In October, after following the war for a year, Anna Politkovskaya decided to take time away from the North Caucasus and spent two months investigating and writing about Mafia activities at the large factories of Yekaterinburg in the Urals.
Novaya gazeta and other newspapers continued to cover the fighting in Chechnya. And, as in 1994–6, during the previous conflict, the Moscow-based "Memorial" organisation69 documented and made public the human rights abuses on both sides. The following reports are taken from the chronicle of events kept by Memorial. They cover 22–29 October and 15–23 November, two typical weeks in Chechnya.70
October–November 2000
October
22 SATURDAY
Valerik village in the Achkhoi-Martan district came under fire from the nearby 245th motorised rifle regiment. One shell landed in the courtyard of a private house and four people suffered concussion (MN).
At 10 a.m. the burned corpse of a 17/18-year-old girl was found by shepherds in a wooded area not far from the side-road to the "Northern" collective farm in Naurskaya district (MN).
Only the soles of her feet, still wearing black shoes, and the underwear around her ankles had not been burned. Not far from the murder site were tracks left by an armoured vehicle that had turned off the main road and then driven back there.
Three inhabitants of Ternovoz village were killed by mines and landmines.
A home-made explosive device, found near the points on the railway line between Ishchorskaya and Staderevskaya stations, was defused. A similar device was defused 100 metres away from the Terek Station on the North Caucasus railway.
Federal agencies carried out raids in 36 locations throughout Chechnya including Grozny, Gudermes, Achkhoi-Martan, Bachi-Yurt, Vedeno, Germenchuk, Goragorsk, Goryachi Istochnik and Itum-Kale. They conducted identity checks on more than 36,000 citizens and examined more than 16,000 vehicles. Almost 500 violations were uncovered, including 168 infringements of passport regulations.
Five radio-controlled explosive devices were discovered on the road near Novye Atagi and destroyed.
Two federal soldiers were killed this day and ten wounded.
23 SUNDAY
Six corpses bearing signs of bullet wounds were found on the outskirts of Pobedinskoe village. Their identity is unknown.
Federal forces directed artillery fire at suspected Chechen armed groups to the north of Tsa-Vedeno village, Vedeno district. Three Chechen fighters died in a clash with federal forces near Alkhan-Khutor village.
A landmine was defused near Lugovo village in the Sholkovskaya district.
Chechen armed groups fired six times at checkpoints, five times at army and police posts and twice at administrative buildings.
Federal agencies detained 31 people during "cleansing" operations intended to catch those suspected of belonging to Chechen armed groups.
Lecha Yeshurkayev, head of the Kurchaloi district, was killed near Khegi-Khutor village.
Yeshurkayev (b.1948) was head of the district administration in 1995-97 and again since 1999. A Volga car signalled to Yeshurkayev's vehicle to halt and its occupants then tried to kidnap him. Yeshurkayev's driver intervened and the armed men shot Yeshurkayev in the head, but did not touch his driver or a woman passenger travelling with them. A note was found at the scene of the crime threatening all who co-operated with the federal authorities.
Federal soldiers opened fired on civilians near the apartment block at 27 Mozdok Street in Grozny. One person was killed and another wounded (MN).
At about 10 p.m. Movsar Ismailov and Asian Matayev left their five-storey residential building (near Hospital No 9) for a smoke. Probably aiming at their lighted cigarettes, federal soldiers in the nearby bushes opened fire with automatic weapons. Asian died immediately from wounds to the head and heart. Movsar was not killed and called out to his friend, provoking another round of shots in his direction.
The soldiers threw a grenade towards the two young men and Asian's body was covered with shrapnel wounds. Doctors later removed twelve bullets from Movsar's body.
24 MONDAY
At 00.20 a.m. an APC carrying federal paratroopers detonated a landmine near Akhtury village, Shali district. One soldier was wounded.
A local inhabitant, Apti Vaganov, was seriously wounded during identity checks in Sernovodsk (MN).
At dawn federal forces closed all routes into Sernovodsk. Around 10 a.m. that morning, Vaganov (b.1978) from 19 Vysokovoltnaya Street, walked towards the town's outskirts, where the soldiers were now dug in, to fetch his calf. A shot from a sniper's rifle hit him in the head. Vaganov is now in the intensive care unit at the Sunzhensk district hospital (Ingushetia) and his condition, following an operation, is serious.
