05 June 2004, 21:14
Chronicle of violence in Chechnya, April 2004
April 1, 2004
A radio-controlled bomb buried under a post near a call-box office on Tereshkova Street in Gudermes went off at about 1.00 p.m. the moment a combined special police unit from Kaliningrad was going by. Two service men were killed and four were wounded. A local woman who was selling nearby was wounded, too.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
A targeted special operation was conducted by officers of Russian law enforcement and security agencies on Pervomaiskaia Street in Martan-Chu, Urus-Martan district. The operation involved two combat infantry vehicles. The military searched the houses of the Tsaltsaevs, Abdulaev, Adaev and Azizaev.
The officers of Russian law enforcement and security agencies came to the scene of the targeted special operation at around 7.00 a.m., a local resident says. Three or four of them wore masks. The military entered the abovementioned houses, examined passports and conducted searches without showing any ID. They examined both the living part of the houses and backrooms, including sheds, hen-houses and even toilets. Nothing illicit was discovered in searching. No one was detained.
The military men did not say rude things and treated the hosts in a relatively polite manner, according to the owners of the houses. The examination of the houses was over at 9.00 a.m. and the military left the village.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 2, 2004
A native of Duba-Yurt, Shali district, Khasan Said-Alvievich Abdulmezhidov who lives not far from the former Luch store in Grozny's Oktiabrskii district was abducted by officers of Russian law enforcement / security agencies on the night of April 2. The service men who spoke both Chechen and Russian came by a vehicle without a license plate, according to the abducted man's relatives.
Nine dead bodies were found not far from Serzhen-Yurt on April 9. The relatives identified one of them as Khasan Abdulmezhidov.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
Military men detained Magomed Albertovich Kadiev, b. 1970, resident in Gekhi, at a road post between Urus-Martan and Gekhi.
Two natives of Gekhi were detained in Nalchik one day later: Sharpudi Shamilevich Kadiev, b. 1975, Magomed Kadiev's cousin, and Adam Zaindievich Akhmaev.
All the three men were detained on suspicion of being involved in the murder of the Kunkaev family on March 31, 2004. The arrested men were indicted on a charge of murder.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 5, 2004
Officers of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service quartered in Tsotsin-Yurt, Kurchaloi district, seized Magomed Shamilievich Tamaev, 22, in the center of Avtury, Shali district, at about 11.00 a.m. and brought him away without indicating the destination.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 7, 2004
Some human remains were found by workers of the district water industry about one kilometer south of Kurchaloi. The clothes and denture allowed identifying the dead man. It was Ibrahim Shamilievich Chuchaev, 25, a local resident.
In the autumn of 2001, Ibrahim Chuchaev went to gather hazelnuts in the forest and was missing from that time on. His remains were found not far from the hazel wood. Presumably, he was killed by a shot in his head. The Russian military regularly put up additional posts near that place in that period, according to local residents. Perhaps, Ibrahim Chuchaev ran up against one of such posts.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
Four residents of Alleroi, Kurchaloi district, were delivered to the Kurchaloi District Division of Internal Affairs. The surnames of these people remain unknown. However, officers of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service are known to have detained five people in Alleroi in late March:
- Ruslan Dolkhadov, 35, a dentist and father of five underage children (the surname of one of the officers of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service who carried out the detention is known in this case - Suleiman Abuev);
- Khizir Zhabrailov, b. 1980;
- Ali Amandievich Zhabrailov, b. 1979;
- Ahmed Lechiev, 27;
- Muslimov.
It was the second time Khizir and Ali Zhabrailovs were detained by Kadyrov's militiamen. They had been brought away from home by force on November 4, 2003, and kept as hostages in hope that their rebel brother would surrender. The Zhabrailovs were periodically beaten while in detention. They were allowed to go on condition that they deliver their rebel brother; otherwise, they were promised that their detention would be repeated.
