10 July 2003, Volume IV, Issue
25
CHECHNYA WEEKLY: News and analysis on the crisis in Chechnya
An insider's view of the "zachisti"
Though much is now known about it, the "unofficial" prison system operated by
federal forces in Chechnya remains in many ways a mystery. A recent analysis by
Aleksandr Cherkasov of the Moscow-based human rights organization Memorial brought
together several useful reports, including a most revealing interview with an
officer who heads a military-espionage
unit deployed in the republic's southern highlands. The officer was unusually
candid, as one can see from the following transcript. It provides a rare glimpse
of the "zachistki' security sweep-ups from the sweepers' point of view:
Officer: They [the Chechens] speak out against the "zachistki" sweep-ups, they
complain that their relatives are disappearing. But that's just not so. Normal
people don't disappear in Chechnya. Those who disappear are freaks whom it is
necessary to destroy, to purge.
Journalist: So it's your men who are seizing people by night and then destroying
them?
Officer: About 30 percent of them are being seized and murdered as a result of
criminal disputes between the Chechens themselves. 20 percent are on the conscience
of the rebel guerrillas, who are destroying those who cooperate with the federal
authorities. And we are destroying the remaining 50 percent. There's no other
solution: The courts are just too easy to bribe. If we obey the rules and hand
over the guerrillas whom we have captured, their relatives will very quickly buy
their release. We actually tried to follow such practices after the largest groups
of rebel fighters in the hills had been destroyed...But officials from the procuracy
came along with us and made a fuss about all sorts of nonsense such as 'making
peace.' All of our cases were supposed to be substantiated with evidence and so
forth. Suppose we had intelligence information that such and such a man was a
bandit, bathed in blood up to his elbows. We would have to visit him together
with the procuracy's people, and it would turn out that he didn't have any weapons
in his home--not even one bullet. What could we then arrest him for? So destroying
the guerrillas under the cover of night--that is the most effective method for
fighting them, and they are afraid of it. Now they don't feel secure anywhere--not
in the hills, not in their homes. Large-scale operations aren't necessary anymore;
what's necessary are night-time operations, precisely and surgically targeted.
One can fight lawlessness only with lawless methods.
Journalist: Do you like these methods?
Officer: Not always. Sometimes innocent people get caught by them...sometimes
it happens that Chechens slander each other. When we learn the truth it turns
out to be too late to fix things. The man no longer exists.