Kidnapped Dutch aid worker in Dagestan released

AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) - A Dutch aid worker kidnapped near Russia's rebel Chechen region nearly two years ago has been released, the Dutch foreign ministry said on Sunday.

A ministry spokesman said that Arjan Erkel had been freed overnight in Russia's Dagestan region, but declined to give further details.

A spokeman for the Dagestan internal ministry said Erkel -- who headed operations for international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Russia's North Caucasus region, where kidnappings are commonplace -- had been freed in a raid by security forces.

"At three o'clock this morning (2300 GMT) Arjan Erkel was released in a joint operation of the federal security service and the Dagestan ministry of internal affairs. His condition is satisfactory," said Abdul Musayev.

Erkel was seized in August 2002 in Dagestan, which is east of rebel Chechnya where Russian troops and separatist guerrillas have been locked in a decade-long conflict. MSF, one of the most active charities in the region, suspended its operations after Erkel's abduction.

(Additional reporting by Richard Ayton in Moscow)

Monday, Apr. 12, 2004. Page 1 The Moscow Times

Dutch Aid Worker Freed in Dagestan

By Oksana Yablokova Staff Writer  

Igor Tabakov / MT

Photo: Arjan Erkel, center, talking to reporters outside the Dutch Embassy on Sunday. Former security service officer Valentin Velichko, far left, assisted in Erkel's release in Dagestan.

Kidnapped Dutch aid worker Arjan Erkel was released in Dagestan on Sunday after 20 months of captivity and flown to Moscow.

Erkel, a worker for Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, was freed early Sunday morning in what Dagestani authorities described as a special operation. There was some indication that an agreement had been struck with the kidnappers, whose identities have not been revealed.

MSF officials in Moscow said no ransom had been paid for Erkel's release, which they said they first heard about from an association of retired Russian security service officers that had helped secure his release.

After being flown to Sheremetyevo Airport on Sunday afternoon, Erkel was due to fly on to the Netherlands later in the evening, MSF representatives said.

A bearded, tired-looking Erkel spoke to reporters at the Dutch Embassy in Moscow.

"I want to thank the Lord who brought me back to life today. I want to thank the Easter bunny who brought me back to Makhachkala in a big chocolate egg," Erkel said, adding, "It's a joke -- I feel fantastic. If I was in Rotterdam, I would kiss the ground."

Erkel, who is 34, had bags under his eyes and looked much thinner than in pictures taken before his kidnapping. He did not take any questions.

Dagestani Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Musayev said by telephone from Makhachkala that Erkel had been freed as the result of a special operation, conducted jointly by the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service.

Musayev would not give any details of the release, saying they would be announced by federal law enforcement agencies in Moscow. No announcement was made Sunday.

MSF spokesman Mark Walsh said that while Erkel, who was held for 607 days, did not require urgent healthcare, he would undergo a thorough medical exam.

Erkel, who headed MSF's North Caucasus mission, was abducted by three unidentified gunmen on the outskirts of Makhachkala on Aug. 12, 2002.

Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Jochems thanked the Russian government, other governments and international organizations for their actions that led to Erkel's release.

"We don't know how this has come about, but we are extremely happy that this ordeal is really over," Erkel's father, Dick Erkel, told Dutch NOS television, Reuters reported.

Walsh said that MSF officials received a telephone call from an organization called Veterans of Foreign Intelligence at 5 a.m. Sunday, informing them of the release. MSF representatives flew to Makhachkala immediately to bring Erkel to Moscow.

Throughout his captivity, MSF, Erkel's family and supporters had urged the Russian authorities to make greater efforts to liberate him.

In November 2002 the authorities closed the investigation into Erkel's disappearance, but reopened the inquiry in May 2003 under pressure from the Dutch government.

MSF stepped up its criticism of the authorities in recent months, after receiving information that Erkel was ill and at risk of execution. Last month MSF publicly accused the Russian authorities of blocking Erkel's release.

MSF president Jean-Herve Bradol went as far as to accuse the authorities of complicity in the kidnapping. Russian authorities had earlier acknowledged that two FSB agents had witnessed Erkel's abduction.

In December, the head of the Dagestani police unit charged with fighting kidnapping was himself arrested on suspicion of involvement in abductions.

Some human rights organizations have accused the military of complicity in kidnappings in Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan.

Anna Neistat, head of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, welcomed Erkel's release but said there were still more questions than answers.

"The question is where Arjan was after he was abducted and who was behind his disappearance," Neistat said, Interfax reported.

A source close to MSF said last month that efforts to secure Erkel's release would be on the agenda during President Vladimir Putin's meetings with French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard SchrÚder and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in early April.

But Ivan Safranchuk of the Center for Defense Information said he did not think there was any link between Putin's meetings and Sunday's release.

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst, suggested that Erkel's release could have been the result of an agreement with the kidnappers, rather than a storming operation by special forces. "Special operations are usually fictions," he said. "Obviously, the fact that he was released suggests that a certain agreement was reached."

Valentin Velichko, head of the Veterans of Foreign Intelligence, a group of retired security service officers, who sat by Erkel at the news conference, appeared to confirm that there was no storming operation.

Velichko said he personally arrived at the place where the kidnappers brought Erkel in the early hours of Sunday morning. He said the place was an hour's drive from Makhachkala, but did not elaborate further.

Velichko said that while in captivity, Erkel was kept in several different locations, including in a basement. He was given food twice a day, Velichko said.

Throughout his captivity Erkel was beaten just once, when he was abducted. One of the abductors hit Erkel on the head with the butt of a gun and broke his finger, Velichko said.

Velichko said his group got involved in Erkel's case nine months ago when he was approached by a Dutchman, Henk Gemser, a friend of Erkel's family, who asked for help in freeing Erkel.

