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DEPARTMENTSSociety

Lidiya YUSUPOVA

Zoya SVETOVA

Maria KATYSHEVA

Inna BUTORINA

Elena SANNIKOVA

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Maret ISAEVA (Grozny)

Marem YALHAROEVA (Ingushetia)

Malika BETIEVA (Chechnya)Aset USPANOVA (Ingushetia)Ali MAGOMEDOV (Dagestan)Natalia KRAYNOVA (Dagestan)Nadezhda BOTASHEVA

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Israpil SHOVKHALOV

� Editor�In�Chief of DOSH magazine. In1990�1998, he worked at ChechenState Television and Radio as reporter,program presenter, and chief editor ofyouth and social programs. In 1998�2003, he was assistant to RussianFederation State Duma deputy (Yablokoparty). In 2000�2003, he was editor ofthe press�service of the Russian HumanRights Research Center. Since 2003, hehas been Editor�in Chief of DOSH mag�azine. In 2005, he was the finalist ofAndrei Sakharov Award, Journalism asan Act of Conscience. Member of theUnion of Journalists of Russia.

Usam BAISAEV

� Memorial Civil Rights Center member.

Mikhail NOVIKOV

� Consultant. Translation into English.

Abdulkhazhi DUDUEV

� Executive Editor of DOSH magazine.In 1994�1998, he worked at ChechenState Television and Radio as reporter,presenter of News information pro�gram, and chief editor of social andpolitical programs. In 1998�2003, hewas assistant to Russian FederationState Duma deputy (Yabloko party). In2000�2003, he was editor of the press�service of the Russian Human RightsResearch Center. Since 2003, he hasbeen Executive Editor of DOSH maga�zine. Member of the Union ofJournalists of Russia.

Zoya SVETOVA

� Journalist of different Russian andEuropean newspapers, magazines, andTV channels. Recipient of numerousjournalistic awards for covering humanrights issues.

Lidiya YUSUPOVA

� In 2000�2005, director of the Groznyoffice of Memorial Civil Rights Center .In 2004, she became the winner of theannual Martin Ennals Award for HumanRights Defenders. In 2005, she wasawarded the annual Professor ThorolfRafto Memorial Prize established by theRafto Foundation for Human Rights.She was nominated for the NobelPeace Prize in 2006�2008.

Irina VASYUCHENKO

� Literary Editor of DOSH magazine.Writer, literary critic, translator, memberof the Union of Writers of Moscow andthe Union of Translators.

THIS DIGEST WAS PREPARED BY:

Vitaly KUZMENKOV

� Layout Designer.

T h e p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h i s D i g e s t w a s m a d e p o s s i b l e t h r o u g h t h e a s s i s t a n c e f r o m t h e M i n i s t r y o f F o r e i g n A f f a i r s o f N o r w a y a n d N o r w e g i a n H u m a n R i g h t s H o u s e N e t w o r k

Three years have passed since the day AnnaPolitkovskaya was killed.Three years ago, it seemed inconceivable, it wasunbelievable. She was a very popular journalist whoalmost alone had been breaking through the infor�mation blockade of the second Chechen war relatingto the world the disgrace of those who hadunleashed this massacre in the name of reinforcingtheir authority and self�interest. She spoke about thedisasters that eventually fell upon the people ofChechnya. Her nobleness and courage excited manyin the most remote corners of our planet and she wasawarded several prestigious international awards inthe area of journalism and human rights. It seemedthat recognition of such scale and global popularitywould protect her from direct physical violence.Everyone who thought so was deeply mistaken.When the murderers dared to bear arms againstAnna Politkovskaya, the well�known journalist andhuman right activist, the person of rare spiritualheight, and simply a woman, it became obvious thatthe last boundary was passed, the barrier againstevil was broken: pressure and intimidation, persecu�tion and threats, bloody massacres became an ordi�nary thing. Three years after the murder of AnnaPolitkovskaya, a series of murders of other humanrights activists occurred in this country: StasMarkelov, Natasha Estemirova, Zarema Sadulaeva.It is not the meanness and the impunity of the mur�derers that is the most terrible thing, it is the fact thatthe mass consciousness has got used to such mur�ders. Evil is paramount but a healthy society isimmune to it through compassion, the feeling ofresponsibility, and an angry protest against cruelty. Itseems that our society is lacking these reactions:nothing can excite its conscience or stir up its mindany more. Yes, we are sick, we are heavily sick withindifference.

CONTENTS

# 1 ( 2 3 ) 2 0 0 9

Zoya SVETOVA

PROFESSION UNDER FIRE 2

UNPOPULAR PICKET 5

Usam BAISAYEV

NOBODY WANTED TO DIE 7

Elena SANNIKOVA

NO END TO TALKHIGOV’S ORDEALS 11

# 2 ( 2 4 ) 2 0 0 9

Dmitry BERKUT

MEMOIRS OF A FEDERAL SOLDIER 13

Natalia KRAYNOVA

WITHOUT OPTIONS 17

Abdulla DUDUEV

VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS TRUTH 20

# 3 ( 2 5 ) 2 0 0 9

THE SUMMER OF EXECUTION 23

Natalia ESTEMIROVA

A TALE OF FEAR 24

Abdulla DUDUEV

YAKHYA EVLOEV: WE ARE DISAPPOINTED 26

Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSHDIGEST ISSUE #5

THREE YEARS WITHOUT ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA

2 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #5

Stanislav Markelov was one of a few Russianlawyers who defended the Chechens.

In November 2008, two months prior to his murder,Stanislav Markelov spoke at a meeting in the centerof Moscow. The meeting was organized in supportof anti-fascists. Markelov was the lawyer of severalmembers of this movement persecuted by theauthorities. Now, after his murder, the friends recol-lect his speech at the meeting. There was an impres-sion that Stas Markelov felt that he would be mur-dered. For many, this speech became a kind of hiswill: "I am tired. I am tired of seeing the namesof my friends in criminal reports. It is not workany more. It is a matter of survival. We need tobe defended from the nazis, from the mafia,from law enforcement agencies that often sim-ply serve to them. And we perfectly understandthat nobody can provide protection to us.Neither God, nor the tsar, nor the law, alreadynobody, only we ourselves can do it."

I met Stas Markelov about eight years ago. He wasthen defending Anna Politkovskaya from threats ofMajor Sergey Lapin, a militiaman from Khanty-Mansyisk area who tortured arrested persons atOctyabrsky ROVD of the city of Grozny. Togetherwith Politkovskaya, Markelov won the case inGrozny and Sergey Lapin was found guilty of tor-tures that caused the death of Zelimkhan Murdalov.It is the second case (after Budanov's case) when aRussian military man serving in the ChechenRepublic was punished for a crime against peacefulpopulation.

"I should assume the functions of law enforce-ment agencies"...

Stas has always been very convincing in provingthat his clients were innocent and encountered obvi-ous lawlessness, therefore it was necessary to helpthem urgently. When he offered to write an articleabout his cases, Stas used to say: "I have got aninteresting case for you. Look at these papersplease. I offered this story to AnnaPolitkovskaya but Novaya Gazeta cannot writeabout all my cases." And, as a rule, I wrote.

I didn't see Stas for several years. It happened sothat I was writing about other themes and commu-nicated with other lawyers.

However, over the past months I often called him toget his comments on various legal issues. OnDecember 22nd, 2008, we saw each other at a roundtable discussion at the House of Journalists andexchanged a few words. Now, recollecting this meet-ing, I feel awfully sorry for not asking Stas aboutmany things that day. A few days later, it becameknown that Dimitrovgradsky court supported YuryBudanov's petition about conditional-early parole.The Civil Assistance committee concluded a contractwith Markelov to defend in court the interests ofElza Kungaeva's family. Stas appealed against thecourt decision and detained Budanov's release fromprison for several days.

After New Year holidays, in spite of the fact thatthe complaint of the Kungaev family was not con-sidered yet, Yury Budanov was released. I calledStas on January 15th to get his comments. He toldme then the same things that he told dozens of oth-er journalists who tormented him that day withsimilar questions. Stas Markelov expressed hisviews about Budanov's illegal release at his lastpress conference on January 19th, 2009, one hourbefore he was murdered.

Today, when you read Stas's last speech, you invol-untarily look into it for the reason of his murder.Especially, as the employees of the information presscenter where the press conference had taken placetold me, Stas was late for the press conference andbehaved in a slightly unusual way. The press con-ference was supposed to begin at one o'clock in theafternoon but about a quarter past one Stas unex-pectedly called and said that he lost his way. Theemployees of the press center were surprisedbecause Markelov had been there many times beforeand especially recently used to hold his press con-ferences there. When Stas finally arrived, he admit-ted: "My feet somehow do not walk me to you.Probably this Budanov affects me so." Then hecame out to the journalists and declared:

"If the family of the victim had no right toappeal against the court decision, Budanovwould have been released on January 3rd. Sincehe was not released, it means that at that pointthe court decided that the family of the victimhad the right to make the complaint. TheCriminal Procedure Code states that any par-ticipant in the process has the right to appeal

PROFESSION Dosh #1(23)2009

Zoya SVETOVA

UNDER FIRE

DIGEST ISSUE #5 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 3

against the court decision. Dimitrovgradskycourt answered my questions concerningBudanov by fax. I do not understand at all whythey conduct official correspondence by fax?Instead of mailing a sealed official document,they sent it to me by fax. To whose benefit?Strangely enough, it is not to Budanov's benefit.He could have suffered a little longer andwould have legally left the prison. It is not tothe benefit of the court either: it would be a riskof a setup. Speaking of political forces, I amsure that it is not to the benefit of variousgroups supporting Budanov. They needBudanov as a hero and not as a repented crim-inal. It is not to the benefit of the Office ofPublic Prosecutor that keeps its mouth shut.Have you ever heard any statement from them?It seems as if they push the public opinion to thethought that it is the order.

We should not forget in what conditionsBudanov's case started. Eight years ago, peoplein the Chechen Republic did not search for jus-tice in court but went to the woods. Then theconditions were gradually changing. It took somuch effort and so much work to persuade peo-ple not to appeal to separatists but to go tocourt! Therefore, in the context of Budanov'scase, it is difficult to think of a more impudentdemonstration that all these efforts were in vain.Who needs it? Who benefits from non-function-ing Russian legal institutes in the Caucasus?Since law enforcement agencies do not function,I am forced to assume their functions..."

Then Stas together with journalist AnastasiaBaburova, with whom he continued the conversationthat they did not finish during the press conference,left the building and an unknown murderer shotthem both on Prechistenka Street...

When I was sorting out my archives after his funer-al, I come across one of the cases that he had hand-ed to me and I had no time to write about it.

The Case of Zaur Musikhanov

A short letter was written on a typewriter. It is astory of Urus-Martan resident Zaur Musikhanov. Hewrote this letter to his wife Zulay. She retyped itand sent to Stas Markelov who took her husband'scase to the Supreme Court of Russia. Together withthis letter, Stas handed to me brief informationabout Musikhanov, the decision of the SupremeCourt of the Chechen republic pronounced onSeptember 24th, 2004, and his supervising com-plaint addressed to the Presidium of the SupremeCourt of Russia.

Now, when Stas Markelov is no longer with us, Ifeel ashamed that I was inattentive to these docu-ments and did not properly read that letter of ZaurMusikhanov. I would very much like to publish itnow because we should hear the story of Zaur.

"I joined the group of illegal armed bands andon the 12th of the month I received an automat-ic rifle. The crime occurred on the 15th. I was a

new person in this group. Over my 23 years oflife, I have never been in that village to beaccused of this crime. My fault was that I pro-tected Oybaev and Mukhtarov at the end oftheir village. Both the court and these two guysperfectly know that I did not touch them at all.I helped them to save their life. I myself tookthem to this woman Zinaeva and asked her toshelter them till the dawn though I could haveacted differently. Zulay, my conscience is clear.

No matter how the court decides to punish me,I am not guilty in this crime. I did not plunder,did not kill, or did not abduct. Never in my life.Neither did I participate in any operation wheregrave crimes were committed. I quite under-stand that gangsterism and participation in ille-gal armed bands are two absolutely differentcrimes and their purposes are different. I com-municated with these two guys as if they weremy good acquaintances. I never wore a mask, Itold them where I came from and where I lived.You heard it all in court, Zulay!

I explained what pushed me to join the group ofillegal armed bands. On October 2nd, 1999,over one day, my family and I buried 8 mur-dered people. Among them were my aunt, shewas 37 years old, my sister, she was 16, myuncle, he was 40, my nephew who was 3 yearsold and a number of relatives. They were killedwhen they were sitting in the cellar. 8 killed and7 wounded. Together with my parents and mywounded cousin who could not get to his feetfor 6 months, I moved to Ingushetia. In addi-tion to it, we have an adopted daughter whobecause of these events became an orphan. Herparents are in the list of missing persons.

There are hundreds and thousands of such cas-es in the Chechen Republic. I told the court:"Your honor, I would like to ask you who per-sonally will be responsible to us for the death ofour eight relatives and who will return the crip-pled lives and souls of our wounded? What wastheir fault? After all, they were civilians, resi-


dents of the village who were 3 to 45 years old."

And all of them wanted to live!

For example: Budanov is a colonel. There is nosuch thing as a deranged colonel. For murderand rape he was sentenced to 10 years. Whywas I sentenced to 9 years? Because I wasbuilding a dug-out? After all, Ulman wasacquitted! Who is a criminal? Is there a differ-ence between me and them? The only differenceis that I am Chechen.

But I am proud of my origin. It is a "commer-cial war", as general Gromov said. Withoutproof of our guilt, on deceptive grounds, theycondemn and send us to prison. God will notforgive it. The truth will triumph. The officialsneed the Chechen Republic without Chechens. Ifyou put me on trial, then sentence me to adeserved term for criminal conduct. I quiteunderstand that it should be not more than fiveyears that I deserve, as investigator Schukintold me. It was judge Soltamuradov who sen-tenced me to the term that I received. If westruggle for peace and prosperity of theChechen Republic, then tell me where are thosepilots who bombed our civilians? Where arethose soldiers who by order of their officerstook away our carpets and gold things? Andwhen this larceny was discovered, an ordinarysoldier was accused and put into prison formarauding instead of his officer. This soldierwas sitting in Grozny in SIZO #1, if youremember, Zulay. So many innocent people arebehind bars. It is horrifying. Whom will youprove it to? Who will listen to you? Anyway,Zulay, wait for me! Do not pour tears. Themain thing: my conscience is clear before Allah,before you, and before the people. And the factthat I participated or, more precisely, was reg-istered in this group, it doesn't matter. We willstay alive and everything will be fine! It is hardto see when your relatives become your worstenemies. It is very hard. All will be all clearwhen this dust settles.

