Jean-Christophe Peuch

Also by Jean-Christophe Peuch

• March 24, 2006

  Ossetian Leaders Hint At Reunification Plans

  At a recent meeting between officials of Russia's southern Republic of North Ossetia and Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, remarks were made that have triggered speculation that the meeting may have gone as far as discussing redrawing the Russian-Georgian state border.

• March 22, 2006

  Protesters Hold Vigil Amid Continuing Crackdown

  Belarusian opposition supporters have been keeping a vigil on a central square of Minsk to support demands that results of the March 19 presidential polls be annulled.

• March 21, 2006

  Protests Appear To Lose Momentum Amid Arrests, Trials

  Opposition protesters have spent another day rallying on a central square in Minsk, but the authorities' determination not to let the protest movement gain momentum seems to be succeeding.

• March 20, 2006

  Thousands Of Opposition Supporters Turn Out For Second Day

  Opposition supporters rallied on Minsk’s central Kastrychnitskaya (October) Square for a second day to demand that the outcome of the March 19 Belarusian presidential polls be voided and that a new vote be held.

• March 10, 2006

  Georgia: Government Under Fire Over Trade Regulations, Murder Case

  Georgian traders protested in Tbilisi against a government decision to make cash registers mandatory at all marketplaces, March 9 (InterPressNews) Hundreds of Georgian traders staged a protest rally in the center of Tbilisi today to demand that the government rescind a decision to make cash registers mandatory at all marketplaces. This was the second such demonstration in two days. The protests come as the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili faces increasing pressure to dismiss Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili over the recent murder of a bank employee.

• March 08, 2006

  Georgia: Government, Opposition Squabble Over Interior Minister

  Vano Merabishvili has rejected calls for his resignation (InterPressNews) Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili earlier this week sacked four of his subordinates on suspicion of abducting and beating to death a bank employee. Opposition leaders, however, claim the police officers were just underlings and that the murder of Sandro Girgvliani, a 28-year-old manager at the United Georgian Bank, was ordered by more senior Interior Ministry officials. The opposition are also demanding that Merabishvili, a close ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, step down.

• March 07, 2006

  Press Worries Increase After Assault On Opposition Reporter

  Unidentified attackers on March 5 kidnapped and brutally assaulted an investigative reporter in a suburb of Azerbaijan's capital Baku.

• February 23, 2006

  Tensions Continue To Mount

  Tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow rose further this week when Russia announced it is suspending issuance of entry visas for Georgian nationals, and asked Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli to postpone a planned visit.

• February 22, 2006

  Were Talks Just About Uranium Enrichment?

  Russian-Iranian nuclear consultations have ended in Moscow with both sides giving seemingly conflicting appraisals of their outcome. Officially, the negotiations focused exclusively on Russia's recent offer to enrich Iran's uranium.

• February 20, 2006

  UN Official's Tour Highlights Plight Of North Caucasus

  United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour this week toured Russia's North Caucasus region, visiting Ingushetia, Chechnya, and North Ossetia. In Ingushetia, Arbour visited a camp where Ingush civilians displaced by a 1992 ethnic conflict in neighboring North Ossetia are being housed.

• February 20, 2006

  Moscow Uranium-Enrichment Talks Under Way

  Bilateral consultations have opened in Moscow on a Russian offer to enrich Iranian uranium on its territory. The proposal aims at alleviating Western concerns that Tehran may seek to use its nuclear facilities -- including a Russian-built power plant -- for military purposes.

• February 16, 2006

  Tbilisi, Moscow Squabble Over Peacekeepers

  Georgia's minister for conflict resolution is in Moscow for talks with Russian diplomats and security officials after the Georgian parliament called for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers in the separatist republic of South Ossetia.

• February 15, 2006

  Georgian Parliament Votes Russian Peacekeepers Out Of South Ossetia

  15 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Georgia's parliament has unanimously called for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, to be replaced by international forces.

• February 13, 2006

  Leading Opposition Party Breaks With Coalition

  A main opposition party, Musavat, has announced its withdrawl from the Azadliq alliance amid disagreements with its coalition partners. Some see it as a stunning blow to an opposition in disarray.

• February 10, 2006

  Missile-Systems Deal With Iran Confirmed

  Moscow has confirmed that it signed a deal to sell Iran air-defense missile systems, but that they are meant to be used exclusively for defense and that it is not negotiating any further weapons deals with Iran.

• February 09, 2006

  Russian Peacekeepers Detained In South Ossetia

  Tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow have spiked with Georgia's threat to deport three Russian peacekeepers arrested in its separatist republic of South Ossetia.

• January 20, 2006

  Presidents To Meet Over Karabakh

  Talks between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia have ended in London with an announcement that the two countries' leaders are to meet next month in France to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial dispute.

• January 19, 2006

  Relatives, Lawyers Concerned About Detainees

  Russian officials say more than 60 people have been arrested on suspicion of participating, directly or not, in last year's deadly militant raids on Nalchik, the capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

• December 22, 2005

  'Culture Of Impunity' Blamed For Torture And Other Police Abuses

  The checkered human rights record of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's government has prompted some critics to voice concerns about a "culture of impunity" among law enforcement officers that leads to frequent rights abuses, including torture.

• December 22, 2005

  2005 In Review: Harassment Of Dissident Muslims In North Caucasus Triggers Violence

  A mosque in Baksan, in Kabardino-Balkaria (file photo) (RFE/RL) On 13 October, dozens of armed young men raided several security buildings in Nalchik, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The attacks triggered two days of street fighting that claimed some 140 lives. Most of the raiders were reportedly young Muslim dissidents from Kabardino-Balkaria who had long been enduring police abuse and turned to violence out of despair. Regional experts warn that a failure to end persecution against non-official Islam could trigger new violence, and not only in predominantly Muslim Kabardino-Balkaria.

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