Villagers said that Russian helicopters spread mines from the air, and that it is impossible to know where the minefields begin and end. Village elders have repeatedly appealed to the command of the Russian Army for information about exact locations of mined areas, but to no avail.
Inhabitants of Mahketi village said that all of their fields and pastures are mined. People have not been able to go to their hayfields for the past three years, and instead have been forced to buy hay at the market. One inhabitant interviewed by Landmine Monitor said, “We cannot go to the forest for firewood and are forced to purchase it in neighboring villages, where people still gather firewood risking their lives.” Up to 40 percent of the population is not able to obtain firewood and during the winter moves to areas supplied by gas. The local population is often injured by mines as they graze cattle or enter forested areas, and mines have claimed at least 200 cattle. The villagers say the only ones being blown up by the mines are civilians and their animals, not rebel fighters.
Flash floods in May-June 2002 reportedly dislocated numerous mines laid by both sides, resulting in new mined areas with no exact location identified.[19]
There are no humanitarian mine clearance operations underway in Chechnya. The HALO Trust carried out humanitarian mine clearance in Chechnya between 1997 and December 1999 when Russian military operations forced clearance to be suspended.
Russian engineering troops conduct military mine clearance operations on a daily basis, to support the safe movement of Russian troops along the roads and railroads, and the safe operation of field water supply points.[20] Col-Gen. Nikolay Serdtsev, Chief of Russia’s engineering forces, has said, “Every day 50-60 engineering-reconnaissance patrols are detached from our troops along defined routes to check for the presence of mines and explosive devices and to ensure the uninterrupted movement of military columns and civilian equipment.”[21] From January to mid-June 2002, Russian engineers reportedly defused 417 landmines and 944 explosive devices in Chechnya.[22]
International agencies such as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross are responsible for the bulk of mine risk education (MRE) activities in affected areas in Russia. UNICEF launched a comprehensive MRE and survivor assistance program in the north Caucuses during the reporting period, working in conjunction with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the ICRC, the Danish Demining Group (DDG), and a group of local NGOs, including Voice of the Mountains (Chechnya/Ingushetia). UNICEF acts as the coordinator for all mine-related activities carried out by the UN and other NGOs in the region.
The centerpiece of the mine risk education program is the training of approximately 194,000 children in Chechnya and Ingushetia.[23] So far, 460 teachers from 458 functioning schools in Chechnya have taken UNICEF’s “training-the-trainer” course and will teach mine risk education to children ranging in age from 6 to 17. All school children in Chechnya will receive the mine risk education course, which also includes distribution of booklets, posters, leaflets, notebooks, t-shirts, pens, pencils, drawing sets, and sweatshirts with mine awareness messages.[24] The curriculum was developed by UNICEF in collaboration with the Chechen Ministry of Education, ICRC, UN, and NGO partners.[25] In 2001, UNICEF spent approximately $1 million on the mine risk education and survivor assistance program. In 2002, the program will concentrate on reaching teachers and students in remote districts of Chechnya.