See you!

Zaur."

Strange Amnesty

The Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic sen-tenced Musikhanov to nine years of imprisonmentwith punishment serving in a high security colony.He was pronounced guilty of "participation in agang, committing murders of police officers andpeaceful citizens in the village of Martan-Chu dur-ing the night of June 3rd and 4th and during thenight of August 15th and 16th, 2002." In his com-plaints to the Supreme Court, lawyer Markelov not-ed that Musikhanov joined the armed band onAugust 7th, 2002, which is confirmed even in thetext of the decision of the Supreme Court of theChechen Republic. There is also no word in thisdecision about any murder of police officers andpeaceful citizens. Besides, on June 6th, 2003, the

State Duma issued a decision "About amnesty inconnection with adoption of the Constitution of theChechen Republic." In February 2003, Musikhanovvoluntary surrendered to the local militia and spec-ified the place in which he kept the automatic rifle,which means that he completely falls under theaction of this amnesty. He stayed in the woods foronly half a year and did not have the time to com-mit any serious crime. He took active part in groupactions only in August 2002 and remained at thebase of this armed group only till October of thesame year. According to Markelov, the prosecutionintentionally ascribed to Musikhanov participationin a gang so that he could not be released onamnesty. Thus, the real charges incriminated toMusikhanov were storage of a weapon and illegalimprisonment expressed in the fact that for a shortterm he detained two residents of the village so thatthey could not inform federal soldiers about thearrival of separatists in the village. Markelov con-sidered that both of these crimes fall underamnesty. Moreover, Musikhanov completely admit-ted his fault during the trial.

Markelov explained Musikhanov's story in oneinterview: "He spent only about two months aspart of an armed band and during this time heonly had the time to dig an entrenchment towhich he ran with his automatic rifle but he didnot commit any serious crime, even according toour power structures. In this case, it is possibleto trust their information as it is clear that ourpower structures would not rehabilitate aChechen. Why is this case unique? Havinglearnt about amnesty, he came to militia andwrote an application. However, instead of beinggranted amnesty, he was declared a gangsterand sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, 9years. It is absolutely unclear what he is sittingfor because all the acquitting data is reflectedeven in the court decision. Moreover, there wasa second amnesty that included the articlesincriminated to him. The most surprising thingis that the court simply forgot about the condi-tion of amnesty and legalized the practice of itsselective application."

Presently, the case of Zaur Musikhanov is registeredin the European Court of Human Rights. Nobodyknows when the decision will be announced.

Today his colleagues, lawyers, human rights expertsand friends are asking: who will continue the casesthat Stas had no time to finish? Who will replacehim? Who will, just like Stas, daringly and coura-geously take the doomed cases that promise nomoney or official recognition? Who will, just likeStas, go to Chechnya every monthly, risk himself toprotect the victims of arbitrariness?

When at the end of December 2008, SvetlanaGannushkina called Stas and inquired who he couldsuggest as the defense lawyer for the Kungaev fam-ily, Markelov told her: "For this case, I can sug-gest only myself." Stas's uncle, a former judge andlawyer, told me during the funeral that he alwayswarned his nephew: "Being the lawyer of victimsis very dangerous. After all, there are many vin-dictive people among those who are guiltybefore the victims..."


The day of February 5th, 2009 was gloomy andfrosty. A small picket in Pushkin Square in the centerof Moscow was organized by activists of anti-warmovement. A few sympathizing people joined them inthe memory of the victims of the tragedy that hap-pened nine year before when dozens of civilians wereshot and burned in the Chechen village of NovyeAldy. They were killed and plundered by soldiers ofthe Russian army.

That cold Moscow evening only a dozen and a half fel-low citizens came out to this picket, almost all of themMuscovites. Their faces were easily recognizable. Theywere human rights activists, former political prisonersand civil action workers who participated in the so-called Dissenters' Marches and other oppositionactions and who never hesitated to criticize theauthorities aloud. Strangely enough for Moscow,where a numerous Chechen diaspora lives, there wasno one native of the Chechen Republic among them.Probably they expressed their grief over the victims inanother, less noticeable way. It was the police whowere everywhere around the place.

Anna Karetnikova, a representative of an anti-war cluband the organizer of the picket, tells:

"Usually, as soon as we appear in the square withposters, a policeman comes up to us to write down ournames. They did the same today. Such lists, as weknow, are accurately passed to the Counter-Extremism Department. Sometimes we have to pro-vide explanations when the police do not understandour actions."

According to Karetnikova, provocations are frequentduring their weekly anti-war actions:

"Nationalists approach to us, threaten, and tell us ina rough form where we should be removed to. Duringsuch moments, the police who are supposed to pro-

tect us reasonably disappear to observe the eventsfrom afar."

According to Anna, passers-by are often indifferent tothe picket. Only a few people join.

That icy February evening, people who were runningout of a snack bar to the underground station turnedaway their gloomy faces and hid hands in the pocketswhen Elena Sannikova, a human rights activist and aformer political prisoner, risking to freeze her fingers,was handing out leaflets with a weekly chronologyand the story about the executions at Aldy.

The number of tragedies in the Caucasus is continu-ously growing and the massacre at Aldy is one of the

bloodiest but not the last by far.

In the morning of February 5th,2000, special purpose police unitsentered in the village of NovyeAldy. According to human rightsactivists, these were OMON unitsof St.-Petersburg and Ryazan.Their faces were covered withcamouflage paste to make futureidentification impossible.

Within several hours, over fiftypersons became victims of extraju-dicial punishments, including aone-year-old child, nine women,and eleven elderly residents of thevillage. Not only did OMON shootthe innocent citizens and set theirhouses on fire, but they also plun-dered the houses.

UNPOPULAR PICKETDosh #1(23)2009

The remaining local residents waited for several weeksand did not bury the bodies of the killed fellow vil-lagers in hopes that law enforcement agencies wouldbegin investigation on the massacre. However, no seri-ous investigation was ever started.

The Office of the Military Prosecutor refused to opena criminal case on the grounds that "military units ofthe Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of InternalAffairs of Russia under the jurisdiction of the Office ofthe Military Prosecutor did not conduct any militaryor passport control operations on the specified days inthe village of Aldy" and because of "the absence ofessential elements of crime in their actions."

Here are a few testimonies of those who managed toescape:

"Those who came into our courtyard demanded mon-ey from us. The father-in-law went somewhere andbrought three hundred roubles. The soldiers were dis-satisfied and began to swear. Then they started toshoot. They killed my father-in-law and theAbdulmezhidovs brother and sister, our neighbors.After all these horrors I can no longer respect theRussians. I doubt that we will be able to get on wellin one state."

"They killed and burned people without asking theirdocuments. The basic requirements of these murdererswere gold and money and then they only shot."

"I saw Gula Khaidiev, the old man was killed. He waslying in a pool of blood in the middle of the street. Thesoldiers killed eighty-year-old Rakiyat Akhmatova.She was wounded and they came up to her. Sheshouted: "Do not shoot!" That day we lost 114 people.82 bodies were found."

Nine years ago, in the village of Novye Aldy and thenearby area of Grozny, 50 to 100 people were killedduring a massive clean-up operation. Though the unitsthat executed this special operation were established,those guilty of murders of innocent civilians remainunpunished.

*****

Actions in the memory of the Aldy victimsalso took place in St.-Petersburg. They wereorganized by regional human rights publicorganization The House of Peace andNonviolence and Yabloko party.

During the memorial evening that took placeat the Memorial Information Center, a doc-umentary video was shown with footagemade a few days after the events at NovyeAldy. About 30 people attended the event ofwhich they heard over Echo of Petersburgradio station.

After viewing the video, people discussed theoptions to improve the attitude of Aldy resi-dents to St.-Petersburg. The organizers ofthe event suggested organizing a series oftrips of children from Aldy to St.-Petersburgthat would enable 10 children from Aldy tocome to the city and stay with local familiesfrom several days to several months. All theattendants supported the initiative.

On February 6th, 2009, a mourning picket inthe memory of the Novye Aldy victims tookplace in Malaya Konyushennaya Street nearthe monument to Nikolai Gogol. The partici-pants lit candles also placed them over thevillage map in locations where the bodieshad been found. The action was part of theWith Good and Peace from St.-Petersburgproject.



Dosh #1(23)2009Usam BAISAYEV

Nine years ago, the tragic events in the village ofKomsomolskoye (Goy-Chu) of Urus-Martanovskydistrict produced probably the largest number ofvictims of the entire second war. During two weeks,over 625 people (the number of tombs) were killedhere, hundreds were wounded, and thousands wereleft without a place to live or means of existence.Those events are still covered by a veil of officiallies. It was said, for example, that "large forces ofinsurgents" had been destroyed in this village, thatgroups of well armed "mercenaries and terrorists"were fiercely resisting the Russian military.However, both local residents and relatives of thevictims categorically denied such statements. Theirtestimonies supported by investigations conductedby members of human rights organizations pro-duced a much more tragic picture.

Refugees and Insurgents

On February 29th, 2000 near Ulus-Kert, after leavingfrom Shatoysky district in the East direction, the groupsof Shamil Basayev and Hattab destroyed the 6th com-pany of the 104th regiment of the Pskov AirborneDivision. For the Russian command, two circumstancesmade this defeat catastrophic. First, after Grozny wastaken, it was announced that the war ended victoriously.Second, presidential elections were approaching and itwas necessary to restore the reputation. A convincingvictory was required, which meant that as many enemydead bodies as possible had to be produced. The attentionof the Russian military was concentrated on RuslanGelayev who was withdrawing in the West direction. Inthe beginning of March, groups under his command anda big number of exhausted after a long walk in deep

snow, frozen and hungry refugees concentrated near thevillage of Suraty behind the first ridge of the BlackMountains separating the flat area of Urus-Martanovskydistrict from the mountain part of the republic.

Within several days, young and mature men and evenwomen arrived in the area. At the beginning of the war,they ran to their relatives who lived in safe, as it thenseemed, mountain villages to escape bombardments. Asfederal troops were approaching, they faced an evenworse prospect: to be "cleaned-up" because they lived inplaces where they were not registered.

On January 13th and 14th, 2000, the Russian commandannounced safety guarantees to civilians leaving fromShatoysky and Itum-Kalinsky districts. However, peoplebegan to disappear at checkpoints on the very first dayof the corridor functioning. The military stationed sincethe middle of January in the village of Duba-Yurtdetained, for example, Visita Arsanukaev, Said-Magomed Delmukhanov, Hussein Didaev and VakhaTitaev who, with preliminary arrangements, tried todrive to Shatoy in two trucks to pick up their familiesand property. Four months later, near the cemetery ofthe village of Tangi-Chu of Urus-Martanovsky district,local residents found and buried the bodies of three menwith traces of tortures: their noses and ears had been cutoff and there were wire loops around their necks. Later,after examining the clothes, the relatives identifiedVisita Arsanukaev, Vakha Titaev and Said-MagomedDelmukhanov. Nothing definite is known about HusseinDidaev's destiny till now.

On February 18th, resident of Sharo-Argun KhasiBashaev, refugee from the village of Petropavlovskaya(Churt-Toghi) Hussein Basnukaev and RuslanKaikharov were detained at the same checkpoint in thepresence of numerous witnesses. In two cars they werecarrying to hospital women and children who had been

NOBODY WANTED TO DIE


wounded during the bombardment of thevillage of Aslanbek-Sheripovo. When thetroops left this place in the spring of 2000,the cars were found: they had been flat-tened by the tank and buried in the groundnearby the former checkpoint. Whatbecame of the people is still not known.

On March 6th, 10 residents of the village ofUlus-Kert and father and son Astamirovs ofPetropavlovskaya village were detained inthe same place and subsequently disap-peared. Together with their wives theywere walking to Chiri-Yurt. The militarystopped the men to check their documentsand nobody saw them any more.

All of these and other similar cases werewell known. Therefore, just like when leav-ing Grozny, refugees preferred to leaveunder the protection of insurgents. As aresult, several thousand people seeking res-cue gathered in Suraty by the beginning ofMarch.

At the dawn on March 4th, Arbi Baraevwas the first who left this place and easilywent through Komsomolskoye towards hisnative village. The following night, groupsof refugees and individuals started to leavethe place as well leaving along the way thebodies of those who died of exhaustion.They did not suspect that many of themwould soon be dead too. They got under firewhile crossing Demiduk ridge. The accom-panying insurgents engaged in a fight.They partially destroyed the Russian troopsand took prisoners.

Human Shield

In the morning of March 4th, helicopterssuddenly appeared above Komsomolkoyeand began to fire at the upper part of thevillage and a nearby large forest. Residentswoke up and hurried to the Russian check-point located on the intersection of roadsleading to Goyskoye and Alkhazurovo.Using a bullhorn, the military orderedeveryone to gather behind a fence.

People were kept behind the fence till theevening. During this time, the military per-formed the clean-up of the village, the mainresult of which was robberies. Havingreturned to the village, the residents couldnot find many valuable things in their hous-es. The next morning, the sounds of artilleryand machine-gun shots merged into onecontinuous rumble. The people rushed to theother end of the village in panic.

However, those who were in the village gotunder fire from helicopters and those whowere near the road to Alkhazurovo wereshot by Russian snipers. The families ofPashaevs, Makaevs, Ilyasovs, Verikovs,Gatsaevs and others could not leave theirhouses because of shelling and bombard-

ments. Many of those who remained in thevillage were subsequently lost.

