The "Memorial" Human Rights Centre already many times informed about the cruel treatment of people, detained and arrested in the territory of Chechen Republic.

A specially gloom fame was acquired by the Temporary Department of Interior (TDI) of Urus-Martan region under the ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation, located in the building of the formed boarding house. Here the employees of special militia detachments, sent on the business trip to Chehnya from different regions of Russia are located. It is also here on the ground floor in the temporary detainment isolator there are people who were detained and arrested. Below we give a number of narrations by these people who happened to be detained in this prison. The first of these stories is related to the end of February - beginning of March, while the last one - to the May 2000. All these people were set free, that is there are no legitimate grounds for the Federal authorities to accuse these people in anything. By that, it is necessary to bear in mind that militia employees are making money on setting free these absolutely not guilty people. Relatives of the most of those who are being set free are preliminarily forced to pay a ransom.

The attention of international organisations to the situation in the investigation isolator at Chernokozovo brought about the improvement of the situation there - tortures and beatings ceased. But in other places of keeping the detained and arrested in the Territory of Chechnya the cruelly only became more severe. We are forced to state with pity that for the time being the activity of the Special representative of the RF President for securing rights and freedoms of the man and citizen in the Republic of Chechnya, V.A. Kalmanov, did not bring about any essential improvement in this field.

The sad irony is that in 1998-99 in the same building, where the Temporary Department of Interior of Urus-Martan is located, vakhabist military units were based. It was there that they kept people who they caught. Besides, vakhabists wilfully occupied the part of the building of Urus-Martan regional department of interior of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which formally functioned at that time. We also give a narration of a woman whose son was beaten by vakhabists in 1998 in the building of the regional department of interior.

1. Testimony of Alikhan Shahiev, who stayed at Urus-Martan Temporary Department of Interior (TDI) at the beginning of March 2000.
2. Testimony of Musa, a resident of the village of Komsomolskoye, who stayed at Urus-Martan Temporary Department of Interior (TDI) at the beginning of March 2000.
3. Testimony of Mavtaev Jamil, who stayed at Urus-Martan Temporary Department of Interior (TDI) from 6 to 16 of May, 2000.
4. Testimony of El'mursaev Nauldi, who stayed at Urus-Martan Temporary Department of Interior (TDI) from 6 to 9 of May, 2000.
5. Testimony of El'mursaev Zelimkhan, who stayed at Urus-Martan Temporary Department of Interior (TDI) from 6 to 13 of May, 2000.
6. Abstract from testimony of the prisoner of Urus Martan TDI from May 6 to May 13.
7. The story of Yusupova Yakha Akhmedovna about beating of her son by vakhabists in 1998.

Below, please, find his interview.

- I am a refugee. I reside permanently in Grozny, since October last I have been residing in the village of Komsomolskoye, my name is Alikhan Shakhiev. On the 29th of March (the 2000 is a leap year) the "clearing up" of the village of Komsomolskoye, Urus-Martan district, took place. The OMON from the city of Perm came, they knocked at the door, said "Hello". We left the house, two of us, a relative of mine and me. We showed our identification papers - a passport, a certificate, testifying to the fact that I am a refugee, under the seal, everything was in order. They allegedly said that some stamp was incorrect, and later it was found out that this stamp was not needed. And they took us to the commandant's office at the verge of the village, and then further on to the militia of Urus-Martan.

Question: Why do you know that they were OMON from the city of Perm? Have they identified themselves?

Answer: Yes, they said so, and they also said that in 10 days they had to leave. Vassili has told me, I will speak of Vassili later on. They brought us to the militia station.

Question: Where is the station?

Answer: In Urus-Martan. They took us there, disembarked from the car. The OMON and militia were standing in rows, made a corridor. We had to go in the corridor. When we were passing the corridor they beat us with their feet and hands, clubs.

Question: Have they beaten everybody who was passing?

Answer: Yes, everybody. And then you find yourself in the militia station.

Question: How many of you were brought there?

Answer: I cannot say exactly now. About 70 people. There were 28 people in our cell.

Question: How many people were taken from the village of Komsomolskoye at that time?

Answer: I do not know... Many people were taken, but I do not know, whether all of them were therefrom. I know that people from different places there were in the cell: from Alghazurov, Urus-Martan... Then we came into the militia station, rather we run into it, one had to run, if one wanted to receive less beating. There is a big hall there, where they made us to stand in rows, and then on our knees. Then they called us for the interrogation, one by one. My turn came and they started asking me, whether I was a fighter or not. I told them I was a civilian, look, I have a passport, - I told them. They applied iodine to my forehead, nose and eyes.

