Blast hits traffic police post in Chechnya, 2 killed

A bomb blast has ripped through a traffic police post in the Gudermes Region of Chechnya, the local Interior Ministry reported on Monday. The explosive device had been set under an extension to the main building. The extension was destroyed, two people were killed. The main building of the traffic police post was lightly damaged.

//Interfax//


Russia: 54,000 Chechen refugees still living in Ingushetia

Nazran,(Itar-Tass) 24 November: Every day, 10-12 Chechen refugee families leave tent camps in Ingushetia and go to Chechnya, deputy head of the Ingush Interior Ministry migration service Akhmed Tomov told ITAR-TASS today. He said that in the last two months about 3,000 people had returned to Chechnya from Ingushetia. "We provide homeward- bound refugees with transport and food for 8-11 months".

He said: "Refugees go home voluntarily, there has been practically no disruption in the return process". Those who have gone to Chechnya live in temporary accommodation, with their relatives or rent private homes. Tomov believes refugees don't have any objective reasons for refusing to go back to Chechnya now. However, he said, some of the refugees say they don't go back because of the lack of sufficient guarantees of their safety in Chechnya.

According to the Ingush Interior Ministry migration service, there are now about 54,000 Chechen refugees in Ingushetia, 6,500 of them living in tent camps, 20,000 in compact communities and the rest in private houses.


Commandos on trial for killing Chechen civilians

TEXT: Kirill Sergueyev, Club of Regional Journalists 

A court in Rostov-on-Don continues hearing the case of four servicemen from the spetsnaz special-forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate, who stand accused of intentionally killing six Chechen civilians. The grim details were reported in court – the commandos received an order to kill the civilians they had wounded from their commanders who at that time were managing the operation to extinguish the rebel warlord Khattab.

The accused are four servicemen of the 641st Novosibirsk unit of the special-forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Major Aleksei Perelevsky, Captain Eduard Ulman, Lieutenant Aleksander Kalagansky and Ensign Vladimir Voyevodin are accused of killing six residents from the mountain village of Dai – the director and teacher of the local school, a disabled woman, a peasant, a driver and a forest ranger who were traveling by car to the district centre of Shatoi. Of the six servicemen facing charges, only Captain Ulman has been placed in custody, the rest have given written pledges not to leave their quarters.

The officers have told the investigators that they fired at the vehicle as it did not stop after they ordered it to, and also the back doors of the Russian-made UAZ jeep opened and the military thought a machine gunner was hiding on the back seat. After it appeared that they had shot and hit some civilians, Captain Ulman, by radio, contacted his commander – Major Perelevsky. The major ordered him to destroy all the evidence and urgently leave the area. The troopers poured petrol over the UAZ and burned it.

In the very first sessions of the court it transpired that only one Chechen of those who were in the UAZ had sustained a fatal wound. The rest were wounded lightly and some even could walk. Upon receiving the order to finish the Chechens off, the officers apologized before them and said they were free to go. As the civilians started to leave, the military shot them in their backs, started the fire, and left the area.

This Monday the report was once again confirmed by Sergei Zolotarev, a colonel of the Airborne Troops. On January 11, 2002, when the commandos killed the Chechen civilians and burned the corpses, Zolotarev was a deputy commander of special operations in the Shatoi District, and in this capacity coordinated the activities of six spetsnaz teams. Zolotarev told the investigators that when Ulman returned from the mountains he said in a private conversation that after he repeatedly asked his commander what to do with the wounded, he received what he took for a direct order –"Captain, it is not one `two-hundred' you have there, you have six `two hundreds'".

The `two hundred' is military jargon for a corpse – it originates from the cargo designation used in aviation: `cargo 200' is a dead body.

After the captain asked how there could be six bodies when only one person was killed, the commander said: "Captain, think yourself, you have six of them…"

Colonel Zolotarev maintains that Captain Ulman could not take responsibility for killing the Chechens. He also thinks that another suspect – Major Perelevsky also could not have given such an order. The major was the group commander and conducted immediate communication with the troops. Zolotarev holds that there was only one man with the powers to give such an order – the commander of the special operation Colonel Plotnikov.

However, the suspects have so far not confirmed that they had received the order to execute the Chechens. The officers chose to keep silence until all the witnesses and representatives of the aggravated party finish speaking. And the relatives of every victim are demanding one million dollars in moral damages.

No one doubts that the teachers and the disabled woman were no rebel fighters. Zolotarev also says that Ulman had the right to open fire at the car, but the commandos had to aim at the wheels and the engine. "They are allowed to shoot to kill only in cases when they are absolutely sure that there are rebel fighters in a car," Colonel Zolotarev said, destroying the line chosen by the defence.

It must be noted that the colonel has found an excuse for the commandos – "they were charged with an unusual function – they were acting as a checkpoint." The commandos lacked special devices with which they could check passing cars as well as a spiked band used to forcefully stop the vehicles.

The lawyer of the aggravated party is Abdulla Khamzayev, who became famous at the trial of killer-colonel Yury Budanov. He maintains that the military simply did not see the UAZ and spotted it too late. After noticing the car they shot at it as it was driving away and then finished the wounded and burned the vehicle to destroy the evidence. The civilians were killed in an operation to catch rebel warlord Khattab who, as it appeared later, was already dead at the time of the tragedy.

The commandos were airlifted to the mountainous district upon receiving information that Khattab and about 20 more Arab mercenaries had been spotted there. All groups were ordered to block the mountain roads and check all vehicles, with paying special attention to jeeps, like Nivas or UAZs, frequently used by rebels. The civilians from the village Dai were killed on the very first day of the operation, and on the next day the command ordered it ended. Some time later, intelligence reported that on January 11 Khattab was already dead – killed by a poisoned letter in his camp.

25 November 2003 Gazeta ru 16:24