March 2001
From 10 to 14 March 2001, federal forces carried out “cleansing” operations in the town of Argun, a regional centre to the East of Grozny.
The “cleansing” came after several audacious raids by Chechen fighters. Late in the evening on 10 March they occupied the local television studios and broadcast their own programmes to the town for 40 minutes. One of these described the discovery, in a village near Khankala, of a mass grave containing the bodies of people, many of whom had earlier been arrested by federal forces.
Subsequent events added to the list of those arrested and then found murdered.
During “cleansing” operations in Argun in the course of a few days, around 170 people were detained.
The inhabitants of the town, concerned by the fate of the detainees, began to hold a protest outside the town commandant’s office.
On 17 March the procurator for the Republic of Chechnya, V Chernov and his deputy, B Gantamirov, arrived to investigate. Most of the detainees were released shortly thereafter. However, the fate of 11 of the detainees remained unknown. Relatives of those being held said that when they began to make inquiries, they were told that there was nothing to worry about; that the operation was being carried out by-the-book and that a representative of the military procurator was present.
On 19 March a Ural truck belonging to the Emergencies Ministry (the “MChS”) arrived in the village of Prigorodnoe, on the south-western outskirts of Grozny. One of the three MChS operatives told the villagers gathering around the vehicle that the bodies of four men discovered by them in a village not far from Khankala needed to be buried. A group of men, all inhabitants of Prigorodnoe, agreed to carry out the task. The MChS operatives drove off with the bodies to the graveyard and the local men followed them. The MChS then left Prigorodnoe.
It should be noted that it was precisely the Prigorodnoe graveyard where shortly before this, on 10 March, the burial took place of unidentified bodies which had been found in a village near the Russian army base at Khankala (see 19 March 2001 Summary execution of people detained in Chechnya by soldiers and operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs).
The accounts of the Prigorodnoe inhabitants say that immediately after the Ural truck had driven off, the road connecting the cemetery to the village was cordoned off by Russian service-men who arrived in an armoured personnel carrier and several other vehicles. The soldiers refused to answer questions and refused to let through the people who had wanted to take part in the burial. However, several people got through to the cemetery by another route. They took camera and video equipment with them. Before lowering the bodies into the grave, the Prigorodnoe villagers took photos and video footage of them.
The four bodies which had been brought to Prigorodnoe were naked. They showed signs of having been opened up for a post mortem examination; a cut running from the neck to the inguinal region (see photographs).
On 21 March the photographs and video footage showing the bodies were delivered to the office of the Human Rights Center “Memorial”.
At the end of March, relatives of people who had disappeared following their detention during the Argun “cleansing”, identified the four men, whose bodies had been taken to Prigorodnoe on 19 March. They were:
Ayub Bibulatovich Gairbekov, born 1978:
Muslim Umarovich Batsiev, born 1976;
Abdul-Malik Gazalievich Tavzarkhanov, born 1963; and
Ismail Musosovich Khutiev, born 1982.
They had all been detained by representatives of federal forces during “cleansing” operations in Argun. Despite making repeated requests to various official authorities, including the procurator, their relatives had been unable to find out any information about what had happened to them.
When they discovered where the dead men had been buried, their relatives had the men reburied. However, they did not wish to have a second post mortem examination carried out on the bodies.
The procurator’s offices were informed of what had happened. Criminal investigations have been started by the procurator for the Republic of Chechnya into the four killings and into the disappearance of another eight people.
This tragic story leaves many questions unanswered. Here are a few of them:
A V Sokolov, who works at the Human Rights Center “Memorial” has analysed the video recording to provide answers to some of these questions.
Appendix:
Quotations from the acount of M El’diev, whose brother was detained during the Argun “cleansing” and has vanished without trace.