FILTRATION CAMP ACCUSATIONS NOT CONFIRMED








MOSCOW, 2 March, 2001 /Corr. RIA Novosti/ -- Chechen republic prosecutor Vsevolod Chernov has announced that press reports concerning a "filtration camp" being run by a paratrooper regiment have not been confirmed.


	The prosecutor said that he and special presidential human rights envoy Vladimir Kalamanov and the republic's security secretary Rudnik Dudayev had yesterday investigated the claims of Novaya Gazetta (New Paper) journalist Anna Politkovskaya at the paratrooper base. They did not discover a filtration camp or any dug-out prisons. They also did not manage to discover those people who Politkovskaya alleged were being held there.


	Nevertheless, Chernov said that checks would continue to be carried out to ensure that federal troops were obeying the law.


	Politkovskaya achieved notoriety for her unverified and scandalous accusations in relation to the armed forces, as well as for publicly branding Russian officers as "pigs". She works for the tabloid Novaya Gazetta, which is not known for its particular veracity.