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. heroes turned out to be murderers. Not only Budanov was told this but Since August 21st, 2006, the Ulman Now let's recollect how the Budanov also those who were entrusted to report case has been in court for the third case was covered in official mass about the war in the Chechen Republic. time, now without the jury but with a media, first of all on TV. The rapist, the On June 14th, 2007, the Ulman case board of three professional judges. murderer of a young girl, the man who was closed with a guilty verdict. The On April 4th, 2007, the prosecutor that very day nearly destroyed another three fugitives were sentenced in demanded to sentence Ulman and officer was on trial, he had a strong absentia: Captain Ulman to 14 years, Perelevskiy to 23, Voevodin to 19, and support in the court hall led by the his assistant Lieutenant Kalaganskiy to Kalaganskiy to 18 years of imprisonment. governor of the Ulyanovsk region 11 years, and warrant officer Voevodin General Vladimir Shamanov. And Ulman, Voevodin and Kalaganskiy to 12 years of imprisonment. Major Shamanov asserted that it was a trial stopped to appear at court hearings. A Perelevskiy who was present in court not so much of Budanov but rather of federal search warrant was issued for was sentenced to 9 years. all Russian officers who were fighting them. The court changed preventive in the Chechen Republic. And again mass media cannot deter- punishment from a travel ban to con- mine the essence of the Ulman case. finement under guard. In fact it was not true. In the Budanov Was it a political directive for an Now that the guilty verdict became a case, there was General Gerasimov example punishment of the executors reality, all the three turned out to be who had arrested Budanov. He said: "I of the order issued by the authorities fugitives. am convinced that Colonel Budanov and betrayed by the authorities or was killed Elsa Kungaeva." There is also it a trial of conscious murderers of The distorted public opinion also evidence provided by General innocent victims according to the became the reason for the three court Vereiskiy. General Barannikov came to Criminal Code of the Russian hearings in the Ulman case. There are the house of the killed Elsa Kungaeva Federation? No, the verdict will not infinite discussions whether Plotnikov and on behalf of everybody asked her correct the Russian army. It will not gave the order or not, and if he did, is parents to pardon for all. it possible to consider Ulman and the correct the society in which the value others guilty. However, there is no The most important thing in the of a human life is reduced to zero. legal problem here. Article 42, Part 2 Budanov case is Lieutenant Roman And nevertheless, it is a small step in of Russian Federation Criminal Code Bagreev who in the morning of that the correct direction.

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 3 HE WISHED TO RESCUE

Dosh #3(17)2007 Zoya SVETOVA WOMEN AND CHILDREN

The tragedy in the Theatrical center at Dubrovka ations with FSB being present. In addition to it, took away 130 lives. The criminal investigation of after each conversation he came to the crisis the act of terrorism is suspended, so there is center office to write down its contents at their almost no hope left that the secret of this tragedy request. Today it is known that not only will ever be revealed. The terrorists who took Talkhigov but many other people spoke with the hostages are all killed. Shamil Basayev, who is terrorists by phone. In particular, Anna considered to be the paymaster of this crime, is Politkovskaya told in one of her interviews that killed too. It turns out that the only person con she passed to Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, assistant victed in the NordOst case is Zaurbek Talkhigov. to President Putin, the phone numbers of the ter Not only was he convicted unfairly, but he is also rorists that had been given to her, possibly, by continuously tortured in prison finding fault with Aslambek Aslakhanov. him for any slightest infringement of the routine. Why was it only Talkhigov who was accused of It is being done in retort: Talkhigov does not wish being an accomplice of the terrorists? Was it to plead guilty. But how is it possible to admit a because he took his mission too seriously and at crime which you did not commit? a certain moment started to interfere with the plans to release the hostages by the emergency Crime operations center? It seems to me that Zaurbek Talkhigov was To stop Talkhigov's mediation activities, some appointed the accomplice of the terrorists who one mixed a sleeping pill in his juice that he had seized the Theatrical center at Dubrovka, drank when he came again to the crisis center whereas he had come there with a peacemak office to report about the phone negotiations. ing mission. Early in the morning of October Zaurbek lost consciousness and came to himself 25th, 2002, he arrived to the Theatrical center in a detention facility. He learned about the des having responded to the appeal of Aslambek tiny of the hostages during the investigation. Aslakhanov, Adviser of the President, to the Chechens "to make a live shield and to exchange themselves for the hostages." He Punishment thought that he could persuade the terrorists to On June 20th, 2003, judge of Moscow City Court release women and children. Aslakhanov gave Marina Komarova (she later condemned Zara him a mobile phone number of Baraev. After Murtazalieva) sentenced Talkhigov to 8 and a several attempts Talkhigov managed to talk with half years in prison as an accomplice of the ter someone of those who were holding hostages. rorists who captured the NordOst center. It was He came to an agreement with the terrorists that a closed and quick trial. The main proof of they would release foreigners. Right after this he Zaurbek's fault was the recording of his tele was arrested. The negotiations were broken. phone conversation, precisely, The hostages were not released. For his noble impulse, for the attempt to rescue people Talkhigov lost his freedom for a long time. From the materials of the investigation it is known that Zaurbek conducted all phone negoti