On April 5, 2004, Kadyrovites brought Ruslan Dolkhadov's dead body and handed it over to his relatives. Presumably, Dolkhadov died as a result of extremely cruel torture.
The other four detained people may have been delivered on April 7 to the Kurchaloi District Division of Internal Affairs which is headed by Roman Edilov, a former officer of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service. Unregistered prisoners detained by Kadyrov's militiamen are often kept at the temporary detention isolator of the Kurchaloi District Division of Internal Affairs.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 8, 2004
A shell exploded in a yard on Starosunzhenskaia Street (Olimpiiskii Avenue) in Grozny's Leninskii district at 12.35 p.m., coming down from the direction of a nine-storey building adjoining the highway.
Assia Sambieva who was running water and several children were in the yard at that moment. Her two daughters suffered because of the explosion: Zulikhan, b. 1997, and Maret, b. 1999. Some other children from the neighborhood suffered, too: Zaira Kurbanova, b. 1988; Aza Ruslanovna Khazueva, b. 1990; and Rizvan Dudurkaev, b. 1983.
The victims were delivered to the hospital. The sisters Sambiev received cranial injuries, while Aza Khazueva sustained a missile wound in her chest. The other children were allowed to go home after a medical examination.
The shell came down from the direction of the highway exactly at the moment when a military hardware column was going along it, according to people from the neighboring houses.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
A bombing raid was made between 2.00 and 2.30 p.m. on the remote mountain farmstead of Rigakhoi, Vedeno district (the number on one of the bombs is 350F 5-90). A direct hit in the house of Imar-Ali Damaev resulted in almost all of his family dying: his wife Maidat Kudusovna Tsintsaeva, b. 1975; and his children: Janasi, b. 1999; Zharadat, b. 2000; Umar-Khazhi, b. 2002; Zara, b. 2003; and Zura b. 2003.
The explosion was so powerful that it killed the family's sheep and horse that were outdoors at the moment.
By a fluke, head of the family Imar-Ali who had gone to the cemetery but witnessed the bombing and Imar-Ali's eldest son Umar, 7, who was at school in the neighboring village at the moment stayed alive.
People from the military prosecutor's office and the Vedeno district prosecutor's office came by helicopters at about 10.00 p.m. on April 13, according to local residents. After a superficial examination of the scene, they said there had been a homemade bomb blast, so there were no grounds to take legal action.
Representatives of Russian law enforcement and security agencies have repeatedly tried to deny their involvement in bombings and bombardments of communities in Chechnya over the past ten years, claiming that "they get blown up by themselves." The circumstances in this case by no means conform to such "versions." We hope that the tragedy in Rigakhoi will be carefully investigated after all and that those guilty will be held accountable.
The Memorial Human Rights Center posted the preliminary report on April 13, 2004: "A woman, Marit Tsintsaeva, and five children were killed in the mountain village of Rigakhoi, Vedeno district, Chechnya, at about 2.00 p.m. MSK on April 9 as a result of an air attack. The oldest child was aged seven years. When the bombing began, the woman gathered her children round her, but the bomb hit her house." This report was reproduced by a series of news agencies, including Interfax, NEWSru.com, Polit.ru and others.
On the same day, Colonel Alexander Drobyshevskii, chief of the press service for the Air Force, made a statement in which he denied the involvement of his agency in the tragedy in Rigakhoi: "Front bombers did not take off in this region of Russia on Friday." "Some Russian and foreign media outlets' reports about this are absolutely out of line with reality." (ITAR-TASS, April 13, 2004).
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 9, 2004
A tractor driver who was going to till land found nine dead bodies on the outskirts north of Serzhen-Yurt, Shali district, in the morning. Local residents phoned the police and said there was a bomb. They were afraid that law enforcement officers might ignore information about dead bodies, like it happened in early March 2004 when a grave was found on the outskirts of Shali.
In a while, police officers and people from the commandant's office came to the scene. Local residents came, too. Someone tried to capture the bodies using a video camera, but one of the service men took away the cassette.