Zaibolt Bashaeva was found killed togetherwith her grand daughter, 11, and her hus-band Rizvan, 85. Malika Umarova, 80, andher daughter Aina, 24, were lost. ElaKhasarov, 90, died, leaning against a tree,all his body was covered with fragmentalwounds. Malika Elmurzaeva, 44, was lostin her own courtyard. Zara Tashaeva, 70,and her grand daughter Rosa, 7, werefound under the debris of her house. TheRussian military first shot old man TausBeksultanov and then set the house on firewith his dead body inside. MalikaAmirkhanova and her daughter Aina, 36,were killed during artillery shelling. ZaindiIdigov, 30, was also killed.

Those who managed to leave the villagewere placed behind the fence again.Positions of federal troops were behindthem. Civilians were purposefully placed inthe line of possible fire contact with theinsurgents. However, no shots were madefrom the village during all these days. TheRussian troops, on the contrary, wereshooting continuously. After each shot fromtanks, guns, Grad installations and espe-cially after explosions of TNT ropes, peoplethrew themselves to the ground in scare.Women were constantly crying and chil-dren became hysterical, almost everybodyhad a headache.

The soldiers attempted to separate menfrom women. When Abdurakhman Gelaevsaw how the Russian military with auto-matic guns started to build a row betweenthem, he died of a heart attack. The soldiersdid not allow reading a doleful prayer.Because of a resolute spirit of the womenwho did not want to leave their brothers andhusbands, the military dropped the initialplan. Six and a half thousand residents ofKomsomolskoye of all ages performed therole of a "human shield" through March 9th.

Tsutsuraev, 62, and Ami Kilaev, 32, diedduring this time. Musa Bataev received agunshot wound. Tagir Akhmadov, 48, hada heart attack. Several men (6 or 7) werepulled out from the crowd by the soldiersostensibly for the absence of documentsand taken away in an unknown direction.Later, two of them were found shot in thedistrict center between the hospital andthe cemetery.

There was an extreme shortage of food andwater. The soldiers occasionally allowedwomen only to bring water from the wellacross the road from the checkpoint. Whenpeople attempted to get fire wood to makea fire and crossed the fenced territory, thesoldiers fired from their machine guns tomake them get back.

On the second or the third day of standingin the field, the head of village administra-

tion Adam Avdaev managed to solve theproblem of food supplies. After long per-suasive talks, the military agreed that resi-dents of Urus-Martan, Goiskoye andMartan-Chu would bring food. There wasstill a shortage of bread and food but peo-ple did not feel famine any more.

On March 8th, drunken soldiers openedautomatic fire above the people who werestanding behind the fence. Four peoplereceived wounds. On March 9th, the mili-tary called up the head of village adminis-tration and on behalf of the Russian com-mand demanded that all villagers shouldreturn to the their homes. Adam Avdaevtold his fellow villagers about the ultimatumand added that in this case he would notguarantee life to anyone. It was decided tobreak in the direction of Goiskoye and Urus-Martan despite any possible counteraction.People started to move and soon they allwere past the checkpoint. The military didnot stop them probably because there werehundreds and thousands of residents of thenearby settlements who drove the people totheir houses in cars and buses.

Fighting Operation or Slaughter?

It is known that the insurgents repelledseveral assaults and separate groups beganto leave the village on the second and thethird day. By the middle of March, the larg-er part of the armed insurgents was eitherkilled or, having bypassed the Russianblocks and outposts, broke out of the encir-clement. After that only a few centers ofresistance remained in Komsomolskoye.The last of them, a group headed by theformer prefect of Naursky district TausBoguraev, surrendered only on March 20th.

It is possible to confirm with confidencethat a significant number of the dead bod-ies taken out from the village and examinedbefore being buried unequivocally belongedto refugees or those who could no longerput up any resistance. Their wounds, aboveall, testified to this. There are numeroustestimonies of people who came to the vil-lage searching for their relatives and whoexamined the bodies.

Zeinab, resident of Komsomolskoye:"I returned to the village on March 16th.The houses were still burning. They bombedagain though they knew that we would becoming. I saw many bodies, including thosewithout heads. The chopped off heads werelying separately. I was together with theChechen OMON. We wanted to get thebodies of relatives and friends. We foundone of them alive. He spent ten days amongcorpses, did not eat or drink anything. Later,in Goiskoye, I saw headless and earless bod-


ies. There was an earless body in my gar-den. It had a quilted jacket, jeans and socks.His mother would never identify him. Icould not sustain and started to shout. Thenthe guys moved me away."

Larissa, searched for two brothers:"I examined many bodies, three hundred orfour hundred. For most part, they weresmashed by armored troop-carriers. Therewere no legs, no hands. With chopped offfinger bones and cut off heads. The headswere cut off when people were still alivebecause there was blood left. There werebodies without ears. Some were cut offwhen people were alive, others - afterdeath. There were normal bodies and therewere deformed bodies. They brought threelegs from three different persons. The legswere torn off not by a splinter of a shell butby a track of the tank, it was obvious.

Those who remained under the ground hadmoney, documents and valuable things onthem. It means that the workers of EMER-COM did not plunder the bodies. Onlythose bodies that were under the control offederal troops were plundered. They did noteven have passports. The passports offriends were found at the police station.Their relatives said they had been search-ing in Chernokozovo but found them inKomsomolskoye. The ear of one of themhad been cut off. He was a friend of mybrother. He had been taken prisoner. Wewere told that he was in Chernokozovo.They found him and they also foundAslanbek. They showed Aslanbek on TV asif he was in Chernokozovo. He was hereand they shot him in the nape."

Naib:"I arrived in Komsomolskoye to find thebody of my relative. The workers of EMER-COM took out the bodies and buried them.Local residents photographed and providedidentification. I examined about three hun-dred bodies. The majority had the eyespoked out and ears cut off. Such woundscould not be received in fight.Approximately seventy percent of the vic-tims had a sighting shot in the head. Thebodies were disfigured by the tracks of tanksand armored personnel carriers. This couldhardly have happened without a reason.Many stomachs were cut. It is possible toassume that these were fragmental woundsbut there were too many of them. As a rule,the guts were outside and I saw dry grainsof rice, corn, and sunflower inside."

Satsita Magomadova:"I went to Komsomolskoye to get my son'sbody. I knew that he had been killed. Iexamined 450 bodies. There were those

who were killed in fight and those whowere killed after they were wounded. Handsand legs of several people were as if theywere split by an axe. Ears were cut off.Throats were cut. Stomachs were ripped upwith the guts outside. There were approxi-mately a half of such bodies. I think thatmany were tortured when they were stillalive because blood was visibly coming outof their wounds. They were those who werekilled in the cellars. Half of the bodies werewithout a head. Heads and hands werebrought separately.

OMON soldiers said that they were remov-ing mines. Then they let the workers ofEMERCOM go there. Actually, they weretorturing people at this time. One day theybrought bodies without heads and the nextday they brought only heads. One could seethat the head had been cut off and not tornoff by a shell.

The son had gone with the guys. He waswounded in Komsomolskoye. He stayed inthe cellar. There were 25 people burned inone cellar and 30 in another. They wereburned alive. It is normal that someonegets killed in a fight, such things happenat war. But why torture? My boy was justof military age. He went with his friendsbecause he was afraid that he would betaken to serve in the army. He was neverat war. In the fall, he went with hisfriends to the mountains and they alwayscame back home."

There are many testimonies like these con-firming both the number of victims and thecruelty towards defenseless people that isunequal over all these seven years. It is notknown how many people were then killed.With some certainty it is possible to speakof only about 625 bodies that were takenout from this village and after visual exam-ination buried at the cemeteries of Goiskoyeand Urus-Martan. It was possible to identi-fy a few people. The relatives took theirbodies and buried them at the place of theirresidence.

They Surrendered to Survive

On March 20th, about noon, the group ofthe insurgents blocked in destroyed hous-es at one end of the village stopped resis-tance. It was the first time over the peri-od of the two wars when armed peoplefighting against the Russian army volun-tary agreed to lay down arms. They weregiven a guarantee of safety on behalf ofthe federal command. During the firsthours they surrendered in the presence ofGeneral Mikhail Labunts.

There are three videotapes on which theprocedure was recorded. Two of them were

recorded directly in Komsomolskoye. Onecan clearly see on them how peopleexhausted by two weeks of continuousfights were walking one by one towards theRussian positions and how they were thensearched and identified.

There were also two women who came outtogether with men. Only one person wasunable to move without help: he wasbrought on a blanket. He was later identi-fied as Taus Boguraev.

One can see on these videotapes that notless than 100 people (according to otherdata, almost 150) walked towards the posi-tions of the Russian troops. Despite thepromised safety and amnesty, their destinywas tragic. Around 16:30, after four hourspassed since the beginning of the surrenderprocedure (it lasted from 12:00 through18:30-19:00), 25 people were selected fromthe crowd. They were told to make up aline. Then they were moved to the nearesthollow with the hands on the head andwere ordered to lie down on the slope. Thenthree soldiers (according to other sources,four) walked along the line of people lyingon the ground and shot at them with theirmachine guns first in the legs and then intheir bodies. 12 or 13 people were killed atonce, others received wounds. There were afew people unharmed, the names of two ofthem are known: Beslan Buchigov andKhamzat (Kazbek) Magomadov. The sol-diers lifted them up and ordered them andtwo other survivors to dig a grave. The sol-diers said that they would bury them in itas well. When the grave became half ameter deep, the officer who was togetherwith the soldiers received an order byportable radio. He ordered to stop all workand the survivors were taken back to therest of the prisoners. The bodies of the killedremained in the hollow. In the beginning ofApril, they were found by local residentsand buried at the cemetery of Goiskoye.

On March 20th, several other groups ofcivil guardsmen who decided to surrenderwere apparently destroyed. Relatives subse-quently identified a dozen of people on thevideotapes recorded by the Russian mili-tary. In particular, Beslan Sardalov wasrecorded alive on one of the videotapes.Subsequently he was found killed. ArsenDudaev was killed and later found by theworkers of EMERCOM and local residents.The same happened to AslambekAkhmadov, Khasan Chuchiev andMagomad Nalgiev, who had been video-taped among those who surrendered.Beslan Buchigov, one of those who hadbeen digging a grave for the insurgentsshot in the hollow, was found killed. TausBoguraev was also killed. His body withtraces of tortures and a head chopped offwas found in the vicinities ofKomsomolskoye after the Russian troopsabandoned the area.

Some of the insurgents who dared to laydown arms and come to the Russian armypositions were delivered to the militarycommandant's office of Urus-Martanovskydistrict. It is, however, unknown what hap-pened to them afterwards. It is possible thattheir bodies were discovered at the end ofMarch and the beginning of April in theruins of Komsomolskoye.

Only 73 of all those who surrenderedwere taken to Khankala. There is a listwith their names signed by investigator ofthe Ministry of Internal Affairs of theRussian Federation, Major of JusticeT.A.Bushmanova. The postscript reads:"12 unidentified bodies and those who diedafter delivery to Khankala were trans-ferred to EMERCOM of the ChechenRepublic to be buried."

On the territory of the main Russian mili-tary base, all of the prisoners were beatenwith the butts of automatic rifles, batonsand boots, subjected to tortures, includingelectric shock. The ears of at least two peo-ple (still alive!) were cut off. On the thirdvideotape recorded by the employees of theMain Department of the Penitentiary atChervlyennaya station and in possession ofhuman rights activists, one can see that theright ear of one person was almost com-pletely cut off and was hanging down. It isunknown whether this person survived,however he was not seen among those whowere later put on trial or those who wererescued for money by relatives.

At the military base in Khankala, the pris-

oners were held in two trucks, GAZ-53 andUral. The first had a sign: "The Ministry ofJustice of the Russian Federation." Peoplewere taken for tortures from them and thenpushed back. It was impossible to sit inthem. People suffered from thirst andfamine. No medical aid was rendered. Oldwounds and those received during torturesbegan to suppurate. The heaviest torturewas the absence of room and fresh air. Asa result, Musa Magomadov, LechaAldamov, Maoldi (Movldi) Kagermanov,Usman Muskeev, Vakha Tunzhukhanov,Khasan Khakuev, Lema Aliev, UmarAmirov, Artur Makaev, Rustam Mandriev,and others died.

On March 25th, their bodies together withthe survivors were sent in the same trucksto Shelkovskoy district. In the vicinities ofChervlyennaya station, far from onlookers,the people were transferred from cars to rail-way cars. The dead bodies were placed alongthe spoil bank. On the third videotape onecan see that the majority of the surrenderedwere extremely exhausted. Many appearstriped naked. After jumping from the trucksdown on the ground they could hardly getup on their feet. They picked up their clothesand then tried to run to the railway car. Allthis was accompanied by hails and kicks.Security guards were laughing.

Those who "died after delivery toKhankala" (mentioned in the list signedby Major of Justice T.A.Bushmanova)were probably transferred to the employ-ees of EMERCOM here.

The survivors were taken fromChervlyennaya station to Taganrog andNovocherkassk. According to availableinformation, less than 50 people wereplaced in jails located in these cities. Thecaptured insurgents were beaten throughthe middle of June 2000, when, under therequest from their relatives, employees ofIRCC visited them in jail. Those who end-ed up in Novocherkassk experienced espe-cially severe treatment. Security guardsused to beat prisoners with iron rods andthe limbs of several people were broken.During cold weather, they poured prisonerswith water from fire engines when theywere in the open air.

Twelve people were released fromTaganrog pre-trial detention center. All ofthem were granted amnesty. As relativesconfirm, they had to pay a significant ran-som for it. Vakhid Timaev, one of thereleased, was later detained and disap-peared.

Trials began in the middle of December2000 in the courts of Rostov-on-Don andthe area. Abubakar Magomadov wasestablished as the organizer of surrender.By decision of the Rostov regional courthe was sentenced to three and a halfyears of imprisonment (Article 208 Part 2and Article 222 Part 1 of the CriminalCode of the Russian Federation). The oth-ers were sentenced to the same term onthe same basis. Those who endured inhu-man tortures and managed to survivewere all placed behind bars.



Dosh #1(23)2009Elena SANNIKOVA

Zaurbek Talkhigov is presently being placed in the so-called ward type premises (PKT). It is a type of prisonward where inmates are placed as a punishment forinternal rules violation. By verdict of the prison chief,Zaurbek was transferred to PKT from another innerprison where the regulations were softer - SUS (a bar-rack of strict conditions of confinement).

