Crimes of Russian bandit formations in Chechnya

Chechen human rights organizations report latest cases of arbitrariness by Russian gangs in Chechnya. According to information from the press service of the Chechen National Salvation Committee (CNSC) regional public movement and the information centre of the Council of Non-government Organizations [CNO], punitive units of Russian occupiers and  Kadyrov's gangs are continuing to kill and abduct civilians in Chechen villages.

In the recent period which the occupying authorities have declared the "run-up to the elections" and during which they promote the idea of certain "normalization" of the situation in Chechnya, acts of violence against civilians in the republic continue on the same scale. The number of various armed units of collaborators that commit an outrage everywhere has been growing of late in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. It is noted that Kadyrov's bandits are making short work of the subordinates of other Moscow puppets who decided to take part in the "election campaign".

For example, the CNO information centre reports that in the afternoon on 9 September, Kadyrov's bandits shot a local resident named Bislan Khayauri in the settlement of Katayama of Dzhokhar's [Groznyy's] Staropromyslovskiy district. According to eyewitnesses, the murderers arrived in the settlement in several Zhiguli cars without numberplates. Kadyrov's posters were pasted on the windows of the cars. The bandits burst into Khayauri's house and, having shot Khayauri with automatic weapons, looted the house and left. It emerged later that Bislan Khayauri was the son of Arbi Khayauri, coordinator of the "campaign headquarters" of the notorious Kremlin puppet, Malik Saydullayev.

The CNSC press service reports that on 7 September, Russian occupiers captured and abducted five local residents in the village of Chiri- Yurt of Chechnya's Groznenskiy (rural) District. According to some reports, two of the abducted people were left on the outskirts of the village after being brutally tortured and beaten up. The whereabouts and fate of the three other residents of Chiri-Yurt remain unknown. According to the same source, three local women died when a tractor hit an unidentified explosive device and exploded in the village of Sernovodsk in Sunzhenskiy District on 9 September. According to our information, a few more women received various wounds. In local residents' opinion, the tractor trolley carrying the killed and wounded women exploded on a land mine that was planted by the special services of the occupying forces with the aim of discrediting the mojahedin who representatives of the occupying structures "accused" of blowing up the tractor.

On the night of 7 September, units of occupiers carried out artillery strikes on the town of Urus-Martan. According to local residents, more than 10 projectiles were fired on the town. Many people spent that night in shelters and cellars, fearing that shells might hit their houses. Several houses in different parts of the town were partially destroyed or damaged. Gagarin and Nekrasov Streets took the brunt of the raid. Only by sheer luck, were there no casualties among the population.

On 11 September, Russian occupiers conducted another large- scale "clearance" operation in the village of Staraya Sunzha in Chechnya's Groznenskiy (rural) District. All the roads to the village were blocked by armoured vehicles. It was strictly prohibited to enter or leave the village. The aggressors searched houses, demanding that the villagers show them their documents. As a result of this action, the occupiers took nine hostages. Their whereabouts are unknown. All captured villagers were young men aged 20-25.

The CNO information centre reports that on the morning of 11 September, Kadyrov's bandits captured a local resident, a certain Arbi Saiyev, who is another representative of Kadyrov's "rival" in the "election campaign" Malik Saydullayev. Local residents say that a group of unknown people broke into Saiyev's house at dawn. The bandits dragged Saiyev out into the street, bundled him into a car and drove off to an unknown location. The whereabouts and fate of the abducted person have not been established.

In Chechnya's Shelkovskoy District, two schoolboys from a local school, aged 11 and 12, were blown up near the village of Starogladovskaya in the afternoon on 12 September. It transpired that the boys were herding cattle on the local pasture. According to local residents, the boys were blown up on a tripwire. Both received shrapnel wounds. Their condition is critical.

The Daymohk news agency has already reported in its news bulletin that Russian occupiers kidnapped local resident Kavrayev from the village of Kulary in Chechnya's Achkhoy-Martanovskiy District on the night of 6 September. His relatives say that the aggressors, who wore masks and khaki uniforms and were armed with special weapons, broke into his house, captured Kavrayev and took him away. Residents of Kulary blocked the Rostov-Baku highway for the next two days, 6 and 7 September, demanding the release of the abducted young man.

Representatives of the puppet structures arrived at the site of the protest action and promised the participants to "look into the incident" and get Kavrayev released. After that, the protesters decided to suspend the action until 10 September. It is not known whether the hostage has already been released.

