Human Rights Center "Memorial"

"Clean-up" operations in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt
October to November 2001

From 10 to 15 October 2001 in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt in the Kurchaloe region a passport check or so-called "clean-up" operation was carried out.

The village was sealed off by a large number of armoured vehicles. Unconfirmed reports state that up to 500 military lorries, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and armoured cars were drawn up in the village.

The operation followed the pattern already familiar in Chechnya. People were led out of their homes, they were rounded up on the edge of the village, in a field, where a passport check was carried out. This process took two days, and many people spent all of this time in the open air. 37 people were arrested during the passport check. All of those detained were subjected to beatings and torture. Magomed Mutaev and his son were particularly savagely beaten as was Aslambek Khadaev, whom the Russian soldiers hit over the head with a hammer (after his release, doctors had to stitch his head in three places). After 15 October, the majority of those arrested returned home.

However, the whereabouts of the detainees Islam Dzhambekov, Mukhada Khamzatov and Mandiev Mandiev (the last of whom was under eighteen years old) is still unknown. Eye-witnesses say that they were beaten particularly savagely.

Two women from the village who tried to intervene on behalf of relatives who were being beaten were wounded. They were Birlant Dzhanalieva (whose husband's surname is Vakhaev) and Seda Ortsueva. The soldiers opened fire on them with the grenade launchers attached to their guns and then delivered them to the Kurchala regional centre hospital.

A large number of thefts were recorded as having been carried out by Russian soldiers during the "clean-up". The soldiers took anything of value (carpets, video and audio equipment, women's jewellery etc.) from local homes.

Furthermore, the soldiers raided the mill in the village. They drove around the village with the stolen flour in two APCs and offered it to the local people for sale; first for 200 roubles a sack (the market value is between 250 and 270 roubles a sack) and then for between 100 and 150 roubles.

The haystacks of a number of villagers, which they had set by for the winter, were set alight. On the edge of the village the soldiers blew up an empty house.

On the edge of Tsotsin-Yurt is a primitive oil refinery. At first the soldiers wanted to destroy the oil storage containers. Then a group of soldiers led by officers decided to extort money from the oil refinery workers, threatening to blow up not only the installation for producing ersatz-petrol, but also their homes. The workers conceded to the soldiers' demands.

One local inhabitant, who wished to remain unnamed, explained what happened in the courtyard of his house. On the second day of the "clean-up", about ten Russian soldiers walked into the courtyard. Pointing to a small tank for carrying oil, one of the, apparently an officer, asked the owner of the house how much he was prepared to pay to stop him blowing it up. The soldier became really furious when the owner of the house offered him 200 roubles. Following some bargaining, he agreed to take 2,000 roubles.

During the "clean-up" the village herd was not taken out to pasture and, moreover, around 100 head of cattle were killed. The dead animals were taken away by the soldier to eat.

At night, the soldiers periodically opened fire at the roofs and windows of the houses.

Every single representative, without exception, of the Russian armed forces who took part in the operation, used obscenities and many of them were drunk.

In addressing locals soldiers often shouted threats such as: "We are going to purge you all by springtime and then we are going to send you to Siberia"; "Get out before we slaughter you all"; "We killed you in the past and we are going to carry on killing you" etc.

According to statements from military sources, in the course of the operation, stores and caches were found, containing a large number of weapons and ammunition. Seven members of illegal armed groups were killed. However, locals maintain that the seven people killed during the "clean-up" were not fighters but inhabitants of neighbouring villages, working in Tsotsin-Yurt extracting and refining oil. They were shot while trying to hide.

One of the interior ministry troops was wounded while opening up a cache in which a Kalashnikov machine-gun had been rigged to a trip wire to fire automatically.

On the morning of 7 November, the village of Tsotsin-Yurt was sealed off by Russian troops. At around 12.00, the soldiers began to carry out a "clean-up". The special operation in the village lasted until 12 November.

The military commander for the Kurchaloe region, Terent'ev and the head of the FSB security service for the region took part in the operation.

