Escalation of violence in Ingushetia

March 2004 in the Republic of Ingushetia is characterized with a rise in activity of various law enforcement and security agencies "checking the passport regime" and neutralizing armed units of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI). The Human Rights Center Memorial registered six abductions and eleven murders. Three people were wounded and two detained, released after beating and torture. Law enforcement and security agencies conducted a classic incessant "clean-up" in a refugee camp. A new trend appeared in this month, too: law enforcement and security officers took hostage relatives of members of CRI armed units (this method of exerting pressure on relatives would be used against Mahomet Khambiev a few days after the case with Khozh-Akhmed Visaitov).

Sure, there were gunmen among those killed and abducted, too, but most of the victims were civilians.

The Human Rights Center Memorial does not doubt that Russian law enforcement and security agencies have the full right to take measures to detain gunmen when they have information about their presence in Ingushetia. However, we are seriously worried that such measures are taken with grave violations of Russian law in Ingushetia like in Chechnya, alongside serious human rights violations.

A chronicle of violence in Ingushetia for the period between March 2 and 29, 2004, follows.

March 2, 2004

Officers of unknown Russian law enforcement / security agencies carried out a special operation in Altievo, Ingushetia, at about 4 p.m., one person dying and at least two civilians wounded. Random shooting also led to a schoolgirl, Tsoloeva, dying, according to unconfirmed reports.

Coming by two vehicles, an UAZ-452 and a silvery VAZ-21009, with darkened windows, the law enforcement / security officers (about 10 people) in masks blocked the tunnel exit, according to eyewitnesses. Apparently, they pursued a white VAZ-21009 and came from the direction of the stop Kommunalnaia.

The law enforcement / security officers opened fire on the vehicle and killed its driver. The area under fire turned out to comprise a number of civilians, including children coming home from the school nearby. The military shouted four-letter words to passers-by, their gist boiling down to: "You have given shelter to gangsters, arranged a joint here." Random shooting led to the driver of a dark-blue VAZ vehicle going by slightly wounded, and a girl in that car, Khazbieva, b. 1979, was wounded seriously in her neck.

Some eyewitnesses maintain the law enforcement / security officers put a grenade in the killed driver's hands. Eyewitnesses tried to help those wounded and stop the unlawful actions. However, the military behaved very aggressively: a man dashed toward them when he saw the young girl bleeding, and they tried to shove him in their vehicle and beat him with submachine gun butts, but the people around managed to win him over.

The wounded girl was delivered to the Nazran Republican Hospital. The doctors presently evaluate her condition as grave.

March 3, 2004

Past 6.00 a.m., officers of unknown Russian law enforcement / security agencies detained and abducted a forced migrant from Chechnya, Khozh-Akhmed Shaikhievich Visaitov, b. 1985, temporarily resident at 37 Pochtovaia St., Psedakh, Malgobek district, Ingushetia.

Eyewitnesses say the officers (about 60, some in masks) approached the house by a white bus and several UAZ and Niva vehicles. Breaking in, they demanded that the mistress, Louise Gulueva, b. 1964, tell them where her husband Shaikhi Visaitov was. One of the military set the barrel of his submachine gun against the head of her daughter Zharadat, b. 1988, and threatened he would kill the girl unless they were told where the master was. Louise answered her husband had gone to Nazran two days before and wasn't back yet.

After that, the military men entered house N21 on the same street and grasped and interrogated Khozh-Akhmed, the son of Shaikh-Magomed and Louise, staying that night at a relative, Said-Magomed Visaitov.

Having not obtained the desired answer, the military said: "If you don't know where the father is, we'll take the son." The young man's mother tried to persuade the military to let her son go, and she asked them to tell her where they took him when she saw this was of no use. However, the military ignored this request either. They beat Khozh-Akhmed, had him in a vehicle and brought away without indicating the destination.

Local police officers tried to interfere in the situation, but they were not admitted to the scene. The military conducting the detention made a few shots in the air and threatened they would open fire if those tried to come closer.

Eyewitnesses assume the military group included officers of both Russian law enforcement / security agencies and the security service of President Akhmat Kadyrov of Chechnya.