Question: What for?

Answer: They prepared me to the beating. They beat me a bit, applied iodine again and brought me further on. Opposite the cell there were from six to seven people, but only one was beating me up, a bold, high blond, an OMON-man. He started beating me with his hands and feet. I was trying to protect my face, once he reached my stomach. I bent, and he decided to strike my back, and at that time I straitened unintentionally, and he fell down and damaged his leg. And he told: "Valera, come up to me and help me with my leg, I cannot see him, take him away to the cell". This is how I was lucky. I entered the cell and there were 28 people there and the cell was 3 by 3 meters. The toilet was in the cell too.

Question: Was there a bucket there for the purpose?

Answer: Yes, there was a bucket. And then they once brought a bucket of food, but the food was so scanty, that each of us had just one spoon of the food.

Question: Was it just once, that the food was brought, when you were there?

Answer: No, it was twice, but only one spoon to each.

Question: Was it a soup?

Answer: No, it was a porridge. And they brought some water, if you asked.

Question: Were there windows in the cell?

Answer: There was a window, but it was laid with bricks.

Question: Were there other cells nearby?

Answer: There was one more cell nearby, if there was another one, I do not remember. There might be other cells behind the wall, they had to place those 70 people they had brought. After some time I was put in a cell, in three to four hours, my name was called. I went out. They took me to a kind of an office, though there was practically no furniture there, just a table and a chair, it was very dirty there. A young chap was sitting on the chair. He was all black. His T-shirt was torn down, the body was black, the face, his nose was broken, so was his jaw, as I could comprehend.

Question: With a beard?

Answer: No, without it. He had blues on his eyes and other blues, he was in blood. And they demonstrated me all this and continued.

Question: Did they go on with the beating?

Answer: Yes, with their hands and feet. He could not already control his actions, he was not sitting, he was hanging on the chair. When they were beating him, he did not react, I presume, he was practically unconscious.

Question: And how many of those were there in the room?

Answer: Those were 7 or 8. And they showed it everything to me. I was thinking that they might have removed him first and then started with me. Then they brought me nearer to the table, took his big middle finger and broke it.

Question: Was it the middle finger?

Answer: Yes, it was his right hand middle finger. One came up, put his finger on the table and broke it. They removed him and put me on the chair.

Question: Did not he shout?

Answer: One might say so, he was subconscious, he was swinging. I could not see his eyes, his face was swollen, his eyes could be hardly seen. They put me on the chair in his place and showed a list of 7 or 8 names, I do not remember exactly. They told me, that I had to go with them to a village (they did not mention the title), come to the houses of those people and tell that those people were the fighters or collaborated with them. They had to arrest and bring them there. They told me to think it over, and in the meanwhile they went to have lunch.

Question: Do you know the names?

Answer: Yes, I knew the names... One was ... I might recall three names, one was Issaev, the other one Bataev, the third one... No, I do not remember now, and I do not want to invent the names, there were about seven to eight names there. I said nothing, they brought me to the cell and left. I was in the cell, the lunch was over, then the evening has passed too, then the second day, the third one. On the forth day I was set free.

Question: What is the date when you were detained?

Answer: I was detained on the 29th of February. On the forth day the door was open and we were ordered outside. Hands on your heads! And we were in the open.

Question: All 28 people?

Answer: Yes, all of us. There were many cars standing there. We were put into the cars. I was transported in the so-called "tablet"-car. There were two compartments there. There were eleven people in that car: six people were in one compartment, and five - in the other. I knew that, because they asked us to tell them how many there were in every compartment. The military people were there in the car, one of them treated us very badly.

Question: What was he - an OMON man?

Answer: Yes, he was. And Vassili was in another car. This Vassili told us they were from the city of Perm. He went and brought a bucket of food to us. We ate and he brought water to us. He asked those chaps not to treat us so badly. They asked him, whether he had long been so kind, and he answered that he had been kind all his life. They were dissatisfied with him. Then they drank some liquor and the one, who had snapped at us, calmed down. In some time they called my name. I left and found myself again in the boarding school. A man came to take me, his name was Dima. He said - Put your hands on your head and go, as you go. We came to the cell and he said that I would be set free. Then they filled in some forms. I did not sign anything. He said - I will go to my chief to sign the papers. He went and came back and told me that he was having lunch and asked me to return to the car. I was in the car, in 40 minutes she came back and told me I was free and asked me about the things I had with me. I told there were the watch and the beads. There was the search. And I told I did not need anything and I left. I could not comprehend how they set me free. When I went into the street I saw my relatives. I asked them, how it came they let me go. And the relatives told me that they had asked a 7-62 automatic rifle and USD 600. That was the reason why they let me go. I would not name the names anyway, but then they would beat me up. I saw the people they tortured. There were 14 people with me in the cell, whose faces were all right, their people have come for them. Now I understand everything. They did not beat the people for whom the relatives had already come. And those, for whom the people would not or could not come, were tortured. One person died because of the beatings.