At the time, there were 70 people in the village who were not locals and who were in transit through the village. A lot of people had arrived in the village that day for the burial of the local mullah who had died on the previous day. The village was blockaded for two days; no-one was let in or out.

The soldiers did not even let out a pregnant woman who was in need of urgent medical attention. Only on 9 November, on the Kurchaloe side of the village did they start letting out women and children towards evening. In the course of the "clean-up" 30 people were arrested on one street alone. On Zarechnaya street, the entire male population was taken away. They were taken to the mill, where for 72 hours they were interrogated, beaten and subjected to torture.

The majority of those arrested were then released for a ransom payment. However, after the "clean-up" was over, the soldiers took 16 people away with them.

One local inhabitant was killed during the "clean-up". The soldiers claim that he was a fighter, however, the village population disagrees and claims that Buivasar Usmanov, born 1977, did not offer any resistance. The soldiers opened fire and wounded him in the leg. The man hid in a hay-rick. Seeing this, the soldiers fired into the hay-rick from a grenade launcher. The hay caught fire and the wounded man was burnt alive.

Information concerning armed robbery by Russian troops was recorded in the course of the "clean-up". Soldiers took away a variety of things from local homes, from personal hygiene products to audio and television equipment and domestic appliances. The soldiers took food from people's homes and slaughtered cows. Property which they could not take with them, they put out of commission: they destroyed cars, burnt hay, smashed furniture etc.

Serious damage was suffered by the following home-owners: the Ibragimovs of Stepnaya street (home blown up); Yakub Askhabov of Chapaev street (home blown up and soldiers slaughtered two cows); the Akhmadovs (several sheep killed and one cow); the Maidevs; Saipudi Magomadov of Sovetskaya street; Isy Azizov of Sovetskaya street; and Butsal Meshiev of Gagarin street.

Another house was raided and blown up on Zarechnaya street. Its owner is being treated in Astrakhan.

Inhabitants of the village Tsotsin-Yurt have given witness statements that the soldiers behaved obscenely and insulted and mocked the locals. Instances were reported in the village of soldiers trying to sell ammunition while at the same time threatening to arrest people for illegally storing weapons.

On 21 November between 1700 and 1800, 16 people arrested during the most recent "clean-up" in Tsotsin-Yurt were released; most of them for a ransom payment. Officials in the commandant's office in Kurchaloe in the building where they were held, received 5,000 roubles for each of them.

The last to be released, when it was already dark, was Aindi Khamirzaev. He was put on a bus at the gates of the commandant's office.

A. Khamirzaev's index finger on one hand had been broken and his other fingers burnt. His heels had also been burnt. He was immediately taken to the intensive care unit of the Kurchaloe hospital.

Testimony of Khalipat Abumuslimovna Akh'yadova, born in 1959, living in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt on Sovetskaya street. She lives with her children and the sick wife of her brother (who died in 1996). There are three children: a daughter, born in 1992, and two boys, aged eight and five:

"On 9 November, during the "clean-up", my brother, Musa Akh'yadov, was arrested. He is 39 and the father of five children. Musa has a certificate confirming that he is mentally ill. It was issued in 1984. In the evening, on the same day, after beating him severely, the soldiers released him. They did not give back his passport or certificate.

The "clean-up" began in the morning at 9.00. In my house and in Musa's house the soldiers carried out a search and took away a lot of things: the televisions, crockery, bedding etc. They forced my dead brother's wife to buy back her own television. She had to pay the soldiers 1,000 roubles, otherwise they threatened to take the television away with them.

The looting on our street started after they had taken away all the men. They put them in a bus belonging to my neighbour, Ismailov, the operator of the grain elevator, and took them away to the base of the interior ministry brigade on the edge of Tstotsin-Yurt. It is near the checkpoint.

The soldiers forced the owner of the bus to take the men there. They released him later towards evening.

The relatives of the 11 men arrested during the "clean-up" in our village paid 5,000 roubles for each of them. Only then were they released from the Kurchaloe commandant's office. They were held for ten days there. But three of them, Eriskhanov and the two Sultanovs, did not get their documents back.

