BODIES DISCOVERED NEAR KHANKALA-
IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES
COMMITTED BY FEDERAL FORCES

Materials from a press-conference held on 5/3/01 in Moscow, Institute of Press Development

Relatives of those arrested by Russian soldiers, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Federal Security Office find it almost impossible to obtain any information about their loved ones. They are unable to find out why their relative has been arrested, where he or she is being held or what charges may have been brought against him or her.

After weeks, or even months, it is usually comes to light that the majority of those who had disappeared are being held in interrogation cells or solitary confinement. Unfortunately, many others are never found.

Discoveries of the corpses of those arrested by the Federal Ministry of Defence are becoming increasingly regular. Usually, there are signs of torture and violent death.

The discovery of the mass grave (or to be more precise ‘body-dump) in the small settlement near Khankala is, by no means, an isolated incident. Nevertheless, this discovery has attracted particular attention for the following two reasons:

Firstly, no fewer than 50 bodies were discovered at one time (including those remains removed by the relatives themselves).

Secondly, the bodies were discovered near the main Russian military base in Chechnya, where it is known that a large number of prisoners had previously been held.

2. It is rumoured that the bodies found in the village just a few hundred metres away from the Russian military base had been collected from all over Chechnya around the end of January / early February this year. People whose relatives have disappeared after being arrested by federal forces, attempted to gain access to this area. To do so was incredibly as all areas close to Khankala are heavily guarded. Nevertheless, over the next year, the practice of trading prisoners, those who were being detained and even corpses began. This helped to create a network of “middle men” who traded between civilians and the military and police forces.

The Human Rights Centre “Memorial” first became involved following the removal and identification of the deceased Adam Chimayev on the 15^th February 2001 (see Appendix 2). Chimayev was arrested by the Russian military on 3^rd December 2000.

The possibility that other bodies were removed from the scene and exchanged for ransom money cannot be ruled out.

On 21^st February, the bodies of Said-Rakhman Musayev, born 1984, Odes Metayev, born 1978 and Magomed Magomadov, born 1977, all from the village of Raduzhnoye, were discovered and identified in this village (see Appendix 3). These people had been arrested by Russian soldiers either in or near to Raduzhnoye on 12^th December 2000. In all 19 people, mainly young men, were arrested on that evening. A further 2 people from the nearby village of Pobedinsky were arrested. Over a period of 4 days, 11 of those arrested returned home. They had all been badly beaten. A week later, another 4 people were brought to the region of Tsotsin-Yurt and released. Three days later, another 3 were released. One of those released had close-range gun-shot wound which he had received during the period whilst he was under arrest. Up until the 21^st February, no reliable information was available on the fate of the other three: Said-Rakhman Musayev, Odes Metayev and Magomed Magomadov. Relatives of the three assisted Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs in the search for bodies. Seemingly, this came about because Magamadov had worked for the Temporary Department of Internal Affairs and his brother is the deputy head of the local administration.

The Public Prosecutor has officially recognised the fact that these bodies were discovered and removed. On 25^th February, a correspondent for RIA News reported:

On 24^th February, M Magomadov, the brother of one of those killed, visited the ruins of the village accompanied by representatives of the public prosecutor, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the local administration. This signaled the beginning of the investigation into the appearance of the corpses found in the rural settlement.

3. Meanwhile, nothing has been done to aid a serious investigation into this abhorrent crime.

According to ‘Memorial’, the Grozny Public Prosecutor was completely lacking the essential equipment from body-bags, right through to the apparatus necessary for the gathering photographic and video evidence of the bodies and the site where they were found.

As long as the Ministry for States of Emergency and all the other services refuse to move the bodies from the site, it will be the staff of the Public Prosecutor who carry out all the work on the discovery and the removal of the bodies.

No provisions have been made for a thorough forensic investigation. The most Grozny’s forensic scientists have is a pair of rubber gloves and a few scalpels. No work has been done to establish the exact details of these people’s deaths. The bullets have not even been removed from the bodies. All of this provides the perfect conditions for a complete break-down of the criminal case in the future.

Investigators for the Grozny Public Prosecutor have long been complaining of being vastly overloaded with criminal investigations. This means that they are unable to undertake a serious investigation into the murders of those found at Khankala. The Grozny Public Prosecutor refused to disclose any details of their investigation into the Khankala case to ‘Memorial’, and suggested that they asked the Public Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic instead.

4. The announcements made by officials on the discovery of the bodies in the dacha settlement on the outskirts of Grozny are extremely contradictory and confusing (see Appendix 4). At the moment it even seems as though the General Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic, Vsevolod Chernov is talking about a different grave in his public announcements than that which the mass media reported on 24^th February.

