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CHAPTER
2
IT IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH: CHECHNYA
Arbitrary
Detention, Disappearances, and Ransom Demands
Human Rights Organisations have reported repeated occurrences
of extra judicial executions, arbitrary detentions and disappearances
of civilians, and ransom and bribe demands by the members Federal
Forces for their release. (40)
Russia is continuing to snub the European Convention for Human
Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment both of which recognise
individual's unalienable right to life and against torture and
arbitrary detention.
Of those principles upheld by these international treaties,
"right to life" cannot be restricted or disregarded
even in wartime. Russia has violated, time after time, the every
single right that is mentioned in those treaties by its actions
in both the second war, which she considers as an operation
against terrorism, and the first war, which attracted the World's
attention more than the current war.
For instance, the fact that the Russian government is not investigating
the extra judicial killings and the disappearances of civilians
instigated by the actions of the Federal Forces and that she
is not attempting to bring to justice those who are guilty of
these crimes is a clear violation of the Annex II of the European
Convention of Human Rights.
Human Rights Watch-The "Dirty War"
In Chechnya: At approximately 1:20 a.m. on September 24, 2000,
a group of eight masked men silently entered the home of the
Aziev family in Grozny. When Lecha Aziev woke up and asked them
who they were, the men told him to be quiet and started beating
him, breaking two of his ribs. The men put a gun to the chest
of Zulai Azieva, Lecha's wife. Lecha told Human Rights Watch:
As I lay on the floor [after being hit], they went into the
kids' room where the two boys were sleeping. The youngest got
up, they hit him with a rifle butt, he fell down. They stepped
on him and started to scream: "Give the handcuffs."
They put on the handcuffs and put a bag over his head. When
they put the bag over his head, I understood that there wasn't
anything I could do.
Zulai Azieva told Human Rights Watch that she offered her sons'
passports to the men but that they were not interested in them.
She said that her sons were not allowed to dress themselves
and were taken away in their underwear. Neighbors from their
building and across the street later told the Azievs that they
had seen masked men with flash lights combing through the apartment
building from the second to the ninth floor and that more had
stood outside the building. As of March 2001, the Aziev brothers
were still missing.
In both the Aziev and Gairbekov cases, relatives told Human
Rights Watch that they went to all law enforcement and military
agencies to search for their sons; the Azievs did so the very
morning after they had been seized. In both cases, all law enforcement
and military agencies that were approached denied having carried
out the nighttime raids, and the "disappeared" individuals
were not acknowledged to be registered at any of the detention
centers that were contacted.
The head of the Lenin district administration, to his credit,
provided Azieva with a car to travel to various commanders'
offices and sent a doctor to her home to examine her beaten
husband. The local administration also helped her check whether
her sons were in various detention centers in the area. The
Azievs had a less positive experience when they appealed to
the offices of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Russian-appointed civilian
administrator for Chechnya and Beslan Gantemirov, the Russian-appointed
mayor of Grozny. Aziev told Human Rights Watch that both had
told him that his sons might be in Khankala but that they-as
civilian administrators-have no access to that military base.
(41)
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Human
Rights Watch-The "Dirty War" In Chechnya: The
"Disappearance" of Nura Lulueva, Markha Gakaeva,
and Raisa Gakaeva (Raid on northern market in Grozny, June
3, 2000): An army APC carrying about twenty armed and masked
men in camouflage raided Grozny's northern market on Mozdokskaia
Street at around 9:00 a.m. on June 3, 2000. The masked men
detained Nura Lulueva, a forty-year-old mother of four children,
her cousins Markha and Raisa Gakaeva and another seven to
nine people, most of them women. The masked men loaded them
onto the APC, pulled bags over their heads, and drove away.
Said-Alvi Luluev, Nura Lulueva's husband, arrived at the
market several hours after the sweep and talked to numerous
eyewitnesses. A judge, Luluev told Human Rights Watch that
everyone, including Chechen police officers from the local
precinct, found the raid puzzling, as apparently nothing
extraordinary had happened at the market that morning. Luluev
said that when local police-informed by eyewitnesses-came
to the market and asked the masked men for an explanation,
one apparently flashed an ID and told the police "not
to interfere." The masked men subsequently fired toward
the police officers and drove away. Human Rights Watch does
not know if anyone was wounded.
According to Luluev, his wife and her cousins had been selling
strawberries at the market. He said that such small-scale
trade provided his family with vital income as he had been
unemployed since 1997, when the Chechengovernment introduced
Sharia law. All three women lived in Gudermes, but apparently
traveled to Grozny on a regular basis.
Luluev approached all of the law enforcement agencies, including
the temporary police department, the procuracy, and the
FSB on a regular basis to find out who carried out the raid
and where his wife was taken. However, each of these agencies
said they had not carried out the detention of his wife
and denied that any special operation had taken place that
day at the northern market in Grozny.