Question: How did he die?

Answer: He was beaten up.

Question: Was he in your cell?

Answer: Yes, he was.

Question: What was his name?

Answer: I will give his name now. I have put it down. One's name was Bortchshwilli, he was from the village of Anissovskaya. Everybody may confirm that there.

Question: Was the reason for his death the beating?

Answer: Yes, it was. The other one - Sultan Abubakarov - was from Chiri-Yurt. He was shot down. Automatic rifle shooting was heard and then the people said they threw him away. I did not see him personally. And as to Borchishwilli I know, that he was buried.

Question: Do you just know, has somebody from Anissovskaya informed you?

Answer: Yes, I was there. Borchishwilli was beaten up, one could tell in the cell, that he was dead, they threw him away into the street. They threw him near the boarding school.

Question: Have you seen him?

Answer: No, I have not. I just know of that. They have also shot Sultan with an automatic rifle.

Question: Have the rest of the people been brutally beaten?

Answer: I say, they could not even move, their ribs, jaws, noses were broken.

Question: How often have they taken the people for the interrogation?

Answer: One was taken, then brought back, it felt how difficult it was for him to walk, in 30 minutes he was taken back. Then he was brought to the cell and he fell down. We helped him to lie down, he could not see, he lost sight. In 30 minutes the ability to see came back to him. I say there were 14 of us, and all the rest were in a very bad condition. They were brutally beaten.

Question: You were set free, and the rest were loaded and taken away. Do not you know, where to, what people in particular?

Answer: No, I do not know. I was set free very soon. I left the car, then came back, and after the senior officer had signed the papers, I...

Question: And did the other people remain in the car?

Answer: Yes, they did. The people asked me to pass the word of them here and there, to ask for help, to find out something. When they offered me, I agreed, nobody forced me to do that, nobody asked me, I believe that this is an obligation of every human being.
There was an elderly man there, 64 years old, they also beat him, though not very seriously; so he made an oath in the Chechen language - when I am set free, I will buy an automatic rifle and will go fighting.

2. On the 3rd of April 2000 the Chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" Mr. O.P. Orlov and an officer of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" Mr. U. Baissaev, being in the settlement "Bart" of the forced refugees from Chechnya (Republic of Ingushetia), interrogated a Musa (he asked not to mention his family name), a citizen of Grozny (Mansurov Street, Tchernorechje District), who was forced to flee in October 1999 to his family settlement "Komsomolskoye" from the military actions. Please, find below his story:

From the second half of February till the beginning of March there were several "clearing up" operations in the settlement, performed by the Federal Forces. The personnel of the Ministry of the Interior and the contracted soldiers were very rude, humiliated the people.

The reaction of the OMON personnel was standard when the young people had no passports (within the period between 1996 till 1999 the passports were not issued to the young people reaching the due age and the Russian passports were not renewed): "You are so big and strong, and have no passport! Why do you show me a receipt? Is this a document?" After those words the only identification certificate they have is torn to pieces, and in case of objections the person is beaten up. Some of the people were taken away from the village.

When they entered a house they crushed the china and utensils, shot at the furniture. Sometimes they shot at the cars standing in the yards, made holes in the tires with their knives. If there was a tape recorder in the car they took it away. Usually they said: "There is the only commander we submit to, he is Mr. Shamanov."

But not everybody behaved like that. For example the Kursk OMON, whose representatives entered the house of the narrator, were decent enough.

On the 5th of March 2000 about 6 a.m. the people started saying that they had to leave the village, since the Chechen fighters had entered the village, and the shooting was going to start. A big group of people started to move along the road leading to the highway Alkhazurovo-Goiskoye. The people hoped to reach Urus-Martan via Goiskoye. Somebody moved in a car, somebody was driving a tractor, most of the people went on foot. Some people took the cattle with them. Helicopters were circling above the village, rockets started being shot.

Not everybody left the village, about one hundred people stayed - the elderly and the sick.

On the verge of the village there were soldiers, all the roads were blocked. At the first check point checking started - documents were checked up, the men had to take off their clothes up to the waist. Somebody was detained.

