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HR news |
Political Crime in the Kalinovskaia settlement
May, 26 2003
On May,21 at four o'clock in the Kalinovskaia settlement (Naurskij region), six local people were killed.
The Kalinovskaia settlement - one of the main military bases of the Federal forces in the Chechen Republic. During the Soviet regime, an aviation training center as well as a military aerodrome had been settled down. Nowadays, there is the 42 division's infantry regiment, located in the Chechen Republic on a permanent basis, as well as the land troops'air force. The environs near the base, including the Kalinovskaia settlement, are thus highly controlled by the federal forces.
Early in the morning, two a/m UAZ-452 drove toward Iduev Ramzan's house (7, Filatova Street), fifteen armed people came out wearing camouflage clothes. According to eyewitnesses, only four of them had masks on their face. The armed people burst into the house and shot everybody, who was there at that moment, except the one-year-old child. They killed: the house-owner Ramzan Iduev, his wife Zura Bitieva, their son Idris Iduev and Zura Bitieva's brother Abubakar Bitiev.
Eldard, Ramzan and Zura's other son, lived in the same yard, in a separate house. He woke up because of the noise and saw armed people running toward his parents' house. He quickly made his bed and hide himself behind an armchair. Two armed people then came into his room. They lighted it with a torch. Seeing that the bed was clean, one of them said to the other in Russian "it is empty, there is nobody here", after which they left the room taking along with them the video recorder. Eldard Iduev waited until the armed people left his house and ran to his parents' where he found his brother, his uncle and his parents killed. His one-year-old child that was sleeping in a puddle near Zura, had his mouth glued up and was bloody but still alive.
Within few minutes, the Iduev's neighbors, who also saw the armed people, came to the house. According to them, four of the killers had masks on their face (they could be Chechens), however, most of the armed people did not have masks and therefore witnesses clearly saw that they were not Chechens. One of the neighbors told the employee of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" that before going to Iduev's, the armed people had come to her, raised her from her bed and glued up her mouth. They then demanded her to show her passport. Seeing it, one of them watched her carefully and said, " It is not her". They took the passport and left the house. She found her passport at the Iduev's near Zura Bitieva's dead body.
In the same morning, the hypothetical same armed group killed Turpal Ismailov in his house (Kooperativnaia street) and another local inhabitant Islambek Gadiev, shot in his house as well (Oktiabraskaia street).
Officials and investigation institutions of the Region did not express any assumption regarding the murderers. Local people think that the murderers clearly wanted to punish the Iduev's family. Zura Bitieva was well-known in Chechnya for having actively participated in antimilitary meetings and speeches during the first as well as the second war.
On January, 25 2000 Z.Bitieva had been taken into custody by the Russian soldiers for one month in the SIZO of Chernokosovo. After her release, she had been ill for a long time. She therefore had not participated in meetings against the military practices in violation of Human rights in Chechnya. She addressed a complaint to the European Court in Strasbourg regarding the Russian military practices. In the beginning of February 2003 Z.Bitieva had been part of the group of women that demand the opening of the burial place discovered near the Kapustino settlement (Naurskij region).
In the middle of March 2003, in the Uzlovaia station (Shelkovskij region) policemen arrested Idris Iduev and Abubakar Bitiev for having in possession illegal drugs. The policemen had thrown up in their pockets small packets of unidentified substances. Z. Bitieva thus accused the policemen of forgery and tried to prove it. She spoke to the authorities of the region and clearly stated the forgery against her relatives. As a result, one of the policemen in the capacity of witness regarding this case, hit her on the face. Zura Bitieva had not said this fact to her family in order not to aggravate the situation avoiding eventual replies from her close relatives. In the beginning of May, the trial began: I. Iduev and A. Bitiev had been accused of having in possession narcotics without dealing purposes, for one year.
We must notice that Zura Bitieva is the second victim among those who had dared, in different times, to complain to the Court of Strasbourg. Earlier, Saeed Mogamed Imakaev, inhabitant of Novie-Atagui ( Shalinskij region-Chechen Republic) had been taken away from his house and disappeared. He had complained to the court against the Russian soldiers who had kidnapped his son.