Those who are placed in PKT are not entitled to visi-tors. They are restricted in many other rights that pris-oners normally enjoy. Food is also restricted, which canruin Zaurbek's health because he has serious gastricproblems. Walks and parcels are restricted. As a rule, itis cold and damp in PKT, especially during the winter.Prisoners get sick with tuberculosis in punishment cells,penalty wards and PKT.

During his camp term, Zaurbek actually saw nothingbut these special prisons inside the prison with varioustypes of rigid restrictions. There he got hepatitis, chron-ic gastritis, and an intestines disease for which the doc-tors recommended him an immediate operation in thesummer of last year. But the prison doctors refused anoperation.

Zaurbek is entitled to one long visit of his relatives oncea year. The last one happened in the summer of 2007.In 2008, the relatives could not visit him in the sum-mer. Only by December, his mother and younger sistermanaged to save enough money and food for a longjourney from Shali to Syktyvkar.

Zaurbek's mother works with sick and problem childrenat the regional rehabilitation center. Her youngerdaughter is a college student in Grozny. Her salary issmall and she pays a lot for her daughter's education.In the strained days of preparation for the New Year'sholidays, Tamara arranged for a leave from job andAmina interrupted her examination session. Theypacked everything for the long journey intovery heavy bags and carried them from Shalito Grozny, then from Grozny to Moscow bytrain and from Moscow to Syktyvkar by yetanother train. There, in this cold northern city,they stayed for a night and the next morning,on December 15th, mother and daughter wentto the colony with their heavy bags where theylearned that Zaurbek had been placed in PKTand it was prohibited for him to have visitors.

Tamara is telling what happened next:

"We went to the prison chief's office. He wasin a meeting and we had to wait for a longtime. Finally, the secretary let us in. The chiefmet us with a sharp remark that we enteredwithout his permission. It was rather strangeto me because one word hello has always beenenough to grant permission in Chechnya. I toldhim that we arrived to visit the son. He

answered that my son was punished and he was notallowed any visits. I asked about the reason for his pun-ishment. I did not feel well and could hardly speak. Hesaid that Zaurbek had been lying and smoking acigarette where it was prohibited even to sit. I wonderedhow it was possible to place a sick person for suchbehavior in PKT during winter time. The chief was firm:visits were not allowed. I begged him the best I couldthough I do not have such a habit. I was asking to allowa visit for a day considering that we had made a longway and how much we brought with us. I was askingto understand my situation, to understand me as amother who had not seen her son for such a long time.He called his people and they showed me the rules: novisitors while an inmate was in PKT. I told him thatthey had been aware of our forthcoming visit and theycould have waited for our arrival or informed me inadvance not to go. I would have waited until he wasreleased from PKT. He repeated that Zaurbek had beensmoking and showed no respect for the authorities.Finally, he signed permission for a short (a few hours)visit. Talking through a double glass and by phone, Icould not even touch my son."

I asked Tamara how the permitted visit passed andshe said:

"We were strictly warned to speak only in Russianduring the visit. I had no difficulty speaking Russianwith him but the daughter did. It is not accepted withus that the sister speaks with her brother not usingthe native language. They repeated that if we said aword in Chechen, the visit would be interrupted.Having heard about such severe constraints weapproached to the glass. I asked Zaurbek how thiscould happen that he had been smoking where it wasprohibited and why he had received such a severepunishment. He answered that he did not want to dis-

TO TALKHIGOV’SORDEALSNO END

cuss such questions. Several securityguards were standing nearby and listen-ing to each word. I asked him how hefelt. He did not complain but I saw thathe was sick. He was all pale and hishands were thin and absolutely white. Hehad a constant nausea, his pancreas wasdamaged, he needed a diet and there wasno diet there. He asked to pass gastricmedication through the prison hospital.He also asked for a water filter becausewater was very bad, with a strong smellof chlorine and impossible to drink."

I wondered if they had promised Tamarathat they would give her visit permissionafter three months passed.

"Yes, but it was a somehow strangepromise. The chief said that the schedule oflong-term visits for 2009 was full andZaurbek would not fit into it. But how canthe schedule be full? Zaurbek's name wason the list for December. The chief saidthat they would put his name back in theschedule if he demonstrated good behaviorduring these three months. I wonderedwhat would happen if he had admonitions.He answered that then Zaurbek wouldreceive penalty and would be placed in thepunitive isolation ward."

I wondered how Zaurbek reacted to this.

"He told me not to worry and that it wasimpossible to explain to me what was hap-pening. He confirmed that he would notbreak the rules and had not broken them.And in fact I know that this is true. Well,he reclined, had a smoke... This is becausehis conscience is clean and he is servingtime for nothing. And they know that hewas punished for only one phone call, hedid not do anything bad, and his conscienceis clean. They could have been less severeto him. I told him that I wanted to go andsee his ward and stay near him for a while.He said that it was impossible. Even if itwere possible, he would not allow me."

I asked whether she was able to pass a

water filter for Zaurbek that he so muchneeded considering his health condition.

"I brought the filter the next day. Theystarted to insult me saying that I had putdrugs into it... This offended me verydeeply and I began to shout. My son waspunished not for drugs. They refused totake the filter and advised to take it to theoperations department. We went there andthe people promised that they would passit to my son. I felt how they hated me andI understood that they provoked my sonwith similar insults."

"I cannot even say how many times theyput him in PKT. He is constantly closedin this ward and they give him only anhour and a half for a walk in the open air.We wrote an appeal asking to ease hisconditions and wondering why he wastreated so severely. We wrote sincerely,as parents do. Each time we received thesame formal replies."

Tamara Talkhigova and her daughterAmina returned to Moscow. They next daythey were leaving to Grozny. They werevery sad after they visited Zaurbek, it wasbitterness. It was especially hard to look atAmina. She was a schoolgirl when Zaurbekwent to prison and it was a shock for her:she lost appetite since then, became closed,reticent, and refused to eat meat. Even myattempts simply to offer her tea after shereturned from Syktyvkar were rejected.

Zaurbek's arrest affected his father YunusTalkhigov even stronger. Before the arrestof his son, Yunus was a strong and healthyman. He had his first heart attack in 2004during a trip to the prison when, just likethis time, Zaurbek's parents were denied avisit. When all attempts to achieve justicefailed, Yunus Talkhigov got serious heartproblems. Since then he had two heartattacks and received group two of physicaldisability. He can no longer go to visit theson because of poor health.

During six years, Zaurbek Talkhigov wasfive times transferredfrom one prison toanother in spite ofthe fact that the codeforbids to transferprisoners without aserious reason. Hechanged severalcamps in Komi andspent one year inUlyanovsk prisonwhere he got ill withhepatitis.

Zaurbek Talkhigovspent seven years invarious places ofimprisonment. InOctober 2002, heresponded to the

appeal of Aslanbek Aslakhanov, Deputy ofthe State Duma, came to the surroundedtheatrical center at Dubrovka and foralmost the whole day, in the presence ofFSB agents, over a mobile phone kept try-ing to persuade the terrorists to releasehostages. His arrest and the verdict weretotally unexpected both for him and his rel-atives. During the trial, his mother wasconfident that Zaurbek would be fullyacquitted: all evidence was in his favor andthere was not a single proof of fault.

For one telephone conversation ZaurbekTalkhigov was sentenced to eight and ahalf years of jail. Just like Colonel Budanovwho was jailed for murdering a Chechengirl. Zaurbek Talkhigov made an attemptto rescue hostages, mostly the Russians,from the hands of armed Chechens. He isnow in a cold PKT ward. Colonel Budanovwho stole and tortured a defenseless girl isalready enjoying freedom.

It is impossible to imagine that Budanovwould spend a day in such a ward whereit is impossible even to sit down on a cotin the afternoon or he would be placed inPKT for smoking. No, Budanov served thetime in soft conditions and he was notthrown into punitive wards or PKT for atrifling fault. He is a murderer but for ourprison guards he is a friend, not a foe.

Whereas Talkhigov is a foe and he does notfall into the category of socially close ele-ments in the system of our selective justice.

That is why he is kept in unbearable con-ditions, developed a heavy illness, and theguards mock at his relatives. PKT confine-ment will end for Zaurbek in the middle ofMarch. Will he be allowed the long await-ed visit? Or will he again be forced to suf-fer in a punitive isolation ward for insignif-icant infringements as the prison chiefpromised?

Local human rights activists found out thatthe last time the doctor visited Zaurbekwas six months ago. The prescribed dietaryfood was cancelled long time ago.Meanwhile, his disease requires a diet, aconstant supervision of the doctor and reg-ular medication. Zaurbek has nothing of it.He feels sick from poor and rough food atPKT, therefore he now only eats bread anddrinks water.

When such things happen in this countryin the name of justice and thinking andconscientious citizens can do nothing tobreak it, they develop a habit of livingwithout doing anything. It is indeed safer:if Zaurbek had not tried to rescuehostages and instead relaxed and smoked,he could still be enjoying a peaceful life athome. This is a lesson to all of us and tothe Russian society. There a quite a fewsmart students who have already learnedthis lesson.



Dosh #2(24)2009Dmitry BERKUT

Delayed�Action Soldier

The word "enemy" in regard to the local population ofthe Chechen Republic is a conditional name. The peo-ple live beside us, behave like all neighbors do, com-municate, sell vodka to us, and at night, according totestimonies of some of them, they shoot at us.

During my first mission, it became clear: you need tobe afraid not only of them but also of your own com-rades in arms - Russian soldiers.

The young boys became totally whacked because theysimply could not understand for what or for who theywere at war. What else can you expect with such spir-itual disorientation of the armed guys who aredetached from home and exposed to the danger ofdeath? The consequences of their actions cannot befully predictable.

Those who served in the army before the Chechenwar, in peace time, can think of a simple example: lifeturned into a non-stop duty on guard. I rememberwhen I was standing on guard for the first time. Ithought: either my heart would stop or I would go outof my mind. In the Chechen Republic, soldiers spend9 to12 months in such conditions non-stop and somesoldiers serve even a longer term.

People can hardly sustain a permanent stress. Here, inaddition to it, people are in the frontline, with frequentfiring and shelling, permanently drunk commandersand contract soldiers who also go nuts and at timesvent their rage and stupidity on conscripts.

Soldiers look for ways to switch off. And often find,

thanks to the confusion and chaos or, to say it simply,the disorder in the frontline.

It is evening. We are building fortifications. We aredragging planks. Suddenly, we hear a submachine gunburst very close to us, several meters away from us. Ifall to the ground and silently swear: I am without mysubmachine gun, I am dressed lightly and there areslippers on my feet that will definitely not help me tofight in the mountains. Then you realize: something iswrong. Why don't the guards beat the ring (a com-mand for perimeter defense)?

It turned out that a gowed-up soldier imagined howsomeone looking like an insurgent was trying to getover the barbed wire perimeter. By a lucky chance, hedid not shoot anybody with his burst. He only dam-aged several units of equipment.

Or there was another situation. A young soldier gotinside a tank. What a sudden curiosity! He decided tostudy combat equipment. Modern tanks are complete-ly automated systems with automatic charging ofammunition. A shot came out. The toilet building washit. A soldier who was inside got killed. What an uglyand silly death. Ii is obvious that the "the reason ofdeath" line in his death certificate will contain "a shotfrom an enemy grenade launcher."

During the night, there was an exchange of fire at outoutpost. Combat readiness command was issued. Thenall clear. There was no attack. Two soldiers drank toomuch cheap Ossetian vodka, had a quarrel, and decid-ed to solve the dispute by means of automatic rifles.

As a result one of the guys was shot in the legs andwill remain an invalid.

MEMOIRS OF A FEDERAL SOLDIER

The Chechen war has brought much grief to both sides. Now, practically every Russian family issomehow connected with this war through fathers, sons, uncles, nephews, friends, or neighbors.I was there several times on a mission and I am convinced: many victims of the Chechen war couldhave been avoided.

A Prayer Book under Grenades

I was not baptized. Somehow it did nothappen: it was the Soviet times, the fatherserved in the Soviet army all his life. Itdoes not mean that we were militantatheists but we were brought up outsideof religion.

Before my new mission to the Caucasus,my mother said: "I cannot stand it anymore. If you do not get baptized, I will notlet you go anywhere. I will beg yourcommander!" This is how I got baptized. Iwas thinking about it myself for sometime but could not make this step.

Chechnya. We were performing a clean-up operation. Insurgents occupied one ofthe houses. To say that we were notscared, that it was not the first time, orthat it was possible to get used to suchthings is to say nothing. It is impossibleto get used to such things.

The mother gave me a prayer book. I putit in the pocket on the day of departure. Isometimes took it with me in such diffi-cult situations. I put it in the internalpocket of the waistcoat under cartridges,grenades and entry munitions. It was thepocket on the left side, near the heart.And I had a cross on a chain around theneck: a gift from my grandmother.

We were approaching the house. I was inthe assault group. We were to be the firstto enter into the house. Snipers andmachine gunners with grenade launcherstook their positions around the house.

If the insurgents detect us, the assaultgroup rarely comes back without losingpeople, minimum one person who is lessfortunate. Sometimes it can happen dur-ing a fight because of friendly fire.

We formed a chain. There were six peoplein our group. We jumped from one coverposition to another. The efficiency of suchtactics is relative. You can run two metersor you can also make ten meters.

No calculations are made. It all dependson how luck strikes. We entered into the

lower room. The controlgroup had already taken thesenior person out of thehouse onto the street. It wasa man around forty yearsold. They told him to get allthose alive out of the house.It is useless to ask whetherthere is anybody else in thehouse except children andwomen: even if there were"our clients" in the house,nobody will hand them overto us. It is against the localcustom.

I opened up the door of thebasement room: nobody

there. I took position in the corner. Nowthe partner entered the room. There weretwo small doors here. He dived into one ofthem. He quickly got out and showedwith the hand that it was clean. Mine wasthe second door. I opened it. For a whileit all seemed normal: not a soul inside.The partner covered me from behind. Ientered into a small dark and dusty room.It seemed that there was nobody inside.There was a huge jug in one of the cor-ners, a meter and a half in height and halfa meter wide. Suddenly something movedin the twilight. A shadow flashed betweenthe jug and the wall.

