Ingushetia- the Zone of "Stability and Security"?
26.06.2003
For three years and 8 months that the second Chechen war proceeded, Ingushetia remained a relatively secure region, where the military actions, with rare exceptions had not taken place. The President of the Republic Ingushetia, R. Aushev was the only regional leader who contradicting the order of General Shamanov allowed the forced migrants from the Chechen Republic enter his republic in 1999. In Ingushetia the civilians who fled from the bombing and artillery fire felt secure: war had not penetrated the territory of the republic. Probably the only significant armed clash between the federal forces and the combatant units of Chechen Republic Ichkeria occurred in autumn 2002, when the unit of Gelaev moved from Pankissi Gorge of Republic Georgia through the territory of Ingushetia. Obviously, during the second Chechen war the power agencies carried out recurrent special operations (some of the cases have been registered by Memorial in our Chronicle of Violence, see www.memo.ru ), however, these events had never acquired the scale and had allowed for such a high rates in human rights violations as was the case in the Chechen Republic. In early summer 2003 the situation changed.
The summer in Ingushetia started with the “Chechen scenario” – with mop-up operations-“zachistki”. Importantly, the special operations were carried out not only in the places of compact settlement of the forced migrants, but in the Ingush villages as well. The Human Rights Center “Memorial” has no doubts that if the Russian power agencies possess information on the presence of the combatants on the territory of Ingushetia, they have the right to undertake operations for their detainment. However, as had previously been the case in Chechnya, in Ingushetia these operations were carried out violating the legislation of the Russian Federation, with serious violations of human rights.
According to the information of HRC “Memorial”, only in the 14 days of 2003 in the Republic Ingushetia 8 persons were kidnapped, 11- detained, 1 civilian killed, 1 civilian injured. Above that, the instances of subjecting the houses of civilians to fire and looting by the personnel of power forces carrying out “zachistki” have been registered. Thus, the area of the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” has gradually expanded, now including Ingushetia.
The special operations were generally carried out by the personnel of Russian power structures, dislocated in Chechnya and by the personnel of Chechen power structures, which received carte blanche for “cleansing out the combatants” from the neighboring republic. Below are some of the examples of “counter-terrorist operation” in the Republic Ingushetia.
1. Special operations against the forced migrants
Îò 3 June 2003, about 4.00 in the town of Nazran' the representatives of federal forces blockaded a settlement of forced migrants from the Chechen Republic, located on the territory of the enterprise "ÎÎÎ URS" (western outskirts of Nazran') where more that 85 families (about 600 people) reside. For the most part, representatives of Russian federal forces carried out the 'zachistka', however, it is not excluded that among them were the personnel of the power structures of Chechnya and Ingushetia. The mop-up proceeded for about 1 hour. The servicemen in masks, dressed in camouflage uniform and armed with sub-machine guns, broke into the living premises, without presenting their identity or explaining the reasons for their visit. Men aged over 14 on their knees and filmed on a digital camera, their passports were likewise filmed. At the same time, in the living premises of the forced migrants unsanctioned search was performed with some cases of looting. Thus, hand watches were expropriated from three of the men; a video-camera and a VCR were stolen from Khamzat Ismailov; from the room of Zara Ismailova, which stayed empty that night (Z. Ismailova went to visit her relatives in Grozny the night before) a pack of jeans (12-13 items) was stolen. 7-8 boxes with relief aid were stolen from the room of the camp's commandant Ruslan Arsaev, the night before this relief aid was delivered by the personnel of the Ministry for Emergency Situations. The military servicemen behaved rudely, they were pushing and insulting the women, who tried to find out the reason for the mop up.
A pogrom was made on the premises of the local school. The persons, who carried out “zachistka” stole radios from the 'Kamaz' car of Demikhilgov and the 'Zhiguli' car (VAZ-2106) of Temirsultanov.
The personnel of power agencies arrested 4 forced migrants: the commandant of the camp, Arsaev Ruslan Almanovich, born 1969; Khasein Imievich Movlaev, 1970; Umar Shadievich Muzaev, 1967; and Khavadzi Yakh'yaevich Tashukhadziev, 1972. They were put into cars and taken away. All the detained were the residents of village Tsotsin-Yurt, Kurchaloj district of Chechnya.