According to human rights campaigners, the local authorities in Ingushetia continue to pressurize Chechen refugees, apparently on Moscow's instructions. In particular, residents of the Bela refugee camp, which is located on the outskirts of the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia's Sunzhenskiy District, found themselves in a difficult situation. The CNSC press service reports that in the afternoon on 8 September, the refugee camp was visited by the former warden of the camp, a certain Latyrova, who is now the warden of the Bart refugee camp in the town of Karabulak. According to the report, the "guest" categorically demanded that the refugees living here vacate their temporary accommodation as, according to her, the Bela refugee camp will be liquidated on 9 September "using measures of physical coercion".

The refugees living in the Bela camp have been pressurized for the last few weeks. In the afternoon on 9 September, representatives of the local migration service, in particular, Akhmed Parchiyev, visited the Bela refugee camp and announced that natural gas, power and water supplies to the Bela camp will be cut off on 10 September. Residents of Bela were again advised to leave the camp. The refugees hope that a UN delegation's visit to the camp can somehow affect the local authorities' arbitrary decision regarding the deprived people.

Daymokh Information Agency 14.09.03

WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 196 September 22, 2003

Chechen property payment fiasco

Scheme to compensate people for destroyed homes undermined by bureaucratic chaos.

By Asya Bulatova in Grozny

Thousands of Chechens who stood to gain from a compensation scheme for war-damaged housing have been left bitterly disappointed after discovering that they are not on the list of beneficiaries.

The Russian government allocated 14.5 billion rubles (475,000 US dollars) for the estimated 39,000 Chechens who lost property in the fighting of 1994-6 and 1999 to the present, but major flaws in the scheme mean that only a fraction of those entitled to cash handouts are likely to receive it.

The pro-Moscow Chechen government ordered an inventory of destroyed housing stock three years ago, but work on putting together lists of potential recipients of funds only began in March and bureaucrats had until August to complete the project. Problems arose because of the short amount of time allocated for the process; too few officials assigned to the task; mistakes in inputting information; serious faults with the data banks recording war-damaged property; and alleged corruption.

Some analysts have suggested that the inventory was rushed because the pro-Moscow Chechen leader, Ahmad Kadyrov, wanted to issue payouts as a sweetener to voters as he fights for their support in the October 5 presidential elections.

The chairman of the Chechen government committee for compensation, Abubakir Baibatyrov, admitted that nearly half the local authority information on destroyed property handed to government turned out to be false. Some municipal administration officials claim that the lists they provided were complete and accurate, suggesting that errors were made subsequently.

"We submitted full lists to the committee. It's hard to say who cut them and why," said Ramzan Bersanov, a senior official in the Leninsky district of Grozny, one of the mostly badly damaged parts of the city.

The fiasco has left tens of thousands of Chechens who lost property in the war bitterly disappointed, according to human rights activists.

"My house on Buachidze Street was razed to the ground in 1995, during the first campaign. But for some reason my name is not listed among those entitled to compensation, although I applied to the district administration together with others back in spring," said Grozny resident Abyaul-Khalim Agamerzaev. "What's even more surprising is that houses [that remain intact] on the same street are on the list. How come the committee didn't notice my totally destroyed house?"

Sometimes completely destroyed apartment buildings were overlooked by the committee, such as a ten-storey block on Lenin Street in Grozny that had 230 apartments. Just twelve residents found they were eligible for compensation. One of those who missed out, Svetlana Kadieva, went to her district office several days in a row in the vain hope that she would find her name amongst those earmarked for financial assistance.

In the chaos of the inventory process, some locals whose homes were very much intact found that they are due to receive a cash handout. "My house was partially damaged by air strikes. But then we managed to do the [repair] work ourselves and haven't applied," said a Grozny journalist, who discovered that he was due to benefit from the scheme.

There have also been cases of fraud, with people entitled to funds making sure they get them by paying off officials involved in the compensation process. Some residents interviewed said they had "agreements with the right people" to guarantee payment. There were other cases of locals being offered money to register their partially damaged homes as irreparable.

Far more cases of corruption were reported after the first Chechen war when Moscow similarly offered to reimburse people for their damaged properties. Then, many found that the only way of getting what they were due was by resorting to bribery.

Chechen officials are aware that there have been problems with the inventory process and seem keen to put things right. "People shouldn't worry. Those whose names were entered in error will be removed from the list [of beneficiaries] and replaced with those who did in fact lose their homes. New applications are now being received in the districts - we'll consider all complaints," said Baibatyrov.

Indeed, there are already signs of progress on this front. For instance, the head of Grozny's Leninsky district showed IWPR a letter from the local police listing 97 addresses that were wrongly earmarked for compensation.

Asya Bulatova is a freelance journalist working in Chechnya.

22 September 2003

Three boys reportedly killed by a land mine in Groznensky district of Chechnya

Chechnya, September 22, Caucasus Times - Corpses of three boys, 11-13, were found by the locals the Alkhan-Yurt-Groznyy road close by.

