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Chechnya: Open Letter to the Prosecutor of Chechnya regarding the Disappearances To:  Vladimir Pavlovich Kravchenko, Prosecutor of the Republic of Chechnya, RF, Via facsimile + 7 (8712) 22 31 44 , + 7 (095) 777 92 26 Copy: Vladimir Ustinov, Prosecutor General of the RF, Via facsimile +7(095) 921-41-86 Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman of the RF, Via facsimile +7(095) 207-76-30 Ella Pamfilova, Chair of the Human Rights Commission of the RF, Via facsimile  +7 (095) 206-48-55 OPEN LETTER Vienna, 7 February 2005 Dear Prosecutor, I am writing to you on behalf of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) regarding the unlawful detention and disappearance of Shirvani Nasipov, Magomed Emin Ibishev, Vakha Mukhaev, and Atabi Mukhaev on 14 and 15 January 2005 in the Chechen village Zumsoy. On 14, 15 and 16 January 2005, in the village Zumsoj (Itum-Kalinsky district of Chechnya) a mop-up operation was carried out by military servicemen, who arrived in several helicopters. Late in the night of 14 January they unlawfully detained the local resident Shirvani Nasipov (49 years old). Then, in the morning of 15 January two other men and a teenage boy were unlawfully detained: Magomed Emin Ibishev (30 years old), Vakha Mukhaev (50 years old) and his son Atabi Mukhaev (15 years old). The unlawful detentions were accompanied by verbal abuses, heavy looting and the destruction of private property. Many of the involved servicemen reportedly were completely drunk. Apparently the four detained persons were taken away by the servicemen, when they left with the helicopters at the end of the operation. As of 4 February 2005 the whereabouts of the 4 kidnapped persons remain unknown. At the time of the unlawful detention of the four men there was a military operation conducted in the area around Zumsoy, including the use of aerial bombs, rocket and machinegun fire on 14 January, which leveled to the ground one house and seriously damaged several others. At this day troops landed with helicopters. ****** We appeal to you either to ensure that Shirvani Nasipov, Magomed Emin Ibishev, Vakha Mukhaev, and Atabi Mukhaev are released immediately by those who hold them, or to provide a legal arrest warrant stating the reasons for their detention, which then also has to be communicated to their family members. In either case we appeal to you to conduct a thorough investigation of the apparently illegal conduct of the operation. We ask you to inform us about the investigation process of this case. Sincerely, Dr. Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director) cc OSCE Delegations Council of Europe Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights __________________________________________ Joachim Frank, Project Coordinator International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Wickenburggasse 14/7 A-1080 Vienna Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 22 Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50 Web: http://www.ihf-hr.org ______________________________________ Family accuses Russia of backing kidnap of Chechen rebel leader's siblings AFP February 7, 2005 Two months after the sister of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was abducted in Grozny, her family insist she has been taken hostage to force Maskhadov to surrender. Buchu Abdulkadyrova, was home alone on December 3 when armed men abducted her in the middle of the night. At exactly at the same time, Maskhadov's two other siblings, his brothers Lecha and Lyoma, were also kidnapped. "Only bandits would do this, kidnap a 68-year-old woman to force her brother to surrender!" Abdulkadyrova's daughter Petimat said at her mother's small house near Grozny. Two months later, nothing seems to have changed in Abdulkadyrova's kitchen, where a portrait of Maskhadov, taken when he was president of a de facto independent Chechnya, hangs on a wall alongside a picture of Mecca. Another picture, from the family's photo album, shows Abdulkadyrova and Maskhadov sitting on a couch as they celebrate a holiday, only days before Russian forces marched into Chechnya on October 1, 1999, reigniting war in the hapless republic. Petimat accuses the militia of pro-Russian Chechen deputy prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov of having kidnapped her mother and seven other people close to Maskhadov. She says they also abducted Petimat's own sister, Khadizha Satuyeva, on December 28, after the two women had moved into their mother's empty house. "Armed men came in several cars. They spoke Chechen. I could not identify them, but there is no doubt this was also Ramzan Kadyrov's doing," Petimat reaclled, as she showed official complaints lodged with the authorities over the abductions of Abdulkadyrova, Satuyeva, and Lecha and Lyoma Kadyrov. "And Moscow supports this," she said, adding that the kidnappings are part of a "new tactic" adopted by Russia. Last October, Russian general prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov officially suggested that the Russian authorities reserve the possibility to take hostage "people close to terrorists." Russian officials' term for Chechen separatist fighters. But Petimat insists that Maskhadov, her uncle, was never involved in, and never approved of, attacks for which radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility, such as last September's deadly Beslan school hostage taking. The Kremlin has placed a 10 million dollar (7.7 million euro) bounty on both Maskhadov's and Basayev's heads. The kidnapping of Maskhadov's relatives has made the headlines in Chechnya, even though abductions of civilians, often blamed on Kadyrov's militia but almost never solved, have long become routine in this breakaway republic. The authorities have not officially confirmed detaining them. But in a highly unusual statement, the head of the Russian forces' general staff in the North Caucasus, general Arkady Edelev, has announced that three investigations linked to the abduction of Maskhadov's kin have been launched against