ICRC mine risk education efforts were focused on Ingushetia, Dagestan, and the region including North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and other areas. Internally displaced people (IDPs) from Chechnya were the main target group in Ingushetia.[26] Billboards placed in IDP centers are aimed mainly at the adult population, who were also targeted through presentations and the distribution of posters. Some 600 adults in Ingushetia are believed to have attended these seminars during the reporting period.[27] Children in Ingushetia are targeted by the ICRC’s “child-to-child” program and over 500 children are believed to have been reached through this program.[28]
In North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and southern Russia, children were also the main target of the ICRC’s mine risk education effort. Chechen children come to the North Caucuses throughout the year to stay in sanatoria “as a break from the dire living conditions in Chechnya.”[29] During the reporting period, the ICRC provided approximately 2,000 of these children with lessons in the “child-to-child” program. A few hundred teenagers participated in a “teenager-to-teenager” program. Approximately 9,000 of the Chechen children have also seen an MRE puppet show. The ICRC also distributed various mine awareness leaflets, comic books, and game sheets to children and teachers.[30]
There is no comprehensive official data on landmine casualties in Chechnya. However, there were almost daily reports of mine incidents causing casualties in Chechnya in 2001. A representative of Chechnya, when writing about the number of war-wounded people, including landmine survivors, needing artificial limbs stated that in 2001 it was estimated that the numbers had increased to 14,000, adding that there is “no opportunity to receive more accurate information. We just know that the number of victims increases daily.”[31]
An analysis of reported incidents indicate that in 2001 there were at least 1,153 new casualties caused by landmine, UXO or IED incidents: 367 were killed and 786 injured.[32] Of these new casualties, 137 were civilians (62 killed and 75 injured) including 23 children, 43 were Chechen fighters (26 killed and 17 injured), 963 were from the Russian armed forces, including police and interior ministry (279 killed and 684 injured), and the status of ten casualties was not reported.
In 2001, UNICEF recorded 154 new civilian casualties, of which 21 were killed and 133 injured.[33]
According to the head receiving nurse at Hospital Number Nine in Grozny, the hospital records five or six casualties of gunfire or landmines every day.[34] NGOs working in hospitals in Chechnya claim that there are between 30 and 50 civilians injured each month in landmine incidents, with the majority of casualties occurring in Grozny.[35] In 2001, medical institutions in Chechnya registered 1,020 casualties with gunshot and landmine injuries, as compared to 814 such casualties registered in 2000.[36] The ICRC reported treating 240 mine/UXO casualties in the hospitals it supports in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan in 2001.[37]
Included in the mine incidents in 2001 involving civilians are the following. On 1 June 2001, a pregnant medical student was on her way home from exams when a landmine exploded; she lost both her legs and the baby.[38] On 4 August 2001, one 12-year old boy was killed and another injured after disturbing a tripwire on a mine/IED causing it to explode in Grozny School 37, which had been destroyed during military operations.[39] On 7 August 2001, a local resident was killed by a mine in forested land in the October area of Grozny. Relatives asked Chechen militia to help remove the corpse. Two militia deminers were clearing the site when another mine exploded, killing one deminer and injuring the other.[40] On 16 October 2001, a resident of Soltamuradov, bled to death after stepping on a mine while collecting berries in a forest near his village.[41]
Olara Otunnu, the United Nations special representative for children and armed conflict, said in June 2002, “We estimate between 7,000 and 10,000 people have been maimed by landmines [in the course of two Chechen conflicts], and easily more than half of those are children."[42]
In 2001, UNICEF trained 30 UN and NGO staff on data collection and the local NGO, Voice of the Mountains (VoM) on data management using the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA). Five trained representatives of three local NGOs, VoM, Minga, and Let's Save the Generation, currently work on gathering data in the territory of Chechnya and two VoM staff manage the database in Ingushetia. As of July 2002, 750 landmine casualties have been identified, of which 210 are children. Of the total casualties recorded, 7 percent were killed and 93 percent injured, 82 percent are male and 18 percent female, and 32 percent required below-knee amputations while another 19 percent required above-knee amputations.[43]
From May 2000 to March 2001, the Human Rights Investigation Bureau of Chechnya conducted field research in the southeastern region of Chechnya, and in Ingushetia. The survey identified nearly 400 landmine casualties.[44]