Then in the field, about 600 meters from the village of Komsomolskoye all the people, leaving the village, were stopped. At this place there were patches of land with fences, where a construction of the new houses was planned, but the construction was not started. About several thousands of people were gathered there. Nobody was allowed to move further on.

After some time the military men declared that only women and men under 10 years and after 60 years of age may leave the circle. The men between the age of 10 to 60 had to remain in the field and must undergo a more thorough search. Some of the women with the infants left, but elderly men and most of the women, often with small children, refused to leave their sons, husbands, fathers, fearing their future fate.

They spent several days in the field, circled by the military guardsmen. Artillery was dislocated nearby. "The shooting was awful". It was very difficult to endure this noise. Later on self propelled guns approached the place, where the inhabitants of the village of Komsimolskoye stayed, and they started firing at the village. "Heads split because of such a noise, women cried, children shouted".

The weather was luckily not bad, but it was sometimes snowing and raining. At nights people could not sleep because of the cold. They started making fires of the fences. Women were allowed to leave to bring drinking water from the nearest well.

From the other part of the circle, on the part of the road to Goiskoye, many citizens of Goiskoye and Urus-Martan gathered. The first two days the military men allowed the women to hand over the food to the people inside, then they prohibited to do so.

Within the following few days the military men (with dogs) were checking up the people in the field several times. As a result 25 men were taken away, and the narrator as well, whose only guilt was that he had not glued one more new photo in his passport in time.

Musa, together with other detained people, was brought to the premises of the former boarding school in Urus-Martan. There all newly brought people were taken to the yard with a concrete covering and they were forced to stand on their knees with their hands on behind the head. For hours they had to stand in this position. Musa was standing on his knees for three hours running. There was an elderly man near him, who had been standing in this position for seven hours. And moreover the guardsmen in the yard beat the people standing on the knees with their feet, rubber clubs, butts of their machine guns. When they started beating Musa the elderly man nearby tried to intercede, but he immediately received his portion.

Then 16 detained people were positioned in the first floor room of 3 by 4 meters size. There were no windows, they were laid with bricks, the room was lit with a luminescent lamp. People from different places were there: 8 persons were from Komsomolskoye, others - from Urus-Martan and Martan-Choo. The narrator spent 24 hours there. The people in the room received no food in this period.

On the 8th of March Musa was set free and taken back to the field near the village of Komsomolskoye. He says he was released so soon, since the relatives, living in Urus-Martan, had paid three thousand Rubles for this. Some other detained people were also bought out, and sometimes bigger amounts of money were demanded for setting them free.

For several citizens of Komsomolskoye the consequences of their stay in the former boarding school were more grave. Thus Said Vissaev (about 17 or 18 years old) was simply thrown back in to the street in several days. Since he was brutally beaten up, he was put to the local hospital. Another detained Bislan Umarov was set free in several days, as a result of severe beatings he received a trauma of the kidneys.

By the 9th of March the citizens, who were near the village, became impatient. Two women delivered infants in the field in the meantime, one of the infants died. Several times the shells or rockets exploded between the village and the crowd. The fragments wounded Liuba Ozdamirova (born either in 1937 or 1938) in the head and leg, Bataev Aindi (born in 1961). The military men took them, together with their relatives, to the hospital. Ruslan Gellaev's elderly uncle died of the heart attack, he could not endure the reproaches of his countrymen.

The Head of the Administration of the village Adam Avdaev could not make the military command answer, when the people will be set free. On the 9th of March the people in despair, headed by Adam Avdaev, started breaking themselves free. A small detachment of the pro-Russian Chechen armed forces - the so-called Gantemirov Militia (after Beslan Gantemirov) - was of great help to the people. They came up to the circle from the outer side and threatened to fire at the Russian military men, if the latter did not allow the people to go out. The military men allowed the people to pass, and they managed to reach Goiskoye and then Urus-Martan.

Below, please, find Mavtaev's story of his detention and stay in the Urus-Martan filtration campus, recorded by the officers of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" on the 2nd of June 2000.

On the 6th of May my neighbor Elmurzaev Nauldi Adievich, born in 1960, a citizen of Urus-Martan village came to me to watch the TV. Suddenly we heard some noise in the yard. Vassin, the Russian, who was living in my house, stormed in and said: "There is some fighting outside". My neighbor and I run out of the house and heard: "Stay where you are!" My yard was full with the armed people (about 30 people were there), there were soldiers armed with automatic rifles in the yard, on the roof of the smaller house in my yard, they even blocked the adjacent yards. They came to catch the most dangerous criminal. I saw my mother standing at the door of her half of the house (we all leave together under one roof, but my mother has a separate entrance), a soldier armed with an automatic rifle did not allow her to come over to me, and we together with Vassin were put to the wall with the help of the kicks and butts.