The next day Khasein Movlaev, Umar Muzaev and Khavadzi Tashukhadziev were released. Khasein Movlaev said that the representatives of unknown power agency brought the detained to a place he was unfamiliar with, where they were interrogated with the use of electric shock throughout the day. Movlaev was ordered to confide that he helped the combatants and that on the territory of the refugee camps in Ingushetia the combatants had been repeatedly concealed.
R. Arsaev was released on June 17-18. In his words, he was kept in a train car, somewhere around Khankala. He was treated quite politely, no physical violence had been used. Before he was released, he was offered to be taken to Nazran' or to Tsotsin-Yurt. Arsaev chose the latter. The commandant of the camp claims that his detainment was related to the absence of documents of Movlaev, Muzaev and Tashukhaev. However, it is not clear, why the unknown power structures had been detaining the man for almost two weeks, without issuing any accusations. The pretext that the detainment happened over the holiday, seems implausible.
On June 3, 2003, at about 13:00 20 armed people wearing masks drove four cars (two “Nivi”, one UAZ and one “Volga”) towards the refugee camp located in the village of Nesterovskaya in the Sunzhenskij district of Ingushetia. More than 1000 forced migrants from the Chechen republic live in this refugee camp.
In the refugee camp, the strangers first started shooting in the air without any explanation. The inhabitants of the camp started running, but some of them (mainly elders) went to the strangers trying to find out the reason for their arrival. They did not get any answer, and two old men had their legs beaten with weapons.
The strangers dispersed all over the refugee camp and began to grab all the men, shouting: “You are all staying here in Ingushetia, don't want to go back home. You thaught we wouldn't catch you here?!”.
The inhabitants of the camp resisted the attack. They formed unarmed crowd and managed to liberate the detainees.
In the same time, Rustam Lechaev, inhabitant of the camp, was driving towards the camp in his car. The strangers started shooting his car. Lechaev went out of his car, his hands held high and had his identity documents in one of them. The strangers put Lechaev and another detainee, Adam Tambiev in their car and at about 16:00 left the camp taking along Lechaev's car.
Having left the camp, the strangers stopped a car “Giguli” (VAZ-21099) and tried to make the driver, a member of the GIBDD (traffic police) of Ingushtia, get out of the car. Since the Ingush policeman showed armed resistance, the strangers left towards Chechnya. In the border checkpoint between Ingushetia and Chechnya, the Ingush policemen stopped a convoy of cars. After the long stand off that nearly led to a shooting, the convoy was allowed to go to Chechnya.
As the policemen Of Ingushetia declared, among the persons that arrested people there were members of the law enforcement services of A.Kadirov, under the command of his son R.Kadirov,
R.Lechaev was released on June18-19, and A.Tambiev – on June 21 thanks to his relatives'help. According to the detainees, they were detained somewhere in Gudermes by members of the law enforcement structures of the CR. There was no accusation. The detainees were not subject to violence, the members of the law enforcement structures of the CR fed them well and even gave mineral water.
On June 7, 2003 at about 5. 00 the village Nasyr—Kort, Nazran' town on the territory of the milk farm, where the forced migrants from the Chechen Republic live, was subjected to an attack by the armed personnel of unidentified power structures of the Chechen Republic. In the words of the local residents, the camp was blockaded, nobody could leave the territory. People who tried to get outside their houses were ordered to get back in a very rude fashion. A forced migrant from village Tsotsin-Yurt, Kurchaloj district of the Chechen Republic, Abubakar Ustarkhanov, born 1975, was detained and taken into unknown direction. After that the military servicemen left the camp.
The next day, A. Ustarkhanov was released in the town of Gudermes, Chechen Republic. In the words of Ustarkhanov, he was brought to Grozny, in his words, to the '6th department'. There he was interrogated, and ordered to convey information about Bakhaev, a citizen of Tsotsin-Yurt, who was wanted by the Federal Investigation Department. Ustarkhanov was trying to prove that he knew nothing about the man. Then he was ordered to give out information about some other fighter from Tsotsin-Yurt. After the interrogation, Ustarkhanov was transferred from Grozny to Gudermes, to the headquarters of a power agency which had detained him. Ustarkhanov said he was forced to sign a document that he was a combatant who had arrived voluntarily to give in under the amnesty; now he was obliged to buy a sub-machine gun and 'voluntarily' hand it in to the authorities within one month.
