In January 2004, an initiative group of Yekaterinburg people is carrying out an action of protest against human rights violations during the war in Chechnya.

In the course of the Migrant operation, administrative proceedings were instituted against 13 thousand people - 6 thousand of them are foreign citizens - for violations of the passport and visa regulations.

In Vladikavkaz, the chairwoman of the Council of Non-Government Organizations, Zuleykhan Bagalova, and members of the Public Council for Refugees had a meeting with a representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the North Caucasus, William Tall.

A constituent meeting of the Committee to Protect Rights of Rauf Arifoglu, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat arrested on October 27 in connection with the October 15 and 16 events, was held at the International Press Club on January 22.

"They were detained in the course of investigation of the abduction and robbery of two inhabitants of the Kargalinovskaya Cossack village in the Shelkovskaya district," Chechen Interior Ministry officials said.

Adversaries of the forum lay strictures on the Swedish Government because representatives of the Palestinians, Chechens and Kurds have not been invited to take part in it.

Four servicemen were killed and another four were injured as a result of the explosion.

"The problem of Meskhetian Turks no longer exists in Krasnodar Territory as the Law on Citizenship has been passed," declared Russian Deputy Interior Minister Colonel-General Aleksandr Chekalin.

Aslan Davletukayev was illegally detained by officers of security agencies on January 10 in the village of Avtury, Chechnya's Shali district.

He named the restoration of Georgia's territorial integrity, extermination of poverty and corruption as the priorities in his activity.

Details of the incident near the Chechen village of Gekhi were disclosed at the press center of the Russian Interior Ministry in the North Caucasian region on January 23.

Amnesty International urges President Saakashvili to demonstrate his commitment to human rights by promoting respect for the rights of all, regardless of their political opinion, religious belief, ethnic background, or gender.

Georgia's elect President Mikhail Saakashvili received blessing of Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II and took an oath on the tomb of King David the Builder in the Gelati monastery.

Chief of the president's staff section to work with law-enforcement agencies Fuad Alekserov told journalists about it.

Abkhazian Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Eshba commented on the statement by chief of the Georgian coastguard service David Gulua that his department was going to impose a blockade on the Abkhazian area of water. The minister said such statements have been heard for 10 years.

Azerbaijan's government has unleashed a massive crackdown on the political opposition in the wake of the fraudulent October presidential election, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released on January 23.

On January 22, about two hundred refugees from the Satsita tent camp, which is near the village of Sleptsovskaya, rallied in protest against the closure of refugee camps in Ingushetia scheduled for March 1.

Reporters Without Borders urged French President Jacques Chirac to raise the case of a prominent jailed editor to try to obtain his release, during an official visit by President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, on 22-23 January.

"Officials of Russian security agencies have been giving the same numbers of "active bandits" for four years. It means the only thing for me: at such a pace the "counterterrorist operation" here will last for tens of years," says an activist of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" in Grozny.

The Caucasian Knot own correspondent in South Osetia conducted an interview with Dmitry Medoyev, a political scientist, member of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Republic of North Osetia - Alania and former foreign minister of South Osetia.