Dozens Killed or Wounded as Russians Bomb Villages

5 May 2002


CP
A. Amayev


Residents of the settlement of Kirov have been holding a rally since morning in the Chechen capital, outside the complex housing the occupying authorities of Chechnya. Several hundred elderly Chechen women have gathered here and are demanding that the Russian authorities tell them the whereabouts of their sons, several dozen of whom were seized yesterday in Kirov.

The Chechen women protesters are being joined by representatives of several other villages, where the Russian occupiers have conducted very cruel punitive actions in the past few days, Chechen rights activists report. Moreover, reports are coming in from Nozhay-Yurtovsky, Vedensky and Itum-Kalinsky Districts that Russian military aircraft are bombing mountain villages and hamlets where civilians live. Several dozen local residents are reported killed or wounded. Many observers think that the new bombing raids on populated areas of the CRI [Chechen Republic of Ichkeria] are connected to the latest resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights that practically supports the genocide of the Chechen people.

China, India, Cuba and Syria were the most active in opposing the resolution and condemned the actions of the Russian authorities in Chechnya. Almost all the "Muslim countries" either abstained from voting or supported Russia.

Source: http://www.ichkeria.org/