Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 CONTENTS The publication of this Digest was made possible through the assistance from Pax Christi #3(17)2007 Vlaanderen and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Svetlana GANNUSHKINA the Kingdom of Belgium. THE ULMAN CASE AND THE BUDANOV CASE 2 DOSH Magazine editorial board recognizes the #3(17)2007 importance of publishing the English digest. We do Zoya SVETOVA not have an opportunity to publish an English ver sion of each issue of the magazine and we try to HE WISHED TO RESCUE WOMEN AND CHILDREN 4 include in the semiannual digest the articles from previous issues that, in our opinion, reflect the #4(18)2007 burning issues of human rights violations of the Zoya SVETOVA Chechens and other residents of the Caucasus and ELLA KESAEVA: SOMEONE SHOULD SPEAK THE TRUTH. in Russia. LET IT BE US… 8 The materials presented in this issue illustrate the selective approach of Russian justice to its citizens #4(18)2007 on the basis of their ethnicity. If the murderers of peaceful Chechens (Budanov, Ulman and similar) Elena SANNIKOVA are treated by the state in a more delicate way than I'M FINE 10 it treats ordinary criminals, the Chechens against whom the Russian law enforcement bodies openly #4(18)2007 fabricate criminal cases and the courts obediently Malika BETIEVA, Maret ELDIEVA pronounce a guilty verdict, are deprived of an ele THE UNCLAIMED 12 mentary opportunity to protect themselves. Moreover, when staying in Russian prisons and #4(18)2007 colonies, they suffer from humiliation, violation of Lidiya YUSUPOVA their human and civil rights, and sometimes from medieval tortures. THE BLOOD OF VICTORY 14 Blatant injustice that the authorities express towards the Russian citizens from the Caucasus #1(19) 2008 region in the past years has become almost a norm. Usam BAISAEV In this issue of DOSH digest you can read about the THE CIRCLES OF HELL 17 most vivid examples of judicial reprisals against innocent people Zara Murtazalieva and Zaurbek #1(19) 2008 Talkhigov. You can also can read about situations Lidiya YUSUPOVA when the Chechens are forced to live in the streets named in honor of the murderers of their relatives RETURNING 20 and friends, how Kazakhstan authorities "have bor rowed" from their Russian colleagues the methods #1(19) 2008 of militant xenophobia, about the menacing scale of Malika BETIEVA oncologic diseases as one of the consequences of DEMOGRAPHY THE CHECHEN WAY 25 the past wars, about the problems of demography and unemployment in the Chechen Republic, and #1(19) 2008 about many other issues. Lydia MIKHALCHENKO We express our deep gratitude to our partner orga ROSTOV DOCTORS AND THEIR CHECHEN PATIENTS 27 nization Pax Christi Vlaanderen and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Belgium through DOSH DOCUMENTARY FILM whose assistance we could publish this third issue Abdulla DUDUEV of DOSH Magazine digest in English. CONTROLLED POGROMS 29 Israpil SHOVKHALOV DOSH MAGAZINE SEMINARS IN THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS 33 EditorinChief THE ULMAN CASE Dosh #3(17)2007 The Office of Public Prosecutor and the Svetlana GANNUSHKINA Administration of the President have often been claiming that hundreds of criminal cases had been opened regarding crimes committed against Chechen civilians. However, the number of investigations resulting in punishment of the defendants is insignif- icant. The Edward Ulman case is one of a few cases of murder of Chechen civilians by the military to have reached court hearing. Also, it is the second case when officers of the Russian army faced trial. Over the entire period of the so-called Second Chechen war, that is the large scale military actions accompanied by mass murder of civilian population, precisely, for the period from December 1999 through April 2003, the court pronounced guilty of crimes against civilians 7 officers, 3 warrant officers, 22 contract soldiers and sergeants, and 19 conscript per- sonnel. However, only 19 military men, no officers Ulman gave the execution order and Kalaganskiy and among them, were sentenced and serve their time. Voevodin carried it out. According to Memorial Civil Rights Center, the num- ber of victims over this period is not less than 20 Later the investigation failed to establish whether thousand civilians. that criminal order had been given by Colonel Plotnikov. Plotnikov denies it claiming that special Only two episodes of this terrible massacre have sur- troops worked independently in the operation. faced: the case of Colonel Budanov who after a long However, it matters only for the evaluation of actions litigation was sentenced to 10 years and the case of by Plotnikov but not Ulman and his company. Could Captain Ulman and others that is not closed yet. they consider as "prisoners" the pregnant woman and On January 11th, 2002, near the village of