The teenagers were killed by explosives while they planting a land mine near the road, a duty officer of Groznensky military commandants' office said.

"Today the leaders of Chechen militants do not have enough people therefore they attempt to involve teenagers into their activity," the officer said. "We are quite certain the boys were blown up by the land mine while they were attempting to plant it at the site, en route of the military vehicles column. We conduct investigation into the case to identify the deceased young boys.

Nevertheless, the locals believe the boys were killed by one of the booby-traps planted by Russian troops on supposed paths of Chechen militants.

Ruslan Adayev, Caucasus Times, Chechnya

Russia: Displaced Chechens in Ingushetia Face Abuses

Human Rights, Mon 22 Sep 2003

(New York, September 22, 2003) Russia’s forces are committing abusesagainst displaced Chechens in Ingushetia as the brutality of theconflict in Chechnya spills over into this neighboring republic, HumanRights Watch said in a report released today. President George W. Bushshould raise human rights concerns about the Chechnya conflict at hissummit with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Camp David on September26-27.

Russia: Abuses Spread Beyond Chechnya

Press Release, July 16, 2003

Human Rights Situation in ChechnyaHRW Briefing Paper to the 59th Session of the UN Commission on HumanRights, April 7, 2003 “President Bush should not squander theopportunity to send a strong message to President Putin to end theviolations and protect displaced persons from abuses, and ensure that noone is coerced into returning to Chechnya.”

Rachel DenberDeputy DirectorEurope and Central Asia Division

The 28-page report, Spreading Despair: Russian Abuses in Ingushetia,documents arbitrary arrest and detention, ill-treatment, and looting byRussia’s forces in Ingushetia this summer. The report charges that theseabuses are among the tactics Russian authorities are using to pressuredisplaced persons living in Ingushetia to return to Chechnya.

Human Rights Watch questioned the Bush administration’s hands-off stanceon Russian rights abuses in Chechnya since the attacks on the UnitedStates on September 11, 2001. The Bush-Putin summit will take place onthe eve of the October 5 presidential elections in Chechnya, part of theKremlin’s efforts to demonstrate that the situation there is returningto normal. However, the elections will be held amid escalating violenceand human rights violations.

“The U.S. and Russia may be partners in the global campaign againstterrorism, but they should not be partners in abuse,” said RachelDenber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asiadivision. “President Bush should not squander the opportunity to send astrong message to President Putin to end the violations and protectdisplaced persons from abuses, and ensure that no one is coerced intoreturning to Chechnya.”

The report details seven security operations federal and local forcesconducted in June 2003 in settlements for displaced persons, as well asin Ingush villages. The operations followed a pattern of sweepoperations or targeted raids seen in Chechnya: large groups of armedpersonnel, often arriving on armored personnel carriers, would surrounda settlement and conduct sweeps or random checks at peoples’ homes. Inthose security operations, at least eighteen people were arbitrarilydetained, most of whom were not released until several days or weekslater, without ever receiving an explanation of the grounds for theirdetention. In other operations, federal forces appear to be responsiblefor killing one civilian and seriously injuring two others.

Russian authorities use other tactics to compel the approximately 84,000displaced persons remaining in Ingushetia--particularly the 12,000 intent camps-- to return to Chechnya. These include threats of arrest,arbitrary deregistration from camp lists, and interruption ofinfrastructure services. In recent days, local authorities seemed set onclosing one of the five remaining camps, Bella camp, by forcingresidents to move to another camp. They have intermittently deniedaccess for humanitarian and human rights groups to the camps.

“Pressuring displaced people and spreading abuses in Ingushetia is allpart of the same strategy—to move the Chechnya problem inside Chechnyaand block outside scrutiny,” said Denber. “President Bush should rejectthe illusion of ‘normalization’ and seek public commitments fromPresident Putin on human rights improvements.”

Human Rights Watch recommended that President Bush seek commitmentsregarding protection for displaced persons, accountability for abuse,and access to the conflict zone. These recommendations include: Nodisplaced person should be involuntarily returned to Chechnya, includingby indirect means, such as threats, arrests, harassment or curtailmentof humanitarian assistance in Ingushetia.The Russian government should facilitate rather than hinder access byimpartial humanitarian organizations to Ingushetia and Chechnya. TheRussian government should also extend invitations to relevant U.N.monitors, including the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the SpecialRapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.Russian authorities should take concrete steps to address accountabilityfor past and ongoing violations in Ingushetia and Chechnya.