4 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH even not the recording but rather a monly known anyhow. All this could be loose interpretation of the conversa observed from the windows of the tion provided by an investigator. Theatrical center. The judge also used Zaurbek Talkhigov in his Experts established that it was another proof as the basis of the verdict. interview to DOSH magazine: Talkhigov's voice on the tape but In the opinion of the court, by the very could not determine who he was talk fact of the conversation with the terror ing with. The tapes with telephone ists Talkhigov rendered them psycho Why don't you put up with conversations recordings were logical support. His words installed con your present situation? destroyed. Also, the records that fidence in the terrorists of their criminal Talkhigov had given FSB officers acts. It is utter nonsense. The contents Because a person who were destroyed under strange circum of the conversation cannot be interpret wanted and tried to help stances. It turns out that without hav ed as the proof confirming heavy the hostages was sudden ing any material proof the judge charges of complicity to terrorism. ly made an accomplice of believed that Zaurbek had talked with the terrorists. Baraev and an unknown Akhmed. What particular things did Talkhigov tell the terrorists that cost him 8.5 Why did you decide to go years of imprisonment on the to the Theatrical center? charges of complicity? I came to the center at Lawyer Sergey Nasonov tells: Dubrovka with only one The court considered as one of the proofs of Talkhigov's fault purpose: through negotia that he had informed the terror tions to release women ists about the security cordon and children and in this around the building and way to show to the society about the snipers on that not any Chechen is a the roofs. But it terrorist. was com A Missed Act of Terrorism

On the eve of Victory Day, FSB offi as a rule, only after the acts of ter her detention stated, in particular, cers found a car loaded with explo rorism were accomplished. The that she had been trained in a terror sives that had been parked near a arrests were supposed to demon ist camp near Baku and participated building on Profsoyuznaya Street in strate that the Ministry of Internal in military actions during the first Moscow. Four Chechens were Affairs and FSB were doing their job Chechen war in 19941996. After the arrested. Later two of them were properly. Embassy of Azerbaijan issued a released. The other two were kept in protest to the Russian Ministry of In July 2003, after a womanterrorist custody. They were two Moscow Foreign Affairs and the mother of blew herself up at the stadium in students of prestigious colleges: Murtazalieva provided to the investi Tushino, the former Minister of Umar Batukaev and Ruslan gation a certificate confirming that Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov Musaev. FSB website soon dis her daughter studied in middle declared that a terrorist network was played a short message saying that school during the first Chechen war, discovered in Elektrogorsk near terrorist activity of a group of ban these absurd charges against her Moscow. Three brothers Mukhadiev dits was stopped as a result of were dropped. Nevertheless, were arrested on charges of storing active search actions. News agen Murtazalieva was sentenced to 8.5 weapons. UBOP broke into their cies informed that the young men years on charges of preparation for apartment, forced everyone to lie had an accomplice, somebody an act of terrorism and illegal pur down on the floor, and handcuffed named Lors Khamiev who had been chase and storage of weapons. everybody. Then they found two detained in Grozny a few weeks pri boxes with 8 explosive blocks and 3 It seems to me that the case of or to the discovery of "the bad car." detonators in the bathroom and in Moscow Chechen students is a hello By the way, this car was parked the room where the brothers lived. from the recent past. Too many sim near the building where he rented During investigation and in court the ilarities can be seen in the handwrit an apartment and lived together Mukhadiev brothers confirmed that ing of the authors of the script about with his pregnant wife. they saw how the officers brought a disclosing a terrorist network. The media also informed that Umar bag into their apartment. One broth There is, however, one essential dif Batukaev was trying to evade army er was released immediately and the ference: the detained Moscow stu service. According to the relatives, other two spent 10 months under dents were the children of Chechen Umar could not be enlisted in the custody. Then the judge ruled that intellectuals who had for many years army in any way because he was fin the brothers were guilty but they lived in Moscow, felt quite secure, ishing his fifth year of studies at the should be released from custody in and acquired numerous connec Academy of Economy and Law. court, having sentenced them to the tions. They could hardly imagine that term that they had already stayed in The Lofortovo Court of Moscow their children would ever have to custody. Since then high state offi approved the arrest of these face the Russian lawenforcement cials never recollected disclosing a Moscow students and soon the system under such terrible circum terrorist underground in connection investigation charged them with par stances. The association of with this case. ticipation in an organized criminal Chechen public and cultural soci group, preparation to an act of ter Another even more known case is eties sent an appeal to Vladimir rorism, and storage of weapons. the case of Zara Murtazalieva, a 3rd Putin calling him to take under spe year student of Pyatigorsk Linguistic cial control all the criminal cases We have partially forgotten about University. She was detained with connected with the Chechens and to the notorious "Chechen" trace, 196 grams of plastic explosive not allow spinning off of the Anti about disclosing of "a terrorist which, as she confirmed and as was Chechen hysteria in the Russian underground" and other operations proved in court by her lawyers, was society. The Batukaev family sent a that were so popular in 20032004. put into her handbag at the police similar appeal to Ramzan Kadyrov. Arrests of the Chechens and station when she left the room to charges against them in "prepara On July 4th, the Lefortovo court pro wash her hands. The decision about tion to an act of terrorism" occurred, longed their stay in custody through