During the searches, URAL or KAMAZ trucks were driven into the yards of the buildings being searched and the soldiers loaded into them all the most valuable property: carpets, furniture, building materials, video and audio equipment etc. They did not allow neighbours to visit each other during the searches."

Testimony of Malika Ortsueva, born 1940, living in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt at 11 Mir street:

"A "clean-up" began in the village on 13 October. The soldiers appeared at our house at around midday.

With me in the yard were my sons, born in 1975 and 1986 and my 19 year-old daughter Seda and also Birlant Dzhanalieva and her son.

I live on the edge of the village and not far from some land plots which haven't been built on. Ayub Ortsuev's house is closer to these plots. He is the son of my brother-in-law.

The soldiers straightaway burst into his house and beat him up.

Then they made his wife and son lie down on the ground and led him outside blindfolded and with his hands tied. The stopped by an armoured personnel carrier and started hitting him even harder.

One of the soldiers, I saw this with my own eyes, as did the other women from our street, was hitting him in the ribs with a hammer. Later he said that several ribs and his nose were broken.

We rushed to help Ayub. But the soldiers told us not to come any closer and then they fired into the crowd from a launcher [a grenade launcher fixed underneath the barrel of a machine-gun]. Seda [Ortsueva] and Birlant Dzanalieva were wounded. The grenade did not explode, which is the only reason there were not more casualties.

The soldiers took away the wounded women, gave them first-aid and sent them off to Kurchaloe hospital.

Ayub Ortsuev was taken away to the military post between the villages of Mairtup and Kurchaloe.

They held him in a field and brought him inside under an awning to torture him with electric shocks. He was held there until 18 October together with other detainees from the village. Throughout this time they did not remove the blindfold from his eyes.

There were 37 people there. Mukhadi Khamzatov, born 1971, and Aslambek Dashazaev, born 1980, did not return home.

The soldiers used to take money and go away. People used to refine oil in the village and they had money. Now they are taking food and equipment. They tear down curtains and rip furniture. Each of them carries a knife with him, especially to do this with. They shout obscenities. No sooner do you start telling them not to take things, than they grab the men and say that they are taking them instead. The soldiers took from our home all the flour, sugar and jars of preserves. What they couldn't carry, they smashed. They caught all the chickens in the yard.

Almost all of them were masked."

Testimony of Birlant Dzhanalieva, born 1966:

"They took me and Seda to the Kurchaloe hospital in an APC.

During the first night we were both operated on. The next day [i.e. 14 October] the hospital was sealed off as the "clean-ups" had begun in Kurchaloe. For four days, the soldiers would not let the doctors into the hospital.

The soldiers themselves were in the hospital almost the whole time. They broke into the wards and stood around smoking in the corridors. They shouted obscenities and threatened the patients.

There was only one doctor in the hospital, Salamu from Mairtup. The soldiers dragged him across the courtyard, claiming that they had found a weapon somewhere and that he had to explain where it had come from. None of it was true, they were just teasing him.

There were four women on our ward, all of them with gunshot wounds. One had been wounded in Kurchaloe; they brought her in while we were there. The other was 25 year-old Kurzhan, living in Mairtup. In June, after soldiers had killed her ten year-old boy, there was a protest demonstration in the village. Soldiers fired on the demonstration and Kurzhan was wounded in the knee-cap. They did this several times during the day. When they were told how we had been wounded, the soldiers almost always said: "Pity they didn't finish you off".

There was nothing to eat in the hospital. Because of the "clean-up" of the village, and later, because of regular road-blocks on the roads leading into the regional centre, relatives could not get to the hospital.

So the doctor bandaged up me and Aset and on 20 October transferred us to the Tsotsin-Yurt hospital.

We stayed there until 6 November but could not complete our recovery, because as the village was sealed off by troops again, we thought it better to go home.

In Tsotsin-Yurt a second "clean-up" was beginning and the soldiers kicked us out. Therefore we went to Nazran'."