Thoughts flash in my head: I've got theorder, the cartridge is in the cartridgechamber, the safety lock is unlocked, andthe bolt is cocked. The index finger on thetrigger hook only needs to make one shortmovement.

Thoughts continue flashing in my head: Isit all? What a shame! Perhaps the partnerwill be lucky to get out of it alive. I needto press the trigger. And to be quickenough to jump back. That's my destiny.Stop! Why is there no movement?

I do not know how much time passed,

were it seconds, microseconds or whatev-er they were. They say that before deathall your life flies by before your eyes.Nothing of the kind. Perhaps it is too ear-ly for me to die? A heaven-sent idea: per-haps they did not notice that I noticedthem? I started to turn my head in asomewhat idiotic way from one side toanother as if I was looking around. I donot know how well I performed but myface did all its best not to express anyemotions.

The plan of further actions emergedquickly: we should try to get out of hereas quickly as possible, grab my partnerand run, run, run! Then I need to shoutover the radio to the guys who werecleaning up the upper rooms of the houseto get out and then shoot, shoot, shoot,because it was here where they stayed,here where they were hiding!

I was turning towards the exit when myeye caught something strange: at thebasis of the jug, behind it, there wassomething yellow. For a moment, alreadyat the doors, I looked again, and there wasan edge of a yellow children's rubber boot.The boot moved and hid behind the jug.Without having the time to think, Iapproach the jug and looked behind it. Alittle boy was hiding behind it. He waslooking at me with interest.

There was nobody else either here or fur-ther, in the darkest corner. I took the childby the hand and walked out with him ontothe street. I could not even be angry. Isimply took the child out and brought himup to the man, the owner of the house.There were women and children standingaround him and crying. I asked him:"What is this?" He got scared and saidthat the neighbors had asked to look afterthe child when they moved to the districtcenter to earn money. These nine childrenwere not all his: several of them were his



neighbors' children and he forgot aboutone of them.

Alexei, my partner, poured vodka for mefrom his flask. I did not want to drink atall! I could not understand one thing: whyI did not shoot? Was I frightened? Morelikely on the contrary, if I had becomefrightened, I would have started to shootleft and right to take with me as manyenemies as possible. I do not know. It wasas though something was preventing mefrom shooting.

I touched the prayer book in my internalpocket: it was there in its usual place.That's enough. I do not want to go any-where anymore. Let them sort out theirpetrodollars themselves.

I only thank my mother who insisted onbaptizing me. It was not in vain.

Mountain Relativity

The outpost of MVD units that wasdeployed together with our Ryazan groupof militia in Nozhay-Yurtovsky district ofthe Chechen Republic received an order tomove to a new position. Redeploymentstarted in groups. One company was sentto prepare the place for the others: to putup tents, dig entrenchments, and erect theperimeter. The new place was several kilo-meters below and away from the head-quarters. The main troops of the outpostremained with us. They had 152-mm mor-tars.

During the night, our neighbors from amilitary unit positioned near the placewhere the outpost company moved to andwas digging trenches asked for fire sup-port at the position from which they hadbeen attacked. The mortars of the outpostsupported them with fire during half anhour. Several boxes of mines were used.

In the mountains, it is not an easy task toshoot from a mortar even during the day-time. The wind affects the accuracy andcoordination. During the night the taskbecomes especially uneasy.

In the morning, it was reported that duringthe night fire support operation mortar gun-ners suppressed the company located below.Two soldiers and an officer were killed.

One of the soldiers lost his friend there.The soldier was also from Ryazan and wetried to feed him better than others (whenwe had food ourselves). Less than twomonths were left before their demobiliza-tion. We asked the commander to givehim a one-day leave. We gave himenough vodka to drink but he kept crying.

A few days later, the outpost completelymoved to the new place. When they wereleaving, one of our Ryazan guys said: "If

they managed to fire fromhere to there, there is achance something can flyfrom there to our posi-tions." A couple nightslater, this really happened.Our former neighborswere launching theirmines in a spiral way withour base being in the cen-ter. Luckily, we quicklycalled them and theystopped launching mines.

We were positioned at thecheckpoint when a com-mand to open fire in thedirection of the greenlocation in the gorge tothe right of us came from the base. Wereceived information that someone waswandering there. We fired several burstsand then started launching grenades. Itwas a sort of a game: whoever hits thesame tree twice wins.

A few minutes later, a captain from theneighboring army reserve unit ran up tous and shouted to stop fire: their recon-naissance platoon got under our fire andwas asking the Ryazan cops to stopshooting. They simply did not have ourfrequencies on their portable radios.

The East Is Tricky

We were in position at the exit check-point. Six militiamen from Ryazan.Around us there were two hiding posi-tions with two soldiers in each position.Also, there was an armored personnel-car-rier and four more soldiers above theslope. We were checking a dark blue Izh-Kombi. There were an old man, a youngdriver and a girl in the back seat of thecar. Everything was clean and the carcontinued creeping uphill. Suddenly weheard a dry shot from a sniper rifle. Thenwe heard a signal from the APC: "Whereis your doctor?" We answered: "At thebase."

Later we found out that a soldier was sit-ting on the roof of the APC and playingwith his friend's sniper rifle. Through thesight, he was following the Izh that wehad checked. He pressed the trigger. Whythe cartridge was in the cartridge cham-ber and why the safety lock wasremoved? He did not remember. The bul-let of the 7,62 mm sniper cartridgeentered through the roof of the car. Thedriver got a burn on the head. He waslucky: the bullet only touched his head.Then the bullet hit the girl in the chestand went out through the trunk.

The Chechen girl did not live long. The

village administration head assistantwarned us: "Do not go to the exit check-point any more: there are talks in the vil-lage and something may happen."

The soldier-murderer was urgently takenaway to a unit in Neftekumsk, Stavropolregion. In the evening, local residentsorganized a demonstration near ourcheckpoint and demanded to give awaythis soldier. We got away with it simplyby explaining that he was no longer there.

The APC with our militiamen was explod-ed at the exit checkpoint. Luckily, aminute before the explosion, the guys gotoff the APC and walked away from it toexamine the position. The bomb techni-cian did not find any mines. As a result,all the Ryazan militiamen received vari-ous degrees of contusion, the bomb tech-nician got destruction of eardrums, and acontract militiaman flew several metersaway off from the APC turret and brokehis leg.

The driver injured his face against theedge of the hatch. The relations with localresidents that took so long to normalizegot finally spoiled. The war goes on.Mostly at night.

There are hundreds of such examples.

"Forward, Eagles!"

Very few people know that there was areal revolt in one of the militia divisionsthat was on a mission on the territory ofthe Chechen Republic.

We received an order to prepare a nightambush. When we arrived to the place werealized that the commander did not haveeither the plan of action, or the plan ofwithdrawal, or the plan of coordinationwith hidden posts.

There was nothing left for us but wait.Hidden posts were in position. When itbecame dark, the machine gunner and I

both understood that one accidental shotwas enough for chaos to break out. Wewould eventually simply shoot down eachother. We would not even know who firedat whom. We disobeyed the order andabandoned the position.

We did it by our own decision. It wasimpossible to continue combat operationsthis way. The commander was chompingwith rage. Our guys wanted to punch hisface. They found out that the order cameunexpectedly and it was urgent. We didnot even know the area where we weredispatched. Later, local militiamen told usthe story that big bosses from the region-al commandant's office urgently needed asmall war for their specific purposes.Someone simply needed to write offsomething.

Perhaps they wanted to write off us.

A large-scale clean-up operation startednear the Georgian border. We weresearching for an important commander ofthe "Ichkerian army" with a small groupof his bodyguards. The concentration oftroops was unprecedented. There werehelicopters in the air. The neighboringslope was occupied by artillery, air assaultunits, MVD troops, a separate reconnais-sance battalion, GRU, and special troopsof FSB. Our unit of militiamen was bro-ken into search groups and reinforced bysoldiers and several local civil guardsmen.

We noticed that a lot of people from var-ious units were moving back and forthwithin the perimeter.

Finally, we received maps and orders. Wemoved forward. After an hour of checks,the routs of groups began to intersect. Itis a dangerous thing during clean-upoperations because it is possible to shootdown your own people, especially whenthe order was to recede upon contact,launch a signal rocket, run away, andstart digging trenches. Then helicoptersand artillery should start working. Then itshould be our turn to examine the debris.

During the first route intersection, resi-dents of the checked house assured usthat they had recently been cleaned up byanother group. The clean-up groupsapparently received incorrect maps. Orsomeone walked over our territory.

After we could not find on our map sev-eral houses that existed in real life andfound ruins or empty fields instead ofhouses, we understood that our mapswere incorrect.

We were passing through the center of amountain village. The road intersectedwith another road that was coming fromsomewhere above. We noticed a group ofarmed people moving along that roadtowards us. We could not identify whothey were. All of us look alike there in the

mountains. They wore beards, in variouscamouflage uniform, just like us, dirty andscary. We scattered along the road. Therewas mud and poodles of water all aroundand I had washed my clothes the eveningbefore. I did my best to keep dry the car-tridges in the side pockets of my waist-coat. The situation was too bad: one ner-vous shot was enough to start a big shoot-ing. We would fire from all our weapons,launch rockets, depart, drag wounded men,then helicopters would arrive and destroythe whole place, and artillery would cer-tainly assist: they never shoot a little.

Seconds were passing by. Was it fear orsomething else? Probably those who havemore experience any have been toChechnya before know what happens herein the wood or in the mountains whensome of our units keep shelling each oth-er for hours from all weapons that areavailable. Then a report appears, some-thing like: "A large gang of insurgentswas suppressed, a few federal soldierswere lost, that many were wounded, andthe insurgents took all their numerousdead bodies away with them." We knowtoo well how such reports are made up.That is why we were taking the risk andwaiting for them to begin the first. Thenerves were crumbling and falling intopieces directly into the mud.

The "other" side shouted:

"Who are you?"

This is good news. First of all, it is theywho are asking. Second, they do it inRussian.

"We are militia, and who are you?"

"Search unit 42."

"We are search unit 43! Send someone fornegotiations!"

One of our guys walked towards them.They also sent one soldier. They bothtalked for a while and looked at the maps.Fine, according to the maps, our routesintersected. Someone thanked God thatshooting had not started because there isnobody else to thank for it.

Epilogue

Those who have been "there" have alreadylearned the meaning of the words from apopular song: "There are no atheists in theentrenchments under fire."

When it is impossible to rely either on thecommanders, or the army, or militia, youonly believe in God. This war, and manydo not call it war, is wrong. Everything iswrong here.

Only a few realize it. That is why we"carry home heroes for whom, in theirtwenties, we are digging graves." And wekeep carrying them.

Once again you get convinced that it isabsolutely true when people say that forsome the war is a war and for others thewar is the mother. The soldiers get theirtombs and the generals move to new pri-vate residences. The parents keep drop-ping the tears and officers keep receivingnew shiny awards.

P.S. The events described aboveoccurred in Nozhay-Yurtovsky districtof the Chechen Republic. The episodewith the child occurred in the villageof Baitarki. The episode with mortarusage against friendly positionsoccurred in the village of Simsir. Ourunit was stationed in the village ofZandak. Though we kept the departuredate in secret, that day half of the res-idents of the village came to the schoolbuilding where we lived to say good-bye to us.

They said: "Your conduct was praise-worthy. Before you there were badpeople stationed here. We are scaredwhen we think about those who will beafter you. Come back to visit us withyour families. Only do not came withweapons. Please come on vacation.We will show to you such beautifulplaces that you would never seethrough the sight."

One clean-up operation always comesto my memory, when local residentsorganized a whole feast for us. Theysaid that, unlike other units, our guysbehaved decently. When entering intothe house from the street, our guystook off their dirty rubber boots andcleaned up the house barefoot.

When I was on my way home fromthis mission, to tell the truth, I wasfeeling a kind of shame mixed withrage and insolence. Why does it hap-pen so? In fact, people do not need it.Everyone wants to live in peace. Manyour guys want it too. Why do we thinkabout it looking with one eye throughthe sight?


Bammatkhan Sheikhov, former leader of Buinakskjama'at, is now serving time in prison. For two and ahalf years he was hiding from law enforcement agen-cies. His son was killed in November 2007 during aspecial operation in Makhachkala. In February 2008,Bammatkhan Sheikhov surrendered under the guaran-tees of the Minister of Internal Affairs of DagestanAdilguerey Magomedtagirov who promised toSheikhov that he would be granted amnesty if therewas no blood on him. Six months ago, the jury pro-nounced that his attempts on the life of militiamenwere not proved. Nevertheless, he was sentenced tothree years for participation in illegal armed bands andcarrying weapons. Raykhanat, Sheikhov's wife, told uswhy Bammatkhan joined the underground and whysuch people cannot return to peaceful life.

- Our story was in many newspapers. We lived inMoscow and came to live here. I do not know the rea-son why they started persecuting him. He did notcommunicate with anybody, he did not go anywhere,and we were only repairing the house, that's all.

The only thing that could cause suspicion was hisbeard. Did it all happen because of the beard? It is stilla riddle for me. They endlessly called him to visit thelocal militia department: "Why don't you go to Said-apandi (one of popular sheikhs)? Why do you wear abeard?" After such questions he decided not to shavethe beard on purpose. They detained and kept him forfive days but they never brought any charges againsthim. Eventually, he got tired of it. Last time theycame, Russian OMON was there too, and turned

everything upside down in the house. They even tookdown and crushed the flag that the grandmother hadbrought from hajj, a typical Islamic flag. The neigh-bors got indignant and this person who tore down theflag, I do not remember his name, wanted to show offbefore the Russian OMON and said: "The Russian flagshould be hanging here." The husband understood thatit was useless to hope for anything here. I always toldhim: "It is impossible to live here, we should return toMoscow!" Nobody touched us in Moscow, I couldfreely wear hijab, my husband wore a beard, and wehad no problems at all.

