A secret prison existed in Chechnya

On May 29, 30 and 31, employees of the "Memorial" human rights centre examined and made video and photo records of vacant buildings in the Chechen capital where prior to May 27 the RF MIA Operational Group in October district of Grozny had been dislocated, and previously the Temporary department of internal affairs (TDIA) of the district, reports Dmitri Grushkin, employee of the "Memorial" HRC to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to the human rights activists, people were held in the basements of the buildings, were tortured and killed there.

During the night of May 31, unknown persons destroyed inscriptions on the walls of the cells for detainees and arrested persons in the basement of the building. At present, the building is pulled down. A team of builders was sent there for pulling it down already on the following day after the RF MIA Operational Group had left its dislocation place, runs the message of the "Memorial" HRC handed over by Dmitri Grushkin to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On May 29, the fact of pulling down of the former prison (before the war it housed an asylum for deaf children) became known from the "Memorial" employees to former inmates held in the building basement, relatives of persons who had been lost there, local TV journalists and press photographers. Natalia Estemirova, employee of the "Memorial" HRC, addressed the October district administration in Grozny, October district unit of internal affairs and the prosecutor's office with a demand to immediately stop the destruction of the building and send officials there for inspection and search for possible traces of crimes committed there.

However, as the "Memorial" representatives maintain, demolition continued on Mat 29, and no officials visited the place. Instead, the building and basement were inspected and records made by human rights activists and journalists, Alavdi Sadykov, former prisoner of the TDIA, relatives of Zelimkhan Murdalov and Sharip Khaisumov, who had "disappeared" there, and other victims.

Various documents left by militiamen were discovered in the former asylum building and in the neighbouring former sports gymnasium (it housed offices of investigators and operational staff). Among others, the " Photo album of people of operational interest for units of RF MIA of in October district, Grozny" started on July 26, 2002 was found. Inscriptions made both by TDIA officers and people held in the basement were found on the building facade and walls and in the basement. The inscriptions were recorded using photo and video cameras. Records by "Memorial" HRC employees were made on May 29 and 30.

"Death to dushmans," "Let's help them die. KMAO IAD RS," "Russian vodka - fresh breath facilitates understanding," such inscriptions were recorded by human rights activists on the main facade of the former asylum for deaf children in Grozny. "ORB-2 - be damned for ever," "DUCOC, you are going to pay us for everything. We shall revenge everything. Inch Allah," "Where am I. What is happening to me. Am I alive or not. March 27, 06," these are some of the scores of inscriptions discovered on the walls of cells in the former asylum basement.

A video on the basement where detainees and arrested persons had been held, and on the documents found there, was broadcast on May 29 night over the Chechen TV. Only after that, on May 30, representatives of the district administration, prosecutor's office of the Chechen Republic (ChR), militia, a group of mine pickers, and FSS drove to the building of the former asylum. They inspected the building and the basement, and opened two sealed rooms. In the evening a group of soldiers came to pick up the papers which still remained there.

The prosecutor's office employees demanded the photo album from the "Memorial" HRC which, according to them, "may be of use in investigating criminal cases on the disappearance of people in October TDIA." The "Memorial" complied with the request. The human rights activists also handed over to the prosecutor's office some other documents which they had found in the premises of the former asylum.

On May 31, the following day, it was discovered that the inscriptions in the former cells in the basements had been intentionally destroyed - in all cells automobile tires had been burnt and soot had covered all inscriptions. The workers who resumed the building demolition claimed it could only have happened during the night or early in the morning, reported employees of the human rights organization.

As early as on May 25, in the course of the meeting with Alu Alkhanov, President of Chechnya, representatives of the "Memorial" HRC and the "Civil Assistance" committee mentioned that the RF MIA Operational Group in October district of Grozny and the Independent Operational Brigade of RF MIA were leaving Grozny and it was necessary to inspect their dislocation places in the presence of representatives from the prosecutor's office, law-enforcement agencies and human rights organizations, since there were numerous indications that detained residents of Grozny "had been disappearing" there. The meeting was attended by the prosecutor and deputy minister of internal affairs of Chechnya.

On May 26, officers of the Russian MIA Operational Group in the October district of Grozny vacated the building they had occupied. The group consisted of militiamen dispatched to Chechnya from different regions of Russia. In 2000-2003 the Temporary Department of Internal Affairs of October district was located there. In the process of transferring the power to local law-enforcement agencies, the TDIA was transformed into the Operational Group which now has ceased to exist.

According to numerous facts collected by human rights activists, detainees and arrested persons have been tortured in the TDIA of October district. The "Memorial" HRC cites an example of Alavdi Sadykov held there in April 2000: the Khanty-Mansijsk militia unit officers cut off his left ear. Many of individuals brought to the department have disappeared, according to the information of the human rights centre.

"To a considerable degree, this grim notoriety is connected with the activity of the combined militia unit (CMU) from Khanty-Mansijsk autonomous okrug (it was often wrongly referred to as Khanty-Mansijsk riot squad) dispatched to the October district TDIA in 2000-2001. A second dispatch of this unit to Grozny in spring 2002 caused protests from human rights organizations. The Khanty-Mansijsk militia unit was also dispatched to Grozny in subsequent years. In April 2001, local residents found several dead bodies in the basements of semi-destroyed houses near the building of the October district TDIA. After that, the soldiers exploded the vacant buildings surrounding the TDIA. The ruins started to be cleaned but on the following day the ways to the building were blocked. Officials hastily announced that there had been no bodies in the ruins. The ChR prosecutor's office initiated several criminal cases on the facts of disappearance of detainees and torture in the October district TDIA, however, only one of them was partially investigated," runs the report of the "Memorial" HRC .