Press-Release №36
Questions with no answers
Mass graves still revealed in Chechnya
Over the last several weeks, in the territory of the Chechen Republic several mass graves were revealed. So, on the 20th of June of the current year it became known that in Leninski district of the city of Grozny a mass grave of city dwellers, in which, presumably, were up to 800 human remains, was found. These people were killed even in the winter of 1995, and not during air bombardments or shelling of Grozny by Russian troops, but also during so-called "cleaning up operations" and illegal arrests of local residents by "federals". One of the eyewitnesses told representatives of human rights organizations that here, the area of a former Christian cemetery, remains of people were taken by militaries. Thus, corpses of soldiers were taken away, and bodies of local residents were buried in the communal grave.
Two weeks later, after occurrence of the information about the mass grave in Grozny, another grave, but now with victims of “anti-terrorist” operation was found in Groznenski district of the republic, on the territory of a former asphalt factory in Goryachevodsk. There is information that approximately 300 people buried in this grave by militaries, majority of which are women, children and old men. These people became victims of purposeful murder by federal servicemen, when they tried to leave the zone of fightings through the so-called "corridors of safety", provided by Russian military leadership.
On 30 October 1999, a column of refugees proceeding to Nadterechny district of the Chechen Republic (which by that time had been occupied by Russian armies) underwent a sudden artillery bombardment near Petropavlovski highway. Shooting from artillery and tank weapons, according to eyewitnesses, was conducted from positions of militaries, which had dug trenches at heights near the village of Vinogradnoye. Bombardment was conducted, in spite of the fact that white flags were hanging on vehicles. The wounded people were killed by snipers.
Then servicemen took bodies to the territory of an asphalt factory and dug them in a huge hole prepared for these purposes. Part of the killed people were buried in their broken and burnt cars.
At the end of May – beginning of the current year, in Gudermes district, in the area of the settlement “Druzhba”, in immediate proximity of the special battalion of GRU "East", graves with remains of people were found. In one of the graves eight bodies were revealed, in the other one there were three of them, in the third one remains of a former military of "East" was found. The information on graves of victims of extrajudicial executions was received from former militaries of the battalion "East", who left the service after events taken place in the middle of April in Gudermes, when "vostokovtsy" had hardly arranged cross firing with guards of the president of the republic.
In the burial places found in Gudermes district, there are remains of people, victims of members of special crews. Inhabitants of Gudermes district say that, when the information about mass graves became property of publicity and the respective structures started working on exhumation of remains, something strange started happening. In the evening different places were blocked by militaries in masks, which under a pretext of conduction of "special operations" began forbid people to move around.
In spite of the fact that militaries did not introduce themselves, local residents are convinced that this is connected with the battalion of "East" and reveal of secret graves of victims of extrajudicial executions. In their opinion, under a pretext of conduction of "special activities", militaries are making re-burial of remains of victims or destruction of graves in order to hide their crimes.
It is clear that all these cases of murder and extrajudicial executions of people are carried out under someone's direct instruction. In any normal state a general or a commander of a division, who had given orders to conduct air and artillery strikes at inhabited settlements of a city, to shoot columns of refugees or to kill illegally detained people, would be taken to a court, and condemned for long term of imprisonment.
However, the practice shows that the Russian justice is favorable and humanely treats military criminals. Still, actions of military command during the first company in the Chechen Republic (storm of Grozny in winter 1995, massacre of people in the village of Samashki, etc.), or severe actions during "the second war" in the republic (rocket strikes on Grozny in autumn of 1999, executions of a column of refugees in October of the same year, massacre of inhabitants in settlements of Novy Aldy, Alkhan-Yurt, Kotar-Yurt in winter 2000 and so on) have not received the legal evaluation. And consequently, the question, whether there will be investigation of cases of mass graves in Chechnya by respective bodies, with subsequent opening of criminal cases towards high-ranking militaries, who had made these criminal orders, remains opened.
4 Jule 2008
Information Center for CNO
The press-release is prepared and issued with support of Human Rights and Governance Grants Program at the OSI-Budapest. The Institute is not responsible for the activity of the Information Center for CNO and material published on the organization’s website.