Russian soldiers. Edelev even took the extraordinary step of admitting that "members of the Russian forces and of the (pro-Russian Chechen) law enforcement agencies (to which Kadyrov's militia belongs) have unfortunately taken part" in the abduction of civilians. Meanwhile, all Petimat has is rumors saying her mother and other relatives might be detained in Tsentoroy or Gudermes, two Kadyrov strongholds. But Petimat, who used to be Maskhadov's cook when he was president, rules out the possibility that her uncle might surrender in exchange for the liberation of his family members. Last year, Maskhadov's former defense minister, Magomed Khambiyev, turned himself in to the pro-Russian forces after several of his relatives were taken hostage. Maskhadov early Thursday called the first unilateral ceasefire of Chechnya's five-year guerrilla war, describing it as a gesture of goodwill, but the rebel's Kavkazcenter Internet site, which reported his call, made no reference to the kidnapping of his relatives. 7.02.2005 Abductions — a major problem Some Russian media speculated that President Maskhadov’s cease-fire call was tied to the alleged abduction of his relatives by the Chechen presidential security service. Representatives of the Memorial human rights center said Monday that one relative who was abducted, Movladi Aguyev, was found in the custody of federal forces in Chechnya. Memorial also said some 3,000 civilians had disappeared in Chechnya in the past five years — during the second war — after being detained. It registered 396 abductions in Chechnya in 2004, including those of 24 people who were later found dead with signs of torture and a violent death, and 495 abductions — including 52 whose bodies were found — the previous year. Abductions are a major problem in Chechnya, with civilians and rights groups blaming pro-Russian Chechen law enforcement and Russian forces who detain men in daily security sweeps. A recent wave of kidnappings in Chechnya, preceded by several swoops on the local Chechen human rights NGO, gives rise to a fear that Russia has now entered a new phase of Chechen «normalization» — the suppression of witnesses still brave enough to expose the crimes of the Russian and pro-Russian Chechen forces. «Unfortunately, there is very little we can do here," says Ruslan Badalov, the president of the National Committee for Chechen Salvation. «There is no local justice system that we can rely on. We only have the Internet to let the world know what is happening here." A woman activist, somewhat bitter after years of assembling evidence in murder and kidnapping cases, adds: «When I am collecting witness statements from the families of victims, what guarantees can I give them? That their names will be added to the lists of people who have disappeared or been killed in Chechnya and Ingushetia, that the human rights organizations regularly present to the world, without anything happening?» President Vladimir Putin has rejected calls from abroad for peace talks, saying the rebels are international terrorists who must be eliminated. The Kremlin sent troops into Chechnya in 1994 in a bid to crush its separatist leadership, but they withdrew after a devastating 20-month war that left the southern Russian region de facto independent. Russian forces returned in 1999 following a rebel incursion into a neighboring province and apartment building explosions blamed on rebels. The Chechen Times 7.2.2005 Chechen residents unlawfully taken from their homes CHECHNYA, Grozny. (NGOs Council Information Centre). 3 February, armed men wearing masks and camouflage uniforms abducted three people in various areas of Chechnya. Their whereabouts and fate are unknown. 2 February several abductions also took place in Chechnya. 2 February, members of security forces abducted 19-year-old resident of Novyi Sharoi village in Achkhoi-Martan district. According to the eye-witnesses, the masked military forced their way into his home and took the young man away without a charge. RCFS Information Centre reports that on the same day Madina Salamova was abducted from Dolinskiiy village of the rural district of Grozny in Chechnya. Eye-witnesses claim that the abductors numbered more than 20. They drove up to Salamova’s home in five UAZ vehicles. Translated by Olga Sharp PRIMA-News Agency [2005-02-04-Chech-06] February 7th 2005 · Prague Watchdog Strasbourg court to announce Chechen ruling in late February Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – On February 24, the European Court of Human Rights is expected to announce its ruling on the first-ever group of complaints concerning abuse of Chechens by the Russian military. This information was provided by Shakhman Akbulatov, head of the Nazran (Ingushetia) branch of the human rights organization Memorial. Akbulatov said the action was in connection with events that took place at the start of the war, namely an “aerial bombardment of a refugee column at Shaami-Yurt; the massacre of civilians by federal forces in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny; and bombardment of the Kotar-Yurt village that led to civilian deaths and destruction.” According to him, Memorial lodged these first six complaints, later merged into three cases, against the Russian authorities to the Strasbourg Court in the spring of 2000. In the event the court rules in favor of the claimants, many Chechens who are unable to get justice in Russia will “more often and more actively” go to the Strasbourg Court, the human rights activist added. The claimants are being represented by Kirill Koroteyev, a Moscow lawyer, and two London lawyers, Philip Leach and Bill Bowring. According to Memorial, 15 of the several dozen new cases being prepared by the organisation have been communicated to the Russian Federation, i.e. mail exchange on them has taken place between the Russian authorities and the Strasbourg court. The new cases involve human rights abuses such as the mass killing of inhabitants in the Novye Aldi settlement near Grozny in February 2000; torture; kidnappings; and the disappearance of civilians.