Since November 1999 he and his family had been living in a tent at a refugee camp in Ingushetia. Only in September 2000 had the Vaganov family returned home to Sernovodsk.
During the last ten months four guards have been killed and twenty wounded on the Chechen section of the Russia-Georgia border, according to Lieutenant-General Alexander Manilov of the Federal Border Service.
25 TUESDAY
A tractor was blown up by a home-made device in Argun. The driver was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
One soldier died and three were wounded after an explosion at the military commandant's office in Shali.
At 2 p.m. a boy aged 14–15 was shot dead opposite the "Oil-worker" shop by soldiers carrying out a "cleansing operation" along the main road in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district (MN).
Federal troops shelled and bombed suspected Chechen armed groups in the Terkhkort mountain district (Ingushetia) who were making their way across the border from Georgia.
Ministry of Interior troops, together with units of soldiers and policemen, carried out "cleansing" operations in the October district of Grozny, and in Mesker-Yurt, Novaya Zhizn, Sernovodsk and Yukerchu-Gonkha.
During these operations 20 illegal mini oil-refineries, three large oil-tanks, four landmines, three shells and about 20 hand grenades were destroyed. The following were seized: one hand-held anti-tank grenade-launcher, ten automatic weapons, about a thousand rounds of ammunition for automatic weapons, a motorised mini-glider, and a store of medicine. Twenty-six people were detained on suspicion of belonging to armed Chechen groups.
A radio-controlled landmine was defused, and two wire-controlled mines destroyed, near Mesker-Yurt. A radio-controlled landmine was defused in Grozny.
A 22-year-old Chechen died in Kurchaloi village after a booby-trapped video cassette exploded.
26 WEDNESDAY
The body of Zelimkhan Soltamuradov (b.1982) was found by the hoist on the rubbish dump outside Argun (MN).
He had left his home in Argun on the morning of 19 October and never returned. A shepherd who was herding his flock nearby found the corpse and reported it to the local police station. After the standard investigations, the law enforcement agencies handed over the body to the mosque where he was identified by relatives.
According to the forensic examination he had died on 25 October as the result of bullet wounds to neck and head. There were several other wounds. His cousin said that both earlobes had been cut off, his right eyelid had been slashed and his skull crushed. The shots to the head and neck were probably to make sure he was dead.
Federal artillery bombarded forested areas in the Vedeno district near Kharachoi, Makhkety, Khatuni and Benoi.
27 THURSDAY
Persons unknown killed an OMON man in Grozny by the railway bridge over the River Sunzha.
At the army post on the entry to Sernovodsk from Samashki federal soldiers detained Musa Labazanov, an 18-year-old inhabitant of Davydenko village, and beat him. He was handed over to relatives several days later when they paid for his release from the preliminary detention centre in Achkhoi-Martan (MN).
Labazanov attends the driving school in Sernovodsk and had regularly passed this post before. The soldiers put a bag over his head and began to beat him. According to his relatives Labazanov repeatedly lost consciousness as he was beaten and subjected to electric-shock treatment. He was forced to sign a deposition that the soldiers had confiscated two packets of hashish from him. He was then transferred to the detention centre in Achkhoi-Martan.
Four Interior Ministry officials died in the Tarumov district of Daghestan, near the administrative boundary with Chechnya, when their car came under fire.
Three teenagers were blown up by a mine in Grozny. Two of them died without recovering consciousness, the other was taken to hospital and doctors consider his condition to be serious.
A unit of Interior Ministry forces clashed with armed Chechen groups near Ersena village.
28 FRIDAY
Federal soldiers detained 18 men at the wholesale market in Grozny. They were beaten and released the same day (MN).
At 11 a.m. Russian soldiers drove up to the wholesale market at the intersection of Tukhachevsky and Ionesiani Streets in a Ural truck, an armoured vehicle and an APC. Within minutes they sealed off the market and began to detain and beat the men, without asking to see their papers or offering any explanation. They set off several smoke sticks to deter the women from coming any closer.
The soldiers piled the 18 men they detained, one on top of another, in the truck and drove off to an unknown destination. Among those seized was a 16-year-old boy. The women managed to write down the numbers of the vehicles used in the operation and immediately lodged a complaint at the temporary police station of the Lenin district. By that evening the detainees were released, but many of them had been beaten.