On March 4, 2001, Nura Lulueva's brother identified her
body and those of their cousins at the Ministry of Emergency
Situations in Grozny, where bodies that were recovered from
a mass grave near Khankala military base were brought for
identification purposes. The three bodies were buried that
same evening in the village of Noiber near Gudermes. (42)
Amnesty International -RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Failure to protect
or punish: The soldiers permitted some of the men, who
had been taken to the village outskirts and beaten, to return
home on 1 January 2002. Others were reportedly taken away
and "disappeared". The villagers named at least
seven "disappeared" men: Shaikh-Akhmed Magomadov,
aged 25;Alkhazur Movlaevich Saidselimov, aged 23; the Baisultanov
brothers Khanpash, aged 33, Akhmed aged 39 and Suleyman
aged 27; Salamu Mazaev aged 42; and Khamzat Israilov aged
32. The brother of Khamzat Israilov, Abbas, was reportedly
detained by Russian authorities at the temporary police
station (known in Russian by the acronym, "VOVD"8)
in Kurchaloy on 5 January as he sought to ascertain the
whereabouts of his brother.
On 3 January 2002, after Russian forces had lifted the blockade
of the village, the village elders reportedly recovered
seven bodies, including those of Musa Ismailov and Idris
Zakriev; witnesses state that Musa Ismailov and Idris Zakriev
were extrajudicially executed. Their bodies reportedly had
been disfigured; their ears, noses and genitals had been
cut off. Amnesty International is continuing to investigate
this incident.
A Russian soldier reportedly told a villager from Tsotsin-Yurt
that some bodies had been found near the neighbouring village
of Mesker Yurt. On 7 January, villagers found three bodies,
badly disfigured by explosives, but were able to identify
that of Alkhazur Saidselimov, one of the missing persons,
by his clothes.
Although prosecutors reportedly accompanied the soldiers
as they conducted the raid, their presence does not appear
to have had any mitigating effect on the violations committed
by Russian forces. Further, as of this writing, Amnesty
International is not aware of any investigation or arrests
made in relation to the actions of Russian forces in Tsotsin-Yurt.
(43) |
Freedom
Bought by a Bribe
"If you want to make money, arrest a Chechen and then ask
for ransom from his family." This slogan is the plain expression
of the fact that Russian contract-soldiers and police officers
serving in Chechnya in extreme conditions, often without being
paid, have created a system in which they could make easy money.
A striking story:
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Human
Rights Watch, Field Update on Chechnya: Most former detainees
told Human Rights Watch that Russian forces had extorted
payment from their relatives in exchange for their release;
sums ranged from several thousand roubles to thousands of
dollars, and would include demands for weapons and ammunition.
According to relatives of former detainees, Russian forces
set specific sums and deadlines for paying. Extorted sums
were paid either directly to soldiers or police officers
holding the detainee, or through middlemen. "Sulumbek
P."'s brother, for example, told Human Rights Watch
that he located Sulumbek P. through Chechen middlemen five
days after he was detained on August 23, 2000. The following
four weeks, he and other relatives collected money for the
$1,000 ransom and were compelled to purchase ten automatic
weapons indirectly from an intermediary and then hand them
over to Russian forces. (44)
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Torture
Cases
No war can justify excessive force conducted by conflicting
sides, nor can it produce mitigating circumstances for war crimes
such as torture, abuse and arbitrary killings. As it happened
between 1994-1996, one of the most important tools of Russian
arm in conducting the second Chechen war, which started in 1999
and is still continuing at this very moment, has been torture
against civilians in order to daunt and punish the population.
Considering the common tendency - even in peaceful times - of
regarding every Chechen kid as a potential criminal and Chechen
man as a lawbreaker in Russia general, we should not have difficulty
in understanding how this racial prejudice could be transformed
into violence against Chechen civilians in war times.
Despite Russia's indifference, the international law has strictly
outlined the boundaries of conducting war. UN International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was signed in
1966 on the grounds of respecting human honour, has defined
the actions that can not be vindicated or neglected by the international
community and the rights of immunity in time of war. (45)
The agreement asserts that - since it intends to open a door
for detecting and controlling human rights violations through
measures meant to taken by international community - whatever
the circumstances are, actions such as restriction of freedom,
abuse, torture and arbitrary killing cannot be conducted with
impunity.
Here is another example recorded by Amnesty International that
demonstrates the level of the unrespectfullness towards the
basic human rights:
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Razet
Mutaeva told Amnesty International that the soldiers accused
the family of being connected with Osama bin Laden, after
they found a communication equipment manual in the house
she says the soldiers planted during their search. She told
AI: My son's ribs were broken before my eyes. [The soldiers]
were all high on drugs and drunk and were laughing at us.
My son's blood was splashed all over the courtyard. When
I tried to clean my son's blood, they asked me why I was
cleaning the dog's blood. I fainted. My son and husband
were punched and kicked. My son's and husband's hands were
tied ... [they were each] covered with a blanket and taken
to an unknown destination.
The soldiers took Ahmed and Magomed to the edge of the village
where they were subjected to further ill-treatment and torture.
Razet Mutaeva told Amnesty International that the soldiers
broke her son's nose, beat him with a hammer and poured
petrol over him in an attempt to force him to admit to owning
the communications equipment manual. Ahmed and Magomed Mutaev
were later released and the family has since left the village.
