Deliberate Attacks on Peaceful Population

Quite often actions of the military could be characterized as demonstration of retaliation aimed against civilians. It could be artillery firing of residential quarters, kidnapping of locals, mass robberies, etc. Actually, one can speak about acts of terror against peaceful population

Here are some examples from different periods of the “CTO”.

On November 21, 2000, a military vehicle was mined on the road near village Davydenko: one soldier was killed, two – were wounded. Soon after, soldiers detained the resident of the village of Davydenko Khusseyn Gaziyev before the very eyes of the passengers in the regular bus, put a sack on his head, took him into their armored troop carrier and took away in unknown direction. On November 24, Khusseyn Gaziyev's corpse was found at the village outskirts. The corpse had its nose cut off and eyes put out; on the neck one could see a deep knife trace, the top of the head was mashed, hands and fingers were broken

On December 11, 2000, near the village of Mesker-Yurt the military column consisting of several dozens of ordinary and armored combat vehicles was exposed to firing. After that, the military opened fire in the direction of the market and the village near the road – several civilians were killed and wounded. The soldiers also detained and took away several dozens of the persons whom they picked at random. Later, several of those arrested persons were found killed.

On March 15, 2001, after the mining of the Russian armored vehicle near the village of Novogroznensky, soldiers perpetrated a massacre in the village and killed eight innocent villagers.

On October 16, 2001, on the road near the village of the Duba-Yurt, field engineers found land mines. After that, the village was exposed to small arms and mortar firing. The firing resulted in wounding of a woman and her five-year-old daughter who later on died in the hospital.

On November 29, 2001, in the town of Urus-Martan a suicide bomber approached a group of soldiers with the commandant of the district and exploded the bomb that she had under her clothes. The commandant and two soldiers were killed. During December 2001, the federal security structures blew up in the towns and villages of the Urus-Martan district several houses belonging to the families of those whom they suspected of having connections with insurgents. Before exploding the houses, they forced the people out of their homes. Several men from these families were detained and taken away in unknown direction. The corpses of four of those having been taken away were found later with traces violent death.

On January 8, 2002, a Russian soldier was mined on the road between the villages of Chiri-Yurt and Novy-Atagi. The colleagues of the victim randomly picked three residents of the nearby villages of Stary and Novy-Atagi. Next day, the disfeatured corpses of two villagers from Stary and Novy-Atagi – Ruslana Shaipova and Mayora Musayeva were found at the outskirts of the village. On January 17, the locals found the third corpse of the 16-year-old villager from Novy-Atagi.

On February 12, 2002, Russian armored vehicle was mined near the village of Tsotsin-Yurt; two soldiers were killed, three – were wounded. The same evening, the peripheral part of the village underwent artillery firing, which resulted in the death of man and woman (Saydali and Lyuba Davletkayevs), another woman (Zareta Davletkayeva) and her two-year-old child were wounded.

On May 14, 2003, an act of terrorism took place in the village of Ilisin-Yurt: some explosive blew up amidst the crowd near the head of the ChR administration. Shakhidat Baymuradova happened to be among those killed. Mass-media hurriedly called her a suicide bomber. However, most likely, she had nothing to do with the explosion. On the night of May 17, in the village of Bachi-Yurt, Kurchaloyevsky district, some unrecognized armed people rushed into the house of the Baymuradovs and shot down two sons, daughter and brother of Shakhidat.

No one has ever been punished for such “acts of retaliation”.

Oftentimes, the whole villages were exposed to “special operations” as measure of retaliation.