The bodies were delivered to the Shali District Division of Internal Affairs. No forensic examination was carried out, according to eyewitnesses. In spite that everyone at the District Division knew that eight people had been abducted from Duba-Yurt, which is in the same district, two weeks before, on the night of March 27, and that they were still missing, none of the police officers went to the village to suggest that the relatives of the abducted people should identify them. A strange woman told Duba-Yurt residents about the bodies found near Serzhen-Yurt and the relatives of the abducted people went to the place themselves. There, they identified eight men.
The men were residents of Duba-Yurt detained in their houses and abducted by officers of an unidentified federal law enforcement or security agency on the night of March 27, 2004:
- Sharip Khamidovich Elmurzaev, b. 1971, resident at 10 Partizanskaia Street;
- Idris Said-Khuseinovich Elmurzaev, b. 1974, resident at 23 Rodnikovaia Street;
- Bai-Ali Abdullaevich Elmurzaev, b. 1968 г. р., resident at 15 Rodnikovaia Street;
- Isa Imranovich Khajimuradov, b. 1965, resident at 70 A. Sheripov Street;
- Khusein Imranovich Khajimuradov, b. 1975, resident at 21 Rodnikovaia Street;
- Lechi Abuiazidovich Shaipov, b. 1960, resident at 36 Podgornaia Street;
- Zelimkhan Umievich Osmaev, b. 1973, resident at 10 Beregovaia Street;
- Apti Atsaevich Murtazov, b. 1964.
The missing people were killed by shots in their heads, according to their relatives; each one had the entry wound in his nape. Besides, there were multiple signs of violence on every body. Thus, aside from numerous gunshot wounds, Shaipov had multiple bruises and his fingers were purple with blackened nails. Bai-Ali Elmurzaev had a deep hole in place of his right eye. Presumably, they had been killed not long before the bodies were found - there were no distinct sings of decay, no putrid smell could be sensed and their wounds still bled.
No one identified the ninth man on that day, so his body stayed at the district police.
However, his identity was established later, too; it was Khasan Said-Alvievich Abdulmezhidov, a native of Duba-Yurt resident in Grozny's Oktiabrskii district. Law enforcement / security officers had taken him away from his house on the night of April 2.
The funeral of the killed local residents occurred in Duba-Yurt on April 9. No government representative attended the funeral.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
Officers of unidentified Russian law enforcement / security agencies abducted Masud Magomadov, a journalism student at the Chechen University, from his house in Grozny under unclear circumstances early in the morning. Masud has worked as a republican television cameraman lately.
Masud Magomadov was released in several days.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
A local resident, Vakhab Vatsaev, b. 1952, disappeared in Grozny and is still missing. At about noon, he left the premises of the Veterinary Department where he worked as an office head by his car, 99th model "moray" color Zhiguli, and no one has since seen him.
The whereabouts of Vatsaev have not been established as of late April.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 10, 2004
Officers of unidentified Russian law enforcement / security agencies conducted a special operation in Starye Atagi, Grozny rural district, at around 8.00 p.m. The operation was aimed at detaining a local resident, Anzor Shamsudinovich Pakaev (his mother's surname) who lived at his father Shamsudin Sambiev's place on Lenin Street.
There was a brief skirmish during the special operation, according to local residents. The military men in masks came to Sambiev's house by a UAZ and UAZ-452 vehicles and an armored personnel carrier. The house was encircled and they next suggested that Anzor should surrender. Pakaev refused and fired a submachine gun. There was a brief skirmish and Anzor sustained a serious wound as a result (large puddles of blood where he fell testify to this). The military men took Pakaev away without indicating the destination.
Anzor Pakaev's dead body with gunshot wounds on it was found in one of Grozny's suburbs on April 11. There is no knowing whether he had been killed or died of the wounds he had received.
