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HR news |
Special operation in the Sleptsovskaya’s district’s hospital
21.08.2003
On August, the 21st, 2003 at 3.00 PM in the stanitsa of Ordjonikidzevskaya (Sleptsovskaya) in Ingushia, the local hospital has been surrounded by the Russian Forces members and the members of A. Kadyrov’s security service. The representatives of the Russian Federation’s Forces services went to the hospital by cars. There were 2 “Gazel” (one of them was white with dark glasses and registered in the 95th region), a VAZ-2121-Niva, a “UAZ” and others. A special operation was carried in the hospital, with assaults and battery; five men are in detention.
Electronic MEDIA differently treat these events. The ITAR-TASS correspondent, Rouslan Mayssigov, affirmed in a communication (August, the 22nd, 2003) that it was no special operation because “an armed group of about 20-40 men, captured five inhabitants of Chechnya. They burst into the hospital, they wore masks, and forced the patients who were in the surgery to sit in two cars, a “Gazel” and an “Ural”, threatening them with weapons. Then, they left the hospital, to the administrative frontier between the Republic and Chechnya” (ITAR-TASS, August, the 22nd, 2003).
However, the majority of MEDIA held a different interpretation of the events : “In the stanitsa of Sleptsovskaya in the Sunjensky’s district in Ingushia, 5 men are detained, they are suspected to be members of an illegal unit. This information was delivered on Friday by a source from Forces Structures of the South Federal region. “The result of the special operation in Sleptsovskaya’s district’s hospital is that five men have been arrested. We know the identity of three of them, they are Chechnian, one of them is injured”, said the press agency’s interlocutor. He added that their participation to an illegal armed unit has been established. He also said that , according to the fighters, the detainees intended to receive medical assistance, using fake identities.” (Interfax agency, August, the 22nd, 2003)
Members of the Human Rights center “Memorial” have been there, they interrogated the witnesses and established the next events.
Fighters, wearing masks and camouflage uniforms, ran towards the hospital’s court and started to fire with their weapons. The patients and the medical staff got panicked and tried to escape. The Russian fighters’ group, about 6 men, burst into the hospital and dropped in a medical room (located in the chirurgical department), where at that time, nurses were changing the bandages of Mr. Rasmek Sultanovitch Saydulaev, born in 1984 (actually he said to the doctor that his name was Anzor Akhmedovitch Suleymanov). The fighters started to beat “Suleymanov”, the first blow was given on his head, with the hilt of a gun. They continued to beat him even after he lost conscious. The fighters pushed the nurses to a corner, treated them as “bitches” and took them in their gun-sights. Then, they ordered the nurses to link R. Saydulaev’s legs with bandages. The fighters also cruelly beat Mr. Lom-Ali Khassanovitch Chaypov, born in 1982, in the corridor. He is a Saydulaev’s friend. According to the eye-witnesses, they broke Chaypov’s hands (stab-wound). Then, they dragged out Saydulaev and Chaypov in the street and threw them into the white car with dark glasses, “Gazel”, meanwhile Saydulaev was loosing his blood. The medical staff of the hospital, composed of a majority of women, tried to intervene, praying the fighters not to laugh about people. The fighters answered them : “Whores! Get out! they are not human persons, they are only creatures!”.
Otherwise, the fighters have captured other men. Three detainees are identified : Mr. Adam Muratovitch Patsuev, born in 1984, Mr. Salam Israilovitch Kerimov, born in 1985 and Mr. Ibrahim Abazovitch Idogov, born in 1983.
Idogov temporally lived in the stanitsa of Nesterovskaya, at 78, Lenin street. He went to the hospital to put new bandages. His friends, Adam Patsuev, temporally living in the stanitsa of Nesterovskaya, at 113, Leonidov street and Salam Kerimov temporally living in the stanitsa of Ordjonikidzevskaya, at 81, komsomolskaya street, came with him. When the military men burst into the hospital’s territory, doctor, Mr. Mohamed Khachiev was changing Ibrahim’s bandages. Patsuev and Kerimov waited him on a bench in the court. When Khachiev and Idogov saw in the near surgery that a patient was being beaten by the fighters, they got afraid and ran out of the surgery to the street. The fighters shot them in the corridor and injured Idogov’s shoulder. Then, the fighters located in the street caught them as soon as they left the hospital building, kicked them and blew them with the hilts of their guns.
