Human Rights Center "Memorial"

'Mopping-up' in the village Alkhan-Kala 25-30^th April 2002

06.05.2002

Alkhan-Kala is a large village, which lies on the western outskirts of Groznii. The population is about 20,000 people.

The village is well-known because groups were based there, who were affiliated to the so-called 'vakhkhabist' wing of rebel fighters. Alkhan-Kala is the native village of the well-known Field Commander A. Baraev (killed in June 2001) and his close comrade-in-arms I. Chalaev (killed in April 2002).

30^th April 2002, according to a report by INTERFAX, the information department for the President of Russia claimed this: "General Vladimir Moltenskoi's Order number 80 Commanding OGV, which regulates the procedure of the carrying out of the special operations, is dislodging the final possibility from the hands of the soldiers, which is more difficult to reinforce his ranks at the expense of the local inhabitants."

On this day, a 'mopping-up' in Alkhan-Kala concluded having begun on 25^th April, – the second similar special operation in this village in one month.

Sections of internal troops, including Special Ground Troops, officials of the UFSB of the Chechen Republic, officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, took part in the carrying out of the special operation.

According to official reports, during the special operation in Alkhan-Kala, seven rebel fighters were killed, caches of weapons and ammunition were discovered.

The first group of four rebel fighters were destroyed on 27^th April.

"On Monday the UFSB in Chechnya gave details of the destruction of one of the heads of the rebel fighters Shirvani Magomadov on 27^th April in the village of Alkhan-Kala (Groznii region).

It was noted to the UFSB in Chechnya that about 13.30 (Moscow Time) on 27^th April, during the carrying out of the special operation, at house number 26 on Kraine Street, officials of UFSB and servicemen of Internal Troops entered into an armed clash with the rebel fighters. During the fight, four rebel fighters were killed, no losses were sustained by servicemen of the federal forces.

It was said to the UFSB that among the murdered three locals were identified, including the so-called 'Emir of Alkhan-Kala' Shirvani Magomadov. Among the dead was also a man of Arabic origins, a person whose identity is still not established."

According to official data, a second group of rebel fighters, was destroyed on 29^th April.

On 1^st May correspondent for ITAR-TASS S. Guliaev with reference to Group of social links UFSB in the Chechen Republic gave details of the destruction of the second group of rebel fighters: "3rebel fighters were killed on the outskirts of Groznii in a fight which lasted several hours in Alkhan-Kala on the territory of a woodwork factory. The operative group, the day before was inspecting this objective and was fired at from a machine gun and there was also the use of hand grenades. The bandits were surrounded and during the fight 3 rebel fighters, hiding on the territory of a derelict workshop, were killed. No victims were sustained among the operative group. The identities of the killed rebel fighters were established by the investigative authorities."

Why on 1^st May the identities of the killed were established, if on 29^th April at the Regional Operative Headquarters their names and surnames were announced, is still unclear.

On 30^th April the head of the General Headquarters of the Russian Federation, Anatolii Kvashnin, unexpectedly announced to correspondents that,

However, soon after 'INTERFAX' spread this information, the Head Administration of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic knew absolutely nothing about the aforementioned fact and about the carrying out of a search.

Representatives of 'Memorial' visited Alkhan-Kala on 3-5^th May 2002 after the 'mopping-up' had ended. The head of the local administration, inhabitants of the village, including relatives and neighbours of the killed and missing during the 'mopping-up' were questioned by them. They examined the destroyed manufacturing buildings, victims and the private homes, which were robbed, they shot the process of a search on video and parts of human bodies on the territory of the warehouse.

Early in the morning of 25^th April the village was blockaded by servicemen. Simultaneously in the village on Street Kraine 3 locals were arrested and taken away from their own homes: 2 brothers, Shirvani and Roman Magomadov, Shirvani Kitaev. Apart from this, a local from the village Katyr-Iurt, Said-Adam Soslanbekov, who was visiting relatives, was arrested and taken away.

