June 20th 2003 · Prague Watchdog

Russian military burn down empty houses in Chechnya

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus

Federal soldiers in the Vedenski district set ablaze houses belonging to people who had left the country.

On June 18 two family houses were burnt down in the village of Tovzeni in the Vedenski district, and two days earlier five houses were reduced to ashes in the Kharachoy village in the same district.

Several homes in the villages of Makhkety and Khatuni in the Vedenski district shared a similar fate. Local citizens suspect that special troops the Russian Ministry of Justice are responsible.

Soldiers who were involved in these destructions claim the houses have been abandoned and that members of the Chechen resistance may now be hiding in them. Vakhid Sheripov, a resident of Kharachoy, said that soldiers told the villagers that Chechen guerrillas were using the houses as shelters.

The locals though believe there is another reason. According to Sheripov, these houses were fully furnished, and before setting them on fire, the soldiers removed all the furniture and TV sets.

Also independent human rights activist Tamara Kalayeva believes the prime reason is financial, as proven by the military's looting of the homes in these Chechen villages prior to setting them on fire.

Kalayeva presumes that all this takes place in the mountainous districts also in order to intimidate the people who live there. People driven into a corner are easier to dominate, she explained.

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Looting Russian Federal Forces