As of this writing, Amnesty International is not aware of
any official investigation into this case. (46) |
Violence
has no particular target in Chechnya. The incidents directly
observed by the Amnesty International indicate that Russian
troops do not hesitate to punish even Chechens who collaborate
with Russian army.
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The
case of Alaudin Sadykov- The climate of impunity in
which violations of the human rights of detainees are committed
by Russian forces is clearly demonstrated by the case of
51-year-old Alaudin Sadykov. A school teacher from Grozny,
Alaudin Sadykov remained in the city during the conflict
to assist in the distribution of humanitarian aid; he worked
with the Russian Emergency Services (MChS) to this end.
Alaudin Sadykov told Amnesty International delegates that
on 5 March 2000, while helping to distribute water to local
residents, brought by MChS personnel, OMON officers in camouflage
uniforms arrived asking for directions to Pavel Musorov
Street. Alaudin Sadykov offered to travel with them to show
them the way. However, Alaudin Sadykov stated that when
they arrived and he pointed to the street, the men hit him
with their rifle butts and placed a black hood over his
head.
The officers then took Alaudin Sadykov to the Oktiabrsky
District Temporary Department of Internal Affairs (VOVD)
and beat him for about two hours. Alaudin Sadykov told Amnesty
International how the policemen forcibly cut off his hair,
and forced him to eat it. The policemen
then forced red-hot pieces of metal into his hand; the scars
said to result from this injury were still visible to an
Amnesty International researcher almost two years later.
Reportedly, the policemen then pushed Alaudin Sadykov's
tongue back into his mouth with a piece of red-hot metal
into his mouth and forced it up his nose; another officer
wrote "Chichik", a derogatory term for an ethnic
Chechen, on his forehead with a knife. One of the men reportedly
told Alaudin Sadykov that he wouldn't leave the police station
alive. Following a prolonged beating, Alaudin Sadykov was
dragged to a cellar where up to six men used him like a
"live football", breaking his teeth and ribs and
kicked him until he was unconscious.
Later that day, the men took Alaudin Sadykov back to his
home, where they conducted a search of the premises. Mr.
Sadykov stated that the policemen "found" some
plasticine-like material that he believes they planted themselves
and which they claimed to be explosives. The policemen proceeded
to loot Mr. Sadykov's home, taking carpets, a television,
a video-recorder, winter coats and paint. The men took Mr.
Sadykov back to the Oktiabrsky VOVD where he was accused
of blowing up a house. Up to three men proceeded to beat
him with their rifle butts. Mr. Sadykov told Amnesty International
"I thought it would be better to die quickly to escape
the pain".
Four days later, men in camouflage uniforms beat Sadykov
again, and cut off his ear. An Amnesty International researcher
photographed the injury. He told Amnesty International:
They beat me again and said, "Lets cut off his head".
They took a large knife for slaughtering animals and cut
off my left ear completely. Then they said "We'll cut
your head off later". While I was lying on the floor,
there was blood everywhere and my ear was lying next to
me. Then one of the men who was guarding me came in and
photographed me lying there. He and the others were from
Khanty-Mansisky Region police, OMON.
Mr. Sadykov stated that other detainees were brought to
an adjacent cell; two of them were tortured to death. The
soldiers cut both ears off one of these men whom Mr. Sadykov
identified as Magomed Uvaesovich Dzhabaev, aged 47, from
the district of Aldi in Grozny. Mr. Sadykov told Amnesty
International that the following morning, persons from an
international organization, believed to be from the OSCE
visited the station. He stated that:
The following morning there was a lot of screaming and shouting.
A commission came that morning and [the officers] took me
and another detainee, a Russian, to a different cell and
hid us. I was there for about five or six hours. When I
came back I saw that the cells were cleaned and the other
two men [including Magomed Dzhabaev] didn't survive until
morning. They were so badly beaten that they could no longer
stand. They were spitting blood. They were just thrown out.
Mr. Sadykov described to Amnesty International in detail
instruments used to torture detainees, including ice-picks,
hammers, surgical instruments, dental instruments, instruments
for removing fingernails, spades, and saws. He also stated
that he saw human fingers, hair and jawbones in the cell
where he was brought to be tortured.
Mr. Sadykov claimed that the head of the detention facility
ordered that he be hidden when the commission came. Mr.
Sadykov also believes that prosecutor knew that he had been
subjected to torture but acted to conceal this from the
commission.
Mr. Sadykov was released from custody on 24 May 2000. At
time of writing, Amnesty International is unaware of the
prosecution of any individuals for, or indeed any investigation
into the torture of Alaudin Sadykov. (47) |
No
doubt that Chernokozovo internat camp which was notorious for
its terror has witnessed a great number of grieves. The Amnesty
International reports the stories of two persons who were detained
in this camp during 6-13 May 2000 and then becoming refugees
in Ingushetia. Gross inhuman sights from the Internat:
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"Twenty-year-old
"Zelimkhan" was detained on 6 May at his parents'
house in Urus-Martan by a group of about 15 Russian federal
forces officers, allegedly members of the special detachments
(OMON) from the Russian city of Penza. He was taken to
the outskirts of Komsomolskoye village, ordered to take
his clothes off, handcuffed and forced onto his knees
in front of a hole in the ground, three metres deep and
five to six metres wide.