The dead man's father refused to comment on the abovementioned incident. Pakaev had been a member of the armed units of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and he had not lived home for a long time, according to his fellow villagers. Even his closest relatives had not known about his return. The same sources said representatives of law enforcement and security agencies had made periodic visits to the Sambievs trying to capture Anzor. Failing to find Pakaev in during one visit in 2002, unidentified people in masks abducted his younger brother whose destiny has been unknown to date.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 12, 2004
Armed people in camouflage uniforms (presumably, members of the armed units of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) pulled up at about 8.00 p.m. near a federal road post which is on the northern outskirts of Ishkhoi-Yurt, Gudermes district. They showed law enforcement or security agency ID (we were not able to find out what exact agency) and told the military to put up the barrier because a special operation was going to be conducted in the village. They also said they had put up an additional post on the southern side of the village.
The armed people who entered the village were approached by Nozhai-Yurt district police chief Aslambek Isaev accompanied by two police officers. Aslambek is a former officer of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service. He named himself and showed his ID, after which the strangers began to fire automatics. Isaev and his subordinates were killed.
In a while, the same members of the armed units of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria who had called themselves law enforcement or security agency officers came up to the house of Musa Abdulmezhidov, 29, a district policeman. Abdulmezhidov was killed in the same way as Aslambek Isaev. Another four police officers were shot dead, likewise.
The group of armed people then entered the house of the Dimaevs whose son Zaur is an officer of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service. Zaur was out, so the gunmen broke everything in the house and were off. The same happened in the house of Alkhazur Abdulkadyrov, deputy head of administration of the village; his son Adam is also an officer of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service.
The gunmen shot a VAZ vehicle belonging to Bukhadi Minkiev, a village police officer. The vehicle got burnt down as a result. The armed group next disappeared in the forest.
After this "special operation," officers of local law enforcement and security agencies carried out a passport check in the village on April 15 and 18. The ID check was conducted without the people's rights violated, according to villagers.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 14, 2004
Coming by two gray UAZ vehicles with darkened windows, unidentified people in masks abducted Said-Magomed Aliev, b. 1981, in Grozny's Leninskii district near the temporary accommodation point for internally displaced people at 133 B. Khmelnitskii Street.
Said-Magomed Aliev lived at 10 B. Khmelnitskii Street, while some relatives of his lived at the temporary accommodation point where he often came to visit them.
The abduction occurred at around 9.00 p.m., according to tenants of the temporary accommodation point. Two UAZ vehicles pulled up near the temporary accommodation point at that moment, and two armed people in masks and camouflage uniforms got out of one of them, swiftly. They ran up to Aliev and ordered him in Russian to get in the vehicle, after which they went away without indicating the destination.
With regard to this, Aliev's relatives lodged an application to the Leninskii District Division of Internal Affairs. An investigation team came to the scene where it interrogated witnesses and tenants of the temporary accommodation point. When the investigation officers asked a girl (the main eyewitness of the abduction) to give evidence, she refused, according to Aliev's relatives. Tenants of the temporary accommodation point also note that the two UAZ vehicles by which the strangers had come had stood in the yard of the house opposite the temporary accommodation point for a long time. Aliev's daughter-in-law said her brother-in-law had worked as security guard with the Danish Refugee Council in Grozny and he had lived as an internally displaced person in a refugee camp in Znamenskoe, Nadterechnaia district, until May 2002.
Aliev's dead body with traces of violent death was found on Kirov Street in Grozny's Oktiabrskii district on April 21.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 15, 2004
Some strangers murdered Alvi Baliev, local head of administration, and Khusein Shakhtamirov, his bodyguard, in Komsomolskoe, Gudermes district, at about 9.45 p.m.
When Baliev approached his house by a Zhiguli vehicle, the strangers fired automatics at him and the patrol officer attending him. Baliev and Shakhtamirov died of the wounds they sustained.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 16, 2004
Two vehicles, a VAZ-21099 and a UAZ, packed full of armed people in camouflage uniforms, presumably officers of Russian and Chechen law enforcement / security agencies, entered Komsomolskoe, Gudermes district, in the evening the day after local head of administration Alvi Baliev and his bodyguard Khusein Shakhtamirov had been killed. They detained three people and brought them away without indicating the destination.
