REPORT

We, the residents of corpuses ¹3,4,5 and 6 of building ¹131 of the micro-district of "Hippodromniy" are appealing to you with the request that you consider our report carefully, make an appropriate decision and implement relevant measures.

Over the last two or three weeks, we have literally been terrorised. The situation in the area surrounding the street where we live has reached the extreme due to the diversion tactics being conducted on B. Khmel'nintski Street i.e. bombings and shootings from armed personnel carriers as a result of which, as far as we can tell, strangely, we, the residents of the aforementioned buildings are the only victims.

In each diversion, federal troops opened heavy indiscriminate fire on our houses with any type of weapon in their possession. There was no return fire from the buildings because there were no Chechen dissidents housed there. The federal troops shouted insults such as "there are men in there, chichki [federal troops name for Chechens - translator] come out" at the residents of the building.

After the federal troops had fired on the buildings, so-called "cleansing" operations were then carried out.

The most recent "cleansing" operation was conducted on 12^th October and was of a particularly scandelous nature (altogether there were three in the last week.) All women and children were marched out of their flats into the yard and then their homes were searched without the presence of eye-witnesses, official witnesses for searches or representatives of the local authorities and the Procuracy. The doors of the flats, whose owners were, for various reasons, absent were kicked in particularly viscously and destructively.

As the result of such of searches and "cleansing" operations, call them what you wish, items of value and also money disappeared from certain residences which was reported to the authorities who supervised these operations immediately after they were carried out, but in vain. The victims were advised to report the theft the next day Temporary Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and, furthermore, to compose a written report which none of them wanted to do being aware of the current state of affairs.

Apart from all this, a resident from corpus No3, Arsamakov, was also abducted without reason and was then released within a couple of hours having been beaten. During the "cleansing" operation, certain residents of the building were eye-witnesses to threats made by the federal troops to bomb the building if the diversions continued.

Against a backdrop of all of the aforementioned, we must also bear in mind that the residents of our building were, on various occasions, eye-witnesses, to the unfounded casting of hand grenades and machine-gun fire at the premises of a veterinary hospital and a two-storey private residence opposite the vets, from armed personnel carriers travelling along the street.

Based on the aforementioned, we would like to formally report that none of the residents currently living in our buildings have any connection with terrorists neither have they carried out any diversions. We appeal to you to put an end to this torture of the civilian population.

The "Hippodromniy" micro-district is one of the most densely populated districts in Grozny, but, in spite of this, there is no organisation in our region apart from the Housing Ministry, representing the administrative agencies of the federal government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Commandant's Office. At the critical moment, we have noone to turn to. The residents of this region do not even have access to running water, with the exception of the services provided by private traders, which of course must be paid for. It is mid-winter but noone is helping us to heat our homes, no-one is providing us with glass or plastic sheeting to insulate our homes. Sometimes we ask ourselves: "is there any agency at all in this village responsible for the welfare of its residents?"

We would like to appeal to you once again to protect us from this arbitrariness and to provide us with some financial assistance for the most basic of human needs.