2.5 kilograms of TNT was discovered in a car at one of the checkpoints in Grozny.
Persons unknown shot dead four civilians near Hospital No 9 in Grozny (MN).
Ramzan Bagiev (k.1959), father of three, was shot dead in the courtyard of the apartment block at 13 Oleg Koshevoi Street, where he was temporarily living with his family. He was finishing repairs to his own house on Academician Pavlov Street, said witnesses, and intended to move back there in a few days.
Malika Gashayeva, a neighbour of the Bagiev family, said that the dead bodies of two acquaintances with whom Bagiev was seen talking the previous night were found the following morning. Bags full of tools were lying next to them. The same night Usman Muzhedov (b.1959) was murdered on Sedov Street. Since the death of his wife in August 1996 he had been bringing up their three children single-handed. Muzhedov had died from a shot to the head but there were six other bullet wounds on his body.
In none of these cases had anyone heard gunshots.
29 SATURDAY
Federal soldiers arrested Ramzan Magomadov at his home in Nagornoe village and took him to the police station where he was tortured and beaten. His relatives paid money to secure his release from the preliminary detention centre in Achkhoi-Martan (MN).
Masked soldiers burst into Magomadov's home at the dairy farm in Nagornoe and searched every room, smashing crockery and breaking furniture as they went. A gold chain, a ring and 1,000 roubles were later found to be missing.
Guns were trained on Magomadov, his mother and sister. After the search the soldiers demanded to see their papers and told Ramzan he must go with them. When his mother tried to prevent them taking away her son, a soldier hit her with his rifle butt. Ramzan attempted to intervene but was immediately knocked down. His hands and legs were tied with wire and he was taken in an armoured vehicle to the Rapid Response Unit's base at the grain store in Samashki.
That day he was continually beaten and subjected to electric-shock treatment and told to confess to various crimes. They tried to force him to sign certain documents. All this time Ramzan was blindfold. When he refused to sign he was hit across the head with a rifle butt and started bleeding.
On 30 October they took him to the preliminary detention centre in Achkhoi-Martan. Relatives secured his release by paying 20,000 roubles and surrendering an automatic weapon and two grenades that, they said, they had bought from other Russian soldiers.
Seven people died in an explosion at the Elita café in Chiri-Yurt. Two café workers, seven federal soldiers and four others were wounded.
Federal soldiers and policemen carried out mass arrests in Samashki. Members of the Rapid Response Unit based at the town's grain store arrested and beat up eight young men (MN).
The eight detained – Shama Gechiev (35), Ismail Sharipov (33), Ibragim Sharimov (25), Balaudi Vukiev (29), Said-Selim Vukiev (28), Zhalaudi Vukiev (44), Magomed-Emin Vukiev (32) and Shakhrudi Askhabov (35) – all live on Ordjonikidzevskaya Street. Balaudi Vukiev described what happened:
The street was sealed off by armoured vehicles and people in military uniform. About ten soldiers came into our courtyard. They demanded to see our papers. Not one of them said who he was. We showed them our documents: they were all in order, and there was nothing they could pick on. We four brothers were asked to get into the vehicle and ride with them to their unit in order to clear up certain matters. We protested and demanded to see someone in authority. One of them said: "We're you're authorities, we're the law for you."
My mother and sister tried to dissuade them and grabbed hold of us and wouldn't let go. But the soldiers pushed them aside and warned them that they were making things worse. I wanted to defend my mother but only took one step in their direction. They got ready to shoot and several grabbed me. They pushed us with their rifle butts into the armoured vehicle and put bags over our heads. When we arrived they hit us and threw us down on the floor. We were not allowed to stand; we could only kneel. They kicked us and hit us with their rifle butts. There were a lot of them and it was hard to guess where the next blow was coming from. They kept asking, "Have you been fighting?"
"No."
"Why not?" And they hit me again.
"Do you have a gun?"
"No."
"Why not?" Again they hit me.
"Do you have any dollars or gold?"
"No, where would I get gold?" Again they hit me.
"We know you Chechens, you've all got gold, dollars and weapons."
