Human Rights Center "Memorial"

Market raids.

In recent days, the central market of the city of Groznyi has become the target of raids by Russian servicemen, and it has not always been possible to work out exactly to which units these soldiers belong.

At 5.00 a.m. on 29 April, all the entrances and exits of the market were blocked by military hardware: tanks, armoured personnel carriers and URAL trucks. The Russian military's version of events was that an operation was being carried out to check passports. But in actual fact, the servicemen broke open and raided the store rooms, appropriating, in the main, spirits and tobacco products. The stolen property also included, however, bedding, as well as audio and video cassettes.

The store room guards at the market were unarmed because of their low rank. They were subjected by the servicemen to abuse and assaults. Some of the guards were threatened with physical violence. Seven men, all of whom were carrying with them, in addition to their identification papers, work permits, stating that they worked at the market, were detained and taken away to the interior ministry post for the Zavod region. There they were held until 2.00 p.m., when they were released at the request of women traders from the market.

The servicemen did not let anyone, including the traders whose goods had been in the store rooms, into the market until 9.30 a.m. Some sectors remained sealed off until midday (the market was divided up into four sectors, in each of which a separate unit operated). When the cordon was finally lifted, the market's administration staff discovered that their premises had been devastated: doors had been smashed in and equipment had been ruined, or, in some cases, stolen.

The women, who worked as traders at the market, set off for the Zavod region temporary interior ministry post, where they demanded the immediate release of the store room guards.

Representatives of the market administration and their lawyer met the same day with the chief of staff of the military command for the Zavod region and also with the chief of staff of the command for the city of Groznyi. They succeeded in speaking with the commandant of the city of Groznyi, Filatov, and the acting commandant for the Republic of Chechnya major-general Tret'yakov.

The market staff first tried to find out from them the unit to which the servicemen, who had raided the market, belonged. However, in response, it was explained to them that command of the "operation" was in the hands of general V Baranov, commander of Russian forces in Chechnya.

Tret'yakov, in turn, stated that a special operation had been carried out at the market, to locate and detain people who had, allegedly, been killing people there. He expressed disbelief at reports that servicemen had carried out looting in the course of the operation.

Several women, whose goods had been appropriated by the soldiers, and the market administration itself, delivered statements to the public prosecutor's office.

Victims' testimony:

Mohammed-Emin Khadzhimuradov, store room guard

On 1 May, the events were repeated, but this time the search began at about 10.00 a.m. The market was again blocked off completely. Servicemen, just as the previous day, took away young men, without asking to see their papers, except that this time they were detained in a particularly vicious manner. They beat up the young men and hit the women who tried to hang on to them with their machine-gun butts and fired at their feet. One of the girls received a gunshot wound to the head. They hit a young boy and bundled his father into a car. The boy was left on his own, and would have got lost, but for the women, who looked after him. Among those detained was a man suffering from gastritis, who had been on his way to hospital for a check-up, and who had been carrying with him all of his personal and medical papers. His papers were ripped up and he was bundled into a car. At the intersection of Pobeda prospect and Chernyshevskii street, servicemen blew up two small cars.

Women as well as men were not allowed out of the market. Several women and girls would not let the men go, knowing they could be killed, as had happened during the attack on the market on 26 November 2000. The detainees were taken to a place by the circus, where the interior ministry headquarters for the Republic of Chechnya is now based under the command of Arenin. There they were thrown out of the cars and then the servicemen jumped straight down on top of them. This was especially hard on the man suffering from gastritis. In total more than 30 people were taken away from the market. 23 people were taken to the Zavod temporary interior ministry post. A crowd of women burst through the cordon and made its way to the temporary interior ministry post for the Zavod region. The head of the regional administration, the chief of staff of the regional command and the commander of the Chechen OMON [riot police/special police force], Musa Gazimagomedov also turned up there. The detainees were squatting in the yard of the temporary interior ministry post. The head of the post, Igor Anatol'evich Khrenov, ordered a doctor to inspect the new arrivals. The doctor observed that they had all been severely beaten and the man who was suffering from gastritis was given medical assistance. The head of the post and the regional commander responded to angry complaints of the inhabitants at the actions of the servicemen by saying that what had gone on at the market had been carried out by units which were not under their command and that they had only been able to put a stop to their excesses with great difficulty. They said that since 1 March (?), when the resolution was passed to transfer command of the anti-terrorist operation to the interior ministry (?), the unified operations structure for the troops based in Groznyi had started to disintegrate..

After their documents were checked, almost all of the detainees were released. Only three men, suspected of being involved in thefts and drug-dealing, remained at the post.

The women trading at the bazaar were robbed again. This time mainly food was taken.

On the night of 1 to 2 May, three civilian locals were killed. One of them was Abubakarov Bislan Abusoltovich, born 1968, who lived in a village in the Kharkov Shelkovskii region and who, from birth had been mentally subnormal. During the day he played on the balalaika and begged at the market. At night, he helped to guard the store rooms. He had serious leg and wounds and wounds to his liver. He survived until 3.00 a.m., but it was not possible to get him medical assistance in time because of the curfew. Also, the guard who tried to look after Bislan, was afraid for his own life.

The second of these three was Zhabrailov Abdul-Mutalib Abdurachmanovich, born 1955, who lived in the village Katar-yurt. He worked under contract in Groznyi for an organisation which took down bombed-out buildings. His pay was not enough to feed his family, so at night he also helped guard the store rooms. He left behind four daughters aged two to fourteen years. He also had gunshot wounds to the legs and liver and a knife wound near his heart.

The third lived in the town of Chervlennaya. He too was doing extra work on the side at the market.

The local inhabitants were especially upset by the death of Bislan, an unfortunate enough man as it was. A crowd of demonstrators gathered spontaneously at the market. The demonstrators blocked off the road and demanded a meeting with the administration staff and the military command. They accused them of criminal behaviour, turning a blind eye to murder and theft. Regardless of the fact that the market, almost immediately, became a centre for drug-dealing, the settling of scores between gangsters and a target for thieves, it was immediately decided that responsibility for the security of the market should be handed over to the Chechnya OMON [riot police/special police force] headed by M Gazimagomedovym. The OMON took up their duties there and then. The OMON commander is sure that they will be able to stop the gangsters, regardless of what uniform they are wearing.