November 22, 2001

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In the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny, Russian military personnel carried out a “cleansing operation.” At the same time, they did not comply with the order of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation No. 46 of July 27, 2001: employees of the administration, prosecutor’s office, and local police department were not present during the operations. The military filed claims against people who, due to the destruction of their homes, were forced to live with relatives, acquaintances or neighbors. In such cases, they stated that citizens must have PVS coupons in their hands and detained them. This is how Ruslan Taipov, an employee of the Grozny city administration, who was permanently registered in the village of Achkhoy-Martan, was detained. He was taken to the Staropromyslovsky District VOVD and placed in a cell with other detainees, beaten, but released a few hours later.

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At a cemetery located north of the city of Urus-Martan, officers of the VOVD of the Urus-Martan district detained Khavazhi and Salama Akhmaev, Sheikha, Idris and Khasan Khakimov, Ruslan Yakaev and Isa Bistaev. The motives that guided the Russian police officers are unknown to the Memorial Human Rights Center. In the first days, the relatives of the detainees also remained in the dark. Nura Akhmaeva (Sovetskaya St., 22), Khalida Bistaeva (Sovetskaya St., 37), Maysa Yakaeva (Sovetskaya St., 29) from Urus-Martan and Rumisa Khakimova from the village of Roshni-Chu (Zarechnaya St., 15) appealed to the head of the VOVD and the district prosecutor. They also submitted applications to the Bureau of Vladimir Kalamanov asking for help in freeing their captured relatives.

The Akhmaev and Khakimov brothers, Ruslan Yakaev and Isa Bistaev were released ten days after their abduction. Subsequently, they all refused to talk about the details of the crime committed against them.

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At night in the village of Achkhoy-Martan, the military broke into a house (Sadovaya St., 29) and captured Ramzan Akhmedovich Umarov, born in 1957. He subsequently disappeared without a trace.

As the brother of the abducted man, Aslan Umarov, told the employees of the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, the soldiers were wearing masks. In his opinion, they knew quite well who was who in their family. Having stumbled upon their younger brother, for example, they told him: “You are Ruslan, you sit down! Understood?" When they took Ramzan Umarov away, they did not allow any of his relatives to follow him, threatening to use weapons.

According to family members, the abducted man did not participate in hostilities. They do not know the motives for his possible detention.

At dawn on July 29, 2001, employees of Russian security forces, whose departmental affiliation could not be established, took away the eldest of the Umarov brothers, Khamzat, born in 1956. It all happened in the basins of an employee of an organization that was visiting him and was distributing humanitarian aid in Achkhoy-Martan. Subsequently, Khamzat also disappeared without a trace.

The prosecutor's office is “conducting an investigation” into the abduction of the Umarov brothers in the framework of one criminal case (No. 63008). It was suspended several times, but then its production resumed again. However, this still did not lead to any results. At the end of March 2008, both brothers were considered missing.

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