"Zelimkhan" was beaten with clubs for about
two hours by four OMON officers while the rest of the
group were watching and laughing. He was asked to sign
a confession stating he was a Chechen fighter and that
he took part in the fighting around Komsomolskoye. They
threatened to
kill him and to send him to Chernokozovo camp where he
would be raped by the guards. Later the same day, "Zelimkhan"
was taken to the "Internat" camp.
In the "Internat" he was brutally gang-raped
by four or five OMON officers. "Zelimkhan" was
blindfolded and handcuffed and ordered to lay on a table
face down before being raped with wooden clubs and the
butt of machine-guns. He was also repeatedly kicked in
the area of the genitals while asked to stand naked by
a wall. "Zelimkhan" said the officers also squeezed
his genitals, repeatedly saying they would make him handicapped
and incapable of producing children. The rape and beatings
continued for two hours. He was questioned by Vasiliy,
the investigator who had ordered the rape, and asked to
sign a confession that he was a Chechen fighter, which
he refused.
"Zelimkhan" was severely beaten and tortured
several times each day during his detention, with the
exception of 9 May when no detainees were beaten because
the guards were celebrating the national holiday -- the
Victory over Fascism Day.
"Zelimkhan" also told Amnesty International
about one of his cell mates, Rustam Gandarov from Urus-Martan
who was subjected to electric shocks and beaten by the
guards for seven hours without a break. Rustam Gandarov
was being held in the "Internat" for a third
time. The previous time he was reportedly released after
his relatives paid $3,500. He was subsequently detained
twice again.
"Zelimkhan" also told Amnesty International
that detainees in the "Internat" have their
ears pierced with sharp nails. One of his cell mates,
20-year-old Beslan Satabayev, had his ears pierced with
nails. He was also handcuffed and suspended from the ceiling
while being beaten all over his body. Beslan Satabayev
was later transferred to the camp in Chernokozovo.
Children were also tortured and ill-treated in the "Internat".
"Zelimkhan" witnessed how 15-year-old Timur,
a student at School No. 4 in Urus-Martan, was severely
beaten by the guards and a number of his ribs were broken.
Timur was apparently detained together with his uncle,
who was suspected of being a Chechen fighter. The guards
beat Timur repeatedly during his eight days in detention
in order to force him to confess that his uncle was a
fighter. Eventually Timur was released when the family
paid $700 to the guards.
"Zelimkhan" was released on 13 May for the sum
of $300 after being forced by the "Internat"
authorities to sign a document claiming that he had not
been subjected to ill-treatment and had been treated humanely.
After his release he was immediately hospitalized at the
hospital in Urus-Martan in a serious condition. In a statement
the doctors treating him concluded that he had sustained
numerous bruises and haematomas in the area of his ribs
and chest and in the area of his kidneys, and that he
needed treatment by a urologist because of an inflamation
and infection in the genitals. (48)
Forgotten Terror: Chechnya: The Norwegian Helsinki Committee
(NHC) received a number of accounts concerning atrocities
committed at a detention facility in a boarding school
in Urus Martan. A 59-year-old woman from Argun had visited
relatives in Gekhy when an arrest was made:
About a month and a half ago (10 August, I believe) Magomed
Astamirov, 19 years old, was taken from his house in Gekhy.
He was a big guy, that was all, there was no other reason
for arresting him. His mother and grandmother tried to
protest. The soldiers took his mother's ring. He was taken
from Gekhy to the boarding school in Urus Martan. Four
days later they found him wrapped in a blanket, lying
next to the hospital. He was alive. They brought him into
the hospital. He could hardly speak. He had been tortured
with electric shocks. He is in a wheelchair now. He said
there were others there, too. They were also beaten and
tortured as he was -- his feet were placed in a basin
of water, and they put the electricity to his ears, fingers
and other parts of his body. The woman did not know for
what purpose he was tortured or what, if any, questions
had been addressed to him. (49)
MEMORIAL- Myths and Truth about Tsotsin-Yurt: The three
brothers who were detained in their home on January 1
- Akhmed Ezir-Pashaevich Baisultanov (born 1962), Khanpasha
Ezir-Pashaevich Baisultanov (born 1968), and Suleiman
Ezir-Pashaevich Baisultanov (born 1974) - disappeared.
The fact of their detention can be confirmed by their
father, mother, brother and neighbors. Their further fate
is unknown. There is still no trustworthy evidence that
they were among those detainees who were brought to the
"filtration point." Their relatives turned to
the military command of the Kurchaloevsky region and to
the bureau of the Special
Representative
of the President of the Russian Federation for the Protection
of Rights and Freedoms of People and Citizens in the Territory
of the Chechen Republic. It is necessary to point out
that the middle brother, Khanpasha, is schizophrenic (an
official diagnosis exists).