Servicemen (here and later we will use the term 'servicemen', however we do not know which forces department these people belonged to. As for the representatives of federal forces, they never identified themselves to the locals, they could be servicemen from the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, militiamen, officials of the FSB) carried out arrests, not identifying themselves and not explaining their actions. Apparently, they had orders to act quickly, quietly and to not raise any noise. Therefore in the homes of the arrested they did not carry out searches, after their capture the soldiers immediately left. As a matter of fact, the people were abducted from their homes.

Servicemen arrived in armoured personnel carriers at the home of 52 year old Shirvani Kitaev, a father of 11 children and a member of the Council of elders of the village. At this time, except Shirvani, his wife, mother, father and several children were in the house. They all saw the servicemen, who called Sh. Kitaev out into the courtyard. A quiet, short conversation took place, after which the soldiers asked Sh. Kitaev to come out to the street for a minute for some reason. Suddenly members of the Kitaev family heard the sound of departing personnel carriers, and when they looked in the street, nobody was there. One of the possible reasons for his abduction could be the fact that Shirvani Kitaev took part in washing the bodies of some of the murdered from the earlier clash. However, he also washed the bodies of other dead inhabitants of Alkhan-Kala, who were no relation to the rebel fighters of this clash.

The brothers Magomadov were arrested in a similar way. They did not put up any resistance at all when they were being arrested. It is evident that a reason for their arrests was the relationship between Shirvani and Adlan Magomadov, who were members of the armed units, who were killed in the village two days later. Most likely, representatives of federal forces wanted to get information out of the arrested about those hidden rebel fighters in the village.

However the servicemen were unsuccessful 'in quietly' taking away Said-Adam Soslanbekov. His aunt tried to interfere and was removed because of it. Traces of the beatings were clearly visible on her face on 5^th May.

All four of the arrested people 'disappeared'. They were not taken to the 'temporary filter point', set up on the outskirts of the village, where many other inhabitants of Alkhan-Kala were delivered to. Officials, who led the 'mopping-up' answered the questions of the relatives of the 'disappeared' that they had no kind of relation to these people.

2.2. 'Mopping-up' everywhere

In the morning of 25^th April federal troops started a 'mopping-up' in all parts of Alkhan-Kala. As far as has been clarified, the very same General Bronitskii commanded this special operation, who led the 'mopping-up' of Alkhan-Kala 11-15^th April.

Just as in the previous 'mopping-up' there was either no identification number on the armoured personnel carriers or they had been effaced. This violates point 4 of the order Commanding OGV number 80. Representatives of the federal forces, entering houses, did not identify themselves and they were masked. This violates point 3 of order Commanding OGV number 80. The head of the village's administration Malika Umazheva was not involved in the control of the carrying out of the 'mopping-up'. This violates point 2 of order Commanding OGV.

At least a number of houses were completely robbed and there were pogroms of belongings. Therefore from several houses on Kraine Street, where the Magomadov family lived, all valuable items were taken away, after this broken, smashed and crushed belongings were left. The same happened in the houses of the Azuevs' and Azievs'.

A number of empty houses were pillaged, as the owners were temporarily not living in them.

Many men were arrested in their homes and taken to the filter point. It was possible to ransom the arrested. One of the female inhabitants of Alkhan-Kala, Mar'iam (her name has been changed by her request) told of how in her home her husband was beaten, they demanded from him that he give his sons' addresses, who live somewhere in Russia. The soldiers knew that they had adult sons from their passport, where the names and ages of the children are written. When the father said that he did not know their addresses they put him in an army car 'Ural'. But the wife (Mar'iam) began persuading the soldiers to release her husband. The officer, commanding this group of servicemen, promised to release him, if the wife paid not less than 1,000 roubles (as a guide, this is a lot of money in Chechnya today). She did not have such money in her home. While Mar'iam ran to relatives for sufficient money, they had time to take her husband to the filter point. The officer, who received the money at the end of the day, released Mar'iam's husband from the filter point. But by this time they already had had time to beat him and even torture him by electric shock once.

According to the stories of the locals, during the 'mopping-up' representatives of the federal troops entered the houses, looking significantly older than emergency soldiers of the internal troops, who were in the boundary of the village and controlled the streets. It was possible to tell this, inspite of the fact that many of them were masked. Precisely these more adult soldiers (officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB??) behaved towards the locals in an extremely rude and offensive way.