Then they took it in turns to put their feet on my neck. I could hear a camera running. Evidently they were making a video film. One of them put the muzzle of his pistol against the back of my head and said: "That's your lot. Pray to your Allah." I mentally recited a prayer. I heard a click but there was no shot. He gave an obscene curse: "There won't be any more cock-ups. Grey, give me your shooter." I heard a shot next to my ear.
"That's fine, just the way we like it," he said. "Tell me where the gold is and I'll let you live. If you won't, I'll shoot you and no one will find out where your body lies rotting." That was how they ridiculed me.
They also used psychological pressure. They said they raped Chechen girls and women. "If you like I'll rape your sister in front of you." Another said: "She's not good-looking, a real fright. Better cover her with rags while we do it."
On 30 October the detainees were delivered to the preliminary detention centre in Achkhoi-Martan and three days later, on payment of 3,000 roubles for each of them, they were released to their relatives.
A radio-controlled landmine exploded next to an army post in the Staropromyslovsky district in Grozny. Three people were injured. An anti-tank mine was discovered next to the railway station in Gudermes and defused. Sappers defused eight powerful explosive devices laid on both roads and railway lines, next to the Daghestan border and in the Naurskaya district.
Four federal soldiers died and three were wounded. Federal units came under fire 17 times.
On the night of 29–30 October Kheda Serbieva suffered gunshot wounds in her apartment at a five-storey block next to Grozny railway station (MN).
Their building had several times come under fire from the unfinished hotel nearby which the Russian soldiers often used to organise ambushes. Kheda was afraid to leave her little son alone, and that night they were sleeping in the same bed.
She was woken by an excruciating pain. The bed was covered in blood and she discovered she had been wounded in her left arm and stomach. At first it was thought that a stray fragment of a shell had entered the room. The doctor at the hospital, however, found a bullet in her pelvic region. Evidently the shot had been fired from the roof of the nearest multi-storey building.
November
15 WEDNESDAY
At 4.30 a.m. Shamil Yashuyev (b.1974) was detained in Mesker-Yurt village, Shali district. Nothing is known of his fate (MN).
Masked soldiers burst into Yashuyev's house, entered every room and began to beat the men there, breaking furniture and crockery. After some time it became clear that it was Shamil Yashuyev the soldiers were looking for and he was taken away without even being allowed to get dressed.
The soldiers demanded the documentation and keys of the Zhiguli car parked outside, but then, without waiting, they broke the car windows and set fire to it from inside. Soon the barn was also alight. The soldiers would not allow anyone to put it out. They took away documentation for the Kamaz truck also belonging to the Yashuyev family. The soldiers suggested that Yashuyev's mother should go to the military commandant in Argun if she had any complaints about their actions.
That morning the soldiers seized three other men from the village. By mid-January 2001 nothing further was known about them.
Federal forces carried out a routine operation in Urus-Martan to catch those participating in armed Chechen groups.
Identity papers were checked in a "cleansing" operation in seven towns and villages across the republic. Thirty-two people were detained on suspicion of belonging to armed Chechen groups.
There were 19 attacks on army posts and other locations of federal forces.
Federal aviation and artillery bombed suspected positions of armed Chechen groups in the wooded mountain areas of south-east Chechnya.
On the verge of the road, one and a half kilometres south-east of Bachi-Yurt village, a trip-wire anti-personnel mine was discovered and defused.
l6 THURSDAY
During the night persons unknown killed Sharani Dudagov (b.1948), head of the Mesker-Yurt village administration, Shali district, and his deputy Khasmagomed Tsumtsayev (b.1958) (MN).
The former head of Bachi-Yurt village administration (Kurchaloi district), Lecha Aliyev, was seriously wounded. His attackers were not identified.
The local administration building in Novogroznensky village was blown up. There were no fatalities or casualties.
A vehicle carrying seven people came under fire by persons unknown. The driver, a federal soldier, and five passengers who live in Akhkinchu-Borzoi village, Kurchaloi district, all died (MN).
The five villagers had gone to gather firewood for heating the local school in a truck lent to them by the nearby army unit. At the time of the attack, Nazhmudi Borziyev (b.1959), his brother Zamrudi, Suleiman Askhabov (b.1970), Suleiman Djanbekov (b.1969) and Bisarbek Djanbekov (b.1970) were in the back of the truck. The soldiers had several times helped the locals in this way and provided an armoured vehicle to protect them. Apart from the soldier sitting next to the driver, there was no additional protection on this occasion.