6 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 October 8th. There was We will learn about the proofs another charge in their Fatima Batukaeva in her interview to collected by the investigation case: a rarely used Article DOSH magazine: only when the trial will start. If this 277 of the Criminal Code of trial ever takes place. the Russian Federation We left Grozny in 1994. The son went It is hard to tell now how the case (preparation of attempt on to study in the third grade at a Moscow will develop, especially in view of life of a state or public fig school. He finished school and a new charge of preparation of ure). became a college student. He was a an attempt at the statesman. Will Investigators believed that 5th year student of the Department of the students be released or will Law at the Academy of Economy and Khamiev, Batukaev and they have to share the destiny of Law. That evening the son was fol Musaev had been preparing their compatriots who had to lowed by a strange car. He stopped his for an act of terrorism experience all the circles of car. The other car stopped too. Umar against the President of the came up to the driver and asked: "Why investigatory and judicial hell? Chechen Republic Ramzan do you follow me? Who are you?" One thing is obvious: the notori Kadyrov. Then they presented him their docu ous Chechen question and the The lawyers are under a ments. Then the militia arrived and political tricks around it, the vic nondisclosure pledge, took my son and three other guys that tims of which are usually ordi therefore it is still unknown were together with him. We, the nary people, has again reminded with what reasons the Chechens, know too well how people of itself. This time the victims investigation plans to sub disappear. When we arrived home were those who ran away from stantiate this dubious there were twelve policemen at the the war, tried to build a new life charge. It is known from door of our apartment. They arrived to and to forget about the terrorists, press that on May 9th, 2007 conduct a search. They claimed that all be they real or imaginary. the explosives had been all this time in the President of the my apartment. The search lasted for Chechen Republic was eight hours. They found nothing. They going to stay in Grozny, were officers of the 3rd investigatory therefore it seems doubtful department of FSB. When they left P.S. The litigation is not com that the "malefactors" could they apologized. pleted to this day and the stu plan their attempt that day. dents are still in custody.

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 7 ELLA KESAEVA: SOMEONE SHOULD SPEAK

Dosh #4(18)2007 Zoya SVETOVA THE TRUTH. LET IT BE US…

I met with Ella Kesaeva at a meeting near the Theatrical center at Dubrovka. It was October 26th, 2007, five years after the tragedy of NordOst. The people were standing in front of the Theatrical cen ter looking at the photos of the lost children and adults and the burning candles. There were many flowers. Among the speakers were the survived hostages, the parents of the victims, those who suf fered from acts of terrorism in Moscow, Volgodonsk, and Beslan. Then Ella Kesaeva spoke. She was asking forgiveness from the victims and their relatives because five years ago she had not apprehended their trouble as her own, because then she kept silent. And after that there was Beslan…

I soon understood: this woman was not afraid of anything. She has lost so much Why do you have two organizations in Beslan unit- and has gone through so much that she ing the victims of that tragedy? There is no unity does not have any more fear. Her life among you too? sharply changed having divided into the - There is unity. Both of our organizations pursue one one before Beslan and the one after goal. However, the organization Mothers of Beslan Beslan. thinks that republican officials are guilty. We, The Voice Before Beslan, Ella Kesaeva worked as a of Beslan, are assured that decisions were taken at the laboratory manager at the winemaking fac federal level. tory Istok in Beslan. She was educated as Shall we ever find out the secret of Beslan? a biochemist. She liked her job very much. - There is no secret. We do not know the details, where- The entire family of her sister was lost at as by and large we saw a lot with our own eyes. the school captured by the terrorists. Ella's Personally I saw how the school building was under daughter was among hostages and she heavy fire continuously from the moment of explosion was wounded. Thanks God, she survived. till four o'clock. There is no secret to us that our chil- Now Ella is bringing up the daughter dren were killed by federal soldiers. It were the terror- together with her sister. However, Kesaeva ists who took over the school. But under all laws the devotes all her time to studying laws and murderer is considered the one whose bullet killed the searching the truth. The Voice of Beslan person. Who investigated it? Nobody did. We are sure has brought a legal case against the state that the President of the country interferes with the investigation. If there were his will, everything would be for the right to know how their children quickly investigated. But the matter is that all strings were lost and who is to blame for this. lead to him. Who awarded the generals after Beslan? It Kesaeva puts forward simple reasons for was Putin. The judges to whom we submit our claims her choice: "I have cut down my expenses. and complaints are laughing to our eyes. They know in I live very modestly. After such a tragedy advance that all our complaints will be refused. that happened to all of us I do not deserve Asking about the secret of Beslan I meant whether a wealthy life or a life in comfort. I should we shall ever find out who had organized the cap- do everything that depends on me and ture of the hostages? only then I can take care of myself." - I can tell you that information is present in the mate- rials of the case. It says that the capture of the hostages