The Visaitov family are natives of Makhkety, Vedeno district, Chechnya. They have lived as refugees in Psedakh since 2001. The family has six members: Lisa Saipudinovna Gulueva, Khozh-Akhmed, 18, and four girls (Jaradet, b. 1988, Aidat, b. 1990, Rukeiat, b. 1998, and Iman, b. 2000). The head of the family, Shaikhi Abubakarovich Visaitov, b. 1957, has had another family for three years already, and he visits his children just rarely. There is information Visaitov maintained active contacts with guerillas in both the first and the second Chechen war.

On the third day after the detention, Lisa Gulueva learnt that her son was in their native Makhkety. He was kept in the quarters of an infantry company commanded by a village native, Ibrahim Khultygov (chief of the CRI National Security Service under Aslan Maskhadov). This unit was established in 2003 to guard a series of Vedeno district settlements. It makes a part of Akhmat Kadyrov's security service, subordinate to the latter's son, Ramzan.

Gulueva was told Khultygov had let her mother Lida Gulueva and Abubakar Visaitov, her former husband's father, meet and talk to Khozh-Akhmed. After that, Khultygov told the old people the guy would be released only when his father, whom they were searching for, came to them.

March 4, 2004

Officers of an unknown law enforcement / security agency were trying to detain a group of people in a house on Enginoev St. on the outskirts of Psedakh, Ingushetia, at about 7.35 a.m., when they encountered armed resistance.

The combat went on for nearly an hour. As a result, five people - all those in the house - were killed. Two of them turned out to be local residents: Khamzat Enginoev, b. 1978, and Anzor Kukiev, b. 1973; three were visitors: Muslim Janiev, b. 1976, resident in Eli-Yurt, Nadterechnaia district, Chechnya; Aslanbek (Aslan) Khamidov, b. 1978, resident in Grozny, Chechnya; and Jamalai (surname unavailable), presumably resident in Znamenskoe, Nadterechnaia district, Chechnya.

The operation was conducted by the Federal Security Service Administration for Ingushetia in cooperation with a mobile unit of the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry in Ingushetia and the Ingush Internal Affairs Ministry, according to official information. The five killed men were guerillas. One security service man was wounded. A lot of weapons were uncovered in the house where they hid. A civilian named Akhmet Kortoev, b. 1969, was wounded in the head during the combat, according to the same information.

March 5, 2004

Officers of unknown law enforcement / security agencies conducted a targeted special operation in Stary Malgobek a few kilometers away from Malgobek, Ingushetia, at 7.20 a.m.

The officers blocked Zapadnaia St. and ringed house N102/2 where Isa Torshkhoev (Torchkhoev), 26, lives. No one, including children going to school, was allowed to leave the blocked area. The people in Torshkhoev's house put up armed resistance when the military tried to enter. The combat that went on for about two hours, according to some information, resulted in five people in the house dying and two, including the master, escaping. A law enforcement / security officer was wounded.

When the combat was over, the military detained two young men living nearby, Sultan Gariev, b. 1988, a 10th grade student, and Adam Poshev, 20. They were released the same day, beaten heavily. Gariev and Poshev with numerous abrasions and traumas, including head injuries, were admitted to hospital in Malgobek.

Local residents say six Chechens aged 16 to 22 came to the settlement the night before from Psedakh. Isa Torshkhoev let them in his house.

It should be noted a special operation for detention of some gunmen was conducted in Psedakh on March 4.

March 6, 2004

Officers of unknown law enforcement / security agencies conducted a "clean-up" on the premises of the refugee camp Satsita in Orjonikidzevskaia, Ingushetia, early in the morning.

When many people were still asleep, four armored personnel carriers (APCs), 12-13 UAZ vehicles and several cars entered the camp. The APCs and UAZ vehicles mostly carried Russian military men, chiefly without masks, and officers of some law enforcement / security agencies were coming by the cars, speaking Chechen and wearing masks. The military began to enter tents and conduct unauthorized searches. In doing so, they were rude and insulted the hosts. In no case they introduced themselves or explained the goal of their visit. They began to examine the tents from row zero adjoining the camp administration. Searching in some tents was superficial, in others, for example tent N7 it was especially careful, and even the floors were ripped up. All that time, the officers of Chechnya's law enforcement / security agencies took no active part in what was going on.