He said that he would leave for some time, he packedhis things. It turned out later that he left for thewoods. Then the police began to watch the son,Khadzhimurad, and planted an explosive on him. It isinteresting that when they came to arrest him he evenwas not at home. Usually, the son was in the house,and they knew about it. They usually came early inthe morning. They never could find anything duringthe search, even literature. And when they came lasttime, I, the silly woman, went to get the attested wit-nesses and left them without supervision in the house.I should have sent them instead! When I returned Isaw them sitting in the kitchen and opening the sofa:"Oh, and what is it that you've got here?" I said: "Youhave planted it here!" One of them giggled: Didn't youknow that we plant such things?" I answered: "No, Idid not know that you plant such things, and now youonly confirm it." They asked: "Where is your son?" -"He is not here." They were puzzled because theywere sure that he was sleeping in the other room.They probably had long-time plans to arrest him. They

WITHOUT OPTIONSThe wife of an insurgent tells why people join the underground


Dosh #2(24)2009Natalia KRAYNOVA

usually organize raids, plant somethingand then arrest. The guys who werearrested that day told me later that themilitiamen came to their ward with a listand shouted: "Sheikhov, Khadzhimurad,out!" though he was not there. Should hebe at home, they would have arrested himand it is hard to guess what they wouldhave done with him.

I always insisted that he should leave. Itis hard for me leave with children, there-fore I stayed and convinced him to movefor a while to Stavropol, to Krasnodar, tofriends. And I was delighted when hefinally decided to move. Only later Iunderstood that he did not move but tookto the woods.

- Tell us how he was detained?

- Negotiations about his coming out ofthe woods in trade of amnesty lasted thewhole year, since February, 2007.Adilguerey constantly called us, not onlyme but all family members of the insur-gents, and asked us to help convince ourrelatives to return to peaceful life. I eventook a lawyer with me because I wasindeed interested. My son was in thewoods and I wanted him to return. Andwho does not want it? At these negotia-tions, I was together with the sister ofZakariyaev, the sister of AzkharAbakarov, the mother of Dinara Dazievawho later died at Tankaeva Street. (Therewas a special operation at TankaevaStreet in Makhachkala on November 12th,2007, - see the photo. As a result ofassault on the apartment house, eightsupposed insurgents, including two wom-en, were killed.) The Minister promised tous that if there was no blood on themthey would be released. All of us askedhim: "Where is the guarantee that youwould really release them and you wouldnot persecute them afterwards?" He

repeated: "I am the guarantor of all this!"

Naturally, I conveyed this information tomy husband as best as I could. My sonsaid: "Mom, they cannot be trusted, it isuseless. They themselves have driven usinto this deadlock and left without options."

Finally, my husband agreed to negotiate.An FSB agent and the chief of "the sixthdepartment" (directorate against extrem-ism and criminal terrorism) were sup-posed to come to that place. They sur-rounded the house where my husbandwas and placed the second cordon.

Peaceful civilians were between my hus-band and federal agents. I do not knowwho brought them there but they seemedas though they were hostages. Then,apparently, the chief of FSB ofUntsukulsky district, deputy Shamil andMagomed Suleimanov (native of Gimry,one of seven insurgents who had beenpreviously granted amnesty) entered intothe house.

According to them, the negotiations last-ed five hours. When my husband under-stood that he was surrounded, that theywere planning to bomb him, and thatthere would be no concessions, Adilguereycalled him on the phone and said: "Youwill now walk out and they will bring youto Makhachkala. I will invite your familyand you together with your family will gohome." And indeed, I was told that Ineeded to go to Makhachkala where Iwent from Buinaksk together with his sis-ter during the night. We were told: "Weshall now interrogate him, you wait a lit-tle and he will return home with you.There is nothing on him, only carryingweapons and participation in illegal armedbands. He will be released in his own cus-tody before trial." Later they said: "No, itwill not happen today, come back tomor-row." So we travelled back and forth for aweek. Then they told us to wait for tendays. And then suddenly we heard aboutthese accusations about attempts on mili-tiamen.

As the investigator told me, "I will chargehim with whatever I am told to chargehim."

- Did the negotiations concern only himalone?

- There was one more person with him,but he has already been sentenced to fiveyears. They did not take into account thathe had voluntary left the woods.

- Could he bring many people with him?

- Of course he could. It was not acciden-tal. Negotiations lasted a year.

He was promised guarantees and he con-sidered his options. In fact, there are peo-ple in the woods who got there absolutelyby chance and he initially told the

Minister and others about it. Why did myhusband, my son, and my nephew take tothe woods? There were no specific chargesagainst them, they simply exasperatedthem with prosecutions without explana-tions and thus forced to take to the woods.There are even invalids among them. Onewas almost blind, he went there becausehe was constantly pursued and beaten.

His wife was selling potatoes at the mar-ket and he was carrying passengersacross Buinaksk in his horse driven cart.Each time something happened, militiadetained him because he was fromKaramakhi (the village of Karamakhi is apart of a Wahhabi enclave crushed byfederal armies in September, 1999). Hewas also beaten. Eventually, he got tiredof it. The elderly blind man took to thewoods. There are many people like himthere. My husband also told about themon the first day when he was taken. Hesaid that they were peaceful people andthey should find a way out of a deadlocksituation that they got into not by theirfault.

They would have left the woods but itseems that nobody needs it. On the con-trary, they are being pushed into thewoods. The situation is getting worse andnothing is being done.

- Were you there at Tankaeva Street dur-ing the special operation?

- Yes, I was there and it is difficult to tellabout it. My nephew and his wife werethere too. It is a separate story how theywere scoffed and how they managed to goaway. I do not know whether theAlmighty will forgive those who made allthis to a peaceful family.

This boy worked since morning till nightto support the family. Has purchased anold car and offered taxi services betweenBuinaksk and Makhachkala every day inany weather. He was also detained andbeaten. He told them: "What do you wantfrom me? I perform my salah five times aday and do not touch anybody." - "Weshall beat you until you vomit from thesound of azan." I do not know how thiscan be explained. And he was nevercharged with anything.

Open his case and see with your eyes!Everything is based only on suspicions:maybe he knows something, perhaps hewill say something.

Once he unexpectedly called his wife andasked to come with children toMakhachkala. We arrived and he said:"Imagine, I was driving a client today andafter he got out of the car near the mar-ket I had to brake sharply. Suddenly awhole arsenal of weapons crept out fromunder the seat. I was in a shock. I drivein the center of the city and I can be



stopped at any moment. I could have been arrestedimmediately." He did not know what to do with theweapons and threw them out somewhere. He decidednot to return home. We assumed that the weaponshad been planted and they were planning to stop himon his way back at the city exit checkpoint and dis-cover these weapons.

He also left for the woods. His wife followed him. Istill cannot understand how she could abandon thechildren. I had constant disputes and conflicts with herbecause of this.

- Do you disapprove of those who leave?

- You see, they simply do not have another option. Forexample, Gyulnara Rustamova (leader of Mothers ofDagestan for Human Rights) keeps fighting day andnight to find a way out and there are still no results!What can be done if they cannot leave alone thepeaceful people? Salikh, my other nephew, a studentof Technical University, was detained many times!Once he disappeared for a week. They dug a grave forhim and said: "If you do not tell us where they are,say a prayer and we shall bury you here alive."Thanks Allah, their family moved to Moscow and nowlives there. Not everyone is able to take off and leave,you understand? What can we do? We are defenselesstoday and the state does not offer anything to us.

Sergey Chenchik, deputy chief of the Department onStruggle against Organized Crime, once said to me:"It will not stop until they stop."

I said: "No, it is until you stop it!" Why do they per-secute people? Why do they break into mosques?What are they looking for in bookcases? Leave peoplealone! When I was trying to convince my husband toleave, he answered: "Why should I leave? I have livedhere all my life. Did I do anything wrong?"

In fact, they never charged him with doing anythingwrong. The overwhelming majority of those who werelater charged in connection with being in the woods,had been simply suspicious before.

Why does it happen? One Moscow political observerwrote that a flash point was needed here. Why cannotthese conflicts be solved peacefully? One word fromabove, it seems to me, would be sufficient to stop allthis. Instead we have this infinite "struggle againstterrorism" which is not seen anywhere here. The prob-lem is extemporized! They catch 18-year old children,make terrorists out of them and throw them in prison,at the best. In the worst case, children simply disap-pear. Gyulnara keeps searching for these children.Where are they?

- If there is no terrorism, who then kills the militia-men?

- Any action always has a counteraction! Recently, awoman told how her son was detained and how hewas tortured! They put electricity through his mouthand all his teeth fell out. Who can sustain such tor-tures? We live in the Caucasus and why do you thinkour children will not resist if the cops do such thingsto them? We are not slaves.

- In your opinion, will Gyulnara Rustamova's actionsbring results?

- I am glad that something like this has grown onour land at last. Though she is weak now, it is stillgood that she exists. This group of people is trying

to do something using legal methods. However, thereare no results yet. The most terrible thing is thatthere is no support from people. When lights areswitched off, everybody runs out onto the streetbecause they are deprived of comfort. When peopleare persecuted and killed, those who are not directlyinvolved remain indifferent.

It is a deadlock until the government orders to stop it.It is no use shouting endlessly: "There will be noSharia here!" Whether it will be here or not is anoth-er question. You please observe the laws that youyourselves invented and written! Nothing else isrequired from you.

Someone needs a flash point here and all of them tryto inflate this fire. It is a continuous provocation.

- Where is the way out?

- I do not know. Ramzan Kadyrov has his people, for-mer insurgents who now work with him and returnedto peaceful life. We, in Dagestan, do not have a lead-er who people would believe. It is impossible to rely onanybody, neither the government nor the president.How can people leave the woods if they see that allpromises turn out to be a treacherous trap? The storyof my husband is a good example.

- What kind of a leader can change it?

- I do not know. Perhaps Moscow can do something?But Moscow sends all local affairs in a vicious circle:they all return where they started.

They leave us without options.

P.S. On June 5th, 2009, AdilguereyMagomedtagirov, Minister of Internal Affairs ofDagestan, was murdered in Makhachkala. Theinvestigators established that the Minister wasshot from the window of an apartment houseopposite the Marrakesh restaurant where he hada family celebration. Several other people werewounded. The bullet hit the heart of the Minister(52) who was heading the republican Ministryof Internal Affairs for 11 years. In 2007, therewere two attempts on Magomedtagirov's life.Attempts on the life of the Minister also occurredin 2005 and 2006.

Recently, we have been receiv�

ing more letters from our

imprisoned compatriots.

Tamerlan from Vedensky dis�

trict of the Chechen Republic is

one of our constant readers

who is serving life time in one of

the colonies of Yamalo�

Nenetsky autonomous region.

This young man is only one of

hundreds and thousands of

Chechens who got between the

millstones of the two wars. His

bitter fate is a certificate of how

prudent politicians and blood�

thirsty military sacrificed a

blossoming territory and the

lives and souls of people to


VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS TRUTHDosh #2(24)2009Abdulla DUDUEV


their ambitions and inter�

ests.

I am writing to you becauseI feel information hungerand want to learn somethingabout my native land.

A few words about myself: Iwas born in 1981.

My father and mother areChechens. The father wasborn in Siberia exile butmanaged to return homewith his family. He grew up,got education, and met mymother. My childhood wasrather quiet and safe. Thenthe war came. I was 13years old.

The war at once forced allmy friends, coevals andeven those who were muchyounger, to have a differentlook at life.

Six years passed. The sec-ond war broke out and mydream to become a computerprogrammer vanished. Inthe fall of 1999, they start-ed to bomb the markets,launched cruise missiles,and dropped pellet bombs.Defenseless people werekilled in hundreds. Therewere mostly women in themarkets. Young girls diedand they could have hadfamilies by now. A lot of oldwomen were also killed.

Those who dropped suchbombs, didn't they knowwho they bombed? They alsohave children and wives.

Overwhelmed by the wave ofprotest patriotic sentiments,I joined, just like many oth-ers, the army of Ichkeria.Eventually, I was found"guilty" because the ethnicidentity became a brand: ifyou are a Chechen and youare young it means you area Wahhabite!

Many of my fellow country-men acted just like in theOriental proverb: "It is bet-ter to be a living donkeyrather than a dead lion."And even those unruly peo-ple who had previously livedby the principle "better diestanding than live kneeling"obeyed to reason or the ani-

mal instinct of survival after theygot into ORB-2 (operative searchbureau).

They began to follow that firstOriental proverb too. And they obe-diently took upon themselves asmany unsolved crimes as much car-go a donkey can take on its back.

After the army service I moved toOdessa. The sudden death of thefather made me go back home. InKhasav-Yurt, I met with myfriend Ruslan who decided toaccompany me.

Before the departure we droppedinto a cafe. We were drinking cof-fee when a group of 20 or 30 menin civilian clothes entered thecafe. They came up to us anddemanded to show our documents.When we were taking out the doc-uments they attacked us.

They drove us somewhere forabout 15 or 20 minutes until westopped in the courtyard of thebuilding where there was an FSBdepartment among other organi-zations. They lifted me to the sec-ond floor and pushed into a room.They threw me down on the floor.I raised my head a little andnoticed my friend Ruslan on thefloor in the other room. Because of so manypunches I was unable to understand anything.My body could no longer react to pain andstopped feeling anything. They ordered me tostand up. I tried but failed because my feet didnot feel anything. Then they poured water overme and applied electric shock to my bare back,neck and hands.

They wanted to make me the organizer and thewitness of murders of special services agentsand investigators.

Having understood that tortures would continueendlessly until I confess, I decided not toinvolve my friend into it and said that I hadkilled an FSB agent. The investigator wasdelighted and began to write down my confes-sion. I said: "Yes, I did! Exactly the way yousaid. But he did not do it, it was me."

A few months later they transferred us toGrozny, to ORB-2, where every night Ruslanand I were tortured starting from 8 in theevenings till dawn. I attempted a suicide butthey rescued me and sent to hospital.

After that they left me alone for a short while.

Soon tortures resumed every night with electric-ity, water, batons and a gas mask.

