| The Sunday Times November 27, 2005 Death by drunken execution squad Mark Franchetti, Grozny AFTER surviving two ferocious wars that claimed the lives of 18 relatives, Dzhambulat Dushayev hoped that today’s parliamentary election in Chechnya, the first in eight years, would herald peace. The 35-year-old builder from the village of Staraya Sunzha believed the Kremlin’s claim that the election signified a return to democracy, stability and security and even served on the electoral commission supervising the polling. But his faith proved to be tragically misplaced. Ten days ago he went to wash his car on the outskirts of Grozny, the capital, and invited his cousin Ruslan to come along for the ride. Darkness was falling as he left his house. He called out to his wife Raziat, 30, who is eight months pregnant, to lay the table for dinner. His children Deni, 3, and Amina, 14 months, waved as he left. On the journey home Dushayev and his cousin came across 10 heavily armed Russian soldiers who had spent most of the day drinking vodka in a wood, apparently to celebrate the end of their tour of duty in Chechnya. The soldiers had just flagged down three scrap-metal dealers in a small truck. They had dragged two of them from the vehicle and ordered them to lie on the ground. As Dushayev drove up, they were beating the men with their rifle butts. Some of the soldiers ran towards his car, brandishing Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles. “They were shooting in the air,” said Ruslan Dushayev. “They dragged us out of the car, threatened us and shouted abuse. They were very aggressive. Dzhambulat was calm. He thought it was an ID check.” Sure enough, one of the soldiers demanded Ruslan’s papers. He checked them, then ordered Ruslan to run away. As he fled, another soldier fired at him but missed. Dzhambulat Dushayev was ordered to lie on the ground next to the two scrap-metal dealers who were being kicked and beaten. What happened next was witnessed by the third scrap-metal dealer, Movsar Munayev, who had been held at gunpoint in the truck by a soldier so drunk that he could barely hold his weapon straight. “He kept shouting that I had killed his brother and that now he would kill me,” said Munayev, 23. “He wanted money and I gave him all I had as well as my watch.” The soldier shot out the lights of the truck and reached for a hunting knife strapped to his chest, shouting that he was going to cut off Munayev’s head. His commander intervened but the soldier shot Munayev in the leg and he fell out of the lorry screaming. “I turned my head to the side and saw the other three men on the ground,” Munayev said. “They were beating them severely and one soldier kept yelling that they had killed his brother. “One of the men on the ground was pleading for his life. ‘Don’t kill me,’ he kept saying. Then the Russians executed them.” Dushayev, whose young family was waiting for him to join them for their evening meal, died first, shot in the forehead at point-blank range with a heavy machinegun. A single bullet blew a gaping hole between his eyes and obliterated the back of his head. The other two men, Yusup Usmanov and Husain Ahmadov, both also married with children, were shot several times. The Russians then repeatedly stabbed the bodies with a large hunting knife that was found later at the scene. Dushayev’s family said he had nine stab wounds. Munayev made his escape by crawling into a roadside ditch. “Is this what the Kremlin calls a return to normality? They executed my husband and two other innocent civilians, just like that,” said Dushayev’s 30-year-old widow Raziat, as women in headscarves huddled around her and dozens of men prayed outside in the yard. Three of the soldiers, whose uniforms were soaked in blood, have been arrested and are being questioned by military prosecutors. They are expected to be charged with murder. Relatives of the dead men believe there is little chance they will be receive punishments that fit their crimes. “There won’t be any justice,” Raziat said. “The killing isn’t stopping. We still live in fear, just waiting for the day when our turn comes to be murdered.” The roadside killings could hardly have come at a worse time for the Kremlin. The parliamentary election is the first since Russian troops surged into the breakaway republic in 1999 to combat Muslim rebels who have countered with a series of terrorist atrocities, including last year’s Beslan school siege in which 344 people died, more than half of them children. While large-scale Russian military operations have ended, an estimated 3,000 Islamic rebels still carry out regular attacks from their mountain hideouts against the Russians and allied Chechen forces. Far from ushering in a liberal democracy, the election is expected to prepare the way for Ramzan Kadyrov, 29 — whose father Ahmad was president until his assassination last year — to become the republic’s leader. Kadyrov heads a feared pro-Moscow paramilitary force of 5,000 men, many of them former rebels. The force is widely accused by human rights groups of abducting, torturing and executing people it suspects of having links with the rebels. Under recent reforms introduced by President Vladimir Putin, the presidents of republics such as Chechnya are nominated by the Kremlin rather than elected. Their nomination must be approved by the local parliament but this should prove no problem for Kadyrov: most of the candidates expected to win today are his supporters. He must wait until next October, when he turns 30 — the minimum age stipulated by the country’s constitution — to ascend to power. Despite the violence, there are