Surgical and general health facilities in Chechnya remain devastated because of war damage and a lack of resources and maintenance. When describing Grozny’s Hospital Number Nine, a journalist reported that the hospital “has a sign and a gate; otherwise it could be mistaken for more ruins. The five-story main building, once the hospital’s pride, is windowless and pockmarked by bullets.”[46] In 2001, there were 55 hospitals, 34 polyclinics, 46 mobile clinics, and 187 mobile clinic points in Chechnya; however, many often function without running water, proper heating, or sewerage systems.[47] A lack of skilled staff, equipment, and the security situation also hampers the delivery of adequate assistance.[48] In June 2001, the ICRC held a two-day regional seminar in Moscow on war surgery; among the 30 participants were ten surgeons and traumatologists from six Chechen hospitals and from Ingushetia and Dagestan.[49]
The ICRC regularly provides surgical support, medicines, and medical supplies to improve the quality of care to nine referral hospitals in Chechnya and two other hospitals in Ingushetia and Dagestan. In 2001, 700 war-wounded patients were treated, including 240 mine/UXO casualties.[50] The ICRC also supports four mobile medical teams and a medical post run by the Russian Red Cross.[51] On 13 March 2002, the ICRC signed an agreement with the Chechen Ministry of Health and the Chechen branch of the Russian Red Cross to assist the health facilities in Chechnya. Assistance will include the repair of facilities, the supply of medicines, and two Russian Red Cross mobile clinics will visit villages that only have a first-aid post once or twice a week.[52]
The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF provide assistance throughout Chechnya. Several other international agencies and NGOs also support the health infrastructure in Chechnya with medicines, hospital supplies, expertise, and training for local staff through hospitals, health posts, and mobile clinics in 11 towns, 42 villages, and in the IDP camps. These organizations include Medecins du Monde, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Handicap International, International Humanitarian Initiative, Hammer Forum, and World Vision International.[53]
The Russian Center of Disaster Medicine (RCDM) “Zaschita” also provides health services for civilians in the northern Caucasus.[54]
UNICEF and UNHCR work in close cooperation with WHO and ICRC to provide a comprehensive approach to survivor assistance by facilitating services for the physical, psychosocial and vocational rehabilitation of mine survivors.
According to Boris Spivak, Head of the Department of Scientific Medical Problems of Orthopedics of the Federal Center of Prosthetic Aid and Rehabilitation of Invalids, among children alone there are currently at least 850 amputees (upper and lower limbs) in Chechnya needing regular prosthetic aid and rehabilitation.[55]
In August 2000, UNICEF commenced its Mine Action Program in the North Caucasus with survivor assistance being one of the main components. The program which focuses on mine-injured children and women from Chechnya includes physical rehabilitation, the fitting of prostheses, psychosocial counseling, and vocational training. The program also established two amputee football clubs for about 120 child mine survivors in Grozny and the IDP camps in Ingushetia. To date UNICEF has not been able to raise sufficient funds to fully implement the program.[56]
The physical rehabilitation component of the program started at the Vladikavkaz Rehabilitation Center in December 2001 when 15 mine-affected children started a two-month cycle of visits for ultrasound diagnostics, massage, physiotherapy treatments, and psychosocial support.[57]
UNICEF transports children and women from Chechnya and the IDP camps to the Vladikavkaz Rehabilitation Center and the Vladikavkaz Prosthetic Center where in addition to receiving orthopedic and assistive devices, there is a psychosocial counselor to assist the patients in coping with their disability. In 2001, 89 children and women were fitted with artificial limbs and received counseling, about 60 received corsets and bandages, and 240 wheelchairs, 1,050 walking sticks, and 510 crutches were also provided.[58]
Handicap International, supported by UNHCR, ECHO, Stichtung Fluchtling, and Refugee International Japan, works in Chechnya to identify the needs of persons with disabilities, including landmine survivors, in physical rehabilitation. In 2001, HI carried out an assessment on the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities in Chechnya, interviewing 2,200 people. As no facilities exist in Chechnya, future activities will focus on the development of rehabilitation services. HI also supported the traumatology departments and distributed surgical equipment to five hospitals, and distributed 1,000 walking sticks, 850 crutches, and 250 wheelchairs.[59] In 2002, it plans to provide training in post-surgical rehabilitation to surgeons and nursing staff from seven hospitals.