Among the detainees taken to the "filtration point"
was a young woman, Malika Ustarkhanova, who is the mother
of three young children including an infant. Along with
her husband, who on the day of the "cleansing operation"
was in the neighboring village, she moved to Tsotsin-Yurt
from Grozny. When looking at her documents, the soldiers
began to beat Malika right in the yard, demanding that
she say where the fighters were; they then threw her into
a BTR and took her away, saying that they'd let her go
once her husband came. They continued to interrogate her
at the "filtration point" and beat her, especially
hard on the back and fingers. M. Ustarkhanova was freed
on December 31. She had multiple traces of beatings. (50)
CHECHNYA: The Politics of Terror, Doctors Without Borders:
Some of those arrested are tortured, as witnessed by doctors
who have treated them in hospitals. But the victims of
this violence are so afraid that most of them don't dare
file any complaints, and don't even want to go to a hospital
for fear that they will be registered and once again pursued.
Medical personnel relate that some patients were arrested
inside the hospitals and later found dead. In September
the staff of the Stari Atagi hospital explained that one
patient had been arrested and taken away by the Russian
forces. Several days later, his body was found in a field.
A legal doctor testified that he had been beaten to death.
"In the past two months, we've been seeing a lot
of people who were previously arrested. They suffer from
multiple injuries. Fractures, head injuries. Some of them
tell me how they were treated. Several said they had put
some kind of metal wires over them and shocked them with
electricity. They are so scared that most of them come
out not talking. They try not to come to the hospital,
because we register them. None of them file any complaints.
They don't want to go through that hell again. In our
report, we put down that the cause of injuries was abuse
by the federals, but they never come to ask what happened
- not the prosecutors, not the military." Doctor,
Urus Martan Disctrict
"I examined the body myself. The scalp had been completely
removed like a cap cut all the way around his skull. We
never found the scalp. This was clearly done when he was
still alive. Three fingers had also been cut off with
what looked like a pair of shears. This was done when
he was alive. You can tell by the extent of the bleeding
from the wounds". Doctor, Grozny
Human Rights Watch-Welcome to Hell" Arbitrary Detention,
Torture, and Extortion in Chechnya: Reported comments
of Russian guards to detainee at Chernokozovo: Welcome
to hell. You're lost now. You will die a slow and painful
death. We will teach you to respect Russian officers.
Former detainee describing torture at Chernokozovo:They
used the iron part of their sticks to beat me on the bottoms
of my feet. They put a cloth in my mouth so I couldn't
scream, and they handcuffed me. They made me lay down
on my stomach with my head under the table. They took
off my boots and socks, and beat my soles, especially
on the heels. Then they made me stand against the wall
with my hands up, lifted my shirt and beat me on the kidneys
with the sticks.
Former Chernokozovo inmate:I heard the soldiers say while
they were kicking me on the floor, 'Let's fuck him.' Then
they said 'we won't dirty ourselves.' ... I was taken
from the cell, and by the time I got to the questioning
room, I was already only half-conscious. I was taken from
this room to another where they said they would fuck me.
It was February 7, late at night. I was lying on the floor,
two guards held my legs while another kicked me in the
testicles. I lost consciousness and would come around,
I lost consciousness four times. They hit me around the
head, there was blood. They would beat me unconscious
and wait until I came round: 'He's woken up,' and they
would come in and beat me [again]. (52)
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Incidents
of Rape
It is well known that during the war between 1994-1996 and the
current war, which started in 1999, several Chechen rape victims
could not bare the agony of rape assaults, find it extremely
difficult to express their ordeal and in some cases prefer to
commit suicide rather than facing public. However it should
also be taken in to the account that most of those rape cases
are not reflected in the reports owing to curbing effects of
the local traditions. Moreover, it should be noted that the
real names of those victims subjected to the rape are concealed
except those were kiled or committed suicide.
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Amnesty
International- Russian Federation: Failure to protect or
punish: A detainee at the "Internat" facility
in Urus Martan described to Amnesty International how he
and other detainees heard the rape of a woman in a neighbouring
cell. He told Amnesty International that a cellmate saw
a woman brought in on 10 October 2000, aged about 30, through
the eyehole of his cell door. Magomed stated that: She was
brought in to cell 4. We heard everything clearly. They
really got to her, they did everything possible; they gang-raped
her. You could hear them say "kak ona khorosha"[how
good she is] and things like that ... You could hear the
screams, words like "please I can't" ... We didn't
sleep all night. She was released the following day before
dawn. (53)
The case of "Fatima": According to reports, on
26 June 2001, three Russian soldiers came to a house in
the village of Shali. They found a married couple and the
wife's sister, "Fatima", who was nine months'
pregnant. The soldiers allegedly began beating the man,
while keeping his wife in a separate room. When "Fatima"
tried to stop the beating, the three soldiers reportedly
gang-raped her. During the rape, the "Fatima"
began to give birth. "Fatima's" sister was then
called into the room to help deliver the baby. Reports state
that two of the soldiers wanted to kill the baby, but one
of the soldiers, who had received a telegram stating his
own wife had given birth early the same day, intervened.