some signs in Chechnya of a resumption of routine existence for hundreds of thousands of people who have returned home. Electricity and heating have been restored and the streets of Grozny, which suffered Europe’s worst bombing campaign since the second world war, are teeming with cars. Shops are open, students attend lectures and advertising billboards are being erected. However, many families still live in bombed-out apartment blocks. There is little respite from the sight of heavily armed men in camouflage. Many of them are members of Kadyrov’s militia, which is now feared more than the Russians. “On the surface some kind of normality seems to have returned. But scratch the surface and you’ll find many people are more scared now than during the war,” said an activist from Memorial, a human rights group with offices in Grozny. “It’s not unlike the repressions of the 1930s in Russia. Some people are informing on each other while others are vanishing in the middle of the night. The Russians have passed on the dirty work to Kadyrov’s militias. It’s now Chechens against Chechens.” Barely a day passes without an abduction, a murder or some other abuse. A few days before the killings at Staraya Sunzha a young female medical student was crushed to death by a Russian armoured personnel carrier at a market in Grozny. Last month Ibraghim Shovkhalov, 31, a father of three children, was taken away at gunpoint by a dozen men in camouflage and black masks. The next day his body was found under a bridge with a plastic bag taped to his head. He had been beaten and suffocated. Human rights activists say 5,000 people are missing after being abducted in Chechnya. “The Russians claim the war is long since over,” said Dushayev’s elder brother Sultan. “But in the space of a few minutes we ended up with three dead fathers and three families without a breadwinner. They are killing Chechens systematically, day by day, but no one cares.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1892794,00.html eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 5/12/2005 Torture confirmed in Kabardino-Balkaria International human rights organisations and the leading global media received 15 photographs of people arrested in the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, Nalchik, with marks of beating. This is what Ms Alexandra Zernova, lawyer of the former Russian prisoners of Guantanamo Bay, reported from London. One of the pictures features her defendant Rasul Kudayev who was arrested ten days after the Nalchik attack. The lawyer confessed that at first she did not even recognise Rasul whom she had last seen shortly before the October events: "He has a swelling in the lower part of his face, and his features and the proportions of his face are different. Investigators believe that they will able to conceal torture, but the photographs testify against them. We know that he has had his leg broken during torture and now they drag him for interrogations." Ms Zernova also remarked that having studied this photo evidence western experts had received a clear example of Russia's failure to comply with the convention for the prevention of torture which it had ratified. Now, the lawyer says, the tonality of international inquiries to Russian jurisdictions will be dramatically more severe. Ms Zernova described the degree of lawfulness in Kabardino-Balkaria to be "beyond any law." The lawyers and parents of people arrested in Nalchik and accused of the 13 October attack have not been able to obtain any replies concerning methods of interrogations from jurisdictions at all levels for more than a month already, GZT.ru reminds. Kabardino-Balkaria's Internal Affairs Ministry has not only denied torture, but also removed three lawyers from cases of their clients for filing a complaint about illegal investigation methods. The Ministry even threatened suing Ms Irina Komisarov for her daring to talk to journalists and complain to the prosecutor's office that her defendant was tortured. Another removed lawyer, Ms Larissa Dorogov, says that arrests in Nalchik and villages continue to date. The lawyers are waiting for the republican Supreme Court to examine their appeal against their removal. However, they hardly hope that the court will dare to restore their right to take part in the process. Law enforcement and security agencies also continue to press parents. Thus, Mr Rasul Kudayev's mother, Ms Fatima Tekayev, was summoned to the prosecutor's office on 2 December. According to her, there she was asked how she "dared complain about torture — something she had not seen herself." Besides, she was asked why she "dared apply to Amnesty International". Detained in Kabardino-Balkaria, Mr Rasul Kudayev, one of the seven former Russian prisoners of Guantanamo Bay, is the main witness in a suit against torture and human rights violations in this prison, Caucasian Knot's correspondent reported earlier. More than 150,000 people have refugee status in Chechnya - UN MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - More than 150,000 people in Chechnya still live as refugees, representatives of humanitarian organizations said. "The bulk of the Chechen population live under unsatisfactory conditions, and more than 150,000 live as internally displaced persons," says the 2006 work plan for the North Caucasus introduced by nine UN agencies and 13 non-governmental organizations on Wednesday in Moscow. "The temporary settlements created by the [Chechen] government turned out to be not temporary as intended, and many of them need repairs. People who lost their apartments cannot claim compensation; that is why many