"""Putin, speaking on Russian state television, also said he had ``no complaints'' about the military's actions in Chechnya."""

Actions? Let's see what they are:
* Indiscriminate bombing of civilians;
* Rape, murder, and robing of refugees;
* Detention, torture, and killing of boys as young as 10;
* Use of chemical weapons;
* ....

Hmmm. Putin has no complaint about the military's actions in Chechnya. But again nobody claimed he had.

Let us repeat once more, he is complaining about the progress of the war. That is the reason he keeps sacking the generals. Putin is worried that something might go wrong between now and the election, by the way brought forward about four months just to avoid such a mishap.

Igor,

What happened to Armenian friends? Have they deserted you? I haven't heard from them for a while. Armenian+ was ok, except his denial of the existence of the God. But again, like everyone else, he will find the truth eventually.

Islam is the religion of the devil (Satan), which was promulgated by Mohammed (the False Prophet) who was an occultist with a head 4 times the normal human head size. Mohammed was a Satan-worshipper who coomunicated with demons and used the dark power of sorcery to build up his cult. Mohammed was a highway bandit who built up his fortunes by robbing caravans and taking hostages which he sold into slavery or for ransom (sorta like the Chechens are known to do, and like the Moors did in Spain from the 8th through the 15th Century A.D.).

The unholy book of Mohammedanism, the Koran, permits and commands Muslims to commit rape and murder of non-Muslims. The Koran also says who the god of the Muslims is: "the proudest of the proud, the most cunning of the cunning." In other words, the Koran describes the god of Islam as having the characteristics of Satan, who is the father of lies and a murderer from the begining.

In America, Muslims always feel the need to make it known that they are not terrorists and don't approve of terrorism. This just goes to show that they are terrorists and are just trying to gainsay the truth, which everyone knows, which is that all Muslims are terrorists and cannot be otherwise because their False Prophet, Mohammed, was a terrorist, and they are his followers.

Now Mohammed is in hell burning for all eternity and being raped by the devils he served on earth. All Muslims too, when they die, go down to hell for eternity, unless they convert to Roman Catholicism, which is the One True Religion established by God Himself.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sanctoi, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper: et in saecula saeculorum. Amen

Azerbaijan's 'Torture Chambers'

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Caucasus Reporting Service
Issue 15: January 21, 2000

The UN is investigating reports of police brutality in Azerbaijan, but alleged victims of state torture have little hope that their tormentors will ever be brought to justice.

By Eldar Zeynalov in Baku (CRS No. 15, 21-Jan-00)

Still haunted by his nightmarish ordeal in an Azeri prison, Elchin Bekhbudov is fighting for rehabilitation. A former officer in the special directorate of the presidential staff, Bekhbudov was arrested in the wake of the failed coup of March 1995. He was one of 37 members
of the Special Police Unit (OPON) accused of taking part in a plot staged by Deputy Minister Rovshan Javadov to overthrow the government.

During his interrogation, Bekhbudov claims he was beaten repeatedly and had his legs crushed in a vice. He was then subjected to the
notorious "elephant"--virtual suffocation by being forced to wear a gas-mask with a blocked air supply. Under threat of electric shock torture, he signed a full confession and was promptly imprisoned.

But Bekhbudov can consider himself lucky. Freed from jail in March 1996, he has since been campaigning for his case to be re-examined and
his tormentors to be brought to justice. Other defendants in the notorious "Case of the 37" are still languishing in Azeri prisons with little hope of an early release.

Until 1996, the victims of police brutality suffered in silence. Prisoners hoped their discretion would help lighten their sentences, while relatives feared official complaints would have an
adverse effect on the way the inmates were treated. Deaths in police custody went unpunished.

However, the "show trials" of 1996-1997 opened a horrifying can of worms. The Case of the 37 was followed in the summer of 1995 by the
so-called "Generals' Conspiracy" --a second attempted state coup which implicated the deputy defence minister and two other generals among others. During both trials, defendants complained that they had been subjected to brutal interrogations during the investigation. Identical torture methods were described by generals, soldiers, journalists and businessmen who had had no previous relationship before the court hearings.