Indignant at what was going on the refugees applied to a military colonel for explanations, but he answered evasively that the undertaking was just a simple passport regime examination. The people then asked him: "Why then search tents?" Another military man reacted to that question, saying: "Three of your villages ought to be razed to the ground for what you did in Moscow's Metro..."

Examinations in the camp were over at about 9 a.m. The military detained five young men and were going to take them away. The refugees, mostly women, blocked the military column and demanded releasing the detainees. The military released the young men after half an hour of talks, but they promised to be back.

Russian law enforcement / security officers abducted in Karabulak, Ingushetia, Soslanbek Daudovich Ulbiev, b. 1973, a refugee from Chechnya. His relatives say 35 to 40 armed people in camouflage uniforms (some in masks) came between 4 and 5 p.m. by five or six vehicles to house N47 on Bachalov St. where the Ulbievs are temporarily resident. Entering the house, they made Soslanbek and his wife Fatima get down on the floor and conducted a careful search in the rooms without showing any documents. In about an hour, when the examination was over, the military took Soslanbek away. When his wife asked them why and where they were taking her husband, they said they thought his passport might be forged and advised looking for him at the Karabulak Internal Affairs Authority.

Visited by Soslanbek's parents in an hour, town police officers said they didn't have Ulbiev and knew nothing about his detention. The relatives lodged a statement of abduction. The same day, they went round and rang up all law enforcement agencies in the republic, including the Federal Security Service (FSB), but they were not able to find Soslanbek's traces anywhere.

On March 11, the Ulbievs lodged complaints with and inquiries to Ingushetia's prosecutor and internal affairs minister and the deputy chief of the Russian FSB authority for Ingushetia. They applied to the office of the Human Rights Center Memorial in Nazran the same day. The reason for Ulbiev's abduction is unknown. His relatives say they left Chechnya at the beginning of military action (October 1999) and have since lived in Ingushetia. Soslanbek did not do anything unlawful.

March 11, 2004

Unknown armed people in masks and camouflage uniforms abducted in the afternoon three local residents using a Niva and a Gazel vehicle at a traffic police post in the fork of the road from Nazran to Kantyshevo, Malgobek and Maiskii, Ingushetia.

Eyewitnesses, traffic policemen, say the military approaching the post fired at a white 7th model Zhiguli vehicle going ahead. The Zhiguli reached the post and stopped. The attackers introduced themselves to the police as FSB officers, pulled out three men from the Zhiguli (one of them wounded), shoved them in the Gazel by force and went away in the direction of Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia.

The names of the abducted were ascertained later: Tamerlan Savarbekovich Tsechoev, b. 1962; Rashid Borisovich Ozdoev, aide to Ingushetia's prosecutor for supervision over law enforcement and security agencies; and Yevloev, an Ingush police officer.

The abducted men's relatives applied to republican law enforcement agencies and simultaneously launched a search on their own. From unofficial sources, they received information wounded Yevloev was kept under guard in a hospital in Vladikavkaz (or Stavropol). No traces of Tsechoev and Ozdoev have yet been found.

The reason for abduction of the mentioned people is unknown. The only thing known is that Ozdoev has lately repeatedly demanded orally and in writing that Ingushetia's FSB officers stop breaking the law and taken measures with regard to them: introduced statements, protests, etc. Perhaps, this activity served as a ground for the deputy prosecutor's detention.

The relatives sent telegrams on March 20 to the Russian president's administration, the Supreme Court, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and the Ingush president's administration with a request to interfere in the situation and provide assistance in searching for the missing.

Another version featured by www.ingushetiya.ru says Ozdoev was detained by Ingush FSB officers on March 12 when getting in his car at the car park near the government premises in Magas, Ingushetia. Several people saw Ozdoev's car, VAZ-21099, in the yard of the Ingush FSB. From Ingushetia, Ozdoev was delivered to Vladikavkaz, according to some information. Journalists from the Ingush website say Ingush FSB chief Koriakov was discontent with the active position of deputy prosecutor who supervised the FSB.