"On the night of 6 or 7 October, mortar rounds landed in my yard and that of my neighbour, Zulaa Abdulkadyrova. One of the shells hit my house in which I live with my family and two other families and destroyed it. The outhouse was also destroyed in the explosions.

An explosion destroyed Z. Abdulkadyrova's trading stall in which there was food worth no less than 24,000 roubles. Everything that remained in the stall was taken away by soldiers during the October "clean-ups".

I and two of my children (18 month-old Rasul and Makka who is two years' old) were wounded.

As soon as I heard the noise of explosions nearby I tried to get them out of bed. Unwittingly, I shielded them with my body. The shrapnel barely grazed the children, but I was hit twenty-one times and was unconscious for two days.

The attack came from the direction of the Interior Ministry division which is now based on the edge of the village where formerly the local state farm field brigade was based.

The next day, the inhabitants of the village went to the checkpoint and demanded that the attacks stop. But the soldiers told them: "We fired in the past, we continue to fire and we are going to carry on firing" and laughed.

That evening, they again fired on the village with mortars. This time there were no casualties among the villagers, but local cattle were killed and about ten homes were destroyed.

I spent 20 days in the village hospital, but the doctor was not able to remove all of the shrapnel.

The October "clean-up" started while I was still there. Soldiers in masks came into the wards and started trying to find out from the patients where they got their wounds. The doctor, who was called Bilal, told me to tell them that I had been attacked by dogs.

It didn't come to that, as Bilal did not let them into our ward, telling them that there were seriously ill patients there.

The soldiers carried out a search of the hospital, turning over mattresses and pillows, and trying to take up the tiled floor, saying that weapons were there. They broke the tiling in several places. They said later that the soldiers took away medical equipment, surgical instruments and medicines from the operating theatre. They took dressings. They smashed the glass in all the windows.

They beat up Bilal and the put the driver of the ambulance on the ground and beat him with their rifle butts. Then they took the stretchers from the ambulance.

The x-ray machine was taken from the hospital. The soldiers smashed the locks on almost every door and broke the doors themselves.

For a whole week, while the "clean-up" progressed, the doctors did not leave the hospital. They tried to help both those who were already patients and those who came to the hospital later. They found medicine.

The doctors had hidden some of the medicaments in the homes of local people. Some of these had been saved.

A small amount of medicine and some of the hospital beds had been hidden with 60 year-old Ilias. The soldiers arrested him and took him away with them. They beat him and then let him go. The soldiers confiscated the beds and medicines, even though all the documentation for them was in order.

During the November "clean-up" I was already back home. The soldiers saw my destroyed house and smashed doors and windows, and asked how it had happened.

When I told them about the attack, they said that in all likelihood "fighters were shooting at the soldiers and they returned fire…".

They asked where my husband was and asked for my daughter's documents. They saw my children and said: "you all have children but no husbands, how is that?"

I had to explain that my husband had been in an accident and had died ten years ago.

From my neighbour Zulai Abdulkadyrova the soldiers took a case of mineral water, a tape player and a video player.

She tried to stop them, and barred the way, saying that she would not let them take her property. But this didn't help.

The November "clean-up" was carried out by "conscripts", very young boys. Zulai asked them: "Did they teach you to steal?" They answered that they are taught everything.

And then, on 8 October, Russian soldiers took Ali Idigov from our village. He was repairing his motorbike in the street by our yard. He was trying to jump start it, rolling it along the dike. Just then, a car pulled up to him with some unidentified soldiers inside. They called Ali over, put him in the back, and drove off.

Ali Idigova's body was found by villagers from Ilaskhan-Yurt a few days later. He was buried near the military post on the edge of the village on land of the former collective farm brigade.

Soldiers would not let anyone near the place for a long time, saying that it was mined. When they finally allowed people through, the bodies of those that they had killed were discovered.

The remains of A. Idigov were first buried in Ilaskhan-Yurt and then moved to the cemetery at Tsotsin-Yurt".

Testimony of Saman Akhmatova, born 1949, living in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt in the Kurchaloe region on Stepnaya street:

"My mother is 84 years old. We live on her pension. My only son died in August 1996. What the Russians are doing in Tsotsin-Yurt cannot be described in words.