Seeing that, Adam Patsuev and Salam Kerimov threw themselves on Ibrahim’s side, the fighters knocked them down and started to beat them too. Fighters put hand-scuffs to the three friends and threw them into the white “Gazel”, with the governmental registration A-632-…-95. Khachiev was abandoned lying on the ground by the fighters.
According to eye-witnesses accounts, the fighters standing on the porch shot point-blank a man they had dragged out of the hospital and killed him.
As a result of the special operation five men are detained, one or two of them are injured and one is probably dead. These events caused material damages in the hospital, and moral and physical damages to the medical staff and to the patients.
No comments from none of the Republic of Ingushia leadership nor the leadership of the forces structures of the Republic followed.
On August, the 25th, at 10.00 AM, people who were forced to emigrate from the Chechnian Republic, blocked the Rostov-Baku road next to the administrative frontier between Chechnya and Ingushia. They wanted the five young men to be freed. Refugees from the stanitsa of Nesterovskaya, and from several camps (“Bela”, ‘Satsita”, “Sputnik”, and “Alina”) located around the stanitsa of Ordjonikidzevskaya, took part to the action.
On August, the 26th, the detainees’ situation is still unknown, there are no information about them. their parents did not even found where they are detained.
ANNEX 1 : EYE-WITNESSES’ DEPOSITIONS
Louisa (she lives near the hospital)
“… There were two “Gazel”. What I saw from my house’s yard is a white “Gazel” with dark glasses and a military APC. Armed people sit in a military attitude (they were on their knees) and targeted houses with their guns. One of them wore civilian clothes (he was about 40 years, wore a beard, he wasn’t Russian whereas the others were), he set right near the car and transmit something by a radio-station. I heard some cries in Russian: “Stand up bitches!”, “Go to the car!” etc…
About 20 meters from there, was a “Mercedes”, in which sat two men. During the attack, the car went slowly between the fighters and nobody reacted. A man wearing dark glasses, a cellphone in the hand, jumped over the hospital’s fence and sat in the car.
…Then they dragged out an injured man, he held his flank by his hands. I saw them when they beat a dentist, he wore a doctor’s smock and lay on the floor.
…The medical staff and the patients were lying on the floor, taking cover from the bullets. It is a real mess! They carry military operation among the civil population! Sure, it is Bassaev! He carried a similar operation in Budennovsk! What a situation! Nobody was insured against the fighters’ shots!”
A nurse, employee in the hospital
“I didn’t understand what happened. About 6 men burst into the surgery. They pushed us (we were two nurses) to a corner, took us in their gun-sights, called us “bitches”, then, they ordered us to keep silent. They were Russian, but they wore masks. At once they beat our patient. A fighter blew him on the head with his gun’s hilt. The patient lost conscious but they continued to beat him. Mr. Anzor Akhmedovitch Suleymanov, born in 1984 had an infected stab-wound.
He explained that he fell on a peak and came to the hospital for 10 days to change his bandages. It’s possible that his name and his address are false.
His friend (who accompanied him) was dragged out into the hall and he has been blown there. Fighters shot him. Then, they targeted me with their guns and ordered : “Call ours!”. I went out of the hall to call. As soon as I called them, they cried to me : “Get out!”. I answered : “There are yours!” and I ran in the surgery. Then, they ordered us to link the legs of the patient with bandages. His injuries (the head and a shoulder) were bleeding. He was weeping. They went out of the surgery. I looked through the window and I saw a second guy, he had been dragged out of the hospital by the fighters, who had held him by the legs, his face on the ground. His hands were broken, we could see the bones, he was bleeding. It was so cruel! I felt so bad that I could do nothing, I only thought: “Don’t blow him.”