Boris Ozdoev, the abducted man's father, insisted that the Ingush prosecutor's office took legal action on March 15 under Article 126 of Russia's Crime Code (abduction).

March 16, 2004

Unknown people in black masks and camouflage uniforms abducted Timur Magomedovich Yandiev, b. 1979, resident in Karabulak, Ingushetia. The abduction was carried out at about 5 p.m. in Nazran, Ingushetia, at the exit from the Ingushenergo company checkpoint. Company guards witnessed the abduction of the young man.

The people that abducted Yandiev had come by two vehicles: a Niva car and a Gazel minibus, both white with darkened windows and without license plates. They shoved Yandiev in one of the vehicles and left without indicating the destination. Everything occurred instantly, according to the eyewitnesses, before anyone was able to understand anything, which suggests the abductors were professionals.

Yandiev's relatives have information the mentioned vehicles went toward Chechnya after Timur's abduction, passing the post Kavkaz-1.

The reason for Yandiev's abduction is unknown. Timur Yandiev is married and has a daughter (under one). He graduated from the Nazran Humanities and Technical College in 1996 as a computer science specialist. He also was a student at the Ingush State University.

Timur worked with goods delivery control at the Ingush Customs of Russia's State Customs Committee from 1997 until he was made redundant in 1999. He next worked at Ingushenergo from 2001 until again made redundant in 2003.

From October 2003 he is a system administrator for ITT (Information Technologies of Telecommunications). All those who knew the abducted man only speak positively about him.

March 19, 2004

About 150 relatives of people abducted in Ingushetia made an attempt to hold a protest meeting not far from Eskazhevo, Ingushetia.

Their key demand was that the republican authorities find out who and why abducted their relatives and where they were kept currently.

The meeting was attended by Ingushetia's Deputy Internal Affairs Minister Kotiev who asked the people to break up saying their actions were unlawful and they would not be able to solve their problem using such methods. He suggested that the meeting elect a group of several people to go with him to the ministry and relate there all their demands and grievances.

At that moment, First Deputy Internal Affairs Minister Kostoev came to the place of the protest action and ordered the meeting to disband immediately in a rude form. In doing so, he used bad language and was rude even with grey-bearded old men. The meeting resented this treatment on the part of the first deputy minister who they thought was to be attentive to their troubles and help them in searching for the abducted.

In a while, the meeting was over and several people went with Kotiev to the ministry.

Unprofessional actions of officers of unknown Russian law enforcement / security agencies led to at least two civilians dying and two wounded in the past two weeks in Ingushetia. Timur Yandiev's abduction became the last straw that made it too much for Ingush residents. Ingushetia's authorities gave no comments on these events, while republican law enforcement and security agencies took no serious steps to establish and punish those guilty of these incidents.

March 25, 2004

Coming from the direction of Chechnya, a military helicopter fired four missiles during 20-25 minutes near the creamery in the western part of Sleptsovskaia (Orjonikidzevskaia), Ingushetia, according to provisional information. Making a few circles over that territory, the helicopter flew back to Chechnya.

The firing resulted in a local resident, Khamkhoev, about 18, dying; the brothers Khashagulkov, about 15-16, wounded (one very seriously).

March 29, 2004

Chechnya's law enforcement and security agencies launched dismantling refugee camps in Ingushetia. Their tenants are delivered to Chechnya by force.

The Sputnik camp was blocked by Chechen law enforcement / security officers at about 9 a.m., according to provisional information. A lot of machinery, including KAMAZ trucks entered the camp.

The goal of that special operation was to shut down the camp. In doing so, it was planned that those refugees who had not previously lodged applications for staying in Ingushetia would be delivered to temporary accommodations in Chechnya. The Satsita camp was also blocked.

The camps are located in the neighborhood of Sleptsovskaia (Orjonikidzevskaia), the administrative center of the Sunzha district, Ingushetia, near the administrative border with Chechnya.

Government, both federal and local, had previously denied any plans or intentions to shut down the camps and have refugees back in Chechnya by force. Such promises were made not only to press representatives, but also human rights advocates, representatives of both public organizations and the Presidential Commission on Human Rights.

March 29, 2004