Human Rights Center "Memorial"

"Cleansing Operations" in the village of Chiri-Yurt: May – June 2001

At the start of the violent clashes in 1999, the number of residents in the settlement of Chiri-Yurt in the Shalinsky region (including both the village and the outskirts) was 7300 to 7600 people.

As a result of the exodus of refugees from the Shatoisky region onto the plains (into the towns of Chiri-Yurt, Stariye and Noviye Atagi) in the winter of 1999-2000, there were up to 20,000 people in the town.

After some of the residents returned back to Shatoisky region, the population of Chiri-Yurt, including the remaining refugees, is roughly 10,000 people.

During the day on March 12, 2001, Vakhid Askhabov (born 1963), who resided on the outskirts of the town in a house on Karl Marx Street, was detained by military servicemen who were passing by Chiri-Yurt in a military column from the mountains in the direction of Khankala.

As the column passed by an explosion was heard. The soldiers entered the outskirts of the town, took down a wire fence, seized Vakhid Askhabov who was working in the garden, and took him away in front of his wife and children. There was no further information about Askhabov – according to rumors, they took him to Khankala.

On May 29-31, 2001, another in a series of "cleansing operations" took place in the town of Chiri-Yurt in the Shalinsky region. In this one approximately 50 people were detained. The grounds for the "cleansing operation" were supposedly the murder of military servicemen and the kidnapping of a female soldier 3 or 4 days earlier in Stariye Atagi.

On the first day, May 29, only passports were checked and the people in the town were not detained.

Early in the morning, around 6.00 AM, soldiers – probably from the 205^th motorized infantry brigade – surrounded the territory of the cement factory.

According to an order of the commandant of the Shalinsky region, the factory grounds are guarded by a brigade of watchmen made up of local residents, along with staff from the Far East SOBR from the rural superintendant's office. Lists of the watchmen are confirmed by the commandant and are located at the commandant's office.

That night the factory was guarded by Musa Dakhaev (born 1966), Movsar Khamaev (born 1963), Sultanbek Shakhidov (born 1963), Lechi Musaev (65 years old) and Sultan Beriev (65 years old). The first group of soldiers entering the territory of the factory – the reconnaissance party – checked the watchmen's documents and did not raise voice any objections. However when the senior officer arrived, the first thing he asked was: "What are they doing crawling around there?" and when they explained it to him, he ordered: "Tie them all up!" The soldiers covered the watchmen's faces and eyes with their clothes and tied their arms with cord; over the course of two days they detained them on the grounds of the factory and interrogated them, subjecting them to assault and physical and psychological torment.

They were all beaten more than once by different officers who took them to different workshops within the factory and asked them almost exactly the same questions over and over: "Where are the fighters? Who kidnapped the woman?"

Musa Dakhaev was singled out. Feeling his muscles and declaring "You're young, you'll survive," they subjected him to torture: they hung him up by his bound arms and tortured him with electric shocks. They tied exposed wires to his fingers and cranked some kind of machine which sounded like a field telephone. It took two months for the feeling and movement to return to his forearms and hands.

Five times the soldiers pretended that they were about to execute them, standing them against the wall, giving the command and readying their weapons. The psychological influence was even greater as the detainees were blindfolded the entire time and felt themselves absolutely defenseless in the hands of the soldiers. They were not allowed to sleep or eat for two days.

Representatives of the town commandant's office and administration were not allowed onto the grounds of the factory. Only on the third day the detainees were brought off the factory grounds and their hands and blindfolds were untied.

No investigation of this event took place. Off the record the commandant's office stated that "they'd look into it."

On the second day, May 30, there were massive detentions of the village residents. Military servicemen burst into the home of Khamid Abdullaev (Lenin Street, number 53) around 4.00, breaking his outer door. His wife ran to the door and tried to find out what was happening – they pushed her aside and hit her (her bruises lasted for two months).

They lay Abdullaev down on the floor and after awhile dragged him naked into the yard, put him in handcuffs, loaded him into a military vehicle "Ural" and took him to the cement factory where six other detainees were already located:

• Khamzat Yashurkaev (65-66 years old)
• Ismail Bitiev (33-35 years old)
• Bitiev, the nephew of Ismail (16-17 years old)
• Vakha Astamirov (48-49 years old)
• Denilbek Ersanukaev (49 years old)
• Movsar Ersanukaev (20 years old)

They gave Abdullaev clothes and took him to be interrogated. They demanded that he "give up his arms" and photographed him. And with that the interrogation ended.

