Abductions, indiscriminate shooting, torture and other criminal acts of the Russian military

May 20, 2001

***

Employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies (who exactly, HRC "Memorial" is unknown) took Khas-Magomed Tsugaev from his house in the village of Alkhan-Yurt, Urus-Martan District. The man subsequently disappeared without a trace. On the fact of his abduction (Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) on July 12, 2001, the prosecutor's office of the Urus-Martan District opened criminal case No. 25091. In accordance with Art. 195 p. 3 Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR, it was later suspended.

***

About 18 o'clock at the field of the state farm. Michurin, Urus-Martan district, two cars arrived from the direction of the village of Goity stopped: a KamAZ covered with an awning and a Ural. In the back of the latter were the Russian military. They opened indiscriminate fire at trees growing along the riverbed. Goytinka. On the other side, local women were weeding vegetables in the field. Bullets flew in their direction. The women fled, some of them taking shelter in a ditch.
Military vehicles, from which, without stopping for a minute, shooting was carried out, then drove onto the road leading towards the city of Urus-Martan. None of the women working in the field, fortunately, was not injured.

In the evening, Colonel V. Goryunov, deputy military commander of the district, spoke on television in Urus-Martan. He read the order on the “curfew” regime, in the third paragraph of which it was said: “Drawing the attention of citizens to the need for strict observance of the curfew regime, I remind you that the military personnel of the Ministry of Defense, internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have the right to use weapons against curfew violators ". The order was signed by the military commandant of the Urus-Martan district G. Gadzhiev and the chief of staff of the commandant's office, lieutenant colonel R. Akimov.

***

At about 8 p.m. in Grozny, on Kosior Street, an elderly Russian woman was killed by unknown people. The criminals shot at her with automatic weapons from the comfort of their car.

***
From the outskirts of the village of Tsentoroy, Kurchaloy District, the Russian military took away in an unknown direction two local residents who were engaged in bricklaying. After a while they brought them back and threw them on the road. Only a few hours passed from the moment of detention to release, but during this time the detainees were beaten and tortured, including with electric shock.

(Names and surnames of the victims are not released for their safety.)

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