By empty (3/13/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In a statement (http://www.osce.org/item/18319.

By empty (3/10/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Ramzan Kadyrov told journalists in Grozny on March 10 that all Chechen resistance formations have been smashed, and that only a handful of \"odious figures\" remain active, whose death or capture is \"a matter of time.\" Kadyrov said some 3,000 Interior Ministry personnel are engaged in hunting down field commanders Shamil Basayev, Doku Umarov, and Rappani Khalilov in southern Chechnya. He added that Basayev would have been apprehended long ago but for the fact that \"he is under the protection of various special services.

By empty (3/10/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Armenian NGOs in Georgia\'s predominantly Armenian-populated southern region of Djavakheti have written to President Mikheil Saakashvili asking him to grant the region autonomy within Georgia. Vardan Akopian, who heads the NGO Youth of Djavakhk, told journalists that the request is problematic insofar as the Georgian Constitution does not provide for transforming the country into a federation. But he expressed the hope that the Georgian authorities \"will find democratic approaches to the issues of the national minorities,\" and that the granting of autonomy to Djavakheti will prove to be \"the first step towards a new Georgia.