HRC "Memorial": kidnappings and bombardments are daily events in Northern Caucasus

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has prepared a new issue of the Information Bulletin "Chronicle of Violence" for August 2008, related to the conflict in the Northern Caucasus. According to human rights activists, kidnappings, attacks of unknown persons, bombardments and murders happen practically every day in conflict.

Two examples follow. On August 1, in Southwest district of the city of Nazran, Republic of Ingushetia, Kazbek Abukarovich Kiev, born in 1972, a native of the Chechen Republic, was kidnapped by employees of unidentified power agencies.

Only on August 5, his relatives managed to find out that Kazbek was kept in Nalchik SIZO (pre-trial prison). The human rights activists assert that the power agents have violently broken the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure by having failed to notify his relatives about his whereabouts within 12 hours and to give them a chance to send an advocate to the detainee.

What happened with Kazbek Kiev was qualified by human rights activists as kidnapping, although cases of this sort escape the official statistics of kidnappings.

On August 2, in the Pliev Municipal District of Nazran, employees of federal power agencies shot dead two local residents: Khamzat Izmailovich Gardanov, born in 1978, and Daud Magomedovich Chibiev, born in 1982. According to the HRC "Memorial", both of them happened to occur in the area, where unknown criminals who had shelled militiamen were searched.

Many eyewitnesses of this incident assert that Gardanov and Chibiev did not render any armed resistance. The power agents planted a pistol on the dead Gardanov (having made some shots from it) and three magazines. People who saw it are afraid to give official evidences, they told about it to Gardanov's relatives only, the HRC "Memorial" reports.

The "Chronicle of Violence" also remarks the counterterrorist operation in Gimry village, Untsukul District of the Republic of Dagestan, damage of a gas main on August 6 in Bamut village, Achhoi-Martan District of the Chechen Republic, shelling of Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the human rights organization ANCO "Mashr" on August 13 in Karabulak, Republic of Ingushetia, and murder of Magomed Evloev, owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru", on August 31.