Newly painted signs in Grozny suggest dialling the Russian emergency number 01 for help. They are part of Russia's attempt to show that normal life has returned to Chechnya. But amid the ruin and violence that afflict the city, they seem more like a cruel joke, for almost nobody has a telephone. Over the decade since Russian troops invaded the rebellious republic in December 1994, tens of thousands of people have been killed in Chechnya. Kremlin claims that the war is over are plain wrong. This is a place where people are arrested by masked soldiers and not seen again; where rebels shoot police and soldiers in broad daylight; and where suspects blow themselves up to avoid arrest.
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