Dai, several civilians, which was verified immediately Shatoy district of the Chechen Republic, Captain after the first shooting and after checking their doc- Eduard Ulman of GRU special troops, Lieutenant uments? Could they misunderstand that by carrying Kalaganskiy and warrant officer Voevodin opened out an obviously criminal order (if there was such an fire at the car whose driver, according to them, order) they were committing a crime? did not obey the order to stop. One of the pas- They understood it all. And they killed to conceal sengers, a 68 years old director of a rural school their first crime, the shooting of a peaceful car. For Said-Magomed Alaskhanov of Nokhchi-Keloy vil- this reason after the execution of the witnesses the lage, was killed at the spot and two other passen- three officers made an attempt to blow up the six gers were wounded. bodies together with the car. They did this job badly. Having realized that these were civilians and they When later after military commandant of Shatoy dis- could be punished, the three officers started consul- trict Major Vitaly Nevmerzhitsky examined the tations with their superiors whether they should place, there was no doubt that the car had exploded destroy the witnesses of their crime. These consulta- not because of a land mine but as a result of a bru- tions lasted for several hours. tal murder. Beyond human imagination are the feelings experi- In November 2003, these were the charges against enced by the people awaiting their destiny during Ulman, Kalaganskiy and Voevodin when they were put on trial before a jury. Perelevsky was charged with these terrible hours: the mother of seven children and instigation and complicity in committing of a crime. pregnant with her eighth child Zaitkhan The case was examined by the North-Caucasian dis- Dzhavatkhanova, her nephew Dzhamlail Musaev, trict military court in Rostov-on-Don. The hearings school teacher Abdul-Vakhab Satabaev, forester were accompanied by a constant support of the defen- Shakhban Bakhaev, and the driver from the village of dants by sympathizing citizens. The court was inves- Dai Khamzat Taburov. tigating one issue: did the officers carry out an order Eduard Ulman reported the event to communications or did they act at their own discretion. officer Major Perelevskiy who, ostensibly having con- On April 29th, 2004, the jury pronounced Ulman and tacted the head of operation Colonel Plotnikov, passed his men not guilty. them the order: "Do not take prisoners. You've got six 200s" (cargo-200 - dead bodies). The word "order" On May 11th, 2004, the verdict of not guilty was became the keyword in this case. confirmed by the court. 2 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 AND THE BUDANOV CASE reads: "The person, who very day refused to shoot at the village committed an intentional of Tangi-Chu. For this refusal he was crime while executing chained in handcuffs, beaten, thrown in an obviously illegal a trench, and covered with bleaching order or ruling, bears powder. criminal liability in So, why was it Shamanov and not accordance with general Gerasimov or Bagreev who commented practice. Failure to exe- on the Budanov case in all these TV cute an obviously illegal broadcasts? order or ruling excludes criminal liability." But the events evolved differently. The The issue here is psy- torture of Russian officer Roman chological. The jury, the Bagreev was qualified by the court as judges and a greater admissible punishment of the officer part of the Russian soci- who did not execute the order. ety very much would not Perhaps this is the origin of the Ulman like to see these guys as case and the jury's sympathetic atti- Following the complaint by the victims, criminals. They were tude to him? the Military Board of the Supreme protecting the Native land, restoring It is very probable that Budanov's Court of the Russian Federation can- the constitutional space, and participat- arrest saved Roman Bagreev's life. celed the verdict and the case was sent ing in antiterrorist operations. They back to court for examination by a dif- were blessed by the Patriarch who has The most humane words of all that was ferent jury. never held a service for the lost civil- said in media reports from the court ians. People have got used to be proud hearings in the Budanov case were pro- On May 19th, 2005, the jury again of the soldiers. The shame with which nounced, strangely enough, by unanimously found the murderers not they have covered themselves humili- Budanov: "When I was sent there, guilty. ates not only them but also the society, nobody told me that our citizens lived The history repeats itself: the Military therefore it is so difficult for the soci- there. We were told that they were Board of the Supreme Court again can- ety to reconcile with the fact that its enemies who should be destroyed." celed the verdict.