The said 'mopping-up' was characterised by extreme disrespect to the women. Private examinations of women were carried out by male soldiers, sometimes undressing them. As the locals say, the soldiers gave the women indecent propositions and they even attempted to rape them. During the search they dragged money out of the women, which was hidden under their clothes.

2.3. An armed clash

In the afternoon of 27^th April, servicemen discovered, surrounded and destroyed a group of rebel fighters of 4 people, who were hiding in one of the subsidiary locations on Kraine Street. On 29^th April their corpses were taken by soldiers to a mosque and were given to the local inhabitants. It turned out that 3 locals of Alkhan-Kala were killed: Shirvani Daudovich Magomadov, Adlan Daudovich Magomadov and Nurali Zaitulaevich Takhtamurov and also a local of the village Achkhoi-Martan by the name of Shamsuddin (surname unknown), who the representatives of the federal forces for some reason considered to be an Arab.

It is possible that the information about the whereabouts of this group of rebel fighters was received by the representatives of federal forces from the arrested on 25^th April, and afterwards from the relatives of the murdered 'disappeared' (see 2.1 The beginning of a 'mopping-up'. 'Targeted' arrests.)

The brothers Azuev – Shamil'khan Lechievich, born 1978 and Ruslan Lechievich, born 1976 and also their relative Ibragim Aziev, born 1980 (all lived in neighbouring houses on Oktiabr'skaia Street) were arrested by servicemen on 28^th April in their homes. There were many witnesses of the arrest – relatives of the arrested and their neighbours. Inspite of this no one opposed the arrests, all three were removed and afterwards they were transported in a military car and taken to the woodwork factory, which is situated in the village.

All the furniture and all the other belongings in the homes of the Azuevs' and Azievs' were pogromed and made useless. The mother of the brothers Azuev, Malkan, was subjected to a beating and was insulted. They beat up this lady to such an extent that even on 3^rd May 2002 her body was covered in bruises.

Judging by the stories of the locals, Ibragim Aziev was a drug addict, he associated with 'vakhkhabists'. In contrast to him, in the neighbouring courtyard lived the brothers Azuev, who are described in an exceptionally positive way. They were not members of any military groups. Ruslan Azuev even worked in the education department for the Government of the Chechen Republic. He had a state company car. The soldiers, when leaving, torched this car next to the gates of the house. The burnt out skeleton of the 'Niva' was crushed by an armoured personnel carrier and was still there on 3^rd May.

The soldiers took the corpses of R. Azuev, Sh. Azuev and I. Aziev in armoured personnel carriers on 29^th April to the village mosque. Apart from bullet wounds on the bodies of the brothers Azuev and Aziev, there were stab wounds and the bones in the arm were broken. Ruslan Azuev had his fingers shot off.

Judging by the stories of the locals, in the village during the 'mopping-up' a mass arrest of men occurred. They delivered the arrested to various places.

On the outskirts of Alkhan-Kala near the temporary station of parts, carrying out a 'mopping-up' of the village, was an equipped filter point, where the majority of the arrested were delivered. Here they laid some of the arrested on the ground blindfolded for about three days. The majority of them were beaten up. They were periodically interrogated, adding information about the rebel fighters, who were hiding in the village, caches of weapons and about who supported the 'vakhkhabists' in the village etc. In doing this they used electric shock as torture. The device for such torture was named by the soldiers as a 'lie detector'.

Apart from this, the minority of the arrested were delivered to the territory of the woodwork factories and warehouse, where the people were kept and interrogated in the manufacturing buildings. At the end of the 'mopping-up' these buildings were blown up by the representatives of the federal forces. The official explanation is that caches of ammunition were found there.

All of the arrested were released except for seven people.

Three of the arrested, the brothers Azuev and I. Aziev, were killed on the territory of the woodwork factories (See above 2.4 The arrest and murder of Sh. Azuev, R. Azuev and I. Aziev)

Early in the morning of 25^th April, four of the arrested, Shirvani and Roman Magomadov, Shirvani Kitaev, Said- Adam Soslanbekov 'disappeared' (see above 2.1 The beginning of a 'mopping-up'. 'Targeted' arrests.) General Bronitskii, leading the 'mopping-up', confirmed that his subordinates from the federal forces, had nothing to do with the arrest of these peoples.

