Concerns have grown about the high death toll in Moscow's war against Chechen separatists. More than 1,000 Chechens have been registered as missing by the Russian authorities and over 300 civilians remain missing in the breakaway Russian republic.
Dozens of civilians are feared to be dead, following a series of raids by Russian troops on Chechen villages. The Kremlin has announced that it will look into brutality allegations against Russian soldiers, but conflicting reports have filtered out of Chechnya since.
Russian officials reported that six soldiers had been detained, but this was denied by the prosecutor's office days later. In a bid to improve its reputation among Chechen civilians, the Russian army announced last week that local observers would monitor its "mopping up operations".
Russia invaded Chechnya on 1 October, 1999, in "an operation to stamp out suspected terrorist camps". The predominantly Muslim republic had been semi-independent since Russian troops withdrew following a costly earlier war against separatists from 1994 to 1996.
More than 3,000 Russian soldiers have been reported killed since the start of the second campaign. A Russian Soldiers' Mothers committee estimates that more than 10,000 Russian troops have in fact been killed in the conflict.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled into the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia. These are the victims of a conflict which has all but disappeared from the headlines, but nearly two years after the war in Chechnya flared up again, an estimated 30,000 people are living in one refugee camp.
A group of 80 of them have been on hunger strike for the last month, and this morning they tried to begin a ten-week march to Moscow, to highlight their suffering. But Russian soldiers and the local militia had other ideas. They said there was no permission for the protest and several were arrested.
They also detained a reporter and camera crew from the German television station, ARD, who were trying to film the protest.
For the people living as refugees, months are turning into years. There's no running water in the refugee camp in question. The winters are bitter, but temperatures in summer now reach 35 degrees.
One nurse at the camp said that disease, especially tuberculosis, is a problem. She estimates that a staggering 40% of people there have TB.
Recently there has been an influx of refugees. About 4,000 people have arrived, after Russian soldiers carried out an offensive against villages in Chechnya. They bring with them further alarming stories about abuses by the soldiers, and disappearances.
The Russian human rights organisation, Memorial, says that Russian commanders have warned doctors not to write up cases of torture. The war is far from over, and tens of thousands of refugees are waiting to go home.
