December 18, 2001

***
On the night of December 18, in the village of Serzhen-Yurt, unknown masked people burst into the house of Akhmed Abdulsalamovich Ezhiev. Those who broke into the house killed the owner of the house, Akhmed Ezhiev, and wounded his brother, Makhmud Abdulsalamovich Ezhiev. The reasons for this crime are unclear. Akhmed and Makhmud Ezhiev are the brothers of the head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Imran Ezhiev, who was engaged in human rights activities in the territory of the Republic of Ingushetia. In October 2001, Ingushetia police officers took him from a refugee camp in the village of Yandare, kept him for about two weeks in one of the local police departments, and then, under a far-fetched pretext, transported him to Chechnya. On December 13, at a checkpoint at the entrance to the city of Argun, a volunteer of this organization, Luiza Betergirieva, was shot at and killed.

Message from the Information Center of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (press release No. 153 of December 20, 2001): “On December 18, 2001, at the beginning of four o’clock in the morning, an armored personnel carrier and a UAZ car drove up to the Ezhievs’ house in the village of Serzhen-Yurt, Shalinsky district. The women who were in the house saw unexpected guests from the window. Like most of the residents of Serzhen-Yurt, the Ezhievs went to bed that night dressed and even in their sleep they were sensitive to every sound - after all, the village in recent months had very often been subjected to unprovoked shelling by artillery of the federal forces, and at any moment the villagers had to be prepared for going down to the basement. Hearing the noise of the engines, everyone in the house stood up. The military men who got out of the armored personnel carrier and car broke down the door and burst into the house. That night in the house were Akhmed Abdulsalamovich Ezhiev, 64 years old, his brother Makhmud Abdulsalamovich Ezhiev, 75 years old, his son Dzhabrail Akhmedovich Ezhiev, 23 years old, his wife Aset Ezhieva and Makhmud’s wife Roza Ezhieva.

The criminals had masks on their faces. There were several of them. One of those who entered the house addressed those present with the question: “Who is Ezhiev Akhmed here?” Akhmed replied: “I am,” and immediately the military man who asked the question fired a burst of machine gun fire at him. Aset and Rosa grabbed Dzhabrail to hold him - he tried to rush at the criminals, and they dragged him to another room. At that moment, Mahmoud ran up to his bleeding younger brother. The soldiers, having done their “job,” left the house, and Mahmud, cursing, rushed after them into the yard. One of the criminals pierced his legs with a machine gun burst. After that, the raiders got into the armored personnel carrier and UAZ and left.

Makhmud Ezhiev was hospitalized in the Shali district hospital in the morning, where he is currently staying.

The murdered Akhmed Ezhiev was a veteran of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, a disabled person of the second group. He became disabled as a result of an injury received during the detention of a particularly dangerous criminal.

It is necessary to pay special attention to the fact that a few days before, while participating in the funeral of Luiza Betergirieva, a correspondent for the information center of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, who was killed by the Russian military on December 13, 2001 at the entrance to the city of Argun, Akhmed Ezhiev addressed those gathered with a funeral speech , in which he called on fellow citizens to do everything to bring those responsible for her death to justice. In particular, he stated that it is time for people to stop being afraid, because then everyone will be destroyed one by one, that it is necessary to send complaints on each case of human rights violations and seek their consideration, no matter how much effort this requires. As a former law enforcement officer, he especially emphasized the importance of legal methods of combating military tyranny and told those present that at the Civil Forum an agreement was reached on cooperation between human rights organizations and prosecutors in solving crimes committed in Chechnya by federal military personnel. He called on fellow citizens to send complaints about the criminal actions of the military not only to the prosecutor's office, but also to human rights organizations.

Akhmed Ezhiev actively collaborated with the Information Center of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, transmitting information about the situation in his native village through Luiza Betergirieva. He can rightfully be called a volunteer of our organization, although he himself never applied this term to himself, believing that he was simply doing his duty.”

***
Units of the Russian troops, who had previously carried out a “cleansing operation” in the city of Argun for several days, climbed into the mountains of the Vedeno region. Passing through the village of Pervomaiskoye, the military robbed the houses of local residents. Several men were detained and beaten by the military. Leaving the village, the Russian military desecrated a holy place - a mausoleum (in Chechen - ziyarat), built on the grave of Hedi, the mother of Saint Kunta-Hadji. This Muslim preacher in the mid-19th century. contributed to the spread of the Sufi teachings of Al-Qadariyya in Chechnya, mentioned in Russian sources of that time as Zikrism.

***
Several people were killed in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. Among them is Kilab Bisultanov, about 50 years old, who lived on Khersonskaya Street. In the evening, Bisultanov and his comrades decided to go to their neighbors to congratulate them on the holiday of the end of the Muslim fast (Uraza Bayram). About two hours later, the relatives, concerned about the long absence of Kilab and his friends, went in search. Not far from the Bisultanovs' house, the corpses of the missing were found in the frame of a broken bus. All of them were shot. There was a Russian checkpoint not far from the crime scene. Apart from Kilab Bisultanov, the names of the killed people are unknown to the employees of the Memorial Human Rights Center. It was not possible to establish their exact number.

***
In the center of the village of Katyr-Yurt, at the entrance to the local administration building, Russian soldiers, who arrived in two UAZ vehicles, seized a local resident, Bokov (his name and exact address are unknown). A pistol was seized from him. According to eyewitnesses, Bokov said that he found a weapon and was on his way to hand it over to the head of the local administration. After his arrest, the military took him away from the regional center of Achkhoy-Martan. Probably to the commandant's office. Memorial Human Rights Center does not know what happened to this person in the future, whether he was released or not.

From the book “People Live Here”, Usam Baysaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006.