The law enforcement / security men first went to the house of the Ocherkhajievs on Olimpiiskaia Street where they seized Muslim Idrisovich Ocherkhajiev, 22, had him in one of their vehicles and went to the house of the Bantaevs who live on the same street. Khozha Bantaev, 45, was taken away from the house of the Bantaevs in the same way. Khozha's two younger brothers had been abducted on January 2, 2003, and their whereabouts had since been unknown. Khozha Bantaev is kept in Gudermes at the quarters of the Vega battalion which is a part of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service, according to Khozha's relatives.
Another villager, Ilias Salavdievich Khamsurkhajiev, 25, resident on Stepnaia Street, was abducted in the same way.
Muslim Ocherkhajiev was released on April 24; brutally beaten, he may have got a broken collarbone. Ilias Khamsurkhajiev was released even earlier. With an injured backbone, he was admitted to hospital right from the quarters of the Vega battalion.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
The dead body of a man was found on the southern outskirts of Ishkhoi-Yurt, Gudermes district. The man died a violent death and was mutilated beyond recognition. There are firearm traces and knife wounds on his head and body. The killed man was dressed in jogging pants and wore slippers. The body is at the Gudermes District Division of Internal Affairs.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 18, 2004
Four people were murdered in Grozny's Oktiabrskii district.
Late at night, some strangers sneaked in the yard of the house of the Israilov family living on 8th March Street. Having Timur Israilov, 25, out, they shot him dead point-blank. Entering the house, they next shot his parents - Gilani Israilov, 52, and Kkhokkha Israilova. A police officer, the Israilovs' neighbor, who came running on hearing noise and shots was also killed.
The Israilov family fell victim to robbery, in the opinion of their relatives. The matter is the Israilovs had received compensation for their destroyed homes and assets that day. The murderers took the money leaving three thousand rubles near each body (apparently, for funeral).
As for the neighbor, he fell victim to circumstances.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
19 April 2004
Officers of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service approached by VAZ-21099 vehicles to the house of Ilimsolta Jalmatievich Vadalov, b. 1937, who lives on the southern outskirts of Ishkhoi-Yurt, Gudermes district. The militiamen burst into the house, seized the old man, beat him, threw him into the trunk of a vehicle and brought away without indicating the destination.
Ilimsolta is a teacher of math and physics. Two of his sons were killed, one is doing his time, while his fourth son may be a member of the armed units of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, according to his fellow villagers, so the unlawful action taken with regard to the old man is probably connected with his son's activities. Ilimsolta was taken hostage instead of his son and he is kept in Gudermes.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
A column of armored vehicles was going through Kurchaloi at noon. A combat infantry vehicle from the column ran into a VAZ-21099 car. The combat infantry vehicle ran over the car after it had run into it.
Two officers of Kurchaloi fire-brigade N12 were in the car. Aium Vakhidov, 27, resident in Kurchaloi was driving. He sustained severe injuries and died in the morning on April 20 at the Kurchaloi district hospital. The second firefighter, Karim, 24, resident in Bachi-Yurt, died on the spot.
A police force from the Kurchaloi District Division of Internal Affairs went to the scene of the collision. With great difficulties, they arrested the driver and the commander of the combat vehicle and put them in the temporary detention isolator at the District Division. Legal action was taken on the fact of the collision and investigation is underway. Mr. Din, the district prosecutor, disagrees with the actions of the officers of the District Division.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 20, 2004
At 118 Zabolotnyi Street in Grozny's Oktiabrskii district, unidentified officers of some Russian law enforcement / security agencies wearing masks and camouflage uniforms abducted at about midnight Alvi Abdullaevich Dudaev, b. 1986, an eleventh grade student at the 34th school in the Oktiabrskii district.
