Special Operation in Stanitsa Nesterovskaya of Ingushetia: Security Servicemen Publicly Commit a Summary Execution
01.06.2006
On May 31 in the village of Nesterovkaya, Sunzensky district of Ingushetia, took place a special operation, which was widely covered in mass media. According to the official data, it was carried out by personnel of security services of the Chechen Republic, who followed a group of fighters who in their turn escaped from Chechnya to Ingushetia. As a result of the operation, three fighters were killed and one was captured, one Chechen militiaman was killed. However, neither officials nor official media reported that the Chechen security servicemen publicly executed the person they captured in front of Ingush militiamen and numerous residents of the village Nesterovskaya. Neither was it reported that the situation in the village was on the edge of armed clash between the representatives of security services of the Chechen Republic and Ingush militiamen.
HRC “Memorial” has repeatedly reported that methods of bandit sorting outs during “anti-terrorist operations” are being exported from Chechnya to other regions of Russia. We have repeatedly warned that such practices destabilize the situation in the North Caucasus and represent threat to entire Russia. However, as of today the public summary execution in the Ingush settlement of Nesterovskaya is an unprecedented event. Taking into consideration the tendencies of the recent years, one has sufficient grounds to suppose that soon public executions can become part of the daily routine in many regions of the North Caucasus.
According to official sources, on May 31 2006, the personnel of Chechen security services carried out an operation in the village of Nestrovskaya, Sunzensky district of Ingushetia. According to Interfax, ItarTass, Press-Service of MVD of Russia (31.05.06), as a result of the fight three Chechen combatants of the so-called “Bamut battalion” were killed, one was captured, one militiaman was killed, two injured. Monitors of HRC “Memorial” visited Nesterovskaya on May 31, and interviewed a large number of local residents who witnessed the operation. Below is the reconstructed picture of the event based on the witness accounts.
The special operation started at around 9:30. A large group of representatives of security services of the Chechen republic who had arrived in the village in several cars (over 10 cars of various brands “VAZ-2199”, VAZ-2110, VAZ-NIVA, YAZ), all the cars had registration plates of the 95th region (Chechnya). They blocked a house in Leonidova street, 91, belonging to the family of Khajkharoevs (see attachment below), previously the residents of the village Bamut of the Chechen Republic. In the house were Banati Khajkhoroeva, her daughter-in-law Kheda, (a widow), her granddaughter and Kheda's son Rizvan Ruslanovich Khajkharoev, born in 1987. In the house were two other unidentified men, who probably arrived shortly before the beginning of the operation. Most likely these were fighters, who were hiding from the security services (the day before in Achkhoj-Martanovsky district of Chechnya in the area of Bamut was carried out a large-scale operation for revealing and eliminating groups of fighters).
The security servicemen (according to official data, these were representatives of the 7th company of the militia special assignment regiment of the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic), blocked the household and entered the yard. From unofficial channels it became known that the commander of the Chechen militiamen was Ibraghim Dadaev.
Unidentified men resisted the federal servicemen and seriously injured one of the militiamen. Subsequently he died. The security servicemen had to retreat, taking their injured man with them and they also captured Rizvan Khajkharoev. The latter was tied and placed in the luggage rack of one of the cars. After that a part of the house where the fighters were located was subjected to intense fire from automatic weapon and grenade launchers. When the shooting started, women who were in the house escaped through the windows and found refuge in the neighboring houses. The fight continued for over 2 hours. According to several witnesses, the Chechen militiamen placed the car with Khajkharoev in it opposite the house and carried out shooting from behind it. Ingush militiamen were not informed about the operation and arrived to the site later, however, in a rude manner they were forbidden by Chechen militiamen to even approach the area of the operation.
In two hours the shooting was over. A few minutes later there was an explosion. Then Chechen militiamen continued shooting but no one shot back from the house. By that time representatives of federal forces and additional units of Chechen militiamen arrived. The military servicemen arrived by an armed troops carrier, and they made several shots from it at the house.
Exactly at that time the personnel of Chechen militia executed Rizvan Khajkharoev. He was dragged out of the car and one of the newly arrived militiamen (according to witnesses he was lame) shot him in the back of the head from a pistol, another security servicemen killed him dead with shots from a machine gun. His corpse was then thrown into a ditch. Subsequently, it was brought in the yard of the house and put near the body of the killed fighter.
The execution was carried out in front of numerous witnesses. According to them, an Ingush militiaman expressed his indignation with the actions of his Chechen colleagues. In response he received a blow on the face. The Ingush militiamen rushed to help their co-ethnic. The situation was very close to an armed clash. For several minutes Chechen and Ingush militiamen kept each other at gun points. The situation was resolved only when the commanders of Ingush militia ordered their subordinates to point arms down.
After 12:00 the Chechen security servicemen left, taking with them Akh'yad Khajkharoev, born in 1975, resident of Bamut. He by accident happened to be near house N 91 at the moment when the operation was started. The relatives of Akh'yad were not informed about where he was to be taken to. From the yard of the house were also taken the corpses of Rizvan Khajkharoev and of an unknown fighter. The witnesses did not see the corpse of the second fighter, according to them he could have possibly escaped. Some overheard that during the operation Chechen militiamen reported by a radio transmitter that one of the fighters managed to escape.
Monitors of Memorial saw only two corpses in the yard of Khajkharoevs. One of them belonged to the executed Rizvan Khajkharoev. Subsequently these two corpses were taken by representatives of prosecution.
Attachment
The Khajkharoev family resided in the village of Bamut (Chechen republic), which was leveled to ground during the military actions. Murdered Rizvan Khajkharoev was the son of Ruslan Khajkharoev, a notorious field commander who during the first Chechen war and then between the wars was involved in abductions of people. He was killed in 1999 as a matter of blood feud. Since then 7 men were killed from the Khajkharoev family. The last murder took place several days before the described event, when unidentified people killed in the village of Nesterovka Gilani Khajkharoev. Earlier on May 5, 2003 according to news portal www.ingushetiya.ru ( of 6.05.03) in the village of Sagopshi, Malgobek district of Republic Ingushetia was found a corpse of Khajkharoev Magomed, born in 1966, a brother of field- commander Ruslan Khajkharoev. The dead body had gunshot wounds. The prosecution of Malgobek district of Ingushetia instigated a criminal case into his murder.
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