Now they were talking of other murders. Theydid not call doctors to me and did not renderany medical aid. The lawyer and the investiga-tor who came to write down my confessionswere, apparently, together with those who tor-

tured me. They pretended that everything wasall right and nothing extraordinary happened.Later I learned that several of my fellow vil-lagers had been detained, brutally tortured, andwere forced to testify against me.

My attempts to refer to Article 51 of theConstitution that allows not testifying againstme were in vain. The lawyer and the investiga-tor came to ORB-2 only to observe formalities.

In addition, they forced me to confess in the actof terrorism on May 9, 2004 in which the pres-ident of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrovwas murdered.

The court verdict in Dagestan was unfair andsevere: life imprisonment. The appeal to Moscowbrought only one benefit: we complained andthey stopped torturing us. However, the verdictwas confirmed. The Supreme Court of theRussian Federation refused to revise the case.

Dear Dosh! I am telling you this story the bestI can, to the extent my knowledge of Russianallows me to do so. I learned Russian duringthe five years of imprisonment where I sit forno fault. I am telling you all this so that youand many uninformed people realize what meth-ods were used by investigation at ORB-2 andhow hundreds and thousands of innocent peoplewere placed behind bars.

I am sure that a skillful lawyer can read theverdict in my case and easily understand thatthe reason of my and Ruslan's conviction was



Dosh #3(25)2009

Early in the morning of July 15th, 2009, NataliaEstemirova, Chechen human rights activist andemployee of Grozny office of Memorial Human RightsCenter, was stolen in the courtyard of her house inGrozny. A few hours later Natalia' dead body wasfound on the territory of neighboring Ingushetia.

This caused a large resonance in the world. Ministersof Foreign Affairs of France and Sweden BernardKouchner and Carl Bildt and the US National SecurityCouncil expressed sharp condemnation of the murderof Natalia Estemirova and demanded from Russianauthorities to conduct a careful investigation of thiscrime and to punish the guilty.

During that moment, Russian President DmitryMedvedev was on an official visit in Germany. At thejoint press conference with German Chancellor AngelaMerkel, he directly connected the murder ofEstemirova with her human rights activities andemphasized that such activities were "necessary forany normal state." Medvedev also said: "She spoke thetruth. And this is the value of human rights activistseven if they are inconvenient and unpleasant to theauthorities."

German Chancellor stated in this respect: "I amshocked by the murder of this courageous woman. It

is necessary to catch and punish the mur-derers."

Medvedev rejected the allegations put for-ward by the head of Memorial Oleg Orlovthat the President of the ChechenRepublic Ramzan Kadyrov could beinvolved in the murder. Russian Presidentconsiders that "those who accomplishedthis evil deed, this crime, anticipated thatprimitive and most unacceptable forauthorities versions of this crime wouldsurface first. That is why, in my opinion,such crimes are planned for certainevents."

Ramzan Kadyrov also categorically deniedOleg Orlov's allegations. He personallycalled Orlov on the phone and said: "Youwill be ashamed when it turns out to be alie. You are not a public prosecutor orinvestigator to make such statements."The President of the Chechen Republiccalled the murder of Estemirova "mon-strous" and declared that he would per-sonally supervise the search of criminals.He added that an informal investigation"according to Chechen traditions" wouldalso be conducted.

Less than a month later, on August 11th,another human rights activist was stolen

from the office in the center of the Chechen capital.This time it was Zarema Sadulaeva and her husbandUmar Dzhabrailov. Two days later at dawn, Zaremaand Umar were found shot in the village ofChernorechye near Grozny. Their bodies were lockedin the trunk of their car.

Rayana (this is her passport name) Sadulaeva headedWe Shall Save the Generation Regional Public CharityOrganization that helped to treat and rehabilitate theinvalids of war, first of all, victims of mines and thosewho lost limbs. DOSH wrote a lot about those whoreceived help from this organization. Rayana orga-nized an annual contest among journalistic publica-tions about the problems of invalids of war. In 2006,she awarded diplomas to three correspondents of ourmagazine who became winners in this contest.

There is no progress in the investigation of the cir-cumstances of the murder of Natasha Estemirova,Zarema Sadulaeva and her husband, as well as in thecase of murder of Stanislav Markelov, Russian lawyerwho was engaged in many "Chechen" cases. And thecourse of investigation of Anna Politkovskaya's mur-der does not demonstrate optimism either. The realpaymaster and the executors of her murder are stillnot found.

THE SUMMER OF EXECUTIONMurders of independent journalists andhuman rights activists have recentlyturned into an ominous tradition.

Zarema Sadulaeva


***Meetings and gatherings in memory ofNatalia Estemirova took place in Bruxelles,Paris and Tbilisi. They wee organized byFIDH, Reporters Without Borders, AmnestyInternational, Revue Nouvelle, UnitesNomade, Pax Christi, the ChechenCommittee of Belgium, South CaucasusHuman Rights Network (Georgia, Armenia,Azerbaijan), Human Rights HouseFoundation (Oslo), and others.

Civil rights activists, art workers and repre-sentatives of international human rights andjournalistic organizations gathered atFreedom Square of the Belgian capital.Including those present were former deputyof European Parliament Olivier Dupuis andprofessor of Bruxelles university (ULB)Aude Merlin who closely knew Natalia andoften met with her in Chechnya and also atmany European conferences and forums onChechen issues.

The participants in all these actionsremarked with bitterness that over the pastyears they had to meet too often in connec-tion with murders of human rights activistsand journalists in Russia.

***

Once upon a time there lived mali-cious and disgusting Fear. Most of allhe liked to frighten people by jumpingout suddenly behind someone's backor by rushing under the feet ofpassers-by in darkness. People gotbored with him and they banishedhim. Fear became angry with theentire world, got far into the moun-tains and lived there frightening smallanimals and lost hunters.

He settled in a gorge where a cheer-ful small mountain river was flowing.In one place, the mountain spreadapart and formed a wide glade. Everysummer, the glade became coveredwith bright clean chamomiles, gentlebellflowers, and violent poppies. Wildstrawberries were inflating their redcheeks, blackberries were bravelyclimbing up the rocks, and hazelswere dropping their heart-shapedlight brown nuts into the small river.They were jumping in the streams ofwater, losing their way among thinlegs of fawns that came together withtheir mothers to drink water. Bearcubs were trying to catch silvery troutnearby, the trout escaped but themother-bear threw up it by the pawand the trout immediately flew overto the river bank.

A man once came to the glade. Hecame out and stopped at the edge.There he stood for a long time leaningon his gun. Then he turned aroundand left without pointing his gun. Afew days later he returned but notalone. There were a woman, a dog andseveral sheep together with him. Thenewcomers built a hut on the gladeand stayed there to live. Soon anoth-er hut appeared near it, then onemore, and yet another one. The num-ber of people grew more and more,they cleared away brushwood, builthouses, ranched cattle, fished,ploughed, and sowed. The womenwashed clothes in the small river,shouted to one another and laughed.

All these people worked all day long.The sounds of human habitationspread all over the mountains: thecows mooed, the sheep bleated, thedogs barked, and millstones of the riv-er mill rustled. People did not haverest even in the evenings. They con-verged together, danced and sang.Fear absolutely lost comfort. Most ofall he was exasperated with children.They climbed up mountains, shouted,and the most awful they did: they

played fear! Yes-yes, they attackedeach other from behind the trees andstones, frightened, screamed, andlaughed. They simulated fear andlaughed at it, they laughed at Fear!And when he attacked them, theythought that it was one of theirfriends who did it and laughed again!

This was unbearable! Fear went intothe thicket part of the wood and beganto think how he could win over peopleand how he could drive them out andcapture the valley again. He tried tounderstand what gives them thestrength to struggle with frosts in thewinter, to build new houses when inthe spring the small river furiously car-ried their huts away, to work continu-ously, and always to be vigorous andhealthy. He thought long and at lasthe understood. Laughter and love gavestrength to people. If he could takelaughter and love away from them,they would lose their strength and hecould easily overcome them. And itshould curiosity inherent in all peoplewithout exception and especially inchildren that would help him with thisplan. He thought he made up a greatplan and almost burst out laughingfrom joy but he immediately regainedcontrol of himself. He weaved a thinand strong cord out of a spider web,caught a lark and walked down intothe valley.

A boy was jumping back and forthover a stream when he suddenlynoticed a small wrinkled old manstanding in front of him. There wassomething moving and cheeping inhis closed palms.

"What is it?" asked the boy.

"It is my secret," answered the old man.

"Show it to me," the boy asked, bentover to him and opened the palms.

The bird flew up and the boy joyfullyscreamed. But the loop squeezed thebird's thin neck and the lark hung onthe cord as it was a piece of greycloth.

Now the boy screamed with horror.The old man burst with croakingsounds and smacked:

"What a slick thing you did!"

The old man disappeared in the thorn-bush. And the boy went home.

His mother met him at the door withcheers but when she looked in herson's face her smile disappeared.

A TALE OF FEARNatalia ESTEMIROVA

Natalia Estemirova


"What's happened?" she asked. The sonshuddered and began to cry.

He never saw murders and never heardthat such things were possible. He did notunderstand what had happened and couldnot explain anything to his disturbed moth-er. She rushed to the neighbors. The rumorthat something wrong happened to her boyspread all over the place. Frightened par-ents stopped letting their children out ontothe street. The children began to cry andquarrel. The life in the village became moredisturbing and gloomy. The children lostappetite and began to weaken, their eyesgrew dull. The sound of joyful laughter andsongs could no longer be heard. Fear wassniffing among people. He was lookinginto the windows and began making facesas soon as a child noticed him. The chil-dren were frightened. They cried butcould not explain what was happening tothem. The adults noticed a shadow next tothem but did not understand where it wascoming from. At last they decided thatthe children got sick and needed a doctor.But where could they get a doctor? Infact, nobody ever got sick in the villagebefore. And Fear understood that theclock struck for him.

Early in the morning he came to the vil-lage and said that he was doctor Heartsand he could cure the children if the par-ents would perform everything that hewould tell them to do with complete obedi-ence. Every mother and every father sworeto obey him. Doctor Hearts ordered themto close the windows, to put dark curtainsso that the bright light of the sun could notirritate the eyes of the children. He prohib-ited songs and dances so that the childrencould not suffer from noise. The peopleexecuted everything. They looked up athim from below because lately he grewconsiderably taller. Everyone invited him inthe house to see their children. The chil-dren hunched under his gloomy gaze andhid their eyes, and doctor Hearts severelypointed to them a thin small beam of lightthat was coming through the window andthe parents closed the curtains eventighter. They asked him not to leave thevillage. They offered a house for him inwhich they used to gather in order to singand dance. There were huge windows inthat house but doctor Hearts ordered toseal them off with dark fabric.

Silence and gloom settled in the village.All the works stopped because the vil-lagers became butterfingered, the cropsdried out, hungry cows gave less milk,kids and lambs began to perish. None ofthe children recovered but their parentskept looking at doctor Hearts as if theywere bewildered and performed every-thing that he ordered. Every night shad-ows walked all over the village, nestledclose to the windows and listened, lis-

tened. And then they tiptoed to the houseof doctor Hearts and reported to him inwhich house the parents were singing alullaby and in which house the childrenwere playing with a doll. Every morningall the villagers dressed in black and greyclothes gathered in the center of the vil-lage and doctor Hearts informed aboutthose who had broken his interdiction, andthe anger of the villagers, who used to bekind and cheerful before, fell upon theheads of the guilty. The first tombappeared at the edge of the village. Thenthe second and yet another one. In duecourse, all got used to the fact that chil-dren died. There was a smile on the lipsof doctor Hearts when he anticipated howall the villagers would move to the ceme-tery and the gorge would become com-pletely silent.

A little girl was lying in bed in one of thehouses. Her brother was sitting beside herwith a mug of milk. He asked:

"Lily, please drink a little! The neighborbrought it this morning for you."

"Don't do it, Ader, don't torture me!" thegirl spoke hardly moving her lips. "I willdie soon all the same. I would have diedyesterday but I want to recall that songthat the mother used to sing to me. I willrecall it and leave to her."

She closed her eyes. The boy got to hisfeet and left the house. He walked notknowing where he was going, not lookingat the road, until he appeared on the bankof a brook. Ader sat on the grass.Dragonflies were flying above the wateralmost touching him with their longwings, but the boy did not notice them.He recalled how the father threw him uphigh above when he was a small child andthen taught him to read animal tracks,how the mother baked pancakes in themorning and drew cheerful faces on themwith jam. The father fell down from a rockwhen he was picking hazelnuts and themother died of famine because she gaveall the food to children. What will happento him when the little sister also dies? Isthere a reason for him to live? His handswere tearing grass in despair and his fin-gers were sticking in soft, damp clay. Hetook a lump of clay and rolled a ball. Helooked at it and attached two tiny flowersof forget-me-nots as if they were eyes,and then a cowberry as if it was a mouth.It looked like the head of a doll that Lilyused to have. He made the body, handsand legs. When he returned home, hesilently, not to wake up the sister, openedthe chest and found bright cloths at thebottom of it: they remained from dressesthat the mother once made for Lily. Hewrapped the doll in the cloths and calledthe sister in a whisper. She opened hereyes reluctantly and suddenly saw a doll

in her brother's hands.

"What is it?" Lily asked, stretching hertransparent hands to the doll. "It is sodark here, I can hardly see."

"Wait a second!" exclaimed Ader cheer-fully and began to tear off dark curtainsfrom the windows.

Suddenly he heard a song, that very song,the mother's song. Horror pierced the boy:Lily said that she would die as soon asshe recalled it! He turned around veryslowly and saw that the sister was gettingher from the bed. Ader rushed to her. Theneighbor was standing amazed at thedoorstep. She thought that Lily hadalready died and came to help Ader tobury her. And Lily was already dancingwith the brother around the room, singingand smiling, holding a bright clay doll inher hands. The woman rushed to tell theneighbors that Lily recovered. It neverhappened before, and the people ran tolook at the girl. They were laughing whenthey looked at her, smiling to each other,showing her doll to the sick children, andbegan to take out whistles and pocketmirrors from their chests.

"Let's go to doctor Hearts!" someoneshouted. "We shall tell him that miraclehappened at last!"

And the people ran to the largest house inthe center of the village - the house of Fear.