In October 2001, the ICRC signed an agreement with the federal Ministry of Labor to provide further training for qualified Chechen staff to work at the prosthetic/orthopedic center in Grozny. Throughout the year, the ICRC provided wheelchairs and crutches to patients with disabilities.[60] In November, the WHO also held a training course for 14 prosthetic technicians and doctors on manufacturing techniques for different types of prostheses.[61]
On 20 February 2002, representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development of North Ossetia, the directors of the Grozny and Vladikavkaz prosthetic/orthopedic workshops, and representatives of WHO, UNHCR, UNICEF, and Handicap International met in Vladikavkaz for the fourth interagency coordination meeting on prosthetic/orthopedic and psychological assistance to war-wounded persons from Chechnya. Agreements in principal were reached on the allocation of approximately 1 million Russian roubles (about US$31,700) earmarked by the federal Ministry of Labour and Social Development for prosthetic assistance to the war wounded from Chechnya. Initially, the funding will be used for transporting ten Chechen amputees to Vladikavkaz each month until the allocated funds are used up and the Grozny workshop is able to serve the amputees itself. WHO agreed to further extend the prosthetic program in Vladikavkaz to assist about 40 adult casualties of the war.[62]
As of July 2002, the prosthetic/orthopedic workshop in Grozny had not reopened.[63]
UNICEF, in cooperation with CARE International, continues to provide psychosocial support to landmine and war traumatized children in the Doverie Center in Vladikavkaz and in a counseling service at an IDP camp in Ingushetia.[64] UNICEF’s Psychosocial Program started in mid 2001 with an assessment of 167 children, including 30 mine survivors and their families, in IDP camps in Ingushetia. Three follow-up workshops have been held for 70 counselors, doctors, lawyers, social workers, and monitors on assisting mine/UXO injured children and their families.[65]
The UNICEF vocational training program provides children with daily four-hour classes in English and computers. Vocational training is also offered at the Sleptsovskaya Vocational Training College in Nazran in computers and accountancy to mine survivors and female heads of households.
UNICEF also provides material assistance to mine survivors when a special need is identified. For example, together with assistance from UNHCR and the World Food Program, assistance in the form of mattresses, bed linen, blankets, and food rations were provided to three children, who were all double amputees as a result of landmine incidents and their families who lived in remote areas of Chechnya.[66]
The Federal Fund of Obligatory Medical Insurance and a Russian Federation Ministry of Health decree, dated 16 May 2001, ensures medical care for the Chechen population in other republics. In 2001, about 4,000 Chechen received medical care in neighboring regions because it could not be provided in Chechnya.[67]
| <ABKHAZIA | EUROPEAN UNION> |
[1] For details on past use in the 1994-1996 conflict and the fighting post-September 1999, see Landmine Monitor Reports 1999, 2000, and 2001. Also available through the Landmine Monitor researcher for Russia is “The Chronicle of Mine War in Chechnya: Year 2000,” which gives a month-by-month snapshot of mine-related operations/incidents in the war, gleaned from a survey of the media throughout the year.
[2] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 934-936.
[3] See, for example, Remarks of then Deputy Chief of the Military Engineering University, Major General A. Nizhalovskii, in roundtable discussion of engineer equipment and military operations in Chechnya, reported in Armeyskiy sbornik (Army collection), No. 6, June 2000, pp. 35-40. Armeyskiy sbornik is a specialized monthly analytical periodical covering a wide range of military-related issues and problems. It contains a “roundtable section” in which military authors may publish articles on a given subject. See also, “Chechens Say Russians Laid 300,000 Mines,” Kavkaz-Tsentr News Agency (Internet), 5 June 2000; interview with Lieutenant-General Nikolai Serdtsev, December 1999; “Night Patrol of ‘Fittermice,’” Rossiyskaya Gazeta (official daily newspaper of Russian government), 21 January 2000.
