June 13, 2002
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At 4 am in Urus-Martan, from house 51 on Partizanskaya street, employees of the Russian security forces took away Artur Adamovich Bersunkaev, born in 1979, who was staying with relatives. He lived in the same city, but at a different address: pos. state farm "Highlander", d.6, apt. 6. At the same time, it was not reported who was carrying out the operation, for what purpose and where the detainee would be taken.
The illegal actions of law enforcement officers were not limited to this. They conducted a search unauthorized by the prosecutor's office, to which witnesses were not invited. Upon its completion, no protocol was drawn up. From the very first minutes, as soon as they appeared in the house, they took all its residents under the sights of machine guns. In addition to threats addressed to them, these people, who did not understand what was happening and what they were guilty of, did not hear anything intelligible.
The detention of a young man for relatives was a complete surprise. According to them, he never participated in hostilities and was not a member of armed formations. In 1995-1996, his entire family lived in the Stavropol Territory. The life of the forced migrants there was hard, they were persecuted as Chechens. And after the end of the first war, the Bersunkaevs returned to their home. When a new armed conflict began, they left again. This time to Ingushetia, and from there to Kalmykia. They returned to Urus-Martan in the summer of 2000. Since then, the detained young man worked at a construction site.
His mother, Raisa Bersunkayeva, contacted various regional authorities, trying to find out what her son was suspected of and where he was being held. The next day, she turned to the military commandant of the Urus-Martan region, Colonel Geydar Hajiyev. With her, from the building of the district administration, he called the commandant's office, in the building of which the local department of the FSB of the Russian Federation was also located, and demanded that the interlocutor (his name, rank and position remained unknown to the woman) to "figure out" where "there ... who was arrested yesterday. This one, Chadakhanov?” Chadakhanov is the maiden name of Raisa Bersunkayeva. Hanging up the phone, Geidar Gadzhiev said: “Kuznetsov is not here,” perhaps referring to his deputy. The woman told the commandant that Chadakhanova had not been spelled for 25 years, that the son had his father's surname and should not be responsible for someone else. If the Chadakhanovs have done something, then let them themselves bear the responsibility. What is it about her son?
In response, Heydar Hajiyev said that he had been preparing an operation to detain Artur Bersunkaev for a whole week. But he promised to release him in two or three days, having carried out the “necessary check”.
Three days later, in response to a corresponding request from the prosecutor's office, the answer came that the young man was not kept in the FSB department for the Urus-Martan district, nor in the military commandant's office. Moreover, it was stated that the Russian security forces did not even detain him.
At the request of Raisa Bersunkayeva, an employee of the district administration took part in the search for her son. After some time, he said that he did not allow those who detained the young man to present the hunting rifle seized during the search as a pistol. The fact that such an attempt was, it became known from other sources. For example, in October 2001, the investigator in charge of the criminal investigation into the disappearance of Artur Bersunkayev said that a cover letter from the district department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for Chechnya had been found at the VOVD. It says that “a Makarov pistol, confiscated from citizen A. Bersunkaev, is being sent for the production of a ballistic examination.” According to the relatives, this is another proof that Russian law enforcement agencies, and in particular employees of the special services, took part in the detention. Nevertheless, for a long time they could not understand why the “siloviki” considered it necessary to detain Artur Bersunkaev. One of the senior officials of the district administration answered this question: “I must tell you everything as it is. Your son was standing in the hospital yard with one of the Zhansaevs.”
The Zhansaevs are the family of the former prefect of the Urus-Martan district, who lived near the district hospital. Many in the city knew these people, communicated with them. But, according to an administration official who wished to remain anonymous, one meeting with him suddenly turned out to be enough to kidnap a man and keep his mother in the dark about his future fate.
Upon the arrest of Artur Bersunkaev, the relatives applied to the administration, the prosecutor's office and the military commandant's office of the Urus-Martan district, as well as to the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for ensuring the rights and freedoms of man and citizen in the Chechen Republic. According to information available to HRC Memorial, by the middle of 2005 his whereabouts had not been established.
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In the villages of Shaami-Yurt and Khambi-Irze of the Achkhoy-Martan district, as well as in st. Assinovskaya (village of Ekha-Borze) of the Sunzhensky district, Russian units carried out “cleansing operations” accompanied by detentions of young people. Data on the number of those taken away are not available. Their further fate is also unknown.
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The Rostov-Baku highway at the Kavkaz-1 checkpoint remained closed for civilian vehicles for four hours. At about 6 pm, armed with automatic weapons, people who arrived in the city of Argun in two white Zhiguli cars of the sixth model, took away Khusein Abdulaevich Dzhabrailov, born in Grozny, born in 1983, an invalid of the third group, from house 17 along Voroshilov Street. The next day, the military arrived there for a search in two armored personnel carriers without tail numbers. Those who detained the young man and those who later inspected the premises were wearing masks.