Nineteen of the 21 defendants in the Generals' Conspiracy claimed they had been tortured: similar depositions were taken from 25 defendants in the Case of the 37 and 30 witnesses in the trial of the former Prime Minister Suret Huseynov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the coup d'etat of October 1994.

The authorities found the accusations particularly embarrassing as they imply direct contravention of international treaty and state law. On May 31, 1996, Azerbaijan ratified the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Humiliating Forms of Treatment and Punishment. In addition, Article 177 of the Criminal Code of 1960 prohibits police from forcing confessions through threatening or any other unlawful actions. Article 180 bans any attempts to force
defendants, witnesses, plaintiffs, experts or translators to give false testimony.

The allegations described a systematic catalogue of medieval torture methods. Investigators reportedly subjected their victims to inhuman conditions, keeping them in cold, damp cells with no bedding, denying them sleep and interrogating them round-the-clock on a so-called
"conveyor" system with officers working in shifts.

Physical abuse included beating the head and soles of the feet; crushing limbs in a vice; attaching electrodes to the victim's ears;
depriving chronically ill prisoners of medical aid; stubbing out cigarettes on bare skin; inserting bottles into the rectum and, less frequently, the "elephant" or tearing out finger- and toe-nails.

Forms of moral intimidation included arresting close relatives; raping the suspect's wife or daughter; raping the suspect himself or torturing another prisoner in the suspect's presence. Prisoners were often denied legal counsel, openly libelled in the media and threatened with more serious charges.

Attempts to prove the victims' testimonies through the courts have been largely inconclusive. In the Case of the 37, only five of the 25 defendants who reported acts of police brutality were given expert examinations. Of these, three were found to have suffered broken ribs but the judge later dismissed the complaints on the grounds that the injuries could have been sustained by the OPON servicemen in the line
of duty.

When Huseynov, the former prime minister, testified that he had been beaten across the head, the judge ruled that the injuries were
self-inflicted. State prosecutors, however, failed to explain why Huseynov had received no medical aid and a written statement on the
injuries was only produced several weeks after the event.

According to figures released by the Human Rights Centre in Baku, 710 suspects were arrested in the wake of the March 1995 coup. Of these, 207 were released after the prosecutor's office dropped charges against them, while another 75 were granted an amnesty and seven were given a conditional discharge. Thus even according to official figures, one-third of these suspected "traitors" were later cleared of
all charges.

However, torture is not reserved for political prisoners alone: the treatment of suspected felons is said to be equally brutal. Investigators lacking evidence for crimes are alleged to
employ torture methods to extract confessions that will make their case stand up in court.

Azerbaijan's bid for membership of the European Union in the autumn of 1996 brought new hope that the treatment of suspects would improve. A
commission for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor's Office conducted an unprecedented inspection of the investigation cells. The dismissal of the prison
supervisor followed and several cases of human-rights abuse were reported. Dramatic measures were taken to improve conditions in
Azerbaijani prisons while the number of complaints fell significantly.

In a report to the United Nations in November last year, deputy prosecutor-general Fikret Mammedov told delegates that the new
Constitution had already enshrined the prohibition of torture and new progressive laws had been adopted to protect human rights. New
judicial legislation assured the impartiality of judges while the Azerbaijani government was considering the appointment of an independent inspector for prisons.

However, the UN Committee Against Torture, which examined preliminary reports from Azerbaijan, has expressed concerns that reports of police brutality are still commonplace. It also noted that the exact definitions of torture in Azerbaijan remain hazy, thus hampering
efforts to identify incidents of human rights abuse. The UN investigators are also concerned that local authorities fail to investigate complaints properly and judges are at liberty to dismiss
charges against police officers accused of torture. The UN inspectors have yet to return recommendations for specific reforms.

Eldar Zeynalov is Director of the Human Rights Centre in Baku.

Azeris to meet IMF deadline for loan tranche


BAKU, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan will fulfil International Monetary Fund reform conditions by a March deadline in order to receive the final $23 million tranche of a structural adjustment loan, the finance minister said on Friday.