8 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 was organized by Basaev. This was speci- - We seek an objective investigation and a We know the names of the terrorists. fied by Kulaev. As for Maskhadov, there is fair punishment of all the guilty. Should we start searching now for their no proof of his fault in this case. We need What did you manage to accomplish? families? You should understand: blood gen- the truth. If a person is not guilty in the erates blood. It is not a way out. We are Beslan tragedy and he was arbitrarily - Our organization has been existing since Christians. The God directs us, and we are accused, then the entire version of the October 2005. Before the third anniversary making legal steps and tell people who is events is doubtful. The route of the terror- of Beslan, it was closed by a court decision. guilty and what actually happened. Should ists is not yet established with proof. In the We disagree with this decision. We made we start killing the Ingushs? In fact, they materials of the case it is based only on the an appeal. So far our organization is not liq- were simply manipulated. We know that at evidence provided by one person: the major uidated. Our appeal is still being examined. the moment the assault started no child was of militia who accompanied them. His evi- As it was explained to us, the judge of the killed. Blood feud is not right. If we start dence can be questioned. It turns out that inferior court committed many mistakes speaking stupidly that the Ingushs are the route of the terrorists is not established, and he is given time to correct them. Isn't guilty or the Chechens are guilty, it will their number is not established either, their it absurd? Instead of cancelling the decision only be to the benefit of the authorities. specific demands are not established, who of the judge about liquidation of our organi- They just want it. But it will not happen. conducted negotiated, who participated in zation, they give the judge time to garble We have understood what had happened the assault - it is not established, who was the decision! and we have understood who is guilty. And the head of the crisis center - it is not estab- Who is afraid of your organization? we shall demand punishment of those who lished. For all of us this is a secret. Why did are guilty. - I think it is federal authorities. they use tanks and flame guns? These Why mostly women are engaged in questions remain unanswered. It is justified Do you feel afraid? searches of the truth? by the fact that the preliminary investiga- - I am not afraid of death. I saw it. My fear tion is not over yet. And it will not be over - The pressure that we are experiencing is of it is gone. If the children had such a while President Putin is in power. difficult for men to sustain. They are more painful death and we stayed away for three vulnerable. If I had a job, I would have been Who in your opinion benefited from days, what kind of right do we have to be fired quickly for my activities. Men should capturing the hostages in Beslan? silent now? I simply cannot be silent. For feed the family. That is why women started - Judging by what happened afterwards, it me, to speak the truth today is a sort of jus- this struggle. were the authorities who benefited the most. tification for my silence during those three They strengthened their authority with the days. blood of the children of Beslan. If we are not You have said that you feel your fault P.S. savages and consider ourselves civilized for being silent when Nord-Ost hap- On December 19th, 2007, the Judicial people, then we should take the courage and pened? board of the Supreme Court of call things by their proper names. Not when - Then I lived just like many others live Northern Ossetia made a decision to they all will retire, not when everybody will now. Yes, it was painful. It was necessary close The Voice of Beslan public com- spit at them, but now because I will not be to shout loud and beat in the bells. mittee in its former structure. The alive 10 years or a year from now. With Especially, the TV was still free then. Now members of the organization went on a what conscience shall I pass away and join everything is under control of the authori- hunger strike as a protest against the those who I loved so much? That is why I ties. I think that I personally suffered for my actions of the court. now speak what I think and what actually silence. And if, God forbid, such a thing happened. If I speak a lie, then let them Representatives of The Voice of Beslan occurs to you, know that you suffer because bring charges against me! committee declared that they would you are silent. We should not be silent: we appeal this decision in superior courts. Do you admit that by capturing the are not cattle. We are adult people and we hostages and through probable negotia- should bear the responsibility for our chil- According to Ella Kesaeva, during tions the terrorists wanted to stop the dren. Someone should start to speak. Let's almost two years of its official exis- war in the Chechen Republic? say, we start. Let it be so. tence The Voice of Beslan experienced constant pressure from special services - The twenty six people who were released Sometimes one can hear that the sur- and local authorities. with the help of Aushev on September 2nd vivors of Beslan should revenge those said that the terrorists wished to negotiate who had taken hostages their children. Earlier on November 22nd, 2007, an and were ready to release all the hostages. What do you think about the idea of administrative charge was brought blood feud? against Ella Kesaeva for installation of What are the goals of your organization a sign Putin's Course with an arrow The Voice of Beslan? - Who to revenge? Where are our enemies? pointing in the direction of the school.

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 9 I'M FINE

Dosh #4(18)2007 Elena SANNIKOVA Last summer Azamat Uspaev was killed at a Kh.Sharipov (the full name is missing in the verdict) who created one of such permanent armed groups. maximum security colony in the village of Revda Sharipov was convicted in April, 2002. There is evi- of Murmansk region. His relatives in Grozny did dence in his case that two political murders were not receive a formal notice of his death. There accomplished together with an unspecified Azamat nicknamed Mubarik. There is neither surname of the was only an anonymous call on the mobile prospective accomplice, nor age or any special signs. phone in the middle of the night. Human rights Nothing but the name. According to Sharipov's evi- dence, the last murder was accomplished together with organizations of Murmansk and later the chief of "Azamat" and someone named T.U.Dzhamurzaev. the colony in a personal conversation confirmed There is also Dzhamurzaev's evidence in Sharipov's case saying that he met Sharipov and someone named the death of Azamat. In the morning on July 4th, Azamat (again neither surnames, nor signs). Sultan Uspaev, the father of Azamat, took off That's all. Not a single proof! But these Sharipov and from Grozny for Murmansk in hopes to bring the Dzhamurzaev exist and the question is: how was it pos- body of the son back home. sible not to ask them whether that was the same Azamat? One of them lives in Grozny, the second is in prison, that is both are quite accessible for interrogation. I learned about Azamat Uspaev four and a half years But there was no interrogation or face-to-face identifi- ago when I was writing a book about Madina cation during the preliminary investigation and in court! Elmurzaeva, a courageous nurse who created a Red All the charges are based on the evidence in Sharipov's Cross group in Grozny during the days of a fierce 2002 case in which the name of Azamat Uspaev does fight in January 1995 and not even appear! who was soon killed by a And what is moreÖ on Azamat' self-incrimination dur- mine while she was pulling ing the preliminary investigation. the dead out of a shell pit. Azamat, the youngest of "Uspaev A.S. interrogated in court session did not rec- her three children was 12 ognize himself guilty and stated that he was not guilty years old then. of the crimes incriminated to him and the self-incrimi- nating evidence that he gave during preliminary inves- In the summer of 2003, I tigation was given because the operative officers of was told that Azamat had RUBOP applied tortures to him, which he could not been seized in the street of sustain." Grozny by armed people in masks. A year later, the Both the investigation and the court rejected Azamat's court sentenced him to 17 requests for a face-to-face identification with Sharipov years of prison. or Dzhamurzaev. What for? Having studied The verdict mentioned the evidence provided by Bilal Azamat Uspaev's verdict in Uspaev who testified that his brother could not be the summer of 2004, I did involved in any murder in Grozny because he had been not find a single proof of at this time together with him in Ingushetia. Azamat's fault in this ver- Why was Azamat Uspaev accused all the same in this dict. case? "After the end of the coun- First, because his name was Azamat. Second, he lived terterrorist operation on the on the Olympic Street where these murders were com- territory of Grozny in 2000- mitted and where that Sharipov also lived. They were 2001, the participants in the even familiar because they studied at the same school. illegal armed formations Ö "He is really familiar with T.A.-Kh.Sharipov with whom created permanent armed he studied in the same class from the fifth grade groups (gangs) under a through the eighth grade at school 8. He knows that common name of JamaatÖ" T.A.-Kh.Sharipov is convicted for certain crimes and is Azamat Uspaev's verdict in prison. When the military operation started on the begins with this impressive territory of the Chechen Republic, their family moved to introduction. Then it says Ingushetia and remained there. That is why during this about someone named T.A- period he could not commit the crime of which he is