MSF had refused to pay a ransom because it said it would jeopardize the safety of other aid workers.

MSF has not been active in Dagestan since Erkel's kidnapping, but had maintained an office with a few local staff as a place for the kidnappers to make contact.

The MSF mission Erkel ran in Dagestan gave medical aid to refugees who fled fighting in Chechnya and also helped distribute medical supplies to local hospitals.

On Russian television news Sunday evening, no mention of Erkel's release was made, despite the story being reported extensively on Interfax and by international media.

April 11, 2004

9 Bodies in Chechnya

MOSCOW (AP) -- The bodies of nine civilians who went missing in Chechnya late last month after being detained by Kremlin-backed authorities were found in a ravine, an official in the Chechen administration said Saturday. The bodies were riddled with gunshot wounds, Interfax reported.

The bodies included those of eight people from the village of Duba- Yurt in southern Chechnya, the official in the Kremlin-backed administration said on condition of anonymity. Interfax said they were apparently a group of young people whom villagers said were seized by unidentified armed men in an early morning raid on March 27.

The other body found in a ravine outside Serzhen-Yurt, a village about 25 kilometers northeast of Duba-Yurt, was that of a man from the village of Stary Atagi outside Grozny, the official said.

Authorities have been unable to determine who abducted the eight or where they were taken before they were killed, Interfax quoted Abdula Sapiyev, deputy chief of the administrative district where the bodies were found, as saying.

Women from Duba-Yurt were among hundreds of Chechen mothers and wives who blocked the entrance to the Chechen government headquarters in Grozny on March 31, demanding information about relatives seized this year and never heard from again.

At the time, the Duba-Yurt residents told a reporter that Chechen police had assured them their relatives were being held at Khankala, the Russian military base outside the capital, and would soon be released.

Kavkaz-Center

Russian invaders take hostages and plunder villages

Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (CNGO) reported that during“cleansings” in the village of Mekenskaya, Naur District of CRI (ChechenRepublic of Ichkeria) the invaders’ power structures detained a localresident Yusup Batsiyev, 32. Mr. Batsiyev’s relatives reported that hewas released a day later after undergoing beatings and tortures. He alsohad to give a written undertaking not to leave the vicinity.

The reason why Yusup Batsiyev was detained is not known. His loved onesclaim that Yusup had nothing to do with war operations in this warcampaign or in the previous one.

Early morning April 4 armed attackers with masks and camouflage uniformson robbed one of the local residents in the village of Kotar-Yurt,Achkhoi-Martan District. The reports say that early in the morning agroup of criminals armed with assault rifles broke into one of theprivate houses.

Under a threat of physical violence the mobsters took about 100 thousandrubles (equal to about ,333 US dollars) and all golden ornaments andvaluables. After that the raiders took a car belonging to the owner ofthe household and disappeared in an unknown direction.

There is a noticeable fact that many bases of the invaders are stationedin that area, which are located within line-of-sight distance from oneanother. It is virtually impossible to be moving in a car at night andnot take a risk of coming under fire.

April 5 in Gudermes District of Chechnya Russian invaders took 2 localresidents hostage: Tahir Dakayev, b. 1966 and Murtaz Matuyev, b. 1960.This report was received from a resident of the city of Gudermes. Thereasons why these two persons were captured are unknown. Circumstancesof the incident are currently being established.

Kavkaz-Center

2004-04-11

http://www.chechenpress.com/news/2004/04/10/22.shtml (tr. by M.L.)

Some more new details of murder by the occupiers of innocent civilians of the village of Duba-Yurt

As was reported earlier, on 9 April in the environments of the village of  Serzhen-Yurt of the Shali district some local residents discovered  bodies of 9 men, bearing bullet wounds and traces of torture.

SNO published some additional information, according to which 8 of 9 of that killed were the inhabitants of the village of Duba-Yurt and were taken away by occupiers in the course of punitive "zachistkas" of the settlement on 27 March of this year. The identity of the 9th killed man hasn't been established yet. According to the eyewitnesses, on the bodies of those killed were traces of tortures. They all were killed by a control shots into the head.

SNO published the surnames of  innocent civilians Duba- Yurt, brutally tortured and killed by the Russian forces: 1. Bai-Ali Elmurzayev,born 1968  2. Idris Elmurzayev.     b.1971 3. Sharip Elmurzayev     b.1974  4. Apti Murtazov,        b.1964  5. Lechi Shoipov,        b.1960  6. Zelimkhan Osmayev,    b.1975  7. Khusim Khadzhimuradov b.1975  8. Isa Khadzhimuradov,   b.1965 

Lately, Kavkazcenter agency reported citing the Chechen command that abduction of residents of Duba-Yurt and their cruel murder was comitted by a unit of Kadyrovites under commander called "Terek". A representative of GKO - Madzhlisul Shura Of CHRI told to the Kavkazcenter agency that this unit commanded by "Terek" belongs to  the so called death squads of GRU and is subordinated to the Ministry of Defense of the RF.

10.04.04

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http://kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/news/id/650807.html (tr. by M.L.)

Inhabitants of Duba Yurt are convinced of the fact that found that thir 8 killed countrymen, were taken away by agents of Russian secret services. On the 27 of March in our village, the military servicemen carried out so-called 'zachistka". In the course of this of "measure"; they took away 8 people:

[passage omitted, surnames of 8 killed men]

For all this time we've conducted a search for our countrymen, but our searches gave no results. We do not have any doubts about the fact that all these young people became the victims of extrajudicial execution from the side of Russian special unit, or as they are called - "death squad", - asserts the 48-yrs old inhabitant of Duba- Yurt - Musa. The ninth young person, corpse of whom was discovered the day before in the settlement of Serzhen- Yurt, according to some data is an inhabitant of the village of New Atagi.