``We will fufil the IMF's six conditions before March 15 and will begin discussions on a new three-year programme of cooperation between
Azerbaijan and the Fund worth $200 million,'' Avyaz Alekperov told journalists.

An IMF mission arrived on Friday for a two-week visit to complete a review ahead of disbursement of the final tranche of a $57 million structural adjustment loan and begin talks on the new loan.

The IMF delayed release late last year because the oil- producing Caspian state had not pushed ahead with agreed steps, including tax reform, privatisation and financial and banking sector reform.

``The National Bank of Azerbaijan (Central Bank) has already prepared the necessary documents for a merger of Agroprombank, Industrial-Investment Bank and the Savings Bank and we expect a presidential decree on this soon,'' Alekperov said.

The three banks should merge and receive a license to begin operations before March 1, he said.

Sources in Azerbaijan's parliament said the draft of a new tax code has already been discussed in the relevant committees and was ready for a first reading during the Spring session that opens February 1.

The tax code defines eight main taxes and drops the profit tax to 27 percent from 30 percent.

The sources also said parliamentary committees expected to receive a privatisation law and the programme for a second wave of sell-offs in
the next few days.

Priorities for the second three-year IMF programme include the establishment of a fund to manage future oil revenues transparently, as well as continuation of banking and financial sector reform.

Economists say an oil fund is crucial for the country, since it is dependant on oil for about half of budget revenues.

This year Azerbaijan will receive $100-150 million from the sale of crude oil produced by a BP Amoco-led foreign oil consortium and oil
revenues may reach $1 billion by 2005, the government says.

05:37 01-21-00

"By Antonio: Islam is the religion of the devil (Satan), which was promulgated by Mohammed (the False Prophet) who was an occultist with a head 4 times the normal human head size."

In other words, yours is 4 times smaller (I assume no one else head was used as a measurement).

By Dimitri: Actually you can't, for this city is the most expensive capital in the world..even more
expensive than ex-#1 - Tokyo.."

That's probably why abd is waiting for sale.

Turkish Premier Vows To Crush Group

Thursday January 20 4:09 PM ET
By SELCAN HACAOGLU
Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's prime minister vowed Thursday to destroy a militant Islamic group that police blame for the deaths of 13 people whose bodies were discovered bound hand and foot.

Authorities unearthed three bodies from a coal shed in Ankara on Thursday, a day after 10 bodies were found strangled and left in a coal bin and garden of an Istanbul house.

The men are believed to have been killed by Hezbollah, a militant group that aims to form an Islamic state in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated
southeast. The group is not related to the Lebanese militia of the same name.

Police have launched a major crackdown against the group since a five-hour shootout with authorities Monday left the leader of the group's most militant wing dead. Police arrested more than 25 suspected militants Thursday in the southern cities of Mersin and Gaziantep, the Anatolia news agency reported.

``This operation will be carried out until the Hezbollah organization is wiped out,'' Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said.

The bodies in the coal shed outside an Ankara home were discovered after nine Hezbollah militants captured Wednesday confessed to killing six people and burying three, Anatolia reported.

Two of the bodies have been identified as those of businessmen from Mersin.

Ten other bodies discovered in Istanbul were believed to be those of missing businessmen tied to an Islamic charity group said to oppose
Hezbollah. Some of the bodies had broken bones, a possible sign that the men were tortured before they were killed.

In videotapes seized by police, militants were seen interrogating several of the missing businessmen and making them shout ``Long live
Hezbollah!'' before executing them, the daily Sabah newspaper reported.

Commentators on Thursday lashed out at the state, which is believed to have supported Hezbollah in the 1980s, when the anti-communist group was attacking militants of the Marxist Kurdistan Workers Party led by Abdullah Ocalan.

The state is now ``in a position of being the target of the Frankenstein monster it has created,'' Gungor Mengi wrote in Sabah.

Hezbollah draws its support from poorly educated rural Kurds and is held responsible for hundreds of killings in Turkey.

Turkey says the group receives backing from Iran, a charge Tehran denies.

To all religious experts:
Why do some Muslims demand that their women should cover up faces?
Cossack