10 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 accused. On July 1st, 2003, he was together with children in the I asked Azamat many times if he wanted me to send him any- street near the house in which he lives. Unknown people in cam- thing but he always refused. He said that he did not need any- ouflage approached to him and delivered him to RUBOP where thing except for books. for two days he was kept in a room chained by handcuffs to the There was something in Azamat's letters that could please and heating radiator, and during all this time he was regularly beat- cheer up. He used to repeat: "I'm fine." en. They demanded from him to admit the crimes which he did not commit. Despite denying by the defendant of his fault, his The only thing he complained about in the last conversations with fault Ö is confirmed by the following proofÖ" The verdict then me was that letters addressed to him and from him began to dis- quotes Azamat' self-incrimination at the preliminary investigation appear. that was signed under tortures and evidence in Ö Sharipov's case Looking at Azamat's books that were given back to the young of 2002. man' father, I noted his taste in the choice of Islamic periodicals And that was all! Justice was exercised without real proof. It was and religious literature. These were the texts testifying to affinity not even required to interrogate those who could tell the truth. In of Islam to Christianity and excluding the feeling of arrogance and the meanwhile the relatives of the young man told that there lived superiority. several more young men by the name of Azamat in their neigh- Looking at Azamat's photos, recollecting his voice and rereading borhood. But they had already been killed and someone was need- his letters, I think of a severe imagination needed to proclaim this ed to be put in prison... So the twenty years old guy was sen- person a murderer and a terrorist. tenced to seventeen years in prison and, as a matter of fact, was doomed to destruction. This decision was pronounced by the judge of the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic Asukhanov with the participation of state prosecutor Bataeva. When the fog will dissipate, When the doubts will dissipate, Sultan Uspaev received the body of his son in the evening of July When the hurricane that is carrying 6th. Representatives of the Chechen diaspora of Murmansk helped The revelations of ideas will calm down, the father to deliver Azamat's body to the airport. After returning from the funeral I asked Sultan Uspaev to show There will come that last day me the papers that had been given to him by the administration When we'll have to say goodbye! of the colony. To my surprise, I did not find among them the doc- ument with the results of medical examination. The death certifi- But I shall not pour tears cate contained only the date of death July, 2nd. The cause of And I shall not feel sorrow… death line was empty. The paper signed by acting chief of hospi- tal of the colony Chelobitchenko contains only two lines: "Uspaev Spring will pass, and summer too, Azamat Sultanovich, born 1982. No infectious diseases. Death Autumn and winter will come. occurred as a result of an accident." But the anticipation is disturbing… I asked Sultan Uspaev about the accident and he told me the sto- ry. When he remained alone with the chief of the colony, he humanly asked him about how it all happened. The chief almost I received this letter last February. With undisguised confusion began to cry and told the story that could hardly resemble the Azamat confirmed that these verses were his own. truth: ostensibly Azamat got out onto the roof of the second floor I hoped to find verses and Azamat's diaries among the things, and accidentally fell downÖ the letters and the papers that had been given out to the father Is it ever possible to die after falling from the second floor? by the administration of the colony. But nothing with Azamat's Perhaps it is possible if a weak person hits his head against some- personal handwriting could be found. thing very firm. But multiple fractures on Azamat's body, on his hands, legs and the neck, huge bruises on his face, the big rag torn off on his head up to the bone - all this does not suggest falling from the second floor. The chief of the colony assured the father that there would be an investigation. But what kind of investigation it can be, if it has already begun with a lie? Azamat's stepmother told to me that he had called home on a mobile phone that evening. After a minute of conversation he said that he could not speak any further: it was noisy, there was a fight nearby, he could hear nothing, and he would call back. "Who is fighting, why?" - she asked. - "It is hatred Ö they hate us" - Azamat could only answer. A few days later, the prisoners who were witnesses of the drama spoke with Azamat's sister on a mobile phone and told her that her brother had rushed to rescue a Chechen named Tamerlan from the neighboring barrack. He was being beaten severely by crimi- nals. But the number of the attackers was too big. Tamerlan man- aged to survive and was in a critical condition. Azamat died at night on the hands of his comrades in the barrack. "It means that he died just like his mother when rescuing anoth- er person," - said Vaidat, the sister of Madina Elmurzaeva, Azamat's aunt.