According to witnesses, "Fatima" was immediately
hospitalized with severe injuries incurred while she was
raped. Released from hospital three weeks later and fearing
further persecution, the whole family moved to another region
of the Russian Federation. The family reportedly filed a
complaint with the District Office of the Procurator, but
reportedly has not received a written reply or formal confirmation
that a criminal investigation had been initiated. They were,
however, verbally informed that the three soldiers were
disciplined by the military command. (54) |
Here
is another example recorded by Amnesty International:
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On
the night of 26 March 2000, Kheda (Elza) Visaevna Kungaeva,
aged 18, from the village of Tangi-Chu was kidnapped from
her family home by Colonel Yury D. Budanov, the commander
of a tank regiment, and his soldiers. Colonel Budanov took
Kheda Kungaeva to his tent, reportedly to interrogate her,
but instead he strangled her. A Russian army medical expert
later concluded that, before she died, Kheda Kungaeva had
been raped by several men. The Office of the Procurator
General initiated an investigation into this case and on
30 March 2000 Colonel Budanov was arrested. He claimed that
during interrogation he attempted to make Kheda Kungaeva
confess to being a sniper and that he strangled her in a
state of temporary insanity. Colonel Budanov was charged
with homicide and abuse of power. He was reportedly placed
in custody and in November 2001 underwent a psychiatric
examination at the Serbsky Institute in Moscow; the Institute
supported his claim that he committed the murder in a state
of temporary insanity. At the end of 2001 the trial against
Colonel Budanov was ongoing. (55) |
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AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL- Russian Federation: Women and girls victims
of human rights abuses:
"Irina", a 14-year-old girl, originally from Urus-Martan,
died in detention at the Chernokozovo detention facility
at the beginning of 2000, as a result of being ill-treated
and tortured, including being repeatedly raped, by guards.
She had been detained at a check-point while travelling
on a bus. According to witnesses, the girl was among 60
women held together in cell number 25 in Chernokozovo, who
were subjected to beatings by the guards. Another of these
women, ''Zuliykhan'', was seven months pregnant and, although
not beaten, was repeatedly threatened with torture. She
was subsequently released and gave birth prematurely.
Rape of pregnant women by Russian forces: On 18 October
2001 Russian federal forces came to the home of ''Zainap''
in the village of Kurcheloy intending to detain her husband.
When they did not find him in the house, the soldiers allegedly
detained ''Zainap'', who was eight-months pregnant. She
was taken to the Temporary Department of Internal Affairs
(VOVD) located along with the military command post in the
village of Kurcheloy.
Two
women witnesses, who were detained along with ''Zainap'',
stated that she was repeatedly gang-raped and ill-treated
by Russian soldiers and, as a result, suffered a miscarriage.
''Zainap'' was released in mid-November in exchange for
10 machine-guns, requested by the Russian forces from her
relatives. Upon her release from detention, ''Zainap'' reportedly
underwent surgery. In line with the strong cultural taboo
against rape victims in Chechen society, ''Zainap's'' husband
refused to take her back; witnesses reportedly quoted him
as saying: ''After them, I do not need her. She is dirty
now...'' (56)
Human Rights Watch, Serious Violations of Women's Human
Rights in Chechnya: Russian military and police forces
have hundreds of checkpoints within Chechnya and between
Chechnya and neighboring regions of Russia. Federal servicemen
are notorious for using the checkpoints to extort bribes
from civilians; Human Rights Watch also found several cases
of rape at checkpoints.
"Alisa Riskhanova" (not her real name) reported
to Human Rights Watch researchers that at the end of January
2000, while traveling by bus with a female friend out of
Chechnya to Ingushetia, she was stopped at the Kavkaz Russian
military checkpoint by Russian contract soldiers, or kontraktniki.11
Ostensibly because the photograph of Riskhanova in her passport
did not resemble her actual appearance, the soldiers detained
both women. The bus driver pleaded with the soldiers not
to detain the women, but the soldiers told the bus driver
that the women would be sent back to the town where they
were coming from, and the driver left.
Soldiers took the two women to two separate underground
pits near the checkpoint. Four Russian soldiers came to
Riskhanova, accused her of being a sniper, gave her a gun
and told her to dismantle it, put it back together, and
then shoot. Riskhanova reported to Human Rights Watch that
she had never held a gun in her hands and did not know how.
One of the soldiers hit her, causing her to fall to the
floor. Two other soldiers began kicking her. The soldiers,
Riskhanova said, told her "you will never have children
again." Then the soldiers raped her. After spending
three weeks in bed recovering from the abuse, Riskhanova
spoke with Human Rights Watch. She believes that Chechens
paid the Russian soldiers for her release. (57) |
Raids
and Looting
Another aspect of Russian operations in Chechnya is the looting
of houses and offices in villages and towns.
Chechens' properties and goods are regarded as extra bonus for
Russian military and policemen who complain about overdue salaries
and allowances. Encouraged by senior officers, Russian military
personnel confiscate the valuables - such as gold, silver, furniture,
clothing - of civilians by force and use military trucks to
load and carry the goods. We can say that there is a market
emerged in which Russian military personnel trade.
The fact that the Russian government either delays or fails
to pay the salaries of its military personnel serving in Chechnya
is the main factor that encourages looting. For instance, in
April, 11 policemen from Tula region who had been assigned to
serve in Chechnya left their posts in Nocay-Yurt region to return
home without informing their senior officers on the grounds
that they had not been paid. It is also known that, so far,
170 policemen have resigned for the same reason.