The head of administration of Alkhan-Kala, Malika Umazheva spoke out, sharply and critically of the actions of the federal forces during the first April 'mopping-up' (11-15^th April). It is possible, therefore during the second 'mopping-up' that there was undisguised pressure put on her. During the 'mopping-up' of 25-30^th April a search was carried out in her home nine times.

According to M. Umazheva and members of her family, the people who carried out the search, arrived in armoured personnel carriers without identification numbers, entering the house , they did not identify themselves and they behaved extremely rudely. On 28^th April these people shot from a machine gun into the living room floor–traces of a bullet remain.

M. Umazheva confirms that the people who searched her home found valuables, several of her personal gold jewellery and 20,000 roubles of her personal savings. None of these valuables were removed or misappropriated by the representatives of the federal forces.

On 29^th and 30^th April M. Umazheva during the search of her home, they immediately claimed that in avoidance of major unpleasantries she should sign an act about the absence of claims on the subject of carrying out 'mopping-ups' in the village (point 2 of order number 80 of Commander of the OGVs contains information regarding the finishing a special operation to put together an act, which with heads of the special operation and other officials includes the signature of the head of the administration of the 'mopped-up' populated areas). Otherwise "You might suddenly get blown up", they said to the head of the administration.

Only on 27^th April in M. Umazheva's home a search was carried out which observed, at least, some of the procedural norms. The investigator who led the search arrived at the village and presented a search warrant to the owner, which followed the protocol of a search with investigators present and overseeing it. According to M. Umazheva, it was written in the protocol of the search that "nothing unlawful was discovered". However the investigator of the search refused to give a copy of the protocol to Umazheva.

On 30^th April M. Umazheva was called to the command point by the leader of the special operation General Bronitskii. Realising that they would be "forcing her hand" there, demanding her to sign the act about the absence of claims, the head of administration refused to go there. Then a group of officers arrived at her home with a form of such an act. Representatives of the Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' saw this form, which was left at M. Umazheva's. In it there is a column of "the results of the armed clash, a list of the dead" under the heading "members of unlawful armed units", seven people's names were written in hand, including the brothers Azuev and I. Aziev. The head of administration demanded an index to the act listing the real reasons of the deaths of these three people and to find the four 'disappeared'.

The act remained unsigned.

In light of these events locals of Alkhan-Kala examined closely information, which was wired to General Kvashnin, about the removal from the head of administration of "a stash of diamonds, gold and 600,000 dollars" as a provocation, directed not only at discrediting M. Umazheva, but as a way of intimidating different heads of administration of the populated areas in Chechnya.

It is important to note that contrary to the words of General Kvashnin, M. Umazheva was not arrested. Representatives of Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' asked to clarify the question "about the removal of diamonds, gold and dollars", in the prosecutor's office of the Chechen Republic, it was cleared up, that they knew nothing about such a removal.

On 3^rd May representatives of the Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' went to the ruins (in fact a heap of bricks) of the brick-producing workshop of the Alkhan-Kala warehouse. This building was blown up by federal forces in the last days of the 'mopping-up' – according to different witnesses on 29^th or 30^th April. On 2^nd-3^rd May a small group of locals started to clear up the ruins, as they suspected the corpses of the 'disappeared' could be underneath them.

On 3^rd May a part of a human arm was found there. After this a large group of locals from Alkhan-Kala began to sort through the heap of bricks. During 4^th and 5^th May, new parts of human bodies were found. One piece, the biggest, was identified by relatives, as a part of the body of Shirvani Kitaev. On 5^th May the burials took place.

On 5^th May representatives of the Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' again visited Alkhan-Kala and caught on videotape the process of sorting through the ruins of the brick-producing workshop and the discovery of the human bodies.

Relatives of Said-Adam Soslanbekov are sure that they identified parts of his bodies.

The sorting through of the ruins continues.