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 11 When we fancied that we would be building Any time of the year at the intersection of Prospekt Mira communism, unemployment was declared a and S.Lorsanov Street, one can see a crowd of people emotionally greeting the approaching cars. Here you can defect of capitalism. So, this regrettable phe meet men and women of any age and professional skills nomenon was not supposed to have anything who unanimously claim that they are the masters in any to do with the young socialist republic. Later, profession: they can professionally build, break, repair, or dig. They look with hope at everyone who approaches during the era of developed socialism, Soviet them! However, it is the fifth point in Grozny where the Dosh #4(18)2007 legislation even managed to substitute the unemployed spontaneously gather into groups. There was Malika BETIEVA concept of unemployment for the term "para a time when people from almost all around the republic Maret ELDIEVA gathered at the Central market, then at the House of sitism", which was a criminal offense. This is Fashion, then at Dinamo stadium, and later on the street difficult to imagine now, however the fact facing the stadium. And each time the police dispersed them away from a new place. It is hard to tell how much remains the fact. time the exchange will last at its present place. THE UNCLAIMED

The disintegration of the USSR, the split of the authori- Any of the people there will tell you the main thing ty that generated chaos and, finally, the war in the for them is to receive just any job. All these people Chechen Republic brought certain corrective amend- have a family, a houseful of children who want to eat ments into the way of life of Russian citizens. And Russia and get dressed. accepted from the West all the attributes inherent to ear- ly capitalism. Unemployment was number one on this - I've been here since 1995, - says Adam, - I began as list. However, it remains at the top of changes, despite mason student. Now I can safely pass for a profes- the doubling of gross national product, strengthening of sional builder. Over these 12 years I tried different the authority of the country in international affairs, a construction professions. sharp growth of gasoline prices, the lowering of the dol- - Didn't you have a wish to work at a construction lar exchange rate, a steady stabilization of the situation site? After all, it is more reliable to work at a state in the Chechen Republic, and only God knows what else. construction site, they provide a steady salary and However, whereas people in Russia drink from idleness, social bonuses, - I was trying to suggest another in the Chechen Republic, despite the disasters of the war option. that stretched over a decade, the picture is a little bit - Once I worked hard there for half a year and I more optimistic: here people try to survive in every pos- received only five thousand roubles after a three sible way. One of the places in Grozny where survival months delay. They didn't even make a record in has reached an industrial scale got the name of "labor my work book. The site was frozen because financ- exchange." Unlike the official body, the Center of ing stopped, - Adam said without emotions. Then Employment and Labor, here nobody will stop your reg- he recollected something personal and added: istration after six months or require documents proving your identity or the number of your family members. - Who would believe now that when I was young I

12 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 bly defined not quite precisely. However, there are other more impor- tant things that are associated with it. It is very hard to understand how peo- ple can survive on 720 roubles a month while even this little grant is being paid in a rather strange way: an unem- ployed person receives this grant for 6 months, then payment stops for half a year, and after that it is renewed again. It is no secret that in many Western countries there are unemployed citi- zens who prefer to live on unemploy- ment grant while informally earning addition money on the side. Many emi- grants from the Chechen Republics live there on different grants too. Naturally, now there are new jobs cre- ated in the construction industry in the Chechen Republic but their number is too small compared to the big army of unemployed. Besides, these jobs are often temporary. started with a job in police? I even Unemployment is one of the most Speaking of the grants, they can dif- graduated from a Police School in Baku. excruciating problems of the modern ferent in size. For example, those who - Perhaps you should get a job in law world. In each country where it arises, lost their job for the reasons not depen- enforcement? Talk to them, they there are objective reasons for it and, dent on them (staff reduction, company always need people. They fire people according to experts, the major reasons bankruptcy, etc.) receive 75% of the basically for the lack of professional- are economic recession and inability of lost salary for one year. Those who left ism. the authorities to provide the popula- the company voluntarily with a respec- tion with the necessary amount of jobs. tive record in the work book have the Having heard this question Adam Russia is no exception, and more likely right to a grant of 1,080 roubls. looked around disturbingly and then on the contrary: our country can serve asked me with a significant air: as a vivid example of how it is difficult Deputy Chief of the Department of Employment and Special Programs of - Where shall I find so much money? to cope with this trouble. In many the State Committee of the Chechen Besides, policeman today is the most regions of Russia the unemployment Republic Lora Tsagalova told me that dangerous profession. rate is very high. And in the Chechen Republic that has gone through two 103,078 people got a new job in the By this Adam let me know that stand- destructive wars half of work-age pop- republic since January 1st, 2007. ing here at the exchange in heat and ulation is unemployed. According to However, her joyfulness disappeared cold is much quieter. And it is hard to the data of the State Committee of the quickly faced with 313,976 people offi- disagree with him. Chechen Republic on Employment cially recognized as unemployed, which According to statistics, there are there were 313,976 unemployed in the is a more impressive figure. It is possi- almost 80% people in the Chechen republic at the end of September, 2007. ble to say with confidence that the Republic like Adam who live from one actual unemployment rate exceeds It is necessary to note that these offi- odd job to another. People manage to 70%. Why? Let's look at mountain cial figures can be far from exact as survive on casual earnings and scanty areas, for example. In Itum-Kalinskiy they cover only those who applied for grants. They agree to any excessive district with five and a half thousand an unemployment grant and receives job. The main thing is they should be people population, there are 2,631 peo- it, whereas not all apply for it. paid in time. ple registered as unemployed, i.e. The reasons that cause unemployment almost all the efficient population. We Aset M. has always worked some- in the Chechen Republic are the same can observe the same picture in other where: as a dishwasher, custodian, as across Russia plus the war that has areas. If in some cities the number of salesperson, or storekeeper. When destroyed all the industrial infrastruc- unemployed is below 70%, then it is there are many children and a disabled ture of the republic. There used to be due to students and office employees. husband at home you cannot afford to well-known factories in the Chechen This background makes it clear why choose. Now she is mastering a new cities and mountain areas were famous there is migration abroad: it is not only profession of plasterer and house for cattle-breeding farms and ecological- the consequence of the wars but also painter. ly clean agricultural products. These fear of the growing unemployment. In the republic where a lot is being said areas that used to be prosperous now Many immigrate to foreign countries about revival, there is still nobody to show the largest unemployment figures. not in pursuit of a fantastically beauti- take care of many men and women ful life but simply in expectation of rest Its officially established rate is proba- who ended up at the exchange. and stability.

