In Chechnya, some human rights activists find night "zachistkas" to be power agents' arbitrariness

Activists of some NGOs have stated that checks of passports conducted by law enforcers during night hours are roughest violations of the law. This was their comment on power agents' actions in the settlement Mayakovsky, Staropromyslovskiy District. The militia, in its turn, reports that no complaints arrived from the local population.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at night on February 6 in settlement Mayakovsky, Staropromyslovskiy District of the Chechen capital, employees of some unknown power agencies structures checked passports in three apartment blocks in the Staropromyslovskiy Highway, near the "Novaya" public transport stop.

Local residents assert that, in spite of late hours, power agents woke tenants up, checked documents and examined apartments, without any explanations of the aim of their visit. Young men, who happened to be in house entrances and yards at the moment were put faces down on the ground and searched.

According to a source from the republic's MIA, who had a talk with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, recently in Mayakovsky "several thefts of private property committed by penetration of thieves into apartments, when the owner were absent" were registered. He did not exclude that the checks could have to do with these circumstances, although he refused to explain why it was necessary to make night checks.

In the opinion of human rights activists, such actions of power agents are absolutely illegal. "Free access of power agents to apartments is allowed only if a counterterrorist operation (CTO) is conducted in particular district," one of local human rights activists is convinced. He also doubted the militia's version about search of thieves in this district.

"The population of the republic has no idea about their rights and the rights and duties of power agents. Moreover, people are simply afraid of complaining against wrongful actions of law enforcers, because they know that nobody will be punished, but complainers will have serious problems."