DOCTOR SPEAKS OF CHECHNYA STRUGGLES

Dr. Khasin Baiev is a heroic Chechen physician who for years defied threats from extremists on both sides to care for federal and rebel wounded alike. At the September 16 gathering at Johns Hopkins he related such memories as that of the nine-year-old boy whose hair turned white overnight because of the horrors which he had seen. Dr. Baiev, who has received political asylum and now lives in New England, said that Chechnya no longer has any people who are fully normal in their mental health. “For many years the Russians have tried to turn Chechen against Chechen, and now they have finally succeeded,” he said. “The traditions which we lived by for centuries are now being dissolved.”

Dr. Baiev’s book, The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire, which is co-authored with American journalist and veteran Moscow correspondent Nicholas Daniloff, is due to be published on October 5. For more information, interested readers may contact Walker and Company at www.walkerbooks.com/books/catalog.php?key=417 , or at fax number 212-727-0984.