29.12.2003
Women protesters picketed at the main entrance to the complex of Chechnya's administration buildings in Grozny on Saturday. More than 100 Chechen women from different parts of Chechnya carried a protest meeting in Grozny and demanded the return of their sons and husbands abducted by the Russian military invaders. Several tens of Chechen women blocked the entrance gate of the administration building of Chechnya and demanded information on the whereabouts of their relatives and dear ones taken away recently by Russian military criminals.
(Agency Caucasus)

Chechnya war chronicles: Five Russian soldiers killed

29.12.2003
British Daily Record reports that 5 Russian soldiers are killed and another 6 of them are wounded in Chechnya within the last 24 hours. One dead Russian soldier is found in Central Grozny. Chechen Resistance Fighters carried 23 hits to the Russian military invaders within a day.
(Agency Caucasus)

29.12.2003
Russian Interfax news agency reports that a bomb explosion heavily wounded a Russian military invasion commander at 22:53 hours last night in Grozny. Explosion at Demin and Pervomaysky Intersection of Grozny and ensuing gunfire, panicked the Russian military aggressors with the heavy wounding of their commander.
(Agency Caucasus)

29.12.2003
Three Abkhazian soldiers are abducted from Primorskoye village in Gal region of Abkhazia on the 25th of December 2003. Abducted soldiers are seized into Zugdidi region of Georgia. Abkhazia Defense Minister Vyacheslav Ashba stated that soldiers were unarmed and were off duty. "Abduction in peacekeepers' zone is a negative point for The Peacekeepers," stated Vyacheslav Ashba.
(Agency Caucasus)

29.12.2003
Adjar Supreme Council Chairman Aslan Abashidze announced in Batum on 28 December that polling stations will be opened in his republic on 4 January to enable voters to cast their ballots in the extraordinary presidential election. Abashidze had previously insisted that the presidential ballot is unconstitutional and will inevitably be rigged. He advocated postponing for six months both the presidential and the repeat parliamentary elections, and holding a referendum on transforming Georgia into a federation. Abashidze expressed his gratitude to U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles, who traveled to Batum on 17 and 23 December to try to persuade Abashidze not to boycott the vote. On 26 December an unnamed Georgian official stated that during Georgian State Minister Zhvania's 20 December visit to Batum, Zhvania expressed readiness to implement unspecified "economic projects" in Adjaria. But Caucasus Press on 24 December quoted Zhvania as denying that he agreed to create a free economic zone, for which Adjaria has been lobbying for several years.
(Agency Caucasus)

29.12.2003
The leader of the Abkhazian Diaspora in the U.S., Inal Kazanba, appeared with a radical criticism of the leadership of the Abkhazian Republic in his article "The Power Does Not Want Diaspora's Return", which is published in the Nujnaya Newspaper in Sukhum. In his article Mr. Kazanba points out that "the Diaspora has provided considerable financial and economic support to its motherland" but "in spite of this during the last decade the present regime in Sukhum has never treated them as its equals, it means true Abkhazians." The reason is that "the present authorities do not want the Diaspora to come back as they are afraid our numerical superiority will change their positions and influence," the author says. The Abkhazian Diaspora, the larger part of which lives in Turkey, consists of the descendants of The Forced Migrants from the Russian Empire in the 19th century in the course of the Caucasian War.
(Agency Caucasus)