On 25^th February the theory that the grave which had been discovered was created by Chechen fighters began to circulate. This theory emerged, in spite of the fact that, with the consent of the officials, a number of bodies were taken from this settlement which belonged to people who had disappeared after being detained by representatives of the federal troops. On that same day, in the commander’s office in Grozny, a RIA News correspondent was told that perhaps “this grave was a year old. At that time, special commanders collected the dead Chechen fighters and buried them in such graves during the capture of Grozny.”

On that day “an information source from the Unified Troops in the Northern Caucasus” informed the RIA News correspondent that “according to one version of events, the bodies which were discovered at the settlement in the Oktyabrsk district of Grozny belonged to Chechen fighters who had been killed as a result of a “splintering” of illegal armed groupings.”

Thus, on 2^nd March, the General Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic, V Chernov reported that, according to the preliminary version of the events “it is probably that the majority of the bodies belonged to Chechen fighters.” In his opinion, the possibility that the village of “Zdorovye” “was used as a peculiar kind of cemetery” cannot be excluded. The General Prosecutor explained that the Chechen fighters transporting the wounded and deceased from Grozny threw “non-members” into the village.

a) Already, at this stage, it is possible to claim with complete confidence that, at least the majority of the people whose corpses were found in the rural village near Khankala were victims of extra-judicial execution. We understand this term to mean the intentional, planned murder of vulnerable people who were captured by murderers and were completely under their control. We do not claim that such extra-judicial executions took place with the knowledge of any representatives of the military command or the civic government located outside of Chechnya.

On 28^th February 2001, in Grozny, representatives of the Human Rights Centre “Memorial” looked at the bodies which were laid out in the premises of the Ministry for States of Emergency (former storehouse) for identification. At that time, there were 23 bodies laid out (including the bodies of three women). There were two further bodies in the premises of the Oktyabrsk district Temporary Department for Internal Affairs. Thus, on 28^th February, 25 bodies were transported and examined by forensic experts. In addition, a further 12 corpses, found at that time were still at the rural village near Khankala.

We saw that many of the bodies had had their hands bound. The ears on at least two bodies had been removed. Blindfolds had been removed in order that the bodies could be identified. “Memorial” employees filmed a video of the bodies. The analysis of this video film which was carried out in Moscow (see Appendix 5) confirms that the bodies which were discovered in the rural village near Khankala were the victims of extra-judicial execution.

On 2^nd March, HRC “Memorial” employees had already seen 50 bodies which had been laid out for identification (including the remains of four women). On many of the bodies, the hands were bound and the ears had been removed.

b) It is possible that, amongst these bodies, were those of Chechen fighters who had been imprisoned. However, it is a reliable fact that, amongst those corpses which were found in the village near Khankala, there are the bodies of people who were arrested by representatives of the federal troops during a period when there was no military activity.

Two such cases are described above (Point 2). Furthermore, on 28^th February, on the territory of the Ministry for States of Emergency, Sokhrat Ilyasovna Askhabova, a resident of the village of Yandi-Khutor identified the body of her brother, Saikhan Ilyasovich Askhabov, born 1960. He was arrested by federal troops on 14^th August at 5:00 in the morning in the village of Alkhan-Kala and, after that, he disappeared. No-one in the Procuracy to whom S I Askhabov appealed in the months after her brother’s disappearance could provide her with any information as to the fate of her brother.

On 2^nd March, Ramzan Abuyevich Edil’bekov also identified the body of his brother, Umatgeri Abuyevich Edil’belkov, who had been arrested in Grozny on 23^rd February 2000. His testimony was recorded by a representative of the HRC “Memorial” on video tape. The Central Military Prosecutor’s Office recognises this fact however, for some reason, they claim that A Edil’bekov was seen to have disappeared without a trace after August of last year (Interfax report of 3^rd March).

Furthermore, an employee of the HRC “Memorial” recorded the testimony of Basa Musayeva who, whilst searching for her body of her brothers who had disappeared witnessed, on 25^th February, how the wife of Isa Larsanov identified her husband who had disappeared after being arrested in his own home on 17^th January 2001.

c) The bodies which were discovered in the rural settlement located less than a kilometre from the military base of Khankala could not have been taken there by Chechen fighters.

Khankala was occupied by the federal troops more than a year ago in December 1999. It is completely clear that during the months following this, the territory surrounding to the Russian military base was repeatedly “cleaned up”. Thus, even if it is proposed that, before this, the Chechen fighters had dumped corpses in the rural village near Khankala, the remains of these bodies would not have gone unnoticed.

The absolute majority of the bodies which were discovered, without any doubt, belong to people who were killed less than a year previously.

Since the beginning of 2000, only a Chechen fighter with a death-wish could have attempted to dump a corpse, or, even less to shoot someone within the immediate vicinity of the Russian federal military base.