Later, relatives learned that from 15 to 25 June he was kept at the Russian military base in Khankala. What happened to him next is unknown.
According to Art. 126 part 2 p. "a", "g" of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the fact of his abduction on October 9, 2001, the Argun Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case for No. 45112. Exactly two months later it was suspended under Art. 195 p. 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR (“in case of failure to identify the person to be brought as an accused”). On November 20, 2002, the Prosecutor's Office of the Chechen Republic responded to the appeals of the abductee's relatives and, canceling the previous decision, resumed its proceedings. However, a month later, the criminal case on the fact of Khusein Dzhabrailov's abduction was again suspended.
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In the morning in the city of Argun, a UAZ car driven by a local resident was run over by a Russian armored personnel carrier. On board the combat vehicle, the number 620 was clearly distinguished. It is not known whether the military who drove it were punished. Around noon, in another part of the city, on the road leading to Shali, a white Niva car (the digital part of its registration plate: 433) was blown up. Eyewitnesses of this incident said that fragments of a human body were lying around the epicenter of the explosion.
Zara Magomed-Mirzoevna Amisheva, born in 1954, who lived in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny, applied to HRC Memorial at the address: Novatorov St., 9, apt. 24. She stated that on the morning of 5 October 2000 masked Russian servicemen had broken into her apartment. Cursing rudely, they lifted Muslim Amadievich Amishev, born in 1974, out of bed and handcuffed him into the street. When asked where they were taking him, his mother received the answer: “Quiet, otherwise we will shoot.” Immediately after that, her youngest son, Rustam Amadievich Amishev, born in 1976, who lived separately, was taken away from another apartment in this house. Eyewitnesses said he was covered in blood.
In a neighboring house (Novatorov St., 11, apt. 26), having previously robbed (a Samsung TV was taken away), the military seized Abdallah Adamovich Zanziev, born in 1980. According to Zara Amisheva, when asked to let her sons at least get dressed, the military responded with rude abuse and threats. Then, pushing them into an APC, they took them away in an unknown direction. When she ran out into the street, she saw a convoy of two armored vehicles and KamAZ and UAZ-469 vehicles leaving (according to other sources, the arrests were made by the military, who arrived in two armored personnel carriers and two Ural vehicles). There were no identification marks on them (or she could not see them).
The mother of the detained young people said that after almost nine months nothing was known about the place of their detention, although she and her relatives immediately applied to all the commandant's offices in Grozny: Staropromyslovskaya, Zavodskaya, Leninskaya and Oktyabrskaya. The Russian military serving there stated that they did not carry out operations at night and did not kidnap Muslim and Rustam Amishevs and Abdallah Zanziev.
The woman involved an intermediary who said that her sons were at the military base in Khankala. It soon became clear that this information was false. Zara Amisheva unsuccessfully searched for them at the location of the grouping of Russian troops "West" near the village of Tangi-Chu in the Urus-Martan district of the republic, in the Ossetian city of Mozdok, she turned to the mayor of Grozny Bislan Gantamirov, to the VOVD of the Staropromyslovsky district, the military and civilian prosecutor's offices, Bureau of the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the observance of human and civil rights and freedoms in Chechnya, the authorized representative of the Chechen Republic under the President of the Russian Federation Shamil Beno and businessman Malik Saidulaev, sent a letter addressed to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. She received no response to these requests.
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In the Leninsky district of Grozny, unknown persons fired on a car in which there were employees of the Urus-Martanovsky District Department of Internal Affairs: the head of the personnel and educational work department Said-Magomed Batalov, born in 1953, and the senior detective for combating drug trafficking (OBNON) of the criminal police lieutenant Movsar Utsaev, born in 1967 Movsar Utsaev was wounded in the head and died at the scene, Said-Magomed Batalov was taken to the Grozny City Hospital No. 9 in serious condition. He also died later.
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In Grozny, an armed attack was made on employees of the Urus-Martan District Department of Internal Affairs. Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Service Movsar Makaev (Movsar Utsaev. – Memorial Human Rights Center) was killed. Said-Magomed Batalov, chief of staff of the ROVD, was seriously wounded and taken to the hospital in critical condition. This was announced by the head of the administration of the Urus-Martan district Shirvani Yasaev. According to him, police officers traveled to Grozny to take exams at the local university, where they were part-time students. According to preliminary data, both officers were carrying service weapons.
From the book "People Live Here", Usam Baisaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006