The military men came by five armored personnel carriers, three UAZ vehicles and one Gazel vehicle.
A group of officers of law enforcement / security agencies entered the yard of the Dudaevs at about 11.45 p.m., driving the gates out with the help of an armored personnel carrier. One of the officers struck Abdullah Denisultanovich Dudaev, master of the house, with the butt of his submachine gun, so the man fell down on the steps. They next set a submachine gun against Abdullah's head and ordered him not to move.
The military men took Alvi Dudaev and his uncle (his mother's brother) Musa, b. 1975, a second-category invalid, out of the house. They both were put down on the ground, face downwards, near Abdullah. Having examined the men's passports, the military men gave back Musa's passport only. Next, getting Alvi up, the officers of law enforcement / security agencies took him out of the yard and drove away without indicating the destination. The relatives were not told what the teenager was guilty of and where he would be delivered.
Alvi's parents applied to the Oktiabrskii District Division of Internal Affairs on the same night. Police officers conducted investigation activities at the Dudaevs' place: they examined the scene of the incident, drew up statements and put down evidence given by witnesses and the victims. In the following days, Alvi's parents applied for help to various republican, district and city agencies, including Akhmat Kadyrov's security service.
At the Oktiabrskii district administration, they suggested that Rovzan Dudaeva, the abducted young man's mother, should "go home at ease" and promised her that her son would come home on the next day. However, Alvi did not come. When Raisa Dudaeva, the abducted boy's sister, applied again, Vakha Amadov, head of administration, ordered his security guards: "Take her by the scruff of the neck and throw her out." So they did.
They promised to look into the matter and establish Alvi Dudaev's whereabouts at the prosecutor's office, giving assurances of personal interest.
At the headquarters of the Chechen president's security service, they suggested applying to the District Division of Internal Affairs saying that "they can't be unaware, they know everything." However, applying to the District Division of Internal Affairs did not show positive results either.
It has been impossible to establish Alvi Dudaev's whereabouts.
When military action began, the Dudaev family left Chechnya for Ingushetia where they lived in the Bart refugee camp in Karabulak until the referendum on March 23, 2003. On the second day after the referendum, the military took away Dudaev's eldest son who was released in several days.
At the moment, the family lives in a house in Grozny in which it is actually impossible to live: the ceilings rest on props threatening to collapse at any time. However, the commission on the payment of compensations recognized the house as fit for habitation.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 24, 2004
Musa Arsamirzaev, b. 1954, a former resident of Akhkinchu-Borzoi, Kurchaloi district, currently resident in Shelkovskaia, left Gudermes and has since been missing.
Musa Arsamirzaev departed from his relatives by his white VAZ-2106 vehicle (the figures on the license plate are 027).
Arsamirzaev had previously already been detained by officers of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service and kept in Tsentoroi, Shali district.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 25, 2004
A computer center belonging to Atu Shovkhalov was robbed at midnight on Stepnaia Street in Komsomolskoe, Gudermes district.
Armed people in camouflage uniforms approached the center by a UAZ vehicle. The strangers loaded all equipment into the vehicle and drove away.
The day before that, the district where the computer center is situated had been blocked by officers of some local law enforcement or security agencies that had been examining passing vehicles as well as all commercial organizations. Law enforcement and security officers called in the computer center, too.
The robbery caused a damage of around five thousand US dollars. The owner of the center went after the thieves by his VAZ-2106 vehicle, but the robbers stopped him near the former biochemical plant premises and asked him where he was going. Atu said he was going to the hospital and that he had nothing to do with them. After that, he was heavily beaten and left on the road. His fellow villagers picked him up.
Atu Shovkhalov who is about fifty-five years old is a former officer of the State Motor Licensing and Inspection Department, currently on a pension. He is the son-in-law of the Bantaevs (see the Chronicle of violence for April 16).