The military men came in a bus and two UAZ-cars. They dragged us to the bus very quickly, as one of them said "before the people start gathering".

They started the bus, made us lie face down, and on the way they beat us with their fists, feet. When we came to the boarding school, we went on foot from the bus to the house, but in the house they demanded we crawl on our knees. A person in charge has recorded us. After that my neighbor and I were unclad, searched and handcuffed to the tube of the heating system. In two hours they separated us into different rooms and started beating up. They were all drunk, they celebrated somebody's birthday day. The beat up me very painfully. I heard my neighbor shouting in his cell, and it turned out that he heard my shouts. They brought us to the initial cell and since 12 p.m. till the morning they beat us up, insulted me, told me, that I had tortured the Russian, that I held him hostage, that I was a vakhabit and a bandit. Then they tied a rope around my neck and started suffocating me, they suffocate and then release, suffocate and release. Then they put an automatic rifle into my mouth and told me that they would kill me now. They were from OMON of the city of Penza. I would know them by their faces. Early in the morning one of their colleges came into the cell and told: "It is enough for today, let us have some rest".

We were placed in the cell, where there were two more people, also beaten up enough. One of them received the trauma of the kidney. They were the citizens of the village of Urus-Martan. They were detained during the same day, I do not know the reason, why.

There was no furniture in the cell. We were sitting on a concrete floor. There was no window, the door was made of steel. Up to the morning we were mourning. In the morning they called me up again. There was their boss and those, who beat me up, there. They threatened me in the presence of their boss, and the boss was silent. They started interrogating me: whom of the fighters I know, who wanted to attack them, how long and where I have kept the hostage, etc. The interrogation was taken with a video camera. It looked as though my answers did not satisfy them, since the major, who interrogated me, struck me several times, saying: "Say it right". They wanted the answers they needed.

In several days I was summoned to a colonel and the latter told me that he had talked to Vassin and understood that he had not been a hostage, but it was too late, the information had already flown. They were even rewarded for liberating a hostage.

Despite the fact they continued detaining me. They constantly beat me up. They changed each other every two hours. They came in and said: "Are those the new ones?" And started the beating. If they did not like something, save the God, then it was the end. My neighbor was beaten up so awfully, that they decided he was going to die, and they themselves brought him to the Urus-Martan hospital.

A chap from Shalazhi was sharing the cell with me (it was, when I was transferred to another cell, where there were eight of us), and he had been staying there for two months already, so he told there were lethal outcomes.

I spent there ten days, there were only two interrogations, all the remaining time was devoted to the beating. Once I complained about the beatings to the major who looked into our cell, he told me: "Never mind, everything will be OK". However, after that a doctor came and inspected me, he said: "Lie down and everything will be OK." When I complained of the strong pain, he said: "One has to kill you all". He made an injection and left.

I left the cell being very ill and exhausted. For ten days they kept me there on a concrete floor, beat me up and hardly fed. Once a day a very thin broth and tea.

Mavtaev Jamal was set free, he was not found guilty, he goes on living in Urus-Martan.

He told the following about Vassin:

We met each other by a mere chance in Michurinsk dwelling (within the frame of Grozny). Three years back my friend and I were resting on the bank of the river. He came up to us, got acquainted with us, told us that he had no place to live and asked us to take him with us. His name was Vassin Alexei Ivanovich, we called him Maxim. He is now 30 years old, he is from Balabanovo, Kaluga region, His parents still live there. In 1992 the people from the city of Bamut went to work in his town and he came with them, when they went back. His passport remained in Bamut. That was the way he appeared in my house. Everybody around may confirm that he was no hostage, and that he moved freely.

When the war started I told him to go, I said, that I did not know, what might happen to me, but he stayed. First, when he was interrogated, how it turned out, that he was found in my house, he answered that he was just living with my family. Then they started beating him up, and he changed his testimony, he told, that I tortured him, did not give him the food, etc. After that they invited journalists. They put me and Elmurzaev in front of the cameras and said: "These are the bandits who detained a human being as a slave within ten years".

And they asked Vassin separately: "What are you going to do when you come home?" And he answered as he had been taught: "I will buy calves and become a farmer".

At present he is working in the boarding school, he sweeps, washes, etc. And one of the officers told my wife: "When will you take your vagabond away from us?

Listed below is his story, recorded by the employees of the "Memorial" Human Rights Centre on June 3, 2000, in the city of Nazran.