On June 12 2003 in the evening a series of detainments were carried out in the camp of forced migrants “Tanzila” in Nazran' (located almost in the center of the town); 9 persons were detained. At about 7. 15 p.m. people in masks dressed in the camouflage uniform (mostly speaking Russian, only some of them Chechen) arrived to the gates of the camp. According to the official explanation, they followed the cars which had stopped near the gates of the camp (white Zhiguli- 7 and - 9 and a black Jeep). The military men forced the drivers out of their cars and then started to grab everyone standing in front of the gates at the cafe “Tanzila” located nearby. All of the captured were forced to lay down on the ground, faces down to the road; the military servicemen started to severely beat them. As a result of this 'zachistka' 9 men were detained.
After 'zachistka' was over two forced migrants were brought to the cars, which were allegedly followed, and were asked to act in the capacity of witnesses, testifying that in the car were found weapons (the cars with the weapons were filmed on a video-camera). Weapons, indeed, were in the cars. However, it is not clear whether these weapons had been placed there as a provocation or indeed belonged to the persons driving these cars. The Ingush militiamen who happened to drive by in the meantime, interfered in the 'zachistka' and managed to partly prevent the violence inside of cafe. “Memorial” does not have a full list of the persons detained on that day, however, we know for a fact that only two of them were the residents of the camp:
Kharon Nuradilovic Yasaev, 1984, a high school student of the 11th grade. On that day he had taken his graduation exam at school. In the moment of detainment he went to fetch water to the camp well. As there was a queue at the crane he left his water container in the queue and went outside the gates of the camp, where he was captured.
Courah Ghaysumov, born 1956, was sitting at the gates of the camp and reading the newspaper “Pravozashita” /Human Rights Advocacy/. The representatives of the power agencies arrived and without saying a word, even without asking his passport grabbed him and according to the witnesses, beat him up particularly severely.
The relatives of C. Ghaysumov and Kh.Yasaev turned to HRC “Memorial” with a request to help them release the detained. “Memorial” managed to find out that all the detained are kept in the detainment facility SIZO Vladikavkaz, Republic North Osetia- Alania. They are accused in compliance with article 222 part 2 (illegal purchase, transfer, realization, storage, transportation or carriage of weapons, their major components or ammunition etc). Advocates Ghandarov and V. Baysaev, the lawyer at 'Memorial', agreed to defend the accused.
2. “Zachistkas” in the mountainous villages of Ingushetia
On June 6-7, 2003 in the mountainous village Arshty, Sunzhensky district of Republic Ingushetia was carried out a 'zachistka'.
At 8.00 a. m. the village was blockaded. No one was allowed to enter or leave the village, even the women, who left early morning for the district center Sleptsovsk and who had very small babies for 48 hours were unable to get back home to their kids. The head of the village administration of Arshty, who the night before had left for the administration of Sunzhensky district, was not allowed in the village; fire was open at his car. Thus, the 'zachistka' in Arshty was carried out in the absence of the local administration. Neither was the representative of the prosecution present during the special operation. In the course of 'zachistka' the militia of Sunzhensky district was not allowed into the village.
The military servicemen who entered the village did not introduce themselves and to the questions of local residents “Where are you from, who are you?”, vaguely replied “We are from Khankala”. The armed personnel carriers and other military vehicles, mostly had their registration numbers smeared in dirt, however, the military servicemen did not wear masks.
Vakha Abubakarovich Bataev, born 1960, a resident of village Arshty, who early that morning left for his own affairs for the neighboring village Chemul'ga, being anxious about his 19- year old son who remained in the zone of the mop-up, insisted on letting him back into the village. However, the military servicemen not only did not let him back to the village but heavily beat him up, broke four of his ribs and inflicted an injury with a sharp object in the area of his forearm. His relatives from the village Chemulga delivered Vakha to the district hospital in Sleptsovsk, where the doctors gave him the first aid treatment and a medical certificate of the injuries he had received.