[4] “Russia Admits: Land Mines all over Chechnya,” Agency Caucusus, 10 January 2001. Lyoma Usmanav, Chechen representative in Washington, DC, in a letter to Jody Williams, ICBL, dated 19 June 2001, stated that “the Russian command, several months after the beginning of war, ‘boasted' about its 'achievements,' declaring that they planted half a million mines against 'the Chechen terrorists.’”
[5] Umar Khanbiev, Minister for Health of the Chechen republic, citation translated from Russian by Landmine Monitor, 18 July 2002, www.chechenpress.com.
[6] Interviews with officials from the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs during January-March 2002.
[7] Interview with Colonel V. Dushukhin, Commandant of Leninskaya, Grozny, 27 January 2002.
[8] Response to Landmine Monitor by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation, sent by fax to Landmine Monitor Coordinator by Vassily V. Boriak, Counsellor, Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States, 16 August 2001. Original in Russian, translated by Global Communications, LLC, Washington, DC.
[9] ORT television report, with Akhmad Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen administration, and Stanislav Ilyasov, Head of the Chechen government, March/April 2002.
[10] Press Briefing by Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, 1 July 2002, available at: http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2002/otunnu.doc.htm.
[11] Interviews with engineers that served in the Chechen republic.
[12] Interviews with engineer experts.
[13] ABH Agency (daily news digest), 19 April 2001. see www.abnews.ru.
[14] See: http: // kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/news/id/414606. html ; "INTERFAX ," Voennykh Novostey (Military News) at http://www.militarynews.ru/.
[15] For example, see Scott Peterson, “’Lawless’ Russian Actions Reflect Mounting Frustration,” Christian Science Monitor, 13 July 2001.
[16] Fred Weir, “Chechen conflict festers with use of land mines,” Christian Science Monitor, 6 February 2002.
[17] For details of the mine problem resulting from the 1994-96 fighting, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 844. See also Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 870-871, for a description of the problem by the end of that monitoring period.
[18] “U.N. envoy says Chechen kids run landmine gauntlet,” Reuters (Chechnya), Moscow, 24 June 2002. See also, Press Briefing by Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, 1 July 2002, available at: http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2002/otunnu.doc.htm.
[19] Interviews with Russian engineers.
[20] Landmine Monitor researchers prepared a 30-page list of these efforts in Chechnya during 2001, using Russian media reports and reporting by Memorial and other human rights groups (see: “Confrontation in the Chechnya: The chronicle of violence,” Information provided by “Memorial” human rights center in Nazran, 8 May 2002, http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/N-Caucas/hronics/.)
[21] ABH Agency, 19 April 2001.
[22] “Over 1,000 Explosive Devices Said Defused In Chechnya This Year Moscow,” (in English), ITAR-TASS, 18 June 2002.
[23] UNICEF Mine Action Program in The Northern Caucuses, at:
http://www.mineaction.org/misc/dynamic_overview.cfm?did=14; email from Aida Ailarova, National Officer for MA, UNICEF, Vladikavkaz, 11 July 2002.
[24] Email from Aida Ailarova, National Officer for MA, UNICEF, Vladikavkaz, 11 July 2002.
[25] Email from Enrico Leonardi, Program Coordinator, UNICEF, Vladikavkaz, 11 July 2002.
[26] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 893-908.
[27] Data Compiled from ICRC Russia Web Site, at:
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57ZJZ4!Open.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Emergency action of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement for the North Caucasus and the South
of Russia (April-May 2002), at:
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5BB9GN?OpenDocument&style=custo_final.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Letter to Landmine Monitor (Tamara Mazaeva) from Ali Asaev, Representative of the Chechen Government in Azerbaijan, Baku, 15 February 2002; see also Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 944.
[32] Data collated by Landmine Monitor from media reports, human rights reports, RF MoESDC, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Health.