In the woods the vehicle came under fire from unknown armed people equipped with automatic weapons. All seven in the truck were killed. The military took no action in response to this event.
Twenty-seven firearm attacks on federal positions were registered.
Twenty-three explosive devices were defused in Chechnya.
17 FRIDAY
During a "cleansing" operation in Selmentauzen village, Vedeno district, Russian soldiers blew up the first floor of the local school by tossing grenades into the building. They also blew up a house belonging to Vakha Tesayev, currently taking refuge in Ingushetia (MN).
Abdul-Kasim Zarubekov, a crane operator for the October district police department in Grozny, disappeared. Nothing is known of his whereabouts (MN).
Zarubekov (b.1951) came to the department that morning to collect his paycheque, leaving his son outside in the car. Having waited until 7 p.m., the son went to find out what was keeping him so long. No one in the police department could give Zarubekov's son a clear answer, but he noticed that Abdul-Kasim was registered in the visitors' log as having arrived at 11 a.m. By mid-January 2001 nothing more was known of his fate.
Two St Petersburg policemen, Vladimir Yeremenko (30) and Dmitry Krivenko (26) were killed in Goity village, Urus-Martan district.
An explosive device disguised as a crankshaft from a Zhiguli car was discovered next to the railway station in Gudermes.
18 SATURDAY
Six federal operations in the republic (including the town of Shali) resulted in the detention of eight people suspected of belonging to armed Chechen groups.
Fourteen landmines of various types were defused in Chechnya. Among them were mines on the Rostov-Baku Highway, in the Vedeno district, near Starye Atagi village, and close to Petropavlovskoe village and Argun.
19 SUNDAY
A "cleansing" operation took place near the Karpinsky Hill district and Trust No 12 in Grozny. Those detained were held in the nearest military unit and beaten. Eight people from the Karpinsky district were released the same day; those picked up by the soldiers near Trust No 12 were allowed to go on Monday (MN).
Five local residents were detained by federal soldiers and driven to an unknown destination during a "cleansing" operation in Mairtup village, Kurchaloi district. Other villagers were beaten and, as of mid-January 2001, the fate of the missing five remained unknown (MN).
One of the soldiers fired at close range at Aslanbek Masayev, and others beat him over the head with rifle butts. Nevertheless he remained alive and was left behind. His 60-year-old father Danilbek Masayev was also beaten and there was an attempt to take him away, but at the last moment he was not taken.
Twenty-six year-old Yusup, who is mentally handicapped, was taken by the military and found that evening not far from Argun. He said he had been held in Khankala. There he had seen three fellow villagers, Elsi Edilkhanov (b.1951) his son Ahmed (b.1973), and Minkail Murtazov (b.1956). Two months later nothing was known of their fate, or that of Hozha Islamkhanov (b.1959) and Ramzan Masayev (b.1959, son of Aslanbek) who were also arrested that day in Mairtup.
A Russian army officer was killed in Kalinovskaya village, Naurskaya district, by unknown persons.
Unidentified attackers wounded Hasan Adayev, the imam of the Gudermes mosque.
Two soldiers died and one was wounded in a café in Urus-Martan when it came under fire.
After their papers were checked, 49 people were detained on suspicion of belonging to armed Chechen groups.
There were 16 attacks on federal units. One soldier died, one was wounded and another went missing.
20 MONDAY
Persons unknown destroyed the traders' stalls on Mir Street, near the Central Market in Grozny during the night of 19–20 November (MN).
Military helicopters carried out missile attacks in the Vedeno and Urus-Martan districts of Chechnya, and the Khasavyurt district in Daghestan.
A Chechen cameraman, Adam Tepsurgayev, who worked for Reuters and other TV companies, was killed in Alkhan-Yurt.
21 TUESDAY
A Ural truck with a mounted anti-aircraft gun was blown up by a landmine on the Samashki–Achkhoi-Martan road, near the turning to Davydenko village. One soldier died, two were wounded. This was the pretext for detaining Husein Gaziev, from Davydenko, whose corpse was found on 24 November near the village (MN).
