On 13-14 October during these raids armed people seized hostages and occupied the administrative buildings of the police, local department of the FSB, local department of internal affairs and other places within the city. The average age of the insurgents was 18-20 years. The exact number of injured and killed people is still being counted. The resonance of the events in Nalchik has divided Russian society. (18-OCT-2005)
Shamil Basaev posted a message on a website regularly used by Chechen rebels where he announced his plans to murder the President of Kabardino-Balkaria and affirmed that the number of murdered insurgents is made up of 41 man and nearly 140 of law enforcement officials. He maintained that Nalichik was attacked by 217 insurgents.
But according to the latest official information, 100-300 terrorists took a part in the raids on Nalchik. Russian authorities have produced a different count on the number of dead: 24 law enforcement officials, 19 local policemen and 12 civilians. The number of murdered insurgents, the authorities say, is around 92.
The Minister of Defense, Sergey Ivanov, said in an interview that there had been no incursion in Kabardino-Balkaria – all the terrorists had been located in Nalchik and were ?peaceful citizens?.
Citizens in Nalchik are leading protests. The relatives of the dead are demanding the bodies of their lost family members. They believe that the bodies of their relatives are mixed in with the bodies of the terrorists.
The human rights society in the Russian Federation is disturbed by the events in Nalchik. These events make it clear that the authorities in Caucus region can´t control the situation. The authorities´ method of pressure and intimidation of local people evoked a response of anger and protest. Human rights activists doesn´t approve of the fact that the local government, instead of solving the economic (90% of the youth are unemployed) and ethnic issues in Kabardino-Balkaria, decided to close the mosques in a region where the majority of the population are Moslem. Human rights activists also don´t agree with the politics of the officials who had tried to cover up the problem of the Chechen Republic and make the Russian people to believe that the Chechen war was over. The human rights society insists on bringing up the question of finishing the war in the Caucasus and starting a program for de-escalating the conflict and solving urgent social and economic problem of the region.
Source: http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/10/17/basayevsays.shtml