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 13 Dosh #4(18)2007 Lidiya YUSUPOVA THE BLOOD Autumn was celebrating its arrival having gilt the crones of the trees. Dead leaves were silently falling down on the ground. The cranes flew high in the sky crying plain tively as though they were saying goodbye to the summer. Women and children were walking along a deserted dusty street with simple belongings in their hands. Beslan saw such scenes quite frequently in recent time. Today he stood for a while at the gate glancing at the sad procession. He was about to return to the house when he heard a scratch of wheels. He looked back and saw a boy of his age or perhaps slightly senior. The teenager was pushing a cart with simple belongings. The weight of the cargo was beyond his forces, drops of sweat were sliding down his face and he was wiping them with the sleeve of the shirt. Beslan rushed to help him. Together they managed to pull the cart on the sidewalk where asphalt survived in places. While helping the boy he cautiously asked: Are you alone? No, my mom and the little sister are ahead, I need to catch up with them, he answered chokingly. The cart rolled easier down the street. At the intersection Beslan said: Well, all the best to you. I cannot go further. I've got my mom and the brother at home. The boy thanked him and hurried to catch up with his family. Beslan stood and looked how the

14 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 OF VICTORY people were gradually disappearing deadly blows followed one another the mother and began to stroke gen lit by the crimson beams of sunset. outside. The child was crying. He tly removing twisted locks of her hair Then has sighed and walked back tried to calm him down and shouted from the cheeks. He silently whis slowly. Passing by empty houses he in attempt to outcry the roar: pered: "Mom... Mom!" He was hop thought: why mom and dad do not ing for a miracle. He felt that he was Mom! Mom! wish to leave? There was a shiver suffocating. "Oh, God! Oh, God!" He ing kitten sitting at the neighbor's The terrified kitten rushed under the embraced her and begun to cry bit fence. Beslan bent down and stroke bed. Beslan continued to embrace terly inhaling the mother's last the kitten. The kitten immediately the crying brother and himself began warmth mixed with the smell of purred with please in response to to cry. It seemed there would be no blood. She sat as if she was having caresses. He taken this warm lump end to this awful roar. He did not rest slightly bending the head on one in his hands and pressed to his know how long it lasted and did not at side. She did not hear the children chest when he suddenly heard the once realize when silence fell at last. crying, did not feel these lean hands rumble of approaching planes. Still There was something ominous in this that embraced her in a crazy hope holding the kitten Beslan ran into the silence. He listened attentively for a that she would respond. yard. The mother was collecting veg few minutes and only then got up to The kid tried to crawl to the mother etables in a small garden. The kid his feet. He lifted the brother and and wounded his hands with glass was standing beside her on his weak slowly moved to the open door. At splinters. His face smeared with feet grasping the mother by the hem. the doorstep he stopped looking for blood and dirt and full of tears The roar of the planes was the kitten. There were fragments of expressed horror. approaching threateningly. The broken tiles from the roof, window Having heard the children crying, the mother shouted that the children frames and splinters of broken glass neighbor ran into the yard and was should get into the house. Beslan put everywhere. the kitten on his shoulder, grasped petrified: The mother sat leaning against the the kid with both hands and rushed Oh, Allah, help him! Help him! to the house. The brother resisted wall of the house. Beslan called: Someone's hands took off Beslan and shouted. The kitten seized his Mom! shirt and hang behind the back... from his motionless mother. As if in a The woman did not move. Staring fog he saw the face of his father. The Beslan almost reached the doorstep right into her face the boy went earth was departing from under his when a terrible force pushed him in towards her with the brother on his foots. The boy slowly and unsteadily the back and threw him into the room. hands. He called again. His voice walked towards the house. He Still holding the kid he instinctively was lower and shivering: "Mom... almost reached the door and turned crawled away from the open door to Mom!" Everything became cold back. The few remaining neighbors the corner where the kitten landed inside him and he suddenly began to gathered at the body of the mother. thrown by a blast wave. He pressed shiver from top to toe. Without realiz The thought about the kitten sudden both the kid and the kitten to himself ing what he was doing he put the ly emerged from the depths of his trying to cover them with his slim little child down on the ground and rushed consciousness. body. The earth shuddered from towards her. A bloody stain blurred Shrinking from unstoppable ice fever explosions. The air was filled with the on her breast. The brother choked he entered into the room. He called: whistle of splinters, the roar of with crying but Beslan did not hear "Kittykittykitty!" Exhausted he low planes, and the clink of broken win him: he himself shouted loudly: ered down on the floor, buried his dowpanes. Beslan tried to close the "Mom!" He suddenly calmed down. door and to hide from this nightmare face in the knees but he could not He stretched his hands to the face of but the door hopelessly clapped and cope with the shiver. A light touch on