wretched families cannot return to normal life," the document says. UN unveils plan for further humanitarian aid to North Caucasus MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - UN agencies asked donors for $88 million for humanitarian relief operations in the North Caucasus in 2006. The UN and non-governmental agencies introduced in Moscow on Wednesday an inter-agencies work plan to provide humanitarian assistance during the transitional period in 2006 to Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. "The plan includes a description of the programs nine UN agencies plan to implement in 2006. The UN and non-governmental organizations need $88 million to implement these programs," a press release by the UN representation in Moscow says. 126 children killed, over 600 wounded in mine blasts in Chechnya MOSCOW, December 7, Itar-Tass, - As many as 3033 people suffered in the blasts of explosive devices in Chechnya from 1995 till November 2005. ``These figures include 126 killed and 612 wounded children,'' the Russian office of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. Considering the small population of this republic of a little bit more than one million people, about three incidents in the blasts of mines and shells account for 1,000 people, the UNICEF Russian office said. The UN Children's Fund has drafted several programmes to ensure anti-mine security and support the blast victims in order to prevent more blast victims among children and civilians in Chechnya. ``UNICEF comes out for the full ban of anti-personnel mines used in armed conflicts in the world. This is the backbone of our policy,'' the UNICEF Russian office said. A ten-year-old boy was wounded in the mine blast in the house in Ionisiani Street overnight to Wednesday, a source in Grozny law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass. He found a toy in the street on Tuesday and started playing with it on the balcony of the house. The child got fragmentation wounds of hands and the stomach. The boy was hospitalized, his state remains grave. The search operation for bandits who planted an explosive device in the toy is underway. According to the republic's Interior Ministry, many injury cases of children from the blasts of explosive devices planted in toys and other objects are registered recently in Chechnya. Poland: Chechen Refugees Grateful for Protection but Need Integration Support 07 Dec 2005 Source: Refugees International - USA Maureen Lynch Website: http://www.refugeesinternational.org December 6, 2005 Contact: Maureen Lynch ri@refugeesinternational.org or 202.828.0110 Poland: Chechen Refugees Grateful for Protection but Need Integration Support Civilians continue to flee ongoing violence and suffering in Chechnya. Asylum seekers who are able to make it out say they are thankful for Poland’s open door policy, and the country is certainly to be commended for extending its arm of protection to them. Once the immediate safety of these individuals has been realized, however, they need help restarting their lives in a new country. Chechnya declared independence in 1991. Within a few years, conflict between federal forces and secessionist armed groups had displaced over 250,000 people to other parts of Chechnya, and to neighboring Ingushetia, Daghestan, and North Ossetia. After a ceasefire was declared in 1996, many of the displaced returned home. When conflict broke out again in the autumn of 1999, more people fled Chechnya to Ingushetia and Georgia. Russian operations in Chechnya have not ceased. But pressure from the local authorities has forced the closure of tent camps in Ingushetia and the return of some refugees. Large numbers of individuals remain displaced inside Chechnya; some live in Georgia and Azerbaijan; others live with host families or in squatter settlements in nearby Ingushetia; and still others have escaped to other parts of Europe. According to recent statistics of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Russian Federation followed only Serbia and Montenegro, and tied with China, as the leading country of origin for asylum applicants during the first six months of 2005. While the number of applicants has declined since 2004, it remains substantial at 9,400 persons, with the largest percentage of applications filed in Poland. But the situation for Chechens trying to restart their lives in Poland is not easy. “It’s tough living here,” a young Chechen woman told Refugees International. “Refugees need support to integrate, and they also need access to healthcare services.” There are an estimated 3,400 Chechen refugees in Poland, and about 50 to 60 percent of them are children. The majority of the population is spread among 16 reception camps, about half of which are near Warsaw, with the remainder in the eastern part of the country. RI was told by the refugees that a few asylum seekers have been forcibly returned to Belarus. The majority of the asylum seekers, however, are permitted to stay on humanitarian grounds, a status called “tolerated stay.” While Poland’s Ministry of the Interior has recently started to provide a small amount of cash aid to recognized refugees, it is about a third of what it costs to rent housing. “Tolerated” individuals do not receive assistance, and this is the group most in need of support. In a society facing a 19 percent unemployment rate, it is extremely difficult for the new residents to obtain jobs.he new residents to obtain jobs. The refugees are clear about what they see as their challenges as well as the remedies that could be undertaken to improve the situation. “We want a body to look into the