It happened on May 6. In this evening I decided to go to my neighbour Mavtaev Jamal who lives near to us in S. Baduev street, in order to watch the TV.

All of a sudden people in a camouflage uniform broke into our house. We were taken into the street, put to the wall and demanded to answer where we kept a hostage. Maxim (I do not know his full name), who always lived at Jamal Movtaev, was captured together with us. Afterwards it turned out that they thought that he was the hostage. But at that moment the soldiers put on handcuffs on all of us and took to the former boarding school of Urus-Martan, in which the Russian filtration post was located.

There we were subject to very cruel mockery. I have not seen anything of this kind in any films. Bitten within an inch of my life, I was left to lie on the floor in the corridor. Somebody put a floor cloth onto my head. My neighbour was taken away and beaten for about an hour, then he was brought into the cell more dead than alive. I though that I would not go out from there alive. Even more so, they were always telling that hated chechenians. Two of us were beaten by 15-20 people.

The one whom they called a hostage, that was Maxim, was also with us. He was not a hostage. He was living with my neighbour as if in his own house and was absolutely free. He could go wherever he wanted, my neighbours several times left, leaving the house for him. They trusted him, knowing, that it was simply nowhere to go for Maxim. He was offered to go home, to Russia, but he did not want to, saying that nobody waited for him there. And he had no documents. I, as well as all neighbours, can confirm that he was never hurt. When the Russian power was established in Urus-Martan, he had a possibility to ask the Russians for help thousand times, if he needed it. He was not a hostage there, he was a member of the family.

The neighbour was accused that he kept Maxim by force. But now he is actually a hostage of Russian soldiers in the boarding school yard and makes all dirty work for the, and each soldier beats him, if Maxim fails to please him.

I was taken as a neighbour's accomplice only for the fact that I was at his house at that moment.

I was beaten in such a way that I could not get up, speak and was breathing with difficulty. On the fourth day, on May 9, they decided to send me to the hospital. I was literally carried away from this filtration camp. When I was brought to the hospital, then it turned out that my ribs were broken.

In the same "boarding school" in a different cell my nephew Zelimkhan El'mursaev was sitting. He had a paper that he was under amnesty. In spite of this fact he was detained and treated cruelly, although he had no fault, did not participate in any military hostilities.

Listed below is the story of Zelimkhan El'mursaev, recorded on June 3 in the city of Nazran in the reception of the "Memorial" Human Rights Centre.

I am an inhabitant of Urus-Martan El'mursaev Zelimkhan/ In the end of October 1999 my mother was lying in a hospital of the city of Nazran. We, together we my sister Shamsaeva Zaira, were left at home alone. At this period the Russian army started to take Urus-Martan, and artillery and aviation shooting started. We were frightened. Most of all I was frightened for my sister, as I knew that Russian soldiers are mocking at women as well. My sister and I decided to leave Urus-Martan before the Russian soldiers appear there and left for our relatives to the village of Shatoy. There we spent 15 days, from December 5 to December 20, while our mother was in the hospital. As soon as our mother was out of the hospital, she came for us and on December 20 we returned together home to Urus-Martan.

By that time the town of Urus-Martan was taken by the Russian army and the Russian administration was acting. From that moment the Russian military commandant's office started to trouble us: it was sending soldiers in order to arrest me. My mother was hiding me at relatives and acquaintances. Soldiers came to us 5 times in order to seize me. I was hiding because I knew that if I get to the filtration camp even for finding out that I was not guilty, I would be injured or killed, or would be missing. Such things happen in Chechnya at every step.

Then my mother decided to apply to the commandant herself, in order to explain everything so that the soldiers would not trouble us again. She went to the commandant of Urus-Martan Oleg Rozhkov. On March 30, 2000, he told to my mother that even if I spent one day in the mountains, I had to be judged or amnestied. He offered to her to hand over a sub-machine gun for the son, then he would enter my name into the lists of amnestied. As we never had a sub-machine gun, the commandant Rozhkov offered to buy a sub-machine gun from him for two thousand five hundred roubles. But it was too much money for our family. We knew that a sub-machine gun is much cheaper in the market, that was why my mother bought a sub-machine gun in the market for 1900 Roubles. As it was requested by the commandant she handed over the sub-machine gun into his hands on May, 4, and was given a receipt. The commandant asked her that I should come to the commandant's office. I fulfilled this request and on the same day on May 4 I went to the commandant, who was inquiring me for about two hours and put down my explanations, why I found myself in the mountains. After that I was given a certificate in which it was indicated that I handed over the sub-machine gun and on the basis of the resolution of the State Duma of the Russian Federation I was amnestied. I took that certificate and went home with an easy heart.