"The wood is so noisy today," grumbledFear, having heard a rumble. He wanted toclose the window even tighter, but hookedhis foot over the curtain, fell down on thefloor and seized the curtain with his handand completely broke it. The stream oflight blinded him. Plashes of sunlight fromdozens of mirrors in the hands of joyfulpeople rushed through the window. Thepeople entered into the house and began tolook for the doctor. They wanted to sharetheir joy with him. But they could not finddoctor Hearts anywhere. They vainlysearched for their benefactor. During theturmoil one of them almost crushed some-thing looking like a spider that slippedbetween his feet. Fear became small againand slipped away from the light that hehated so much.

Since then, he has been living in thethickest part of the wood. He frightenschildren who escape too far from adultsand small animals when a predator creepstoo close to them. Small fear is sometimeseven necessary.

And people have never abandoned asmile and a song since then. But theykeep trying to get rid of excessivecuriosity and trustfulness: trouble maybe not so far away.

Grozny, 2007

This tale was written for and firstpublished in DOSH magazine.


"Recently, I spoke again on the phone with thePresident. He was in Moscow. He said that he did notforget about the case of Magomed. He promised thatwe would meet after his return. Then I will once againdiscuss with him all the circumstances and I will askhim to give me a straight answer, in a military fash-ion: either there is something illegal in what I amstriving for, or is the law so powerless in this repub-lic? If so, I will then stop tormenting myself," YakhyaEvloev told us. He became almost despaired in hisattempts to get the murderers of his son Magomedarrested and punished. Magomed Evloev was killed inIngushetia on August 31st, 2008.

Those who are guilty of the cynical, demonstrative,arbitrary execution of Evloev are not punished yet andwe are no longer surprised.

"Estemirova and two more human rights activistswere murdered in Chechnya. They still cannot findtheir murderers as well as the murderers ofPolitkovskaya. But everything is clear with the mur-

der of Magomed: who killed, who shot, who ordered.But the trial is being unscrupulously delayed. It meansthat it is the system where all is allowed to a few,"says Yakhya with bitterness and shares with DOSHthe latest news about the trial.

"The case was transferred to Karabulak court, thedates of hearings are not set yet, and the case is trans-ferred from one judge to another. The detention ofMagomed at the airport was confirmed illegal. Weasked to initiate a criminal case against those whoissued the illegal detention warrant but we wererefused. And in fact Magomed was killed due to thisarrest, the cause and effect relationship is obvious. Weappealed to the Investigative Committee and thePublic Prosecutor's Office with a question: why are werefused in opening a criminal case? Nobody can givea precise answer. However, under the law, you need tohave strong reasons to issue a compulsory detentionor taking a person off the plane warrant. The investi-gators should have first established his residenceaddress and called him by telegraph. Only if he did notappear after two telegrams had been personallyreceived by him, they would have the right to use oth-er measures. In our case, there was only one telegramand it was sent to a wrong address where Magomeddid not live. It is obvious that the order of compulso-ry detention could come only from Medov, formerMinister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, and GOVDchief Shankhoev. We were asking to initiate a crimi-nal case against him."

- Does it mean that this paper can be presented incourt as proof?

"Yes, but the investigator is dodging, he says that hesent summons in my name and I refused to receivethem. He alleges that our Malgobek militiaman deliv-ered the summons. When we asked this militiaman, hesaid that the summons was given to him the day afterthe murder. The investigator alleges that this militia-man submitted an official report stating that I refusedto accept the summons. But the militiaman denies itin his statement."

- Several weeks ago, it was announced thatMagomed's family left the trial. Is this decisionconnected with the circumstances that you havejust listed?

"Yes. The investigation refuses to take adequate mea-sures pointing out that the case is examined inessence in court. But when we started to raise ques-tions at preliminary hearings in Nazran, the judgedeclared that the subject of examination was the mur-der of Magomed by recklessness, therefore the courtwas examining exclusively what happened since themoment he was put in the car at the airport. The mur-derers repeat: "We shot him by recklessness." Theirtestimonies are considered while the court ignores ourquestions and doubts. It means, we, the victims, are

Dosh #3(25)2009Abdulla DUDUEV

YAKHYA EVLOEV:

WE ARE DISAPPOINTED


not needed there, therefore we leave. However, whenthe judge was replaced as a result of our petition,there was hope that the case would be fairly examined.But this judge was removed by the other party. Andthe case was sent to Karabulak.

We also brought the charge of money theft. In fact, 3million roubles were stolen from Magomed. A criminalcase was initiated on this fact too. We asked theInvestigative Committee to unite these two cases. Weagain addressed the Supreme Court of Ingushetia andare waiting for consideration of our petition."

- In your opinion, what is the reason of delayingthe trial?

"When Murat Zyazikov and Musa Medov were still inpower, they did everything so that this case wouldappear as a murder by recklessness. Bastrykin, head ofthe Investigative Committee at the Public Prosecutor'sOffice of the Russian Federation also participated in it.This is what investigator Komarov told me andpromised that he would be objectively investigating thecase. Zyazikov, Medov and Bastrykin had a meeting.Bastrykin gave an instruction: do not go deep, submitthe case to court as a murder by recklessness, and donot go into details. Komarov told this to me as a bigsecret. But now, when I learnt that Komarov was dis-charged, I think that it makes no sense to be silentabout this: I no longer risk harming him."

- President Yunus-Bek Evkurov came to see youafter he was appointed. What did he tell youabout the investigation?

"He promised to take the case under his control, but asI understand he is simply not allowed to do it. Lawenforcement agencies still work under the influence offormer chiefs. I visited him several times regardingthese issues. He called the Public Prosecutor of theRepublic Yury Turygin. They spoke for an hour and ahalf. Evkurov told the Public Prosecutor: "Could you lis-ten to victim Evloev, I think his reasons are strong." I

said: "We do not believe that it was a murder by reck-lessness, it was obviously an intentional murder. Theillegal arrest and further actions were performed by theinvestigator and the chief of Nazran GOVD, so chargethem and listen to what they will say. Should he hadnot been detained, he wouldn't have been killed."

Turygin was evasive: "Yes, we have performed inves-tigation, we interrogated them." I told him: "You, asthe Public Prosecutor who knows the laws, can youtell me: on the basis of available documents and theactions of these investigators, is it required to initiatea criminal case or not?" This conversation was in thepresence of the President. Turygin could only say:"Yes, it is required. But only Bastrykin can do it."

- Does it mean they follow the instructions fromMoscow?

"President Evkurov said: "Let us prepare a letter toBastrykin." We prepared the letter but there was anattempt on the President. Everything was put on hold.I told Turygin: "You are the Public Prosecutor ofIngushetia, head of the supervising body!" Heanswered that he did not have any power. So, he doesnot have the power, but the murderers had the powerto illegally arrest a person, throw him in the car andshoot him. Eventually, the case was initiated underour pressure but two days later Zhilin, Turygin'sdeputy, revoked the decision. I then asked: "If you donot have any power, how did that power emerge wheninitiating the case you cancelled it two days later?Such a quick reaction has never happened in the his-tory of the Ingush Office of Public Prosecutor. It is anobvious order! It means that there was a call eitherfrom Zyazikov or from Medov. It means you are inagreement with them. You lie to me and deceive thePresident. Then resign from this position!"

- Do you still have any hope that an objectiveinvestigation would be possible? Or you wereentirely disappointed?

"I have a feeling that there will be no objective inves-tigation and punishment of the guilty. And the orga-nizers will not be found. We are entirely disappointed.Perhaps they will formally punish someone and sen-tence to a year or two. Actually, I do not think thatthey so diligently cover Shankhoev or Kotiev. No, theyare afraid that if they start to testify, they will explainwhy they did so and will uncover high-positionedcriminals. Only this holds the case. Otherwise, thesepawns would easily be cornered. Kotiev could say thatMedov ordered him to do it, and Shankhoev could saythat Kotiev made him do it. Gudiev, Medov's deputy,who arrested Magomed in the plane, told duringinvestigation that the Minister ordered him to take thedetention warrant from GOVD and go to the airport."

- You certainly conducted your own independentinvestigation. What did you manage to find out?

"The day after the murder, everything was alreadyclear to us. All the facts are presented on the Internet.We know everything up to slightest details. I do notthink that Zyazikov gave the order to kill Magomed.Most likely, he ordered to detain and intimidate him,but Medov probably decided that it would be easier todo away him and then to make up the case. Havingauthority, they accomplished it without hesitation.They tried to cover up traces and therefore threw outthe body near the hospital. When we first asked those


who were arresting Magomed at the airport, they said:"We do not know anything. We were given an orderto detain and transfer him." It was impossible to hidethe fact of detention. They could only say that theytransferred him to other people and they did not knowwhat happened afterwards. They probably planned toplay for time, and say that were searching and inves-tigating. But Magomed's friends came to the airport tomeet him and then they chased and stopped the cars.It became impossible to hide the illegally arrested andthey killed him. It is an intentional murder, isn't it? Imany time told Magomed that he was risking and hecould be killed. He did not believe that they would doit. He said that they might arrest him but there wouldbe no charges. He thought that they would detain him,plant something on him and then keep under arrest fora week or two. Therefore, I do not believe that heshowed resistance, as they claim. He would never havedone it because he understood that there would beprovocations against him. He would have easily testi-fied and proved his innocence. It is not incidental thatclose relatives of the Minister of Internal Affairs werein that car: his nephews who would not blab out andprovide such testimonies as needed for them."

- Has the situation in Ingushetia changed over theyear that Magomed is no longer with us?

"It seems to me that human rights activists are nowfrightened. Magomed managed to give a push to thedevelopment of a civil society in Ingushetia. AndPresident Evkurov wants to be close to society.Evkurov is now trying to build a team but it is verydifficult. It is necessary to pick up a sufficient numberof honest, normal people. Therefore, people are beingchanged now in highest positions. He has taken theright direction. Magomed was fighting against corrup-tion that allowed arbitrary executions. Nowadays, thereis much openness in many issues. It has become easi-er to understand the abductions of people. Evkurovmeets with the families of those who were abducted orkilled and of those who took to the woods. There is cer-tainly a change for the better. Should the authoritieshave been in close contact with people before, just likeEvkurov is doing now, the situation in the republicwould not have reached such a degree of decay."

- Are there any people now who continueMagomed's cause as sincerely and impartially ashe did?

"I wouldn't say so. Even when he was alive, his asso-ciates were not always sincere. Nobody contributed tothe extent he did: neither physically, nor morally, norfinancially. The money that Magomed had with himthat day were intended for the construction of thehouse that already had the foundation built. I told him:"You spend all money for public activities and takechildren dancers abroad. You spent two million on cos-tumes for Dawns of the Caucasus and Sunzha dancegroups. You help sick and hungry people. You spendtoo much time and money on charity. This is good, butyou also need to do something about your own house.Sooner or later you will return here or your childrenwill come to live in Ingushetia. You should completethe construction of the house!" He carried this moneyunder my pressure and those murderers stole the mon-ey. The other day, his wife came to me and said thatthere were no savings. He left no savings for his busi-ness. He lived for the people and died for the people."

Magomed Evloev will be remembered in thehistory of the republic as a person whomanaged to organize national protestagainst absolute arbitrariness of the author�ities, the atmosphere of fear, lawlessnessand total suppression of any civil activity.He sacrificed his successful business andhis own life for the sake of justice and a bet�ter life of his repressed and exhausted com�patriots.The short and bright life of Magomed andhis activities are an example of dignity,courage, and love for the people. Theseconcepts had a very precise and tangiblemeaning for him. No wonder that for manyyears he remained the only serious opposi�tional figure of Ingushetia.In November this year, Magomed Evloevwould have turned 38 years old. He wasvery vigorous, kind, and open hearted to anytrouble or problem of any person. He hadmany plans and ideas that were connectedwith public affairs and charity. He managedto accomplish an incredible amount of kindand noble deeds and would have done evenmore.DOSH magazine twice addressed theauthorities of Ingushetia with the request toimmortalize the memory of our friend andcolleague Magomed Evloev. We would liketo remind of it once again since former col�leagues of Magomed who now work on highpositions in the republic could assist in thisnoble move.

P.S. On December 11, 2009, the Karabulakcourt of Ingushetia pronounced the sen�tence to the murderer of Magomed Evloev.Former chief of security guards of the for�mer Minister of Internal Affairs of IngushetiaIbrahim Evloev was sentenced to two yearsof colony settlement for "murder by reck�lessness." The court fully satisfied thedemand of the prosecution for two years ofcolony settlement. Neither the defendant norrelatives of the victim were present during

The 2009 Reporters Without Borders � Fnac

Press Freedom Prize was awarded on December

2 to Israeli newspaper reporter Amira Hass and

the Chechen quarterly DOSH at a ceremony

hosted by journalist Bernard de La Villardiere at

the Espace Fondation EDF in Paris.

Reporters Without Borders secretary�general

Jean�Franc, ois Julliard said: "This year we are

honoring a courageous journalist, Amira Hass,

and a beleaguered news media, DOSH. Both, in

different terrains, have displayed a remarkable

degree of boldness and abnegation."

The Chechen magazine DOSH was awarded

the prize in the Media category for its fight for

the right to inform and be informed. DOSH has

been covering politics and current affairs in

Chechnya and other parts of the Russian

Caucasus since 2003, continuing to operate

against all odds in a region where media inde�

pendence has never been welcome.

The prize was received by DOSH editors Israpil

Shovkhalov and Abdulkhazhi Duduev. "We are

not heroes, just independent journalists but that

means being considered enemies of the moth�

erland," Shovkhalov said. "This prize gives us

the strength to continue working and covering

what is going on in the North Caucasus."

Shovkhalov added with emotion: "We think

today of the people with whom we should have

been celebrating this prize � Magomed Evloev,

Natalia Estemirova and Anna Politkovskaya."

Reporters Without Borders has been awarding

a press freedom prize every year since 1992.

The prize goes to a journalist and a news media

that have made an exceptional contribution to

the defense or promotion of press freedom in

any part of the world. The prize winners are

selected by an international jury of journalists

and human rights activists.

Press Freedom PrizeAwarded to DOSH

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