problems of Chechen refugees in Poland and throughout Europe,” the refugees say. “The Dublin II Agreement [which determines the EU state responsible for examination of the asylum application] should be stopped and re-analyzed by the EU. And if this country can’t guarantee basic benefits, we should not be made to stay here. We need advice on legal matter and help getting travel documents.” Mental health issues of Chechen asylum seekers and refugees are often left unattended. “Many families, especially children, have suffered a lot and need psychological care as well,” a refugee reminded RI. There are presently only a handful of psychologists working with Chechen asylum seekers in Poland. For individuals who need psychiatric treatment, lack of Russian-speaking doctors is an additional hurdle to receiving care. International and local non-governmental organizations run some programs for children, such as language classes, but they are not offered on a regular basis or at all centers. Every person has the right to seek and enjoy protection, and no one should be forcibly returned to a country where they fear for their safety or well-being. Poland, a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, has honored the basic rights of most Chechens who approach the country for protection. While the solution to the problem is an immediate resolution of the on-going conflict and cessation of human rights violations in Chechnya, a small increase in Poland’s integration support would go a long way to easing the conditions of their protracted stays in camps and during their initial period of resettlement. Support is essential for those who are successful in their asylum claims, as they are required to leave their camps on short notice and secure accommodations and employment with few resources and very limited language skills; individuals being “tolerated” also require assistance. Refugees International therefore recommends that: • Poland’s policy of opening its doors to individuals seeking international protection be widely recognized and commended. • Poland conduct a full evaluation of the legal, employment, education, physical and mental health, accommodation, social, and language issues faced by Chechen refugees and then develop and fund sustainable programs to support them. • The UNHCR undertake an examination of the situation of Chechen refugees throughout Europe and pro-actively seek to assist governments who have opened their borders to them, and to close any gaps in protection and assistance. • Poland and other EU governments initiate public relation campaigns to encourage tolerance of foreigners, especially refugees and hold programs for refugees to demonstrate the benefits of staying in Poland. • European governments finance and cooperate with a UNHCR initiative to protect and improve the quality of life of Chechen asylum seekers. • The government of Poland and UNHCR work together to provide travel documents for individuals who lack them. Refugees International Director of Research Maureen Lynch interviewed Chechen refugees in Poland in September 2005. [ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/219053/11339720447.htm Strasbourg Court Hears First Disappearance Case The Associated Press Christian Lutz / AP Bazorkina, left, standing with an adviser in the European court on Thursday. STRASBOURG, France -- The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday heard that Russian forces allegedly detained and killed a young man while capturing a Chechen village, in the first disappearance case from Chechnya to be dealt with by the court. Fatima Bazorkina filed the complaint at the court in 2001, after she saw television footage of a Russian officer interrogating her son as troops were taking over the village of Alkhan-Kala. The officer orders soldiers to shoot and "finish off" her son, Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev, at the end of the footage, her lawyers said. Bazorkina's son disappeared six years ago, and she saw the footage in February 2000, the court heard. Her visits to prisons and detention centers and a criminal investigation into his disappearance, which closed in 2004, were fruitless. Bazorkina is suing the Russian government for violating the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty that is legally binding in all European countries. She accuses federal forces of killing her son and said his disappearance caused her anguish and emotional distress. The court will take several months to reach a ruling, court spokeswoman Stephanie Klein said. She said 200 similar cases were pending before the court. It was not established at Thursday's hearing whether Yandiyev had joined the separatist movement and fought for an independent Chechnya, Klein said. In a separate development, several Russian and international human rights groups are urging the European Union to toughen its stance toward the conflict in Chechnya. In a letter sent to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Wednesday, the groups criticized a statement issued by Britain as current president of the EU that welcomed recent parliamentary elections in Chechnya as "an important step towards broader representation of a range of views in Chechen society." The signatories, which include Memorial and the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, said the elections and earlier votes were a "tightly controlled cosmetic measure that ... resulted in the establishment of a brutal local regime in Chechnya, responsible for systematic and grave human rights abuses." United Russia won the Nov. 27 elections. Appeal for Rasul Kudaev
08 December 2005 |