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MEMORIAL-Appeal
to the UN Commission for Human Rights: Soldiers behave crudely
while engaging in these sweeps, they humiliate the villagers
and sometimes beat them. Increasingly in recent months,
these mop-ups have been accompanied by coarse mistreatment
of women (Villagers interviewed are reporting sexual taunts,
tearing of dresses, pushing, etc. apparently stopping short
of rape. Cultural taboos usually prohibit people from reporting
the rape of women. It is significant that increasingly,
Memorial is hearing reports of such sexual harassment.).
The looting that goes on during the sweeps is well-organized.
The soldiers openly carry all the valuables out of peoples'
homes and load them up into trucks. Often the soldiers extort
money from the owners of the home they are checking, and
threaten that they will take away all the young men of that
family to a "filtration point" if they don't pay
up. (58) |
Corpse
Trade
It has been
confirmed by the witnesses that Russian military personnel do
not only demand money from the family members of those who have
been detained in Chechnya and waiting to be released, they also
sell the corpses of those who were killed by the Russian forces
for 100-3000 US dollars to their relatives.
Ransom has been turned into a way of earning money by Russian
troops. Chechen Minister of Public Health Umar Khanbiyev, as
a witness himself, has been providing international community
with relevant information about ransom allegations.
"Perhaps the most pitiful picture today in Chechnya is
that of relatives rushing to newly reported mass grave sites
to search for the remains of the "disappeared." Indeed,
the corpses of many of the "disappeared" have subsequently
been found in unmarked, makeshift graves and body dumps throughout
Chechnya. The discovery of a cluster of graves containing about
sixty corpses near the federal military base at Khankala generated
intense media attention. While it contained an unprecedented
number of corpses, it was not the first such burial site to
be found in Chechnya." (59)
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THE
"DIRTY WAR" IN CHECHNYA: "Human Rights
Watch has documented at least eight makeshift graves containing
mutilated bodies of individuals that bore unmistakable marks
of torture. In another eight cases, the dead bodies were
dumped by the side of a road, on hospital grounds or elsewhere.
In one case of base corruption, a military serviceman insisted
that the parents of two "disappeared" brothers
pay him to sketch a map to their makeshift burial site.
He apparently promised them, "If they're not yours,
I'll give you back your money." (60)
The "disappearance" of Ali Musaev (age twenty-eight),
Umar Musaev (age twenty-three): Two brothers, Ali and Umar
Musaev, were detained and "disappeared" on the
morning of August 8 after a shootout in their courtyard.
Alamat Musaev, their father, witnessed the shooting and
his sons' detention, told Human Rights Watch that he was
returning home that morning when a Chechen man unknown to
him at the time ran into his courtyard. Soldiers walking
ahead of Musaev suddenly jumped into the courtyard of his
home and started shooting. When the shooting ended, the
father walked to his home and saw the dead body of the unknown
person and his youngest son-alive but with arms tied behind
his back-on the ground. The servicemen subsequently put
the youngest son in an APC and took him away. The elder
son was forced to drive himself, using his own car, to the
local commander's office. Shortly after the detention of
their sons, the Musaev parents heard from neighbors that
Russian national television had shown a news item in which
two military commanders, Lieutenant General M.I. Lubenets
and Maj. Gen. Yakov Nedobitko, said they had found and killed
several Chechen commanders in Gekhi, and that the body of
a Chechen man shown in the broadcast resembled their son
Umar. Musaev's parents obtained a videotaped copy of the
broadcast and recognized the dead body of their younger
son, whom they had last seen alive as he was taken away
in an APC.
The Musaevs searched for their sons for more than a month.
Immediately following the detention, Aminat Musaeva, the
mother, went to see the local military commander in Gekhi,
who, she reports, was absolutely uncooperative and simply
denied any knowledge of the detention of her sons despite
the fact that Musaeva discovered her elder son's car near
the commander's office.
Several weeks later, Gekhi villagers informed Musaeva that
Alexander Silantev led the Penza special police force that
had conducted the sweep. When Musaeva confronted Silantev,
he eventually acknowledged detaining the Musaevs, but said
he was no longer responsible for their fate. According to
Musaeva, Silantev claimed he had handed them over to Generals
Lobunets and Major General Nedobitko at a checkpoint near
the town that same day. He also
reportedly
told her that he had thought "they" had released
the brothers but then added that "maybe your children
were taken to Khankala."
In September 2000, the Musaev's found their sons' corpses
in an unmarked grave. A military officer had compelled them
to pay for information on the location of the grave. A November
1 letter from the military procuracy at Khankala military
base states that the Musaev brothers were in fact taken
to the Gekhi temporary police station and that "their
trace is then lost, as your sons are not listed in the registry
of temporary detainees or in the temporary detention center
of the Urus-Martan region." (61) |
The amount
of ransom demanded for the release of those who has been arrested
or kidnapped by Russian troops depends on the budget of the
detainees' family members and it could change between 100 and
3000 US dollars. What is waiting for those whose relatives fail
to pay the ransom is torture chambers called 'death holes',
and even after they die under torture, detainees' bodies are
still sold to their family members.