Gaziev (b.1955) got off the Samashki bus at the turning to his village. Federal soldiers were at the bus stop and other passengers saw them approach Gaziev, put a bag over his head, shove him into an armoured vehicle and drive off to an unknown destination.
Gaziev's relatives began to search for him. They applied to the preliminary detention centre in Achkhoi-Martan, the district prosecutor's office, and to the commanders of the military units based nearby. However, for two days they could not locate him.
On 24 November, Gaziev's disfigured body was found on the outskirts of Davydenko. Witnesses said that the dead man's nose had been cut off and his eyes put out. A deep knife wound was visible in his neck. The head was a pulp of flesh and bone. The jaw was broken in two places and his teeth were missing. His fingers and wrist-bones had also been broken.
A 24-year-old inhabitant of Ilaskhan-Yurt village was arrested in Gudermes on suspicion of being involved in kidnapping activities.
Two soldiers died and four were wounded as a result of military operations in Grozny.
On the outskirts of Roshni-Chu village, Urus-Martan district, two local inhabitants were killed by an explosive device on the roadside. An explosion in a private house in Shali killed the owner. A local resident was killed by a landmine on a road in the Kurchaloi district.
One Interior Ministry soldier was killed and two others wounded when a landmine exploded in Samashki village.
Thirty search-and-disarrn operations were carried out by Interior Ministry detachments in Grozny, Gudermes, Argun, Alpiiskoe, Vedeno, Achkhoi-Martan, Naurskaya, Pervomayskoe and certain other population centres. They checked the papers of some 16,000 citizens, and examined more than 11,000 vehicles. 228 violations were uncovered, including 31 infringements of regulations governing passports and residence permits.
Seventeen people were detained on suspicion of belonging to armed Chechen groups.
Russian soldiers and federal positions came under fire 18 times.
Twelve explosive devices were defused, some in the centre of Grozny.
22 WEDNESDAY
An attempt was made on the life of Ibragim Yasuev, head of the Zavodskoi district administration in Grozny, during the night.
A Ural truck carrying Russian troops hit a mine in the capital's Lenin district. Several soldiers suffered wounds of varying severity.
Persons unknown fired on the Niva automobile of the Lenin district administration, killing the driver.
Federal artillery shelled suspected concentrations of armed Chechen groups six times in the Khasavyurt district (Daghestan) and Urus-Martan district.
A group thought to be part of an armed Chechen unit were injured by a landmine not far from Khatuni village, Vedeno district.
Two residents of the Karpinsky Hill district, Grozny, were killed in the evening by persons unknown (MN).
Ruslan Verigov and Djambulat Chaadayev were found dead not far from their homes on Volodarsky and Copernicus Streets, respectively. There were eight knife wounds on Chaadayev's body and four on Verigov's. Both had been shot in the forehead to make certain they were dead.
Federal positions, army posts, border guards and administrative buildings came under fire more than 20 times by armed Chechen groups.
Nine explosive devices left on roads and six planted in towns and villages were defused.
23 THURSDAY
The corpse of a middle-aged man, resident in the Karpinsky Hill district, was brought to the capital's Hospital No 9 (MN).
He had gathered a large sum of money and was on his way to relatives in Volgograd. His family thought he had already arrived there.
His body was brought to the hospital by soldiers who did not identify themselves. Cigarette burns were visible on the dead man's right hand. Doctors noted a broken jaw and other dosed fractures. He had been shot once in the head. There was no sign of the money.
The car of Malika Gezimiyeva, head of the Gudermes district administration, came under attack from firearms and a grenade-launcher. Her bodyguard and son were injured; she herself was not in the vehicle.
During the "Chechen campaign" total casualties among paratroopers were 839, of whom 257 were killed, announced Colonel-General Georgy Shpak, commanding officer of the federation's paratroop regiments.
Fifteen explosive devices on the roads, two on the railways and eight mines and landmines planted in towns and villages were found and defused.
During "cleansing" operations and checks on identity documents and residence permits 34 people, including two wounded individuals, were detained on suspicion of belonging to armed Chechen groups.
Federal forces came under fire 26 times.
On the night of 23–24 November Grozny's 1st suburb came under fire from federal soldiers. Many houses were damaged, but there were no human casualties (MN).