REVIEW TOPICS:
Beslan secret video leaks to undermine reputation of Russia's security forces
Purges reported at Belarus KGB following its chief’s dismissal
Ukrainian Security Service warned Transport Ministry about danger of railway accident month before Lviv train crash
National Security Service General to head Upper-Karabakh anclave
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry detains group engaged in drug smuggling
Many communist secret police files failed to be disclosed in Romania
Bulgaria's communist secret police collaborators-turned-envoys face pressure
Beslan secret video leaks to undermine reputation of Russia's security forces
Previously unseen videotape of the tragic end to the school siege at Beslan shows that a botched raid by the Russian security service triggered the slaughter, according to relatives of many of the victims, The Times of London writes today. The Beslan Mothers' Committee said that it had received the film anonymously. It has long argued that the three-day siege at School Number One ended in carnage after an attempt to storm the building by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Weekly Novaya Gazeta carried a transcript of the tape yesterday in a report under the headline: “The school was not blown up by terrorists”. It added that the film, apparently shot by a member of the investigation team, showed that officials had kept the truth hidden for three years.
Susanna Dudiyeva, who heads the Beslan Mothers' Committee and was herself a hostage, accused the Federal Security Service, or FSB - Russia's primary security agency - of withholding crucial evidence.
"The FSB is giving up none of its own secret video material, which should have been turned over to investigators as evidence," online edition of the Moscow-based Pravda newspaper cites her. "Not one FSB agent has been interrogated. We have access to not one part of the documentary or video material or information. The investigation is at a dead-end."
The Beslan Mothers’ Committee said that the film contradicted official claims that a bomb detonated by Chechen terrorists inside the school sparked the chaos that led to the deaths of 344 people, half of them children. They said that the film proved that an explosion had taken place 20 minutes before a bomb went off inside the sports hall where more than 1,000 children and parents were being held hostage. Two explosions are heard before smoke billows from the side of the building as shooting erupts on all sides. Later, two bomb-disposal engineers are shown.discussing a hole in the wall of the gymnasium as they examine boobytrap devices found at the school after the siege. Kommersant newspaper said they were army engineers being questioned by prosecutors. An officer identified as Bagatir Nabiyev tells his colleague that the hole had been caused by an explosion from outside the building. Dudiyeva, head of the committee, said that the video supported her view that troops fired two grenade-launcher rounds at the gymnasium, sparking a fire that engulfed the building.
Members of the Mothers of Beslan Committee asked FSB head Nikolai Patrushev to declassify the video and audio archive of the events at Beslan and make it available to the inquiry because the committee believes it proves that it was the government forces, and not the terrorists, who triggered the explosions and gunfire on the tragic day of September 3, 2004.
Purges reported at Belarus KGB following its chief’s dismissal
As it became known to the Belorussky Partisan Internet site, cardinal restructuring of the Belarus State Security Committee, or the KGB, has started, online paper Khartiya’97 reports. The special-task militia division (OMON) officer has been appointed the head of the own security service of the KGB, the site informers report. A dozen or so officers were sacked from the Minsk city and Minsk regional directorates of the KGB, including the heads of the directorates, however, with their retirement pensions retained, Khartiya’97 marks.
The updating of the secrete agency staff reshuffling has been accelerating, according to the online paper. Certain KGB staff-members reportedly confess that they even do not open their files waiting for their fate to be decided, among those being all heads of departments, their deputies, heads of divisions and units, as well as their deputies , the internet edition reports.
The chairman of Belarus State Security Committee Stepan Sukhorenko was dismissed on July 17, just days after the KGB publicly boasted of its success in uncovering a spy ring that was said supplying secrets about Belarusian and Russian defense interests to Poland. It appeared, however, that the main role in revealing the espionage case belonged to the Russian security services. Sukhorenko assumed the post of KGB chief in December 2004. At the time, it was rumored that Sukhorenko's predecessor, Leonid Yerin, lost his job as a result of a friendly conversation he had with a group of activists opposed to President Alexander Lukashenko's apparent attempts to become president-for-life, Radio Liberty reported.
Ukrainian Security Service warned Transport Ministry about danger of railway accident month before Lviv train crash
As early as a month ago, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) sent to the Presidential Secretariat and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine an analytic note concerning the issue of situation in country’s railroad system, however, neither the Transport Ministry, nor Ukrzaliznytsia [national railway company] produced any reaction to this, daily Delo reports.
On July 16, in the Buskiy district of the Lviv Oblast, 15 cisterns with yellow phosphorus derailed and caught fire, sending a toxic cloud roiling overhead.
The SBU analytic note a month earlier about the transport sphere security was based on results of an investigations, carried out by its employees. In line with the text of the analytics note, 56% of the main railway transport funds are outworn. The branch upgrading is financed at no more than 30-40% of the need,the paper writes. In addition, numerous shifts of the Ukrzaliznytsia leadership caused reduction of a personal responsibility of company officials and employees. Thus, more than 175 thousand faults and defects, including low-quality repair of trains and condition of railroads, were discovered during the year 2006. The Ukrainian Security Service is convinced that namely these facts are the main reasons of railway crashes in Ukraine, including that in the Lviv Oblast, according to Delo.
