Женщины и дети: право на жизнь

I started to work directly in Chechnya in 2000, and we worked on highlighting all events of this war. Then I completed a trip to Novogrozny, where my relatives live, and I was told this story. I do not remember the first and last name, as it was about six years ago.

In November 1999, the Federal forces were advancing and taking one populated area after another, and Novogrozny was occupied as well. Suddenly one night it seemed - it was 29 November – as if a hurricane had hit the village. They had been told that Wahabists had come into the village. And that meant that now the shooting would begin, that now the nightmare would begin, but Novogrozny had already lived through such a nightmare in 1995. It was exactly before the Id al-Fitr holiday (celebration of end of the Ramadan month) when the village was exposed to a terrifying fire, there were dead and wounded people. And what do people do in these circumstances? They just jumped out of bed in their night clothes, in their dressing gowns, grabbed their children and ran barefoot to Noiber, which is close by. But there was another stream of people coming. So it was complete panic.

But people understood that they needed to hide somewhere. There was a secondary school which had a good basement. And everybody ran there to hide in that basement. And there the Wahabists were who occupied the entire basement. And then one young woman began to cry at them: “What are you doing? Get out of here! You came to fight, then go and fight! Give us a chance to save our children!” After that, the fighters left this place. Then negotiations began, and they somehow managed to agree with the Chechen fighters that they wouldn’t shoot, but with the Russians it was more difficult to agree. As a result, the person representing the Russians said: “Well, I won’t shoot, but I cannot say that about my neighbours”. The neighbours nevertheless started to shoot, and several people were killed in the village. Afterwards, when everything quietened down, people began to return. Several refugee families returned by car from Bachi-Yurt. When they had almost arrived to Novogrozny (there the check point was high up), helicopters appeared and began to fire. And then one incident happened.

One of the officers told people: “Get out! Get out!” And the soldiers tried to save these people. One of the soldiers grabbed a young girl, threw her into a trench and died, covering her body with his own. She was wounded, but she survived. The soldiers also grabbed some young boys and tried to hide them too, but the boys didn’t listen and were killed.

The residents of Novogrozny wanted to find out the name of that soldier, so they could name a school after him. But the commander did not give his first or last name. Then about four years passed. And then ‘Novaya Gazeta’ conducted an investigation – who deserved to receive the high title of Hero, decorations, etc, and who did not. And this is what they discovered. a high military decoration was given to one soldier, right now I do not remember exactly which one, and it is written there, that this soldier died in Novogrozny, saving a comrade from the bullets of a fighter. By correlating the date and the circumstances, I understand that it is possible that it was the same soldier, who saved the life of the Chechen girl. Who was bombed and shot at from a helicopter of his own forces. And those who were in the helicopters saw that there were peaceful residents, and Russian soldiers together, but they spit on them all.

I remember another case. A family drove back home during the very first days of the New Year. They were returning from Khasavyurt (Dagestan). There was a young girl with them, seven years old – the first-grader. And again, in the same place, they were stopped by soldiers and the family disappeared. Their relatives began searching and searching for them, and they came to that checkpoint. The soldiers said that they did not know anything about them. But by chance, someone from the search party noticed that something was protruding from the ground not far from the road. And then the soldiers showed them where they needed to dig. At first they dug up the bodies of the adults, and hoped that the little girl was not with them. When they looked through the clothes on one of the corpses, they found the little girl’s hat in one of the pockets. The adults went back there again, and began asking the soldiers to show them where they had buried the little girl. Then they found her too. She, too, had been murdered along with the adults. That little girl was only seven years old.

One family showed me a photograph of their child. With a helmet and a gun. Under Ichkeria it was fashionable to take photos of children with arms. When they showed this to me, this little one was already dead. In 1999, when the shooting started, this family drove to the next village. On the road they were shot at. The bullet went through the little boy and his mother. The little boy was not even a year old, he had not been even walking yet. He had never taken a gun into his hands. And he died from these weapons. I do not know how his father felt, or what happened to him in the future.

Then in 1999, I spoke with a man whose wife and daughter were wounded. At that time mass media always stated that the Russian soldiers only shot in areas where the fighters were. And at the end of the interview, I asked that man – “Have you been fighting?” He answered me: “No, not yet”.

Zura Betiyeva (the well-known human rights activist, murdered by soldiers several years ago in her own house with her husband and son) told me one story. At the very beginning of this war she was detained by the military and for some time was held in the infamous Chernokozovo camp. When we met, she told me that when they took her to Chernokozovo and put her in a cell, the first thing she saw was several women, among them one pregnant, who had been earlier held in some sort of a cage in Khankala. After that they brought her to Chernokozovo.

Once they threw a very young girl wearing a camouflage uniform into the cell. She had been raped, and after that she was simply irresponsible, she was somehow in a dream. Days passed, the girl did not wake up, and then unexpectedly she had an epileptic fit. Zura raised a ruckus and shouted until they brought a doctor. The woman doctor who looked at her said that she had been savagely raped more than once. And then she discovered that the girl was mentally ill. I will not say which village she was from, because we met with her later, I saw her several times, I spoke to her mother. And what had stricken me. The mother categorically denied the fact of rape over her daughter. According to her, her daughter was really mentally ill, and one day she had some kind of an episode and ran away from home. They began to search for her. They found her footprints on the road and it was not clear whether she had been taken by someone, or if something else had happened to her. Then they found out that some soldiers had taken her. The girl frequently lost consciousness and did not remember a lot. But distinctly remembered how she was taken on a helicopter. It was not clear how she got to Chernokozovo. Then she was taken to Mozdok, and I suppose she was treated there for a month. After that, a woman took her to her house, and she stayed with her until her relatives could come and take her back. When we spoke to her, she could only say ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

I also heard of another case of rape. As soldiers were looting a house on the outskirts of a village, a man (who owned the home) thought they came to detain him, and hid himself. The soldiers raped his wife – there were children in the same room where they did this. I know that the elders of the village settled this case. Those soldiers brought some sort of compensation, I don’t know if it was money or not. That man was silent. But I think that those children, if they did not understand what had happened to their mother at that time, they have grown up, and probably do understand it now. Would they really forget what happened then?

We do not have any statistics on rape. Once in a conversation with one man (not Chechen) I said: “It is such a shame that only Elza Kungayeva’s case has made it to court. She certainly wasn’t the only one.” And he said to me: “Let it remain that way, let her be the only one. Because in your mentality that is taboo – so let it stay just that – taboo. So it will be taboo not only for you, but for all those who thought of doing such a thing.”

But now I see that much has changed. And we see young girls here often behaving as if it were the last day of their lives. Not long ago we were speaking to the workers of a criminal investigation department, I will not say of which region. They were looking for a girl, about 15 or 16 years old, who had disappeared. They found her in dive in Nazran. She sat with a cup of beer and a cigarette. They grabbed this girl and brought home. After some time, she ran away. What is happening? She probably was put on drugs, and that would explain it all. Our society today is psychologically ill. For what reason, and why now? I think there are many reasons, including the fact that right now there is a big difference in the number of young men and the number of young women. There are far fewer young men. Many have been killed. Some have gone into the forests, and many have been convicted. And those who have been convicted were put away for long sentences, although it is quite common that their crimes have not been proven. By some statistics, there are about 17 thousand of such cases. I mean, these people have been forcibly ripped from their lives. And that means there are 17 thousand young girls and women who have not found their partners. And it leads to that the situation that the level of morals started falling down. It is useless to forcibly cover your head – that will not help. I think we need to blame the war, and this multi -year stress that people are living through until now. Well, when a human life costs a kopeck, then the price of honor turns out – nothing.

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