July 9, 2001

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In the village of Kurchaloy, a rally of local residents continued, outraged by the actions of the Russian military during the last “cleansing”. On Monday, July 2, i.e. almost immediately after its completion, they gathered at the complex of buildings where the military commandant's office, the FSB and the VOVD are located, and demanded the release of illegally detained people, the punishment of those who committed robberies, insulted and humiliated, including women and children.

Due to the active position taken by the villagers, the events in Kurchaloy caused a certain public outcry, the media became aware of them, the first publications and comments appeared. The authorities were forced to react.

On July 8, Akhmad Kadyrov and Stanislav Ilyasov came to meet the protesters. They were given a list of people who had been taken away by the military from their homes without explanation. In particular, the brothers Yusup and Umar Kovraev, Magomed Abdulkadyrov, Khamzat Musanipov, Moula Usumov, the Bekhoev brothers (surnames after their mother): Imam Shamil, Shamil-Khadzhi and Ramzan, as well as their father, Abdul-Muslim Sugaipov, were indicated in it.

After listening to the complaints, Akhmad Kadyrov announced publicly that by 15 o'clock the next day "everything would be cleared up" and that if he did not succeed, he would leave his post.

On July 9, employees of the HRC "Memorial" attended the rally and recorded the testimony of people who actively participated in the search for the detainees. At that time, the latter had not yet been released.

Musa Dutuevich Gaziev, a member of the human rights commission under the head of the administration of the Chechen Republic, says:
“Our employee was recently detained, but we managed to get him out. He was taken away at five in the morning in Gudermes, put in a temporary detention facility at the VOVD. At three o'clock in the afternoon they gave it to us. Why they were taken away was not explained. He was kept for more than ten hours.

When Kovraev was detained in Kurchaloy, his relatives came to tell me about it. They said that the military shot through the door, and there were children in the house at that time, they broke the windows, the door, beat our employee in the yard and took him away with his brother. A total of 8 people were taken that day. On the armored personnel carrier L119.

We spoke with Colonel Sergei Mikhailovich Leontiev. He said they would sort it out by evening. In the afternoon we went to him. They took our certificates at the checkpoint. Then the soldier came out and said that our IDs had been confiscated as fake, that they would be handed over to the FSB. We returned back. The next day, the military accused us of organizing a rally in front of the commandant's office, they said that we even paid people for it.

I sent a letter to the commandant of the district. He wrote that if measures are not taken to release the detainees, then we will be forced to turn to the chairman of the government and the prosecutor. The military informed me through my employees that on Monday, i.e. today, they will be released. The certificates were also returned to us, on the fifth day after the withdrawal. In my opinion, the regional authorities are not interested in resisting what the military is doing here. They answered our appeals from there: “On June 30, the Kurchaloy commandant's office did not detain anyone.”

Aziz Dokhadzhiev:
“When we entered, the district commandant asked me the first question. “What is your question?” he asked. We said that we had come about Kovraev. An FSB colonel who was present there asked: “Do you think that human rights are being violated here?” I said yes. Then he called someone and ordered me and Musa Gaziev to be taken out. But before that, we were told that our certificates were invalid, since there was no Ilyasov's signature there. I said that our commission is subordinate to Kadyrov. But this did not affect them, we were kicked out.

"Cleansings" are carried out by the military on weekends. Probably, in order to make it impossible to find local civil officials at work. On Saturday, July 7, having accused her of looking through binoculars at a military unit, a 13-year-old girl was taken to PMK-8. Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are stationed there, it seems they are from Orenburg. It was already late, at ten o'clock. These policemen did not let any of the men near them, but the women nevertheless made their way to their location and took the girl away. She was there for over an hour. Together with her mother, she was then taken to the VOVD of the Kurchaloy district. They were finally released only at about midnight. The girl had a toy binocular…”

Later, eight of the nine people detained in Kurchaloy were released. In groups of two or three people on different days, the military took them to different regions of the republic and threw them out there. All were beaten. However, Mouli Usumov was not among them. Instead, the military released a man who had been abducted from his home a few months earlier and whose fate his relatives could not find out for a long time.

The residents of Kurchaloy, who were released, said that they were in the 33rd special-purpose brigade of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, stationed between Tsentoroi, Bachi-Yurt and Oiskhara. After being tortured, they were kept in the sun for several days, as a result of which worms formed in the wounds. They were allowed to wash each other with urine. Only the military did not allow anyone to approach Moula Usumov. Later, a corpse was found, which, at first it seemed, looked like him. But the wife did not recognize him as her husband.

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In an interview with the Orga newspaper (July 9-15, 2001), the new commander of the Joint Forces (c) in Chechnya, General Vladimir Moltenskoy, stated: “We refuse such a measure as a “cleansing” operation. The relevant authorities have already moved to targeted work, i.e. to the arrests of specific persons - members of the illegal armed formations. It is necessary to restore mutual trust, respect for each other on the part of the military and local authorities, the military and civilian population ... "
Commentary of HRC "Memorial": After such a statement by General V. Moltensky, the "cleansing operations" of the settlements of Chechnya not only did not stop, but acquired a new qualitative content. They became the main tactical development in the actions of the military and intelligence officers. It was from this period that they took on the character of a system and were carried out in the future according to a certain scheme thought out in advance. The most terrible, bloodiest "cleansing operations" of the second Chechen war are yet to come. Their peak will be at the end of 2001 - beginning of 2003. That is, already after the commander of the Russian grouping of troops in the republic declared publicly that "it is necessary to restore mutual trust, respect for each other on the part of the military and local authorities, the military and civilian population ..."

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At about five o'clock in the vicinity of the village of Kurchali, Russian troops landed from helicopters. Prior to this, the surrounding area was subjected to shelling from artillery pieces for several hours. HRC "Memorial" has no other details of the events near this settlement.

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Salakh Movlayev, born in 1976, was seized and taken away in an unknown direction from a house on Shkolnaya Street in the village of Chervlennaya. Nothing is known about his future fate at Memorial Human Rights Center.

From the book "People Live Here", Usam Baisaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006