To read Human Rights Watch’s report, please see here.http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/russia0903/

© Copyright 2003, Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor, NewYork, NY 10118-3299, USA

Ekho Moskvy, 22 September 2003

Chechen refugees continuing hunger strike in bid to save camp

[Presenter] Eighteen Chechen refugees who are on the territory of Ingushetia are continuing their hunger strike. Darya Sakhnovskaya has the story.

[Sakhnovskaya] The residents of tent camps Alina, Bella, Satsita, and Sputnik began a hunger strike several days ago. They are protesting against the government's decision to demolish the tent city of Bella. In the opinion of internally displaced persons from Chechnya, in the wake of Bella's closure, similar measures will be undertaken in relation to the other camps. The refugees decided to go on a hunger strike after realizing that that they had no other option left to thwart the actions of officials at various levels, which they feel are illegal. The refugees say the protests will continue until they leave them alone. Meanwhile, the Grani.Ru website reports Ingushetia OMON troops [Special Purpose Police Detachment] have now entered the Bella camp; the gas supply and electricity there have been cut off. What is more, Grani has been informed that police officers are beating up the refugees.

[Presenter] I will add that according to the Grani website, journalists and human rights activists are being denied access to the camp now.

REN TV 23 September 2003

Chechen media under more control ahead of presidential election

Russian TV

[Presenter] After Bislan Gantamirov - who was not a particular fan of [pro-Moscow Chechen leader] Akhmat Kadyrov - was dismissed from the post of the Chechen press [nationalities and external communications] minister, all Chechen media outlets are in effect being controlled by the Chechen government. Our correspondent Aleksey Zubov has sent this report about the work of the Chechen media ahead of the presidential election in the republic [on 5 October].

[Correspondent] The building of the Chechen Press Ministry in Groznyy - like any other administrative building in the city - is surrounded by concrete blocks. There are also armed guards at the gates. We meet the new acting deputy minister, Khamza Mukhoyev, who is in charge of all of the republic's press and television, in a practically empty office. After Bislan Gantamirov's dismissal, his staff took almost everything with them. However, Mukhoyev says, it had no effect on the work of the Chechen media: all the papers are published, the television is on air and so far there have been few personnel changes.

[Khamza Mukhoyev, captioned as acting (should be deputy) nationalities and press minister] I will be direct with you: there will of course be some new appointments and dismissals. But nobody is talking of any major personnel reshuffles.

[Correspondent] Stolitsa-Plyus is one of Groznyy's most popular and widely read papers. The famous interview with Bislan Gantamirov which sealed his fate was published by it. Now the paper's staff are wondering about what the future holds for them and are publishing the [presidential] candidates' pre-election materials. Under the existing law, every candidate is entitled to a free-of-charge 1.3 pages, or 1,395 sq.cm. of paper space.

[Marina Abubakarova, captioned as Stolitsa-Plyus editor] We have to publish it all because it is our obligation to provide all candidates with equal rights to make their positions known.

[Correspondent] Groznyy's only large offset press is very busy these days. It prints from 60,000 to 100,000 copies of papers a day. There are eight papers in Chechnya: three that are circulated across the republic, including one in the Chechen language, one paper for young people and four that are circulated on a district level. The printing house opened in July and by the start of the election campaign the overall circulation of local papers almost tripled. All these publications are government ones, that is they were established by the Chechen Press Ministry. The building where the printing house is located - just as the ministry itself - is guarded as a strategic facility. Similar security arrangements, manned by officers from the personal security guard of the head of the Chechen administration, are in place at the entrance to the Groznyy TV - previously known as Gantamirov's TV. Their purpose, as has been officially announced, is to prevent the theft of property following the dismissal of the former Chechen media minister. Most of the staff said then that they would quit but they later changed their minds. They are now also busy recording candidates' electioneering addresses and putting them on air - mostly to fill in free-of-charge slots. The candidates are not too eager to spend money on buying extra air time. The channel continues to make its own news programme. Its editorial policy has undergone a certain adjustment, mainly towards constructive cooperation with the Chechen government and the federal centre.

[News presenter on TV screen] I think that by the time of the parliamentary elections in the republic the national emblem and anthem will have been approved, Kadyrov said.

[Zarema Nasardinova, captioned as Groznyy TV presenter] We are now mostly quoting the head of the republic, which we did not do previously. It is all about him being presented with this or that award or decoration and so on. That is, we have to give prominence to stories about him.

[Correspondent] A protest of the Chechen union of journalists against the dismissal of media minister Gantamirov was not heard either in the republic or in Moscow. However, many of the journalists later withdrew their signatures from the protest. In this part of the world journalists are not provided with personal security guards and Moscow is too far away.

[Video shows the outside and interiors of the Chechen Press Ministry, printing house and Groznyy TV.]