LOCAL LEADER OF PRO-PUTIN PARTY KILLED IN CHECHNYA BY ATTACKERS WHO INVADED HER HOME

July 18, 2004 - (AP) Masked attackers broke into the home of a local leader of the pro-Russian party in the separatist Chechen republic and shot her to death early Sunday, according to Russian media reports.

Tamara Khadzhiyeva of the United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, was killed in the town of Shali, southeast of the Chechen capital Grozny, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported.

Investigators believe Khadzhiyeva was the victim of a contract killing because the attackers opened fire immediately after entering her home and took nothing as they fled, ITAR-Tass reported, citing Chechen police.

There was no claim of responsibility, and police named no suspects. Separatist rebels in Chechnya oppose the region's Moscow-backed government and anyone who supports the Russian state and political system. Killings are frequent.

Two relatives of Khadzhiyeva, both policemen, have been killed in the past three months, Interfax said. Khadzhiyeva was kidnapped during the 1994-96 war in Chechnya, but relatives secured her release, the agency reported.

Khadzhiyeva was the head of the Shali district branch of United Russia's organization, the news reports said. Citing party officials, ITAR-Tass reported that she was the 29th member of United Russia's Chechen branch to be killed.

She was a sister of Salambek Khadzhiyev, a Soviet-era official and lawmaker who headed a Kremlin-installed government in Chechnya in 1995 but was replaced after increasingly speaking out against the rebels.

Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya after the 1994-1996 war, leaving the region with de facto independence, but returned in 1999 in a second effort to crush the rebels.

Fighting persists nearly five years later. Russian forces killed 13 rebels in a second day of fighting near the southern village of Gansolchu, Russian news agencies reported Sunday, citing officials at the headquarters for the Russian military campaign in Chechnya.

The reports did not mention Russian casualties. An official in Chechnya's Moscow-backed government said Saturday that two soldiers and four militants were killed in the initial fighting near Gansolchu, while the Russian military headquarters said six rebels were killed.

From: http://www.hrvc.net/news2004/18-7-04.html