National Security Service general to head Upper-Karabakh anclave
The international community and Azerbaijan, which lost control over Upper-Karabakh in 1992, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan near the border with Armenia, condemned the recent presidential elections in the anclave and called them illegal. However, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Azerbaijan will have no choice but to cooperate with President-elect Bako Saakyan, Russian news agency RIA Novosti comments.
Major-General Bako Saakyan was named president of the the tiny, self-proclaimed Upper-Karabakh Republic after receiving 85 percent of the votes on July 19. His main challenger, Deputy Foreign Minister Masis Mayilian, received 12 percent of the vote. Mailyan accused the republican authorities of unfairly promoting Saakyan's candidacy to the detriment of his rivals, Radio Free Europe said.
The former security chief faced no serious rivals. Saakyan, 47, was former President Arkady Ghukasyan’s preferred successor, and was backed by the region’s main political groups. Saakyan was backed by Ghukasyan's Democratic Artsakh Party (ZhAK), by the two opposition parties represented in the republican parliament and by the current Armenian leadership, which implies that he is also considered acceptable by Moscow, Radio Free Europe says.
Saakyan made his career in the Soviet-era Committee for State Security (KGB). An active participant of the Karabakh Liberation Movement, he joined the Karabakh self-defense forces in 1990. He rose to senior positions in the NKR Defense Army and earned a number of medals, including the Combat Cross 1st Degree, Karabakh’s foremost decoration for valor in combat, according to The Armenian Weekly.
From 1999 to 2001, Saakyan served as Minister of Internal Affairs and from 2001 until last month headed the National Security Service. He holds a law degree from the Artsakh State University and is married with two children.
Saakyan pledged to push for full independence of the mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan, whose claim to autonomy is not recognized by any country. General says he wants to make the sliver of land and its 140,000 people "an example of democratic rule" to persuade the international community to recognize Karabakh's independence, CNN reported. Saakyan has said that international recognition of Kosovo as an independent state would pave the way for acceptance of Upper-Karabakh's sovereignty.
Upper-Karabakh is a Russian-Turkish term that means "mountainous black garden." Ethnic Armenians, who now account for virtually the entire population of the territory, prefer to call it Artsakh.
Azerbaijan and Armenia remain locked in a dispute over Upper-Karabakh despite more than a decade of coaxing from international mediators led by the United States, Russia and France to resolve the region's status.
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry detains group engaged in drug smuggling
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry and the State Borderguard Service detained a group engaged in drug smuggling through the route of Iran-Azerbaijan and Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia, news agency Trend reported. Some 21kg drugs were seized, news agency said, referring to the Public Relations Centre of the Defence Ministry. A resident of Azerbaijani Yardymly region, Firuddin Aliyev, and his son Gamil Aliyev were smuggling drugs from Iran to Azerbaijan. Some 2 kg of heroin and 9.743g of hashish were withdrawn. Also a resident of Azerbaijani Jalilabad region, Ilham Baghirov and the residents of Ganja city, Ramiz Pashayev and Elmir Aliyev, who were smuggling drugs via Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia route have been detained by Azerbaijan security forces, according to Trend news agency. Aliyev ordered 10 kg of drugs to Baghirov for $6,000 and Pashayev gave $13,000 to Aliyev, who later passed it to Baghirov in Imishli region, news agency expands.
Many communist secret police files failed to be disclosed in Romania
Bucharest-based daily Romania Libera writes about the communist files that failed to be disclosed over the past lustration talks. The new director of the National Archives Council, Dorin Dobrincu, promises to reopen talks on the subject and make the files available to the public, the paper marks.
The paper hits a ‘soft spot’ on the Romanian political scene: many present political personalities have collaborated and held important functions during the communist regime. According to the draft on the lustration law, such individuals will not be allowed to be on the present political scene. Thus, stakes are high and so far, the lustration law, even if voted will not be applicable due to several annexes that make it impossible. Moreover, the current stipulations do not allow personal data information to be disclosed unless 40 years have passed since the person’s death, according to Romania Libera.
British historian, Dennis Deletant says that if cases are revealed, there will be important and surprising facts discovered. Deletant argues for the paper that he was not allowed to see the files for various reasons.
The institute’s personnel say that the reasons invoked so far are the lack of resources to be able to study them: there are almost five kilometres of files. The European Union legislation say that Romania should have objective laws that support the rule of law. Thus, the national archives law would be modified not to permit biases or discretionary interpretations, Romania Libera concludes.
Bulgaria's communist secret police collaborators-turned-envoys face pressure
A group of Bulgarian non-governmental organizations have pooled efforts to rise against the appointment of alleged communist secret services collaborators as ambassadors of the country abroad, Sofia News Agency reports.
The coalition, named Citizens against State Security, will lodge petitions at the Embassies of Norway, the Netherlands, Greece and Serbia in Sofia. These are the countries where Bulgaria has sent officials with murky past, according to the latest revelations of the special commission that studied newly opened communist state security files, Sofia News Agency says.
"The secret police is responsible for a large number of crimes against the rights of Bulgarian citizens and we think it is absolutely unacceptable for such people to represent Bulgaria," a statement of the coalition said. It expressed the hope that the governments of the four countries concerned will take "adequate" steps. The blacklisted envoys are Nikola Karadimov, Bulgaria's Ambassador to Norway, Zlatin Trupkov, Ambassador to the Netherlands, Andrey Karaslavov, Ambassador to Greece and Georgi Dimitrov, Ambassador to Serbia, according to the news agency.
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