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HR news |
Special Operation in the village of Raduzhnoe on 18 July 2001
Human Rights Centre "Memorial" has already reported on the tragic events which took place on 18 July 2001 in the village of Raduzhnoe.
On 17 September, the Chairman of the council of Human Rights Centre "Memorial", Oleg Orlov, and a worker from Human Rights Centre "Memorial", Eliza Musaeva, visited the village of Raduzhnoe and interviewed local inhabitants who were relatives of those who had disappeared or who had been killed. The following is a more precise description of those events, put together from these interviews.
The village of Raduzhnoe is about 11 kilometres to the north west of Groznyi. It is directly on the border with the village of Dolinskii and two kilometres from it is the village of Pobedinskoye.
At 5.30 a.m. on 18 July 2001, a group of soldiers burst in house number 7 (Novaya street, Raduzhnoe village). Some of them were wearing masks. (Local inhabitants believe that masks are worn by Chechens serving in CIA special forces. According to some reports, a special forces division of the Central Intelligence Administration of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation is stationed in buildings of a former industrial concern in the north west region of the Staropromyslovskii region of Groznyi). In the house at that time were living: Ali Isaevich Uspaev, born 1952, his stepson Amir Alievich Mogomedov, born 1976 and Ali Aspaev's wife, Nabisat Khalitova.
The soldiers put Nabisat Khalitova on the floor, put sacks over the heads of Ali and Amir, tied their hands behind their backs and took them out into the courtyard. Then the soldiers turned upside down everything in the house, seized the first documents which came to hand (it turned out that these documents belonged to relatives of the detainees), and left the house. Ali Uspaev's wife immediately rushed to her brother-in-law's house, to Ali's brother, Idris Uspaev. He immediately ran out into the street and was able to spot a group of soldiers, leaving Novaya street on the Groznyi-Goragorskii road. Running along the road after them, Idris saw four armoured personnel carriers, surrounded by soldiers. About 10 to 15 metres from them on the bridge across the Alkhanchurtskii canal, stood a white "Zhiguli" car. A group of soldiers were doing something nearby. At that moment, the soldiers who were by the armoured personnel carriers, opened fire on Idris Uspaev. He rushed back along the street. Then he heard an explosion and then the sound of the armoured vehicles departing.
The inhabitants of the village, running to the scene, could not find any trace of Ali Uspaev and Amir Magomedov, who had been kidnapped. Then they saw that the Zhiguli car which was standing on the bridge was on fire (it later transpired that it had been doused in petrol and blown up with a grenade; bullet holes were found on the body of the car). In two places, on either side of the car, at a distance of about ten metres, pools of blood were found on the ground. Later, the inhabitants dug up bullets from these sites.
It quickly transpired that the car which had been destroyed had belonged to Aslan Vakhaevich Dakaev, born 1977, from the village of Pobedinskoye (Tsvetochnaya street number 13). That morning, together with Rustam Achkhanov, born 1982, from the same village (Yubileinaya street, number 15) he had driven to the village of Dolinskii.
It appears that on entering Raduzhnoe, the young men accidentally met the soldiers who had taken the two locals prisoner and were about to leave. They opened fire on Dakaev's car. The driver and passenger jumped out, but were not able to run far. The soldiers caught up with them and shot them, having already got off "warning" shots. The soldiers carried off the bodies and destroyed the car. However, their parents continue to hope that Achkhanov and Dakaev are still alive.
On the same day, the angry inhabitants of the villages of Raduzhnoe and Pobedinskoye went out onto the road which goes through their villages from Groznyi to the village of Goragorskii and on to the Nadterechnyi region. They stopped on the road and blocked all traffic along it. The blockade of the road lasted two days.
It was precisely at this time that the minister of justice of the Russian Federation, Yurii Chaika, was visiting Chechnya. On the morning of 18 July, his motorcade had to stop in the Raduzhnoye region because of an unexpected obstacle. The minister got out to talk to the people, listened to their stories of what had happened, saw the the shell of the burnt out car and the pools of blood and promised: "We will sort out what has happened. The guilty will be punished!".
The minister was accompanied on his trip through Chechnya by a film crew from NTV. This channel reported on 19 July that "in the village of Pobedinskoye four local inhabitants were detained unlawfully".
The next day, the head of the administration for the Groznyi village region and representatives of the procurator's office came out to see the people continuing to block the road. The head of the administration reassured the people, saying: "We will ensure that within two days, all the detainees will be returned!".
However, then soldiers drove up to the crowd. They said that if the blockade was not stopped, then force would be used.
Indris Uspaev, brother of the detainee Ali Uspaev, headmaster of the middle school of the village of Dolinskii, delivered the request to go home to his fellow villagers. He was hoping that the authorities would fulfil their promises and [was worried that] a confrontation might harm his detained relatives.
The inhabitants of the villages of Pobedinskoye and Raduzhnoe ended their protest action after two days. These events are described in the article of Yu. Vasiliev "The people's checkpoint" ("Moskovskie Novosti" No30 2001).
However, days went by and neither the detained people (nor their bodies) turned up. Nor was it clarified which division had carried out the special operation in Raduzhnoe. From unofficial sources, local inhabitants received information that the arrests were carried out by soldiers from DON-100 (the 100th division for operational purposes of the interior troops for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation).
Relatives of those who had disappeared made official statements and complaints to the procurator of the Chechen Republic, to the military procurator, to the regional administration, to the Federal Security Service and to the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens and people in the Chechen Republic. Criminal proceedings have been started and witnesses have been interviewed. However, the plaintiffs have not yet had any answers from a single official authority.
Furthermore, the chairman of the military procurator's office (Khankala) stated to the person who had come to see him, by way of an answer to Idris Uspaev: "This case has been sent to Rostov. Why don't you go there if you want to follow it up!" Get out of here!". (In Rostov, in the military procurator's office for the Northern Caucasus region, a special group has been set up to investigate crimes committed by servicemen against the civilian population of Chechnya).
"Memorial" intends to clarify this situation and to follow the progress of the investigation. However, unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that this investigation will be drawn out in the same manner as the investigation of the kidnapping and murder by soldiers of three inhabitants of Raduzhnoe, Said-Rakhman Musaev, Odes Metaev and Magomet Magomadov on 12 December 2000.
