CEP20050815019003 Moscow Izvestiya (Moscow Edition) in Russian 15 Aug 05 p6

[Reports by Roman Kirillov and Larisa Kallioma: "The Sister of Field Commander Doku Umarov Disappeared in Chechnya"]

In Chechnya at the end of last week, unknown persons took 45-year-old Natalya Khumadova, the sister of the well-known bandit chief, Doku Umarov, to an unknown place. Representatives of law enforcement organizations call the abduction of the family members of the bandit leaders "counter hostage seizures", which are supposedly carried out by Chechnya's militarized structures for the purpose of getting more quickly close to the bandit chiefs themselves. Meanwhile, the republic MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] has started an investigation into Natalya Khumadova's disappearance.

According to the information of Chechnya's law enforcement bodies, Natalya Khumadova's abduction took place on Thursday night. Unknown armed persons in camouflage uniforms entered her house No 16 on Zapadnaya Street in Urus-Martan. Threatening her with weapons, they led the woman out into the street, climbed into two automobiles, and drove out of the center of the city in an unknown direction.

The son of the sister of field commander Doku Umarov reported the abduction to the Rayon Department of Internal Affairs. Law enforcement bodies have already started an investigation into Khumadova's disappearance, but without results.

It was reported earlier that Doku Umarov's 70-year-old father, Khamad, and his wife and 6-month-old son were also taken away in May 2005 in the same way. Several months before this, armed persons sized his 43-year-old brother, Ruslan Umarov.

In regard to Natalya Khumadova's abduction, Russian civil rights defenders have already brought up Russian General Procurator Vladimir Ustinov's idea on taking the relatives of terrorists hostage.

"Although for now the circumstances of the disappearance of Umarov's sister are not known, it is possible that here we are dealing with the 'counter-hostage-seizure method'," said a representative of the civil rights center Memorial, Dmitriy Grushkin. "We believe this to be one of the most dangerous trends in Chechnya."

Meanwhile, Umarov's remaining relatives assert that "siloviki" [members of militarized agencies] came for Natalya, who are thus trying to get on the trail of the field commander or force him to surrender as Ichkerian Brigadier General Magomed Khambiyev did at one time. On an Internet site, an unnamed Umarov relative recalled the seizing of Aslan Maskhadov's sister and brothers and also told about the subsequent elimination of the leader of the separatists. This person was sure that Doku Umarov will also ignore the disappearance of his sister and not cease his subversive activities.