An attempt to detain a resident of the city of Urus-Martan Timur Yasaev: stories of the victims

July 4, 2001

***
At about three o'clock in the city of Urus-Martan, employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies tried to detain an employee of the Zavodskoy District Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Grozny Timur Nuradievich Yasaev, born in 1975, who was spending the night in his mother's house (Kirov St., 24). At first, the operation developed according to a completely worked out scenario: armed masked men burst into the house, blocked in advance by four or five armored personnel carriers, after knocking out the gate with a Ural car. It was after such invasions that people disappeared in the district center and the surrounding villages. But in this particular case, the operation failed. Timur Yasaev resisted. The exchange of fire with him continued for several hours; Nothing is known about the results of the clashes between HRC Memorial.

However, everything else was as usual. Employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies loaded things of at least some value, in particular dishes and carpets, into the Ural, driven into the yard. They took about 80 thousand rubles, gold chains, rings. The rest of the property was damaged or broken.

They shot Timur Yasaev's mother in the stomach. The commander of the operation, the military commandant of the Urus-Martan district, Geidar Gadzhiev, saw the woman carried into the yard by his daughters and shouted: "Let her die." At the hospital, where she was taken the same day, part of her small intestine was removed. After the second operation in 2003, Zulai Omarovna Yasaeva, born in 1954, never recovered. During the operation, the younger brother of the shooting back policeman, Kharon, born in 1984, was wounded. Armed men burst into the house and shot him in the leg.

When leaving, the "siloviki" mined and later, having returned specially for this purpose, blew up the house. It was razed to the ground. Timur Yasaev himself "disappeared". It is not known whether he escaped from the encirclement (employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies insist on this version), was detained or killed. Nobody saw him alive or dead after that. On the fact of the disappearance of her son, Zulai Yasayeva filed a statement with the prosecutor's office, and appealed to other structures. An investigation team was at the scene. As of mid-January 2006, Timur Nuradievich Yasaev was listed as missing.

Elza Yasayeva, born in 1979, told about what happened that night in their house: “... At about three in the morning I woke up. I didn't sleep well. I heard some noise and wanted to get up, but did not have time. Having broken down our door, military men in uniform, in masks, with weapons in their hands, ran into the house. Frightened, I screamed. My scream raised my mother and my younger brother, Charon, born in 1984, who were in the same room with me. The masked men pointed their weapons at us. Automatic shooting began. The intruders, without saying anything, began to beat Charon, who was sleeping on the floor. They didn't even let him stand up, and they started kicking him with a machine gun butt.

My two older brothers are employees of the Factory police department in Grozny. They work conscientiously and honestly. In their free time, they come home with an overnight stay. That evening brother Timur and his wife Marina Khekhoeva, born in 1983, were at home and slept in the next room.
They, as I later found out, also woke up from my cry. The door to their room was closed. Despite the fact that there might have been children or women there, the bursters opened the door with automatic bursts. They shot everywhere: on the street, in the yard, in the house. It was very scary, and I continued to scream, and they hit me on the head, on the stomach.

My mother screamed and asked me not to be beaten. I was in my seventh month of pregnancy. These attackers saw that I was pregnant, but they did not stop beating me in the stomach. On the contrary, mocking me, they called me all sorts of dirty words. I hesitate to pronounce them. They were ordinary barbarians.

Having broken the door, they began to throw grenades and smoke bombs into the room where Timur and his wife Marina were. As soon as I heard the first explosion, I thought that my brother and daughter-in-law had been killed. And the military from our room continued to throw grenades. It turned out that from the street they also threw grenades into the room. Mom on her knees begged them not to do this, explaining that she had a son and daughter-in-law there. The mother cried: “Guys, why did you kill my son and daughter-in-law?” And one, in a mask, pushed her with his foot, and my mother fell, hitting her head on the floor.

Shooting and explosions continued. My throat is dry. I felt bad and cried. Mom was also crying, begging them to stop shooting. The military continued to beat us. I thought they killed Timur and Marina. I didn’t even hope to see their corpses, because so many grenades were thrown there. But suddenly, hitting her head against the door, Marina ran in from the next room. Immediately, the military began to kick her, with butts on her head, stomach, and legs. They shouted at her: “Who is there? How many? Who do you belong to? We will kill you!"

From a strong blow to the head, Marina lost consciousness and fell next to me. I began to beat her on the cheeks, trying to bring her to her senses. When she woke up, she said that Timur was alive and he himself pushed her out to us. He wanted her to stay alive. Her brother said to her: “Apparently, they came to kill us. I don't want you to die." They were married for only three months.

According to Marina, grenades were thrown into their room both from the street and from ours. My brother managed to throw out two of them in a row before the explosion. Allah helped him in this. My brothers are kind, good, conscientious and have never done anything bad to anyone in their lives.

The military shot my mother in the stomach and my younger brother in the leg. Mom fell. The soldiers began to chase us out of the house with rifle butts. Marina and I picked up my mother and dragged her to the old house located in our yard. She was bleeding, brother too. We were made to lie on the floor. I cried, I asked my mother to be taken to the hospital. They had cars on the street: Urals, UAZs and BMPs. Thought she was about to die. It would be better if we were killed right away, I thought, than to endure all this. It was terrible to see the mother who gave birth to me die before my eyes. There were explosions in my ears. I did not think about my pregnancy, about the child that was under my breast.

Charon consoled his mother: “Zulai, you must live, we need you. We can't live without you." But she said that she was ill and that she was dying. She asked us to live in harmony and look after each other.