On May 5 the soldiers of Pensensky OMON (about 20 people) came to our house, allegedly for checking the passports, checked them and went away. We calmed down. But on May 6 at 4 o'clock our house was surrounded by the same Pensensky OMON. They took me by force without any explanations.

OMON soldiers put me into the car and brought in the direction of the village of Komsomolskoye. Near this village there were pits in which they put corpses of shut people. I was taken to the edge of this pit, and was taken off my cloths up to shots. It was very cold. By the blow of a butt-stock I was put onto my knees. Then I was warned that if I did not confess that I had participated in the struggle at the village of Komsomolskoye, the I would be tortured and shut. These words were told by the investigator Vasily. He also stated that the resident of Urus-Martan Visaev Shamil confirmed that I participated in armed formations. I refused to sign anything. Then Vasily said: "Shoot". The soldiers pulled aside a sub-machine gun, but I said: "Kill me, but I shall not sign anything". After that they started to beat me with butts and feet. Then they again offered me to sign a confession that I was a member of a fighting group. I did not agree, they put me onto the ground and were beating me for a long time.

These torments continues for two or three hours. Then they put me into the car and brought to Urus-Martan to the building of the former boarding house.

There I was registered, had my finger prints taken, my cloths were taken off again, was surveyed if there were scars or traces of wearing a sub-machine gun. After that I was made to put on my cloths and put to the wall in the posture "hands - behind the head, feet - wide apart", and I was kept in this pose for more than half an hour. Then the same Pensensky OMON soldiers took batons that hung on the wall and beaten me with them After that I was thrown into cell N 2.

The night had passed. On the second day Vasily with a group of OMON soldiers came to the cell. Vasily again was making me to sign the confessions, and when the OMON soldiers started to beat me, Vasily left the cell. The beating people were very cruel and inventive. They were humiliating me by words. Two or three times I lost consciousness completely.

On the third day I was again beaten in the cell. I was bitten on kidneys, spine, legs.

On the 6th day the investigator Vasily told me that the amnesty, sighed by Oleg Rozhkov, is false. A man from the commandant's office came to my cell, who was present when the commandant Rozhkov took explanations from me and sign the document on amnesty. he also said that the paper about the amnesty was false. I though: either I went crazy or they are tormenting me. Sooner, the second. In the cell I heard how my uncle El'mursaev Nouldy and other detained were beaten.

I knew that my mother would apply to everybody and try to save me. I hoped for her.

On the 6th day the investigator Vasily told me that I was set free. It was Vasily who made me sign that I was not beaten, not tortured, and was treated correctly. Besides, I was to sign that I would not leave anywhere and release on May 13, by 12 o'clock in the afternoon. When I was lead from this prison, I could not stand on my feet. My mother took me to Urus-Martan hospital, but there were not free space and possibility to render assistance to me.

I was kept at the filtration post for 7 days: from May 6 to May 13, 2000.

Then I managed to leave for Nazran. I was put into the hospital there. This treatment helped me a little. But now I am ill as a consequence of that beating and tormenting. Now my kidneys, stomach, heart are aching. I need a special treatment. But I have no possibilities for that.

I accuse Russia and its army that they took from me, as from many others, all the rights, that the Russian military arrested me without any fault on my behalf, that I was beaten in the prison and sadist tortures were applied to me.

The "Memorial" Human Rights Centre has a copy of certificate, issued to Zelimkhan El'mursaev, the text of which is given below. The certificate is written on a simple list of paper by hand. Orthography and syntax of the original are preserved.

To El'mursaev Zelimkhan
Alievitch, residing at
the city of Urus-Martan
Said-Badueva street-13

The check was conducted for the fact of your participation in illegal military formations by Urus-Martan Department of Interior. The initiation of a criminal case against you is refused. In connection with the resolution of the Sate Duma of Russia on amnesty of 13.12.1999 N 4784-11AA

For the Chief of Urus-Martan department of Interior lieutenant colonel Arzutov G.A.

Seal: Temporary Urus-Martan Regional Department of Interior under the Ministry of Interior of the RF. For packages N 1.

The "Memorial" Human Rights Centre has a copy of the abstract of the case record, issued to Zelimkhan El'mursaev at Urus-Martan Central Republican hospital. It follows from it that Z. El'mursaev was taken to the traumatologic department of the hospital on May 13, 2000. He was released from the hospital for ambulatory treatment under observation of traumatologist and urologist on May, 16. Diagnosis: Multiple injuries of the breast, pneumotaxis, injury of kidneys.

