Torture and rape stalk the streets of Chechnya
" It all suggests that the brutality of the Russians has also
resulted in a growing radicalisation of their opponents."
guardian.co.uk
Polish writer Krystyna Kurczab-Redlich visited the
region where she witnessed the brutal work done by
Russia's soldiers in their fight against separatists
Sunday October 27, 2002
The Observer
At 5am on 14 April 2002, an armoured vehicle moved slowly
down Soviet Street. A young brown-haired man, covered in
blood, his hands and feet bound, stood onboard. The vehicle
stopped and the man was pushed off and brought over to a
nearby chain-link fence. The car took off and there was a loud
bang. The force of the explosion, caused either by a grenade or
dynamite, sent the man's head flying into the neighbouring
street, called Lenin's Commandments. 'It was difficult to
photograph the moment, though I have grown somewhat
accustomed to this,' says a petite greying Chechen woman,
who has spent years documenting what Russia calls its
'anti-terrorism campaign'.
Blowing people up, dead or alive, she reports, is the latest tactic
introduced by the federal army into the conflict. It was utilised
perhaps most effectively on 3 July in the village of Meskyer Yurt,
where 21 men, women and children were bound together and
blown up, their remains thrown into a ditch.
From the perspective of the perpetrators, this method of killing is
highly practical; it prevents the number of bodies from being
counted, or possibly from ever being found. It has not always
succeeded in this respect, however. Since the spring, dogs have
been digging up body parts in various corners of Chechnya,
sometimes almost daily.
Meanwhile, the more traditional methods endure. On 9
September the bodies of six men from Krasnostepnovskoye
were found, naked, with plastic bags wrapped around their
heads. In June, a ditch containing 50 mutilated bodies was
discovered near the Russian army post in Chankala. The
corpses were missing eyes, ears, limbs and genitals. Since
February, mass graves have been found near Grozny, Chechen
Yurt, Alkhan-Kala and Argun.
For nearly 10 years, since the beginning of the first war in
December 1994, the grey-haired woman has been patrolling with
her camera. She shows the gruesome images strewn on her
table as if they were relics, or photographs from a family album.
She runs her hand over the contours of an actual cracked skull,
one of about a dozen found in February between Meskyer Yurt
and Chechen Yurt.
'The remains were unearthed not long after they died,' she says.
'The tissue was still in good shape. The torn pieces of flesh
suggest that the victims were attacked by dogs. It's difficult to
know. People don't want to talk. They are scared that they will
be next.'
The Society for Russian-Chechen Relations, in collaboration
with Human Rights Watch, reports that in the span of a month
between 15 July and 15 August this year, 59 civilians were shot
dead, 64 were abducted, 168 were seriously wounded and 298
were tortured. Many men simply disappeared after being
detained by Russian soldiers or security police; others were
shot outright. During an operation in Chechen Aul between 21
May and 11 June, 22 men were killed. The majority were aged
20 to 26; two were 15.
Since Chechen Aul is considered hostile territory, it has
undergone 20 such 'mopping-up operations' this year. Usually
the raids are conducted by federal armed forces (particularly
OMON, the police special forces, and Spetsnaz, its army
equivalent) and occur at any time of day or night. Typically a
village will be encircled by tanks, armoured vehicles and army
trucks, one of which, known as the purification car, is
designated for torture. According to Human Rights Watch in
New York, torture is a preferred method of gathering intelligence.
Cut off and isolated, Russian troops' best hope of discovering
guerrilla activity is by grabbing citizens, almost at random, and
coercing from them whatever information they might have.
In its most benign form, such raids are limited to theft of
personal property - from cars, refrigerators and television sets to
jewellery, clothes, pots and pans, and, of course, money. But
they frequently turn ugly. 'They arrived on 23 August at 5am,'
says Zuhra from Enikaloi. 'There were about 100 army vehicles,
all packed with soldiers. We ran out to meet them with our
documents. God forbid you encounter an impatient 'federal'. If
you do, then in the best-case scenario you may be tortured or
shot dead on the spot. In the worst case, they take you away.
About 20 of them, armed to the teeth and wearing masks,
climbed into the yard and the house. As always, they were dirty,
unshaven and reeking of vodka. They cursed horribly. They shot
at our feet. They took my identification papers and started to
shred them. I had bought them for 500 roubles. They cost me
everything I had. They went to our neighbours' house, the
Magomedova family. We heard shots and the screams of
15-year-old Aminat, the sister of Ahmed and Aslanbek. "Let her
be!" screamed one of the brothers, "Kill us instead!". Then we
heard more shots. Through the window we saw a half-dressed
OMON commander lying on top of Aminat. She was covered in
blood from the bullet wounds. Another soldier shouted, "Hurry
up, Kolya, while she's still warm".'
Sometimes those who survive wish they were dead, as in
Zernovodsk this summer, when townspeople say they were
chased on to a field and made to watch women being raped.
When their men tried to defend them, 68 of them were
handcuffed to an armoured truck and raped too. After this
episode, 45 of them joined the guerrillas in the mountains. One
older man, Nurdi Dayeyev, who was nearly blind, had nails
driven through his hands and feet because it was suspected that
he was in contact with the fighters. When relatives later retrieved
his remains, he was missing a hand. The relatives of another
villager, Aldan Manayev, picked up a torso but no head. The
families were forced to sign declarations that Dayeyev and
Manayev had blown themselves up.
Usually groups of people simply disappear. Shortly thereafter
their families begin feverish searches in all the army
headquarters and watch posts. If they can track down a missing
family member, they might be able to buy him or her back. The
going rate for a live person is in the thousands of dollars. For a
dead body, the price is not much lower. If they cannot find the
person, family members mail letters to Putin (Russia's
president) and file petitions with social organisations and rights
groups. They post photographs with the caption missing.
And they wait. Most of the abductees never return and the trail
grows cold.
Those who do return are often crippled, with bruised kidneys and
lungs, damaged hearing or eyesight and broken bones. It is
almost certain they will never have children.
The Russians do not deny that these things happen. Indeed, an
official order has been issued banning such abuses.
But what most journalistic accounts from the region overlook is
the savagery committed by the other side. Anyone considered a
'collaborator' by the guerrillas is subject to abduction for ransom
or summary execution. This summer a remote-controlled mine,
presumably intended for a Russian military convoy, exploded at
a bus stop in the Chechen capital of Grozny, killing 11 civilians,
including two children.
Analysts say that guerrilla leader Aslan Maskhadov, once
regarded as comparatively secular, has succeeded in
consolidating his often fractious forces by welcoming back into
his command several rebel commanders regarded as radical
Islamists. New rebel videotapes play down nationalist imagery in
favour of Islamist symbols.
It all suggests that the brutality of the Russians has also
resulted in a growing radicalisation of their opponents.
· Krystyna Kurczab-Redlich, a Polish reporter, filed this dispatch
for Newsweek's Polish-language edition. |