Russians are well aware that due to their traditions, even in
war, a proper funeral for a family member is extremely important
to Chechens and they take advantage of this tradition by trading
corpses, knowing that no Chechen would let a dead relative be
dumped in a mass grave.
If a Chechen dies in custody, first his body is dispensed with
and then fake documents are produced to prove that he or she
has been released. If he or she is lucky enough to be one of
those who manage to survive this circle of violations - which
is only ten percent - the place he or she will be sent is Cernokozova
Concentration Camp, where the ransom process starts again. If
the ransom still cannot be delivered torture involves again
and this circle goes on and on until he or she dies. (62)
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The
Norwegian Helsinki Committee- Forgotten Terror: Chechnya:
Another, less affluent woman, 50 years old from Grozny,
told of the "detention" of their 20-year-old son,
who was the oldest of her six children.
We came here [to Ingushetia] two years ago. All our documents
were destroyed in the first war. We only had a small note
of paper saying we were IDPs in Ingushetia with a stamp
on it. In March this year my son returned to Grozny to get
new ID-papers. He was detained in a "mop-up"-operation
in the Leninskaya district on 8 March 2001 because he did
not have proper documents. One of the men who were arrested
with him, was released soon afterwards and sought me out
here. He said that the Russians had told him that I could
come and get my son in Grozny. I went to the place where
my son was kept and met a soldier who said that he wanted
50 000 roubles for my son. I started crying and said that
I had no money. He said, OK, give me 20 000. I repeated
that I had nothing and he told me to go to the mosque and
collect it there. I cried and said that it was impossible
and that he should release my son to me whether he was alive
or dead. But the soldier just chased me away. There was
an Armenian there, a kontraktnik working for the Russians,
I asked him for help. The Armenian answered, beat it, grandma,
and then he asked me: what kind of mother would refuse to
pay for the release of her son? My son is still in jail
accused of all sorts of crimes. I have paid one of the lawyers
working with the Kadirov-administration 5 000 roubles to
get him free, but nothing happens. (63) |
..........................................
40- Some of these reports are given at Appendix 1 to this
report
41- Human Rights Watch, March 2001, The "Dirty War"
In Chechnya: Forced Disappearances, Torture, And Summary Executions,
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/chechnya/index.htm
42- Ibid
43- RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Failure to protect or punish: human
rights violations and impunity in Chechnya, Memorandum by Amnesty
International to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe on the conflict in Chechnya, http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/eur460042002
44- Human Rights Watch, Field Update on Chechnya, January 22,
2001,
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechmemo-0122.htm
45- An exception regarding the rights is laid down by the Aricle
4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
as follows;
1 . In time of public emergency which threatens the life of
the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed,
the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures
derogating from their obligations under the present Covenant
to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation,
provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their
other obligations under international law and do not involve
discrimination solely on the ground of race, colour, sex, language,
religion or social origin.
2. No derogation from articles 6, 7, 8 (paragraphs I and 2),
11, 15, 16 and 18 may be made under this provision.
The articles mentioned in this article 4 paragraph 2 are given
below:
- Right to Life (arbitrary killing) (Article 6)
- Forbidding torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (Article
7)
- Forbidding slavery (Article 8/1)
- Forbidding involuntary servitude (Article 8/2)
- Forbidding imprisoning persons merely on the ground of inability
to fulfill a contractual obligation (Article 11)
- The rule of legality of the criminal offences and punishments
(Article 15)
- Right to be recognized as a person before the law (Article
16)
- Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion(Article 18)
RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Failure to protect or punish, Amnesty International
47- RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Failure to protect or punish, Amnesty
International
48- Amnesty International,08/06/2000, Russian Federation: Continuing
torture and rape in Chechnya
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/print/EUR460362000?OpenDocument
49- Forgotten Terror: Chechnya October 2001, The Norwegian Helsinki
Committee,
50- MEMORIAL, December 30, 2001 - January 3, 2002, Myths and
Truth about Tsotsin-Yurt,
51-November 22, 2000, CHECHNYA: The Politics of Terror, Doctors
Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2000/chechnya_11-2000.html
52- October 2000, Human Rights Watch, Welcome to Hell"
Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Extortion in Chechnya http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/russia_chechnya4/
53- RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Failure to protect or punish, Amnesty
International
54-Ibid
55- http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/EUR460052002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\RUSSIAN+FEDERATION
56- AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, (Public Statement) Russian Federation:
Women and girls victims of human rights abuses (selected case
studies) AI-index: EUR 46/005/2002 25/01/2002
57- January 2002, Human Rights Watch, Serious Violations of
Women's Human Rights in Chechnya, http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechnya_women.htm
58- MEMORIAL, 27.03.2002, Appeal to the UN Commission for Human
Rights,
http://www.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/texts/app0302.shtml
59- THE "DIRTY WAR" IN CHECHNYA, Human Rights Watch,
March 2001
60- Ibid
61-Ibid
62-It is Genocide, Fehim Taştekin (In Turkish)
http://www.kafkas.org.tr/ajans/Haziran%202001/28_06_2001%20jenosidin%20ta%20kendisi.htm
63-Forgotten Terror: Chechnya October 2001, The Norwegian Helsinki
Committee
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