| Caucasus Times 22 August 2003 Heavy-handed raids before elections in Groznyy Over the midnight of August 21, masked gunmen reportedly conducted raids in Zovodskoy and Leninsky districts of Groznyy swept into homes of locals to beat them up and dictate how to vote for Akhmad Kadyrov. Otherwise, the intruders warned, the people would get into troubles. According to Leyla Dasayeva, a local woman of Zavodskoy district of Groznyy, who told the story to Caucasus Times correspondent, at about midnight she was distributed by a noise coming from the courtyard. "I had not time to come around, as several masked gunmen burst into the house, ordered my husband, two sons and daughter-in-law and me to stand up at the wall and started beating us with clubs and the butts of rifles. They warned us that we should vote for Kadyrov. They conducted the same action in our neighbors' houses in the street ". Many local inhabitants believed Kadyrov's security agents to be responsible for these raids. "They are impudently demostrating their force seeking to terrify the folks. They have intimidated locals everywhere and now demand, the people should vote for their boss," said a 67-year-old inhabitant of Groznyy Khasmohamed. "Neither police, nor Russian militaries managed to hold them back so far". The Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic confirmed the incident. "According to available information, it occurred simultaneously in several regions of the city," an officer of the Interior Ministry said. "At the moment, the team of detectives are conducting investigation into the case, questioning the witnesses and victims of assaults. We hope, to obtain some results very soon". Meanwhile, the activists of Kadyrov's election team claimed the incident a provocation and firmly denied any linkage of Kadyrov's securities with the night raids in the city. "There are quite a number of subversives, the enemies who seek to smear Akhmad-Hajji-Kadyrov and to have elections disrupted," an activist of Kadyrov's election headquarters. "Eventually, they will definitely fail". Ruslan Adayev, Chechnya Caucasus Times |