[33] Emails to Landmine Monitor from Aida Ailarova, National Officer for Mine Action and Enrico Leonardi, Program Coordinator, UNICEF, Vladikavkaz, 29 July 2002.
[34] Sharon LaFraniere, “Grozny Experiences Peace in Name Only Despite Russian Assurance of Safety, Chechen Capital Lives Under Siege,” Washington Post, 25 June 2001.
[35] Information from various unofficial sources sent to Landmine Monitor (HIB) by Catherine Naughton, Program Manager, Handicap International North Caucasus, 30 July 2002.
[36] WHO, “Health Action – in the North Caucasus,” Newsletter on Emergency Preparedness and Response, April/May 2002, p. 7.
[37] ICRC Special Report, Mine Action 2001, Geneva, July 2002, p. 35.
[38] Sharon LaFraniere, “Grozny Experiences Peace in Name Only,” Washington Post, 25 June 2001.
[39] “Confrontation in Chechnya: The chronicle of violence,” information from the “Memorial” human rights center in Nazran.
[40] “Confrontation in Chechnya: The chronicle of violence,” information from the “Memorial” human rights center in Nazran.
[41] Ibid.
[42] “U.N. envoy says Chechen kids run landmine gauntlet,” Reuters (Moscow), 24 June 2002.
[43] Emails to Landmine Monitor from Aida Ailarova, National Officer for Mine Action and Enrico Leonardi, Program Coordinator, UNICEF, Vladikavkaz, 29 July 2002.
[44] For full details on the survey and other casualty data see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 944-946.
[45] Information in this section focuses on civilian mine casualties as Russian military mine casualties receive medical care in military hospitals and subsequent rehabilitation.
[46] Sharon LaFraniere, “Grozny Experiences Peace in Name Only,” Washington Post, 25 June 2001.
[47] WHO, “Health Action in the North Caucasus,” Newsletter, April/May 2002, p. 7.
[48] WHO, “ICRC Assessments in Ingushetia and Chechnya,” “Health Action in the North Caucasus”, Newsletter, October/November 2001, p. 2.
[49] WHO, “Health Action in the North Caucasus,” Newsletter, April/May 2002, p. 7.
[50] ICRC Special Report, Mine Action 2001, Geneva, July 2002, p. 35.
[51] ICRC Fact and Figures, Emergency Action of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement for the North Caucasus and the South of Russia, December 2001, p. 3.
[52] ICRC News, “Medical aid stepped up in Chechen Republic,” 21 March 2002.
[53] UN OCHA website; see also Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 907.
[54] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 946-947.
[55] Interview with Boris Spivak at the Federal Center of Prosthetic Aid and Rehabilitation of Invalids, July 6, 2001.
[56] ICBL Portfolio of Landmine Victim Assistance Programs, accessed at www.landminevap.org.
[57] Email from Aida Ailarova, UNICEF, 29 July 2002.
[58] Email from Aida Ailarova, UNICEF, 29 July 2002; see also WHO, “Health Action in the North Caucasus,” Newsletter, February/March 2002, p. 10.
[59] Email to Landmine Monitor from Catherine Naughton, Program Manager, Handicap International North Caucasus, 29 July 2002.
[60] ICRC Special Report, Mine Action 2001, Geneva, July 2002, p. 35.
[61] WHO, “Health Action in the North Caucasus,” Newsletter, December 2001, p. 6.
[62] WHO, “Health Action in the North Caucasus,” Newsletter, February/March 2002, p. 10.
[63] Email from Catherine Naughton, Handicap International North Caucasus, 29 July 2002.
[64] UN OCHA, Humanitarian Action in the North Caucasus information bulletin, 1-16 June 2002.
[65] Email from Aida Ailarova, UNICEF, 29 July 2002.
[66] UNICEF Northern Caucasus Situation Report: 9 June-1 July 2001.
[67] WHO, “Health Action in the North Caucasus,” Newsletter, April/May 2002, p. 7.