Zina Mahomadova (cardiologist)
“As I heard shots, I looked through the window. Fighters were standing near the door of the hospital, they were shooting through the court. In the hospital, the patients and the medical staff have got been afraid and tried to run out of the hospital. In the hospital’s court lay a young man. The fighters ran to him, beat him, put him hand-scuffs and threw him into one of their cars. Meanwhile I saw on the hospital’s porch a second man, who had been blown. He was lying on the porch. A fighter shot him point-blank several times. At the same time the other fighters kicked him and blew him with their guns’ butts. At first the man cried “God! Help me!”, then he kept silent. The fighters held him by his legs and threw him into a white “Gazel” with dark glasses, registered in the 95th region. Then, they dragged out a third man, who was in the hospital, held him by his legs and arms. His legs were linked with bandages. Then, I was told that the nurses linked him because they were threatened with weapons and that they were treated of “bitches” by the fighters. The man had a bandage on the fore arm but it hung down, he was still alive. In the surgery: a real bloodshed. Some hospital’s employees tried to intervene, they talked about cruelty, said that they are human beings, but the fighters answered : “Whores! Get out! they are not human beings, they are only creatures!”.
People say that they captured one another man, who stood near the surgery. I only saw them throwing three men in a car, but they captured a fourth guy. One of them is dead, it’s sure, a second is injured and the third as well. Then, they quickly left the hospital.
ANNEX 2: REQUEST FROM THE DETAINEES’ PARENTS
To: E.A. Panfilovoy, President of the Human Rights Commission attached to the Russian Federation’s President
From: Mr. Patsuev Murat Akhmatovitch,
temporally living in the stanitsa of Nesterovskaya, at 113, Leonidov street, Republic of Ingushia
Mr. Kerimov Asset Khesmarzovna
temporally living in the stanitsa of Ordjonikidzevskaya, at 81, komsomolskaya street, Republic of Ingushia
Mr. Idogov Abaz
temporally living in the stanitsa of Nesterovskaya, at 78, Lenin street, Republic of Ingushia
REQUEST
On August, the 21st, 2003, about 2.00PM in the stanitsa of Ordjonikidzevskaya, Republic of Ingushia, unknown people, wearing masks, have captured our sons : Mr. Patsuev Murat Akhmetovitch, born in 1984, Mr. Kerimov Salam Israilovitch, born in 1985 and Mr. Idigov Ibrahim Abazovitch, born in 1983.
That day (08.21.2003) Patsuev A. went out of home with his cousin, Kerimov, he intended to look at the list of admitted students to the Economy and Law Institute. On the way they have met their friend Ibrahim Idogov, who was going to the hospital of the stanitsa of Ordjonikidzevskaya to put new bandages. They went together to the hospital.
I. Idogov went in the surgery and Adam with his cousin waited him on a bench.
Suddenly, an armed group, wearing masks, surrounded the hospital. When those people burst into the hospital, I. Idogov was with the doctor. Through an adjoining door they saw armed people, who were beating a patient and were taking two nurses in their gun-sights. The doctor, Mr. Mahomed Khachiev, and I. Idigov got afraid, they ran out of the surgery to go outside. Meanwhile some fighters were in the court to block the access to the hospital. They caught them together, kicked them and blew them with their guns’ butts.
The fighters knocked down Adam Patsuev and Salam Kerimov because they tried to threw themselves on Ibrahim’s side, and they kicked them and blew them with their guns’ butts too.
Then, they put hand-scuffs to the three young men and threw them into the white “Gazel”, registered under the governmental number A-632-… in the 95th region.
The armed people also dragged out of the hospital unknown men. On the porch of the hospital, one of the fighters shot point-blank one of the men and, according to the eye-witnesses, this man instantly died.
On August, the 22nd, 2003, in the news of ORT TV, was announced that “as a result of the special operation five men are detained, 3 of them are identified as gangsters”. The same day at 21.00 PM, this information had been repeated. We don’t know if these news and the aforesaid illegal actions concern our sons. We knew that the aforesaid operation has been prepared by the RSO (Regional State of Operation), but we have no proof .
We, the parents of the detainees, declare that our sons did not commit illegal actions, that they are detained illegally and without juridical reasons, and more, this situation is contrary to the Russian Federation’s law currently in force.
At that very instant neither I nor the other relatives of the detainees have information concerning their location. All the aforesaid facts were collected by us, we have interrogated the eye-witnesses and the doctor, Mr. M. Khachiev, who was with us at that moment. He confirmed that Mr. Idogov had an injured shoulder.
We know that no action was brought about this criminal case.
We ask you to understand our position and to render us assistance to defend our rights and interests, we also ask you to help us to find out where our sons are located, we ask you to ensure meetings with lawyers, we also ask you to favor the observance of the law and to favor a human treatment.
Mr. Patsuev M. A.
Mr. Kerimov A.
Mr. Idogov A.