We lay on the floor in the old house for about an hour. Then we were ordered to get out of there. Marina and I dragged mother again. Charon, wounded in the leg, barely followed us. We were not allowed to take anything, not even documents and money.

Through the neighboring yard we went out into the street. The Russian military were everywhere: they were also in the neighboring house where my uncle lived. We were ordered to lie on the ground in the street opposite our house, apparently with the intention of blowing it up. Several more cars drove up. I really asked to take my mother to the hospital, but the military sent me to hell. I can't say the rest, I'm ashamed.

One of the soldiers shot at our house from a grenade launcher. There was a terrible explosion. I thought there was nothing left of my brother now. Something caught fire. Because of the car standing in front of me, I could not really see anything and thought that our house was on fire. But it was gas. They fired two or three more shots with a grenade launcher. Before each shot, they shouted: “Disperse, lie down on the ground, we shoot ...”
Suddenly I saw a man in a uniform and a cap, a little overweight, very much like a Chechen. I asked him in Chechen: “At least take my mother to the hospital, she is bleeding. After all, you are a Muslim. Don't you have relatives, a father, a mother?" I cried and begged him. Marina asked the same. And he said: “What are you muttering there? Shut up. Now I’ll give it to you too.” And he threw stones at me with his feet.

Mom asked to put her on her side, as the wound was very painful. She told me to shut up as no one was paying attention to me. But the mother recognized that military man in the cap. It was the commandant of the Urus-Martan district, Heydar Hajiyev.

The servicemen hit the neighboring gate with an armored personnel carrier and took the whole family out of that house: an old elderly man and young children. All of them were laid on the ground next to us. They also got it: the military kicked them. Next to us on the ground was the son of Supyan Makhchaev, the former mayor of Grozny. He recently arrived from Moscow and that night was visiting my cousin Aslambek. They are great friends. Marina told the commandant: “I recognized you, I know that you are a friend of Makhchaev Supyan, and the one in the red T-shirt is his son.” In response, we heard from Heydar Hajiyev: “Go ahead with your Makhchaev. Who is your Makhchaev?

The military picked up my brother Kharon and took him away from us behind an armored personnel carrier. He was beaten with a rifle butt, kicked, and demanded that he say something. And the brother was wounded and bleeding. In the meantime, the military was taking our belongings out of the house and loading them onto armored personnel carriers and Urals. Then we found out that they took away some of our documents, earrings, Marina's diamond ring, my jewelry. They stole my brother's wallet, which contained $1,100 and another 10,000 rubles. It was his battle money. He saved them for the house.

Every time Heydar Hajiyev passed us, Marina and I asked him to take my mother to the hospital. But our requests had no effect on him. The curfew has passed. It became light outside. They rolled a Ural up to us and put my mother and me in the back. We were taken to the hospital. The car was going fast, and we were shaking in the back. Mom was in pain, but the car did not slow down. Finally, we arrived. The military left us in the hospital and left without saying anything.

The doctor determined that my mother needed to be operated on, as the bullet hit the intestines. She was taken to the operating room. I was worried about those left at home. An hour later, Charon was brought in by ambulance. Doctors washed his wound and bandaged it. Fortunately, the bone was not affected. Mom was operated on for two hours. The doctor said that part of her small intestine had been removed and that the operation was successful. And I didn’t know what happened to my older brother, and I cried ... "

Abu Yasaev, Timur Yasaev's uncle (who lives next door) says:
“I heard that vehicles drove down the street and stopped next to our house. Shooting started. Through the window I saw that flames burst out of my brother's house. I wanted to go out, but there was already a large group of military men in the house. “Oh, and they are here. Leave your daughter and come out." I, pressing my daughter, said that I wouldn’t go out without her, it’s better to shoot us both. He did not want to leave her, because he was afraid that they would do something to her. The military were without masks and were Russian. They were commanded by Heydar Hajiyev, a military commander.

I was taken outside and kept near the house. This Gadzhiev, coming up to me, took out a pistol from his pocket and, showing it to me, asked: “What is this?” Me: Pistol. “Oh, you understand,” he says. I said that I served in the army.

They showed me my nephew's ID and asked if I knew him?.. I said that he was my neighbor, afraid to recognize my nephew. The commandant, enraged, began to yell that it was necessary to destroy our entire family. There was a verbal altercation between us. I said, this is how you know how to fight old people, women and children. He shouted: "To the wall of this scoundrel." A weapon was pointed at me. But one of the military interceded, stood between me and the pointed weapon.

I saw the wounded Charon and wanted to approach him, but one of the soldiers, aiming his weapon, said: "Now I will demolish the skull."

To Hajiyev's words that he knew about Timur's work in the police, I noticed that he could have detained him at any checkpoint and not started a war here. The commandant began to shout: "You will teach me." On the radio, he called for help, shouted: “Where is the equipment? Turntables come on "...

After 15 min. after they left, some other military arrived, they were in the Urals. They asked where Timur was. I said, "You either took him or you took his body."

At the entrance to the Urus-Martan District Department of Internal Affairs, his photograph is still hanging on the stand “Attention! Search".

According to unconfirmed reports, while defending himself that night, Timur Yasaev killed the captain of the SOBR and wounded two soldiers. He himself escaped from the encirclement and disappeared. However, his relatives believe that the rumors about this were spread by Heydar Hajiyev, who was trying to absolve himself of responsibility for the attack on the house of a police officer and injuring innocent people.

 

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

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