Exiting the building onto the grounds of the cement factory, Khamid saw that there were already about 50 detainees, including:

• Saidi Ampukaev (an irregularity was found in the paperwork for his car, a Volga);
• Said-Emin Baudinov, a second-class invalid, and his brother (registered in the city);
• Ramzan Naurbiev, the chief engineer of the cement factory (there was a forklift standing in his yard);
• Zhalaudi Umaev, the chief of production at the cement factory (a toy pistol was found in his home and taken for the real thing);
• The Altemirov brothers, Sharpudi and Shamil (the Kamaz standing in their garden had government license plates).

They had found Kh. Abdullaev as a result of the previous "address cleansing" which took place in February 2001. Later it was revealed that they had confused his house with the house of Idris, a participant in Chechen armed formations, who died at the end of 1999. It turned out that the soldiers were using lists in which Idris's house had the same number as the Abdullaevs (re-numbering of houses happened in the late 1980s).

Sharpudi Abdullaev was detained around 7.00, taken to the cement factory, and taken straight to the investigator, Dmitry Medvedev. He asked Abdullaev to identify an old bag which did actually belong to Abdullaev, but which had been lying around a barn for a long time. As it turned out later, there were two grenades in the bag. The investigator offered Sharpudi (or his brother) to sign a protocol from the interrogation, admitting that the grenades were being handed in voluntarily and emphasizing that there would be no repression of the Abdullaev family from the side of the federal forces. Sh. Abdullaev signed the protocol after thinking it over for a short time.

Before long the commandant of the Shalinsky region, colonel Nekhaev, arrived to see the detainees. He apologized to the peaceful inhabitants and ordered that everyone be released, declaring that "the operation didn't succeed." It turned out later that the decision to halt the detentions was made after protests began in the town: women, the elderly and children gathered on the streets with demands that the detainees be released, even lying on the road in front of the armoured carriers.

In the course of the "cleansing operations", soldiers not only detained people but robbed them as well: Davletbieva had 3000 rubles stolen, Shamsadov lost about 50,000 rubles.

On the third day, May 31, the "cleansing operation" continued, however there were no detentions or gross violations witnessed.

On July 7, 2001, Abu-Khamid Arsanukaev (born 1974, living at 61 Lenin Street) was killed in Chiri-Yurt in the course of another "cleansing operation".

On that day, the Arsanukaev family (mother, two sisters and Abu-Khamid) were at home around 12.00.

Abu-Khamid was sitting under the awning performing ablutions before the mid-day prayer. Around 20 soldiers burst into the yard unexpectedly, firing in all directions. Arsanukaev rushed into the yard and tried to hide behind the wall of the awning (his documents were not completely in order as he had been released from imprisonment only a short time ago). The soldiers began to fire at Abu-Khamid, he was hit by many bullets and he fell down; they lifted him up and dragged him away in an armoured carrier.

The soldiers then returned and began a search of the house and yard – although it was in fact closer to an assault: they threw things around, broke everything that they could reach, and smashed the glass of a Moskvich car (the documents for the car were in order).

Along with the head of the rural administration Salambek Dakaev, Arsanukaev's relatives went to the Shalinsky commandant's office. There they were told that Arsanukaev would be freed in exchange for a machine gun. The head of the administration refused to hand over a machine gun since Abu-Khamid was arrested for no reason; he was not a fighter or a criminal. By evening, his relatives were informed that Arsanukaev was not at the commandant's office. The next morning at the office of the prosecutor for the Shalinsky region, the relatives and chief of the administration were told that Abu-Khamid was already dead the previous evening – but here they also demanded a machine gun. The negotiations lasted until 11.00. Then S. Dakaev was returned the naked body of A.-Kh. Arsanukaev. The body bore bulletwounds and the left ear had been completely cut off and then sewn on again with thick thread.

Information of the office of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" in Nazran.

On July 20, 2001, Idris Khusainovich Suleimanov (born 1977, living at 17 Lenin Street) was killed in Chiri-Yurt in another "cleansing operation".

After a document check, I. Suleimanov went swimming in the river. Before long his relatives heard the sound of gunshots. Approximately 10-15 minutes later, one of them decided to go down to the river. He saw Idris lying on the ground and a soldier standing nearby. The soldier ordered Idris's relative to lie on the ground, but after some time released him.

It later became clear that Idris was only lightly wounded: the bullets grazed his left leg and went straight through the right leg. He remained conscious. A decision was made to take him to the military field hospital at the command post, since there were better supplies and medicines there. His relatives agreed.

The next day soldiers told the women who arrived at the command post that Idris had been transferred to Shali. However some time later the male relatives were informed that I. Suleimanov had died; the relatives could not retrieve the body. The next day not far from the commandant's office, I. Suleimanov's corpse was discovered. It showed signs of dog bites and some kind of injections; the dead man's nose had been twisted to the side.

Appealing to the command post, the relatives were told – among other things – that they had found in Idris's pocket lists of some kind of ammunition.

Information of the office of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" in Nazran.