Human Rights Center "Memorial"

The Tragic Events in Shatoisky Region

January 2002

In 2001, the mountainous Shatoisky region was perhaps one of the calmest and most stable regions of the Chechen Republic. Attacks on federal forces were extremely rare here and brutal "mopping up" operations hardly ever took place.

The 291^st motorized rifle regiment of the 42^nd motorized division is continuously based near the village of Borza and is building a military base. (The commander of the regiment is Anatoly Vasilievich Tarasov.) Under the auspices of the military command, a company has been created in which 68 local residents serve under contract; among these, 40 young people serve as conscripted soldiers.

The temporary department of Internal Affairs in Shatoi is housed in a former school. In 2000-2001, school lessons took place in tents set up in a square in the center of the village. Beginning in January 2002, due to the poor condition of the tents, lessons are not being held. An OMON division is stationed in the food processing plant, which makes the resumption of its work impossible. The military command is housed in the hospital. As a result, doctors are forced to provide medical care in four rooms of private houses, while sick people in need of hospital care are brought to the hospital in the city of Shali.

Although local residents are dissatisfied with a whole range of circumstances – the use of the school and hospital buildings in Shatoi, the fact that soldiers frequently obstruct them from cutting firewood in the forest and gathering hay in the hills, etc. – on the whole relations between the local population and the representatives of federal forces can be said to be quite good. With few exceptions, military servicemen have not undertaken actions that violate the rights of local residents.

On January 3, 2002 a car carrying Internal Affairs staff back to base exploded on a land mine near Shatoi. One policemen was killed and one was wounded.

On January 13, Gazeta.Ru reported that on Sunday an UAZ vehicle containing five dead passengers was discovered in the Shaitoi region of Chechnya. "According to initial reports conveyed by Interfax, the vehicle exploded on a landmine laid by fighters."

Staff from the Human Rights Center "Memorial" visited Shatoisky region on January 17 and 18, 2002, and visited the villages of Shatoi, Borza, Dai, Nokhchi-Kela and others. We talked with the deputy head of the regional administration, the leadership of the Regional Department of Internal Affairs, the heads of the village administration, and relatives of the deceased, as well as seeing the place where the people died and the burned out vehicle.

On January 11, 2002, a special operation was begun in the mountainous villages located on the banks of the Sharoargun River and its tributary, the Keloyakh, in the southeastern part of Shatoisky region. In the area of the villages of Dai and Nokhchi-Kela, a helicopter landing was made involving forces based in Khankala. According to certain information, Lieutenant Vladimir Plotnikov commanded this detachment.

At the same time, detachments of the 291^st regiment and staff from the Shatoiski military command began to move towards the villages of Dai and Nokhchi-Kela. However by the time that the military servicemen of the 291^st regiment reached these villages by the mountain roads, six civilians had been brutally killed by the military servicemen who had earlier arrived by helicopter:

1. Zaitkhan Dzhavatkhanova, 35 years old, resident of Nokhchi-Kela, mother of five children. She was returning to her village from Shatoi, where she had visited the doctor in relation to her pregnancy.
2. Said Alaskhanovich Alaskhanov, 65 years old, director of the school in the village of Nokhchi-Kela.
3. Abdul-Vakhab Abdul Kadyrovich Satabaev, 43-44 years old, director of studies at the Nokhchi-Kela village school.
4. Shakhban Mezhievich Bakhae, 44 years old, forester at the state forestry plantation in Shatoisky region.
5. Dzhamlail Imranovich Musaev, born 1971, resident of Staryi Atagi, was living temporarily with his parents in the village of Nokhchi-Kela in Shatoisky region.
6. Khamzat Gekhievich Tuburov, born 1957, resident of the village of Dai, earned money by transporting people in his own UAZ vehicle.

On the day of January 11, the UAZ vehicle being driven by Tuburov was traveling with 5 passengers from the regional center of Shatoi to the village of Nokhchi-Kela. In the village of Dai, the vehicle was shot upon by Russian military servicemen who had landed there from a helicopter.

A group of 11-12 military servicemen were based not far from Dai in the ruins of a farm, near the road leading to Nokhchi-Kela.

As a result of the shooting, two people within the vehicle were apparently killed. D. Musaev leaped out of the vehicle as it stopped and tried to run away, but he was wounded and later bled to death on the riverbank. Three people, including the woman, were captured by the military servicemen and taken to the riverbank where they were subjected to interrogation. According to police staff investigating the murders of the six residents of Shatoi region, there is reason to believe that the interrogation was accompanied by torture.

Then the military servicemen detained another vehicle passing by on the road. Employees of the Shatoisky regional administration were led away from the vehicle and made to stand with their hands in the air against the wall of the farmhouse. At that moment a BTR carrying a major from the military command arrived at the scene. The BTR was leading the main column of armored vehicles moving away from Shatoi.

The major saw the detainees and the fired upon – but still not burned – vehicle with two dead bodies. A sharp conversation took place between the major and the military servicemen who had arrived from Khankala; as a result the military servicemen were forced to release the driver and passengers of the second car they detained. But three people from the first vehicle still remained in the hands of the military servicemen. After the BTR moved along the road in the direction of Nokhchi-Kela, the three people were killed, their bodies were put in the UAZ and the vehicle was set on fire.

Soldiers of the 291^st regiment saw the burning UAZ with five bodies in it as the arrived at the village of Dai.

According to the police investigating the case, there is reason to believe that two of the men had their throats cut.

On that very day representatives of the prosecutor's office and the police came to the scene of the crime from Shatoi. On the following day, January 12, the bodies of the dead and the burned vehicle were brought to Shatoi by employees of the Internal Affairs of Kurchaloevsky region.

On the evening of January 11 and the day of January 12 a "mopping up" operation was conducted in the villages of Dai and Nokhchi-Kela. Residents feel that this special operation was, on the whole, carried out correctly.

On January 12 a group of military servicemen (possible the same ones who were based at the former farm) seized a local resident's Niva, threatening to shoot the driver and passengers. They forced the driver to take them in the direction of Shatoi. The vehicle was stopped by representatives of the Shatoisky military command and the soldiers were removed from the car.

However that day none of the soldiers was detained on suspicion of murder.

On the afternoon of January 12, all detachments participating in the special operation were re-stationed to the 291^st regiment in Borza. There the military servicemen who had been based at the ruined farm in Dai were detained.

Representatives of the local civilian administration and Internal Affairs employees from Shatoisky region were invited to the military station. The detained military servicemen confessed to the murders in their presence.

It seems to us that the tragedy can be explained by the fact that the military servicemen, arriving from Khankala to the relative calm of Shatoisky region, acted in the way that they were accustomed to acting in the course of "mopping up" operations in other regions (for example, Kurchaloevsky), based upon the same directives and stereotypes:

• The local population, on the whole, is the enemy;
• Everything in war can be written off;
• It's impossible to fight against bandits and terrorists using legal means.

These military servicemen reacted to the reality of Shatoisky region absolutely differently than those of the 291^st regiment. They acted in the way they were accustomed to acting. It's possible that they allowed themselves to act even more freely, thinking that in this distant "bandit" mountainous region they could "get away" with anything since in many other regions of Chechnya such crimes go unpunished. Finding themselves in "enemy territory," these soldiers tried to act like a reconnaissance team deep behind enemy lines: to seize prisoners who will talk, to drag information out of them using any methods, and to destroy any accidental witnesses.