May 13, 2001
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In the Chechen regional center of Vedeno, during the “cleansing” operation, the Russian military took away four local residents in an unknown direction. Their further fate is unknown.
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At night in the village of Makhkety, Vedeno district, a family was shot: Yaragi Khoguev, his wife Markha, and their 16-year-old son Akhyad.
The next day, two central Russian TV channels, citing the military, reported that this murder was the work of “Chechen fighters”, who thus dealt with people who allegedly collaborated with the federal government (see media report below).
Fellow villagers of those killed denied this allegation. They said that during the first Russian-Chechen war, Shamil Basaev, who then commanded the central front of the armed formations of the CRI, often stopped in the house of Yaraga Khoguev, and his wife Markha, in turn, actively participated in anti-war rallies. There was no question of any cooperation of these people with the Russian military.
After the first war, the middle son of the murdered spouses, Yahya, worked in the protection of Shamil Basayev, and the eldest died in battles with the Russian army at the beginning of the second war.
The house they lived in was located next to the building of the kindergarten, which temporarily housed the police department with seconded employees from the Samara region. It was almost impossible for an outsider to sneak into this area of the village unnoticed.
At night, local residents heard shots and women's cries for help. However, no one dared to go out into the street and find out what was happening, because during the “curfew” the military and police opened fire to kill without warning.
At dawn, when people began to gather near the house where the tragedy occurred, it turned out that it was cordoned off by members of the Russian law enforcement agencies. The bloodied corpse of the owner of the house lay in the yard. Apparently, he opened the gate and was shot point-blank. His wife and underage son were found dead in back rooms.
Of the entire family of Yaraga Khoguev, his elderly mother and wife of the eldest son with a small child, who were in the summer house at the time of the murder, remained alive. Their cries for help were heard by the villagers at night. And yet - the voice of a man who spoke Russian and urged not to touch the woman and the child.
This, however, the Russian television people kept silent.
The villagers, based on the stories of mother and daughter-in-law Yaraga Khoguev, unequivocally stated that the killers were Russians. Most likely, these were employees of a special unit of the FSB or the GRU, whose task is to identify and destroy the fighters of the armed formations of the CRI and their relatives.
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At 11 o'clock a rally began on the Theater Square in Grozny. Its participants held posters: "The people of Chechnya demand peace", "We demand the release of innocent prisoners", "Down with Russian murderers and robbers from Chechnya."
In the first hour of the day, the protesters, chanting slogans, went to the place where the square was before. Lenin, and, having read out an appeal to the world community with a demand to seek an end to hostilities in the republic, dispersed. More than two hundred people took part in the rally.
From the book "People Live Here", Usam Baisaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006
