People in Grozny protest against ungrounded arrests
Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus – On Tuesday, the inhabitants of the Chechen
capital held a small protest rally in the center of Grozny against actions undertaken
by the Russian military against civilians. The protesters demanded that unfounded
detentions, resulting in people’s disappearance without a trace, be
stopped.
The rally was provoked by an arrest of three persons living at 23 Rosa Luxemburg
street the previous night. Aslan Murzayev (born 1977), Anzhela Shakhmurzayeva
(b. 1969), and Khasan Ustarkhanov (b. 1974) were detained during a night raid
and taken away by the Russian forces. The participants of the rally say that all
of these people were their neighbours, not involved in any illegal acts, and that
there was no reason for their arrest. The current whereabouts of the detained
as well as the reason for their detention are unknown.
On the same day, January 14, people living near the Petropavlovskoye road in the
northern outskirts of Grozny found eight mutilated corpses in a field. According
to preliminary information, the dead people were blown up since the upper parts
of their bodies were missing. Their remains were transported to the Tolstoi-yurt
village.
Many believe that these were the corpses of the inhabitants of the town of Argun
detained during the last “mop-up” operation carried out by Russian
special forces from January 6. This assumption is supported by an information
indicating that some of the corpses have been recognized by the relatives of the
detainees.