The "Memorial" Human Rights Centre has a copy of the abstract from the case record, issued to Zelimkhan El'mursaev in the eye department of Nazran Central Republican hospital. It follows from it that Z. El'mursaev was under stationary treatment from May 23 to June 2. Diagnosis: haemorrhage in the right eye retina.

6. Listed below is the abstract from the story of the man, detained by the employees of the law enforcement authorities of the RF and brought to the building of the former boarding school in Urus-Martan. We do not give either his name, or his story completely. After long days of horrible beating and tortures he was released as a man in respect of whom law enforcement bodies have no legitimate grounds for raising any accusations. The narration was completely recorded by the "memorial" Human Rights Centre employees.

The OMON soldiers made me undress. By the blow of the butt I was knocked down from my feet and fell on the floor. Then I was put onto my knees, bent forward and my head was pressed to the ground. They told me that if I do not confess that I am a member of illegal ,military formation, I shall be killed.

I refused. Then, probably, the senior of them told: "Write off!" The soldiers moved the locks. I still refused to confess the things that I had not done. After that they again put me onto the floor and started to beat with feet and butts. Then they put me onto the knees again with the head to the floor. The band that was covering my eyes slided back. They started to threaten me that they would rape me. One of them unfastened his trousers and showed his sex organ to me, telling what he would do to me. It was all accompanied by unprintable swearing.

The worst was ahead. By the barrel of the sub-machine gun someone took of my trousers from me and put the barrel into the straight intestine. At that time two or three of them were holding me. Then they put a stick there in a similar manner. It was hundred times more painful from the stick. I was shouting, asking to have a mercy. All that continued for, probably, two hours. Then they put me up and brought to the cell.

The "Memorial" Human Rights Centre has the copy of the abstract from the case record of this person, from which it follows that in addition to multiple injuries from beating, he received a trauma of the straight intestine and prostitutes.

Further on we give the narration of the mother of Rustam - Yusupova Yukha Akhmedovna, recorded on June 9, 2000, in the reception of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" by the employee of the centre Elise Musaeva.

At the beginning of March 1998 my son with two friends were on a visit in a neighbouring village of Gekhi, at a party. He was not drunk, just took a sip of some alcoholic beverage, more because of the curiosity. On the way back at the entrance to Urus-Martan, about 22.00, they were stopped by vakhabists. That was not their permanent post, they always moved in UAZ car in big groups. If there were few of them, they would be not able to do anything.

One of the vakhabists, closely leaning to the face of my son, asked him to breath. Not feeling the smell of alcohol, he moved closer and repeated the order. Checking in such a way for soberness, they took my son and one of his friends Emin with them.

Only in the morning I found out that my son was detained by vakhabists and went to the local Regional Department of Interior, where vakhabists were staying together with militia. To be more exact they wilfully occupied part of the building and the authorities could do nothing with them. They kept the detained in the basement of the Regional Department of Interior (RDI). I applied to the one on duty at RDI. He said that he knew nothing and could not help. I came to vakhabists' guard in the same building, it would not even listen to me and did not allow to come is. Nearby there was a building of a shariat court (building of the former financial department), but I was not allowed there as well. I came into the street and simply stood there and waited. At about 12 o'clock my son went out unsteadily.

He told me that in the morning he was taken from RDI basement into the building of shariat court. The court ascribed 50 grams of bear and twenty blows by a stick to him. Ascribing the punishment they started to speak about his parents, blaming them that the contributed to his binges. He started to argue with them, and for that he was ascribed additional blows, and may be because of that he was beaten with special cruelty; they broke their sticks two times and beaten him not only on the back, but on the legs below knees. During a week after that he had vomiting and started to loose weight. I took him to the doctors, and ultra-sound investigation was made. The doctors said that he had an internal bleeding, and sent him for further investigation and treatment. We did everything that we could, but an oncological disease started to progress, the operation did not help and he died.

In principle, we knew those who made it, one of those who were beating him studied with Rustam at one school, in a parallel class. But what could we do? There are many so-called "punished" lads in Urus-Martan.

Later on we found out that one of those vakhabists died in Dagestan. In March 2000 Rustam started to feel very bad. At that time from Komsomolskoye started to bring corpses of our lads, many corpses. And then the son told his father that he forgave his offenders.

Now in Urus-Martan innocent people are kept at the boarding house. I, for example, do not want vakhabists to come back, but I also do not want that those of today would be engaged in similar deeds.