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
The unit on duty of the Gudermes District Division of Internal Affairs received a message that two adolescents died while trying to recover a shell from the ground on the dacha premises on the outskirts of Gudermes at the exit from the town towards Grozny. Another one was admitted to hospital N9 in Grozny in a grave condition.
Anvar Nanaev, b. 1991, and Khamzat Tamaev, b. 1987, were killed. Ansar Akhmadov received multiple injuries.
An investigation team came to the scene of the accident; the case was transferred to the Gudermes prosecutor's office.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
Some children from the neighborhood were playing in the basement of the exploded house of the Mechtaevs in Kurchaloi in the afternoon. Suddenly, there was a blast of an unidentified explosive device. As a result, three boys suffered, one of them, Aiub Tovsultanov, b. 1988, resident in Rechnaia Street, dying in hospital. Mak-Magomed Abdulkadyrov, b. 1988, and Bislan Reshedov, b. 1987, resident in the same street, were wounded.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 26, 2004
Students at school N34 in Grozny organized a picket in front of the administration of the Oktiabrskii district in Grozny. Their slogans said "We Aren't Gangsters, We Are Schoolchildren" and "Hands off Schoolchildren." The reason for the schoolchildren to take such action was the abduction and subsequent disappearance of Alvi Abdullaevich Dudaev, an eleventh grade student at school N34.
The picketers demanded that government should take at least some action to find their friend. A man from the prosecutor's office came out to the gathering. He said his name was Magomed (his surname is unknown) and told the schoolchildren he investigated this case, after which he demanded that they should break up. In doing so, as the schoolchildren claim, "Magomed" afforded bad language and threats.
Zarema Gentemirova, headmaster at the school, said some one of the "people in charge" (she preferred not to mention the surname) suggested that she should "restrain the schoolchildren from severe criticism because this may do harm."
The picket drew the attention of journalists from Grozny Television. However, the same person from the prosecutor's office, "Magomed," came up to the journalists while they were shooting and recommended that they should not broadcast the item on television. The item about the schoolchildren's picket was not broadcast by Grozny Television or the Chechen State Television and Radio Company either that evening or the following days.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 28, 2004
Armed people in camouflage uniforms (seven or eight men), one in black clothing, approached the house of the Guchigovs in Noibera, Gudermes district, by a UAZ-452 vehicle without a license plate at 6.00 a.m. The strangers seized Ruslan Guchigov and took him out of the house. They next ordered his relatives to bring his passport. Examining his ID, they had Ruslan in the UAZ and drove away without indicating the destination.
Ruslan Guchigov's whereabouts are unknown.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
April 29, 2004
Armed people in masks and camouflage uniforms approached the house of the Magomadovs living on Kurchaloevskaia Street in Kurchaloi by a UAZ-452 vehicle at noon. They were armed with submachine guns that had silencers and grenade launchers.
The strangers burst into the house and seized Khizir Magomadov, 16 (he happened to be the only man at home). They knocked him down with the butts of their submachine guns and put him on the ground, his face down, in the yard. Setting the barrel of a submachine gun against his nape, they asked where Yakub Magomadov was.
Yakub Magomadov has been living in central Russia over the past ten or fifteen years. Russian military men drove his brother, Aiubkhan, b. 1969, away from home on October 2, 2000. Yakub has since been busy searching for him. Aiubkhan Magomadov's case has been filed to the European Court.
By chance, an officer of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service saw what was happening to Khizir Magomadov. Using his two-way radio, he contacted his colleagues and the man on duty at the District Division of Internal Affairs, the Magomadovs living one hundred meters away from it. Police officers and people from the Chechen president's security service soon came to the house. They disarmed the military men, took off their masks and made them show their ID. The strangers turned out to be officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) for the Kurchaloi district. The FSB officers were turned out of the Magomadovs' house, but before going away, they demanded that Yakub's elder brother, Ibrahim, who lives in that house, should come to the FSB.
Information by Memorial's office in Nazran, Ingushetia
May 2004
Source: Memorial Human Rights Center (Moscow, Russia)