Ismail Magomedovich Albakov, born 1956, wanted to leave the village given the lift by the Ingush FSB car. He worked in Sleptsovsk and wanted to get to work on time , however, the persons who carried out the operation suspected him of trying to escape, they took him off the car and kept for 24 hours in one of the empty houses, where the military servicemen and their temporary headquarters. After interrogations he was released. Albakov's wife said that during the detainment and interrogation of her husband, physical violence was not used.
The military servicemen looted the houses which they subjected to mop ups. Thus, armed personnel carriers broke into the yard of Khumid Albakov, an MP of the Republic Ingushetia, destroying the gates. On that day the owners of the house were not at home, so the military servicemen occupied the house for the time of the operation. In the house of Albakov, apart from their own belongings, some things of the Chechen forced migrants were stored. During the days of the operation, the servicemen damaged much of property, and before they left they put on personnel carriers and took with them everything they liked. The neighbors witness, that they saw the military servicemen taking furniture out of the house (armchairs, big pillows from the divans, chairs), 16 mattresses, cushions, linen and other small things. Neighbors were not allowed into the house, and to the requests not to damage the property and not to loot, the servicemen replied with a question: “Why such a big house?”
The same question was asked to the family of Isaev during the search. They demanded the head of the family come, although he lived and worked in the town of Kemerovo. They asked where the owner of such a rich (meaning big) house was hiding himself and threatened “We will find him anyway”. The family tried to protect their property, explaining that the owner of the house was not a bandit or a swindler but a civil servant. But the military servicemen (more than 20 persons) spread around the yard and the rooms of the house, picking everything they liked. Thus, they took a musical center SONY, a new camera “Olympus”, presented by the father to his son, another old camera, household instruments (pliers, screwdrivers etc.), a raincoat and a small sum of money. Before leaving they destroyed furniture and broke dishes.
In the empty house of Umat-Khadzi Bataev, the servicemen found the old ID of a member of a public movement of resistance of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria, for this they loaded all his property on personnel carriers and left.
Into the yard of Usman Makhauri smoke-pots were thrown, all the men who at the moment were in the yard were forced on their knees, including the teenagers, and beaten. Only after that their passports were checked. Before leaving the military servicemen said that they were mistaken, no apologies offered, however.
From the house of Shamsudin Makhauri male clothes and female jewelry were looted: gold chains, a ring and a hand watch.
3. Fire at the civilians: a murder and an injury
In some electronic media there appeared a piece of information that on June 9, “ a bandformation numbering up to 10 persons entered a fight with a unit of federal forces at the outskirts of the Chechen village Ghalashki/…/; as a result of a short fight 2 fighters were eliminated, three injured /…/. At the place of fire were found two machine guns ÀÊÌ with cartridges, marks of blood and bandage” (RIA “NEWS”, ITAR-TASS, Press service of allied forces (p)).
Probably, not to emphasize additionally, that the counter-terrorist operation had already spread beyond the borders of Chechnya, the press-service of the Allied forces (powers) called the Ingush village Ghalashki a Chechen one. The HRC “Memorial” has no information about the fight taking place on June, 9. However, we have information that the next day on June, 10 2003 in the area of Ghalashki village the military servicemen killed one local civilian and heavily injured a woman.
On June 16, 2003 Musa Abudrakhmanovich Zabiev, born 1957, a major, a deputy-commander of the military unit 5560 living in the village Ghalashki of Sunzhensky district of Republic Ingushetia turned to HRC “Memorial”. He explained that on June 10 his mother Tamara Sultanovna Zabieva, born 1938, a 'hero mother', who brought up 10 children, and his brothers Umar Abdurakhmanovich, born 1972, a security guard for AO “Nesterovsky brick factory”, Ali Abdurakhmanovich, born 1975, a dispatcher of the fire-service of Ghalashki village (all residing in Naberezhnaya street, 15), were weeding their potato field 4 kilometers away from the village. The field was located close to the road leading to the direction of Dattykh.
