13 June 2005, 13:38
Vicious practice mars Russia's COE membership
Unauthorised detentions of relatives of members of rebel groups have been on the rise in Chechnya. Detainees' relatives are afraid to make such facts public because they fear for the detainees' lives and are afraid of further harassment on the part of law enforcement and security agencies.
"Hostage-taking of relatives of Chechen rebels has become a standard," thinks Viskhan, a Grozny resident. "This is a tactic of federal forces and local law enforcement and security agencies which was tested quite a while ago and is now gaining pace. Examples are numerous. Such are the hostage-taking of around 40 relatives of the former Ichkeria defence minister, Magomed Khambiyev, and the abduction of close relatives of Aslan Maskhadov and field commander Doku Umarov. However, cases of hostage-taking of relatives of ordinary members of armed groups are not as well-known because people are afraid to speak about that openly."
An activist with a Chechen human rights organisation says relatives of detained local residents are usually told that the detainee will be released only if some or other rebel surrenders. Sometimes, detained relatives of rebels are released after many days' custody and interrogations, but cases are also frequent when people disappear without trace, their only guilt being that they were relatives of members of illegal armed formations in Chechnya.
In October 2004, one month after the tragedy in Beslan, Russia's Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said practice of "counter hostage-taking" should be used in order to reinforce measures to combat terrorism in Russia. The meaning of this was taking hostage relatives of terrorists with a view to their exchange for people seized by the terrorists.
An activist with a Chechen nongovernmental organisation says such measures had been taken long before the notorious suggestion of Russia's Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov though.
"Officers of the military commandant's office detained Vakha Idigov, 55, in Valerik, Achkhoi-Martan district, in March 2003. The military men announced he would be released only if his son Ramzan who was with a rebel unit gave himself up," says the activist.
Zura Israpilov, a 40-year-old mother of four small children, the wife of a former district prefect, was abducted by officers of a law enforcement or security agency in Siuzhi, Shatoi district, on 5 May. She was only released on 2 June. They demanded that she should indicate where her husband's brother was, says the interlocutor.
According to him, civil society and human rights organisations are especially concerned over the fact that the number of such cases has been growing lately. "Even women and small children are taken hostage. Local law enforcement and security agencies use such tactics more and more often. Such inhuman practice can have the worst implications: incessant blood feud and mutual mass extermination of Chechens."
Officers of a law enforcement or security agency detained and brought away Duk-Vakha Balakhovich Dadakhayev, b. 1980, in Gekhi, Urus-Martan district, on 2 April. The reason for his abduction may have been his cousins' participation in armed resistance to federal forces: one of them has been killed and the other is on the wanted list.
Unidentified armed people in camouflage uniforms abducted a 13-year-old boy, Khamadov (Khamidov), in Novye Atagi, Shali district. His elder brother had been missing before. It turned out later Khamadov had been taken hostage by officers of Kadyrov's security service. In doing so, they sought to make his cousin surrender.
Officers of a law enforcement or security agency detained Maret Khutsayev, 70, and her granddaughter Lipa Tsayev, 16 or 17, in Gekhi, Urus-Martan district, on 10 May. The two women came back home on 11 May, released on condition that Maret's son Arbi Khutsayev would surrender. Otherwise, the military promised to detain Maret again.
Unidentified armed people abducted Charon Saidulayev and his son Apti in Grozny's Oktiabrskii district in the morning on 11 May. The reason for Charon's abduction was an allegation that he was associated with separatist groups. Apti was taken together with his father in order to exert psychological pressure on Charon to obtain required information.
Ninety-seven people were abducted in Chechnya over several months in 2005, according to the Human Rights Centre Memorial. Fifty-three of them have since been missing. Some of these people were relatives of members of Chechen armed groups.
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