On 7 November a "clean-up" was carried out in the village. The soldiers burst into the house and robbed us. They drove off the bull and took all the food: butter, sugar, rice, potatoes, flour and pickles. Then they took away the electricity generator.

On the day of the "clean-up", our neighbour left her children (18 months and two years old) with us and went to visit her parents. Several times the soldiers put me against the wall and threatened to shoot me if I did not give them the names of fighters. All the time I was holding my neighbour's child in my arms, the other was standing next to me and the machine-guns were pointed at him as well. There are lots of witnesses to this among my neighbours.

From the morning right through until evening, dozens of soldiers were in our courtyard, searching it with the help of metal detectors. They were looking for weapons.

We live on the edge of the village and three groups of Russians visited us. First came the young ones, probably "conscripts". They simply checked us and left.

The second lot were older and also behaved ok.

The third group were complete bandits. They were between about 35 and 50 years' old. They were all drunk, were vulgar and swore heavily. They took everything in the house and threatened to shoot me and my mother (we live together), if we didn't tell them where our husbands were, what we had done with the young men etc.

That evening the Russians took us out into the courtyard and blew up our house, having first taken away a two carpets and a few other things not worth very much.

My mother is a famous vegetable grower. She has won medals: "The Order of Lenin", the "Order of the October Revolution", "Hero of Socialist Labour" and the "Badge of Honour". For a long time she was deputy of the regional Soviet. All her medals were burnt, everything was lost.

The Russians say that they are fighting terrorism. In actual fact they themselves are the terrorists and bandits. They asked us, for example, for vodka and hashish.

In the "clean-up" 33 brigades took part along with divisions of the FSB security service. The numbers of the armoured vehicles had been painted over, but on one armoured personnel carrier and one armoured car I was able to make out the numbers 210 and 218".

Testimony of Kheda Kukaeva, born 1937, living in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt in the Kurchaloev region:

"In the autumn of 2000, sometime towards the end of September, I went to Gudermes to see my brother. In the centre of the town, seeing a crowd of women, demonstrating against the excesses and violence of the Russian army we joined them. Shortly afterwards, some Chechens drove up in UAZ vehicles. They were from Department 6. In an attempt to break up the demonstration, they attacked people and started beating them with clubs.

When they dragged out an old man, I went up to them and asked them to leave him alone.

But the Department 6 men started herding the women into a group. I ended up with them. There were six of us. The seventh was the old man. They beat us with clubs, although I asked them not to do this as I had just had a stomach operation.

Most of those detained were women from Argun and Dzhalka.

They took us to some sort of building (the commandant's office or the police station, I don't know which) and put us in cells.

In our cell, meant for four people, there were three of us.

We were held by Russians. The men from Department 6 had handed us over to them.

They held us in the cell for ten days. They took us to interrogations, questioned us about who had organised the protest and how much we had been paid to take part. They tried to frighten us by saying that if we did not tell them everything they would simply find any old charge to book us with. They promised to let us go, even to take us home, to pay us money, if we told them the whole "truth".

My relatives found out that I had been arrested. It took them eight days to locate me. On the eleventh day of my detention I was set free.

The Russians did not treat us women badly. We were injured when they were taking us away from the demonstration. The men from Department 6 beat us savagely. They hit one of the women, who was old and ill, in the chest and broke her ribs.

During the most recent "clean-up" in the village, the Russian soldiers took all the property and food from our home. They smashed the windows and broke the doors. Now we live in somebody else's house".

Testimony of Amkhada Vakhaev, born 1963, living in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt in the Kurchaloe region:

"…During the searches the Russians tormented people. They took up the floors in houses, smashed holes in the walls, apparently looking for "caches" of arms. They poured flour and sugar on the ground or mixed them together.

They beat me as well because I said something. Four soldiers knocked me down with the butts of their guns and kicked me. This all took place in front of my children. The only reason they did not take me away was that my wife was wounded. They took away the documents and the number plates from my car. Later I had to buy them back…"