At about 7 p.m. having finished their work, all Musa's relatives got into the car ÇÈË-130 (registration number Ð 921 ÀÂ/06), blue color, belonging to the peasant-farmers enterprise “Bart”, which brothers-Zabiev belonged to, and set out for home. In about 200 meters a fire was open at their car from both sides of the road, from the distance of about 30-40 meters. The fire was very dense, the left wheel was damaged, the car had to stop.
Tamara Zabieva was wounded heavily in the first moments of shooting: in the area of waist, neck; a tangent wound was inflicted in the head. In the Sunzhensky district hospital two bullets were taken out of her body, however, her condition remains life-threatening.
Ali took his mother out of the car and carried her to the ravine, since the shooting continued. Then he left for the village for help and Umar stayed with the mother. Musa was at home, when his daughter said that from the side of their vegetable field were heard heavy shooting and an explosion. Having learnt that his relatives have not returned back, Musa drove to their field, he was there in forty minutes after the accident. He found nobody. M. Zabiev tuned his radio-transmitter on the militia frequency and heard that the officer on duty in the village police station reported on what happened to the Sunzhensky ROVD : “a column of military servicemen, walking in the direction of village Dattyh, opened fire and wounded civilians”.
Having decided that his relatives must have been delivered to the local hospital, Musa went to Ghalashki. He arrived to the hospital almost simultaneously with the car of the village militia (Ali informed them about the events). Having found the victims, the militiamen and the relatives of Zabievs went to the place of the accident and started to search through the forest. In about 30-40 meters from the damaged car they found Tamara Zabieva unconscious. She was taken first to the local and then to the district hospitals. Umar was not found that day.
At about 10 p.m. two local residents, Alaydin Ortskhoevich Dzeitov and Vakha Tagirovich Artskhanov who participated in the search of Umar, were detained by a group of well armed military-servicemen, speaking unaccented Russian. In the words of the villagers, under the threat of using weapons, they were put on the ground with their faces down and searched, their documents checked; afterwards they were interrogated on who they were and what they were doing there. The young men said that they were the residents of Ghalashki village, that their documents were at home and that they were looking for their neighbors, who suffered from fire. The servicemen asked: who had been shooting , at whom, what did the people in the village say about it? For this the young men said that the civilians had suffered, who were returning home after weeding the vegetable garden, but who had shot them was unknown.
Then the military servicemen, connected with their bosses by radio transmitter, informed about the detained and asked what to do with them. Dzeitov and Artskhanov could not hear the replies but in about three hours they were released (all this time they were kept laying on the ground). Before they were released, the young men heard an order 'Take off the mines' and the commander yelling at his personnel to hurry up.
In the morning of June 11, the deputy-commander of Allied Group of Forces (p), a representative of the military prosecution from Khankala and a representative of a special department arrived to the place of the accident, from the very beginning they accused Chechen fighters for the occurred. Around 12.30 on June 12, Musa Akhmendovich Taysumov, who participated in the search found a trace of blood and dragging a body, 20 meters away from the place where Artskhanov and Dzeitov had been detained. A few meters further he found a freshly made knoll of soil. The militia men arrived, examined the place and found metal logs dug in the ground (for planting mines - tension wires, as was later explained by the specialists). When the upper layer of soil was taken off from the knoll, a copse was found with two similar metal logs next to it. Being afraid that there were explosives planted in the grave, the militiamen called for the sappers, who tied a rope to the leg sticking out of the grave and pulled the body out of the soil. The corpse was immediately identified- it belonged to Umar Zabiev. The corpse had numerous fractures, injuries, bruises and gun shot wounds.
At the place of the accident the personnel of the law-enforcement agencies of Republic Ingushetia found over 150 used cartridges of 7,62 caliber and a machine gun cartridge-belt. In the proximity of Umar's grave were found empty bottles from mineral water “Sal'skaya”, packages from dried crusts, tins from tinned pork (port pate), empty packs from cigarettes “Kosmos”. All those objects were found in small halls, covered with soil. Some of the tins had traces of soot. Also were found a thin rope (2-2,5 meters) and a camouflage frame (50-80 centimeters.)
On June 12, Umar was buried in Ghalashki village of Ingushetia