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 15 the cheek, soft and fluffy, got him out and sounded from far away... here and there. Everything roared of catalepsy for an instant. He cau outside. In confusion he seized the It was difficult to breathe again and tiously took the kitten into his shiver brother and embraced him. Through the boy squeezed the flat cake in his ing hands with clotted blood of the the open hatch he saw how the ceil hand constraining tears. There was mother and began to cry. ing in the room above the basement twilight in the basement. The only burst. The crack extended exposing patches of light came from the fire the smashed ceiling. The ceiling through the slightly opened door of At nights he used to bury his face in lamp was shaking and somberly ring the iron furnace and threw light on the the pillow and, so that the father ing its pieces of glass on one half of people who huddled there. He crum could not see him, he silently cried the ceiling. Beslan was numb with bled the flat cake into a bowl, added embracing the kid with one hand and horror and stared at the hole in the milk and put it before the kitten. the kitten with the other. He kept cry ceiling. It was growing. The grey ing while his soul of a child was Having finished their humble meal December sky was looking at the boy falling into drowsiness and thus, for a they all went to bed. The father rest through the hole... short time could release the unbear ed himself on the earthen floor with able burden. the kid beside him. They embraced They spent days and nights in the each other and fell asleep to the mur And then he cried: "Oh, Allah the cramped basement under the sum mur of the kitten that joined them to Almighty!" the music of war. mer kitchen. Through the hell on earth, among the Aircraft roar and explosions could One day the father went out to bring roar of shells and bombs and the often be heard there. At these some fire wood. Beslan was sitting groaning of falling houses the lonely sounds all inside turned cold with the with his brother on a wooden board voice of a child was pushing to the sky. already familiar treacherous shiver. and cautiously listening. There was Not to give out his condition, he something frightening in the silence The war took away his childhood, his clenched his palms into fists, that reigned outside. A sudden fear parents, and his brother. Yes, and strained the muscles of his entire seized him. He climbed up a small the brother too. It took away every body, and alternatively stiffened and ladder and looked out. There was thing that he loved so much. He relaxed. During the minutes of quiet nothing outside. Panic was increas would never say "Mom!" again. ness the father left the house and the ing in his soul. The father had never Everyone who would glance into his three of them remained together: been so late... He whispered to him face will see a still mask and will Beslan, the brother and the kitten. self driving away evil thoughts: "Oh, shudder because so much deep grief The fear that something could hap God, do not let disaster happen! Do is in these eyes. He has a look of an pens to the father did not abandon not let disaster happen!" old man. He forgot how to smile him now. The father used to bring flat The kid got hungry and began asking because the war killed joy in him. His cakes baked by the neighbor, some to eat. A piece of a cold flat cake life was meanly and irreparably times they were hot. With his eyes calmed him down for a short while. deformed. Will he ever be able at closed eyes Beslan slowly inhaled Beslan was helplessly searching in least sometimes, in his dreams, in a the smell of bread. The mother the darkness trying to find something childish way, to fly up into the blue instantly emerged in the memory and that could entertain the kid. He felt cloudless prewar sky again? the soul filled with silent joy. He pic the father's beads. tured a spring day and a delicate aro And the winners celebrate some ma of blossoming apple and apricot Again and again the boy climbed up where out there. They vigorously trees that mixed with that unique the small ladder to see whether the shake each others hands empurpled smell from an open window in the father was returning. The day was with the blood of the innocent. They kitchen: mom was baking bread. coming to an end. The silence was generously distribute awards and Hanging on the window sill he asked pressing. He could hardly put to bed medals to the heroes. They triumph. her for a hot flat cake. She tenderly the crying brother and spent the Over whom? Nobody has a wish to rebuked him but he was in a hurry night in waiting and listening to every go deep into this question. And the because his friends were waiting for rustle outside. At daybreak he was stench is creeping all around the him, they should finish their football overcome with sleep. He woke up to immense space of the country get game. He also heard the mother's the shout of the kid. Some unknown ting into all its most remote corners. voice but it disappeared somewhere force was shaking the basement It is the spirit of this poor victory.

16 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 THE CIRCLES

Dosh #1(19)2008 OF HELL Usam BAISAEV

What happened in the Chechen Republic a year, two me it was normal and I never thought that for or more years ago continues to happen today, it is someone else who speaks another language since not new or unusual. Our history has a strange fea- birth all can be in a different way both with regard ture to repeat itself not only in general but also in to my own life and with regard to history which, by details, even in the smallest details. It is as if we and large, is already the life of our parents. wander in a dark room looking for the door. We This unbreakable chain - from the son to the father, stumble over the table, overturn chairs, and smash from him to the grandfather and further on to more our head with all the force against a concrete wall. ancient ancestors - made me the participant of the We'd rather take some rest, get used to darkness, events of a long history. In fact, I am also from there and consider and weigh everything. Even if we stop, and everything that happened then also happened with we do it, having accumulated an even greater rage, me. I do not know what others feel but for me it was a only to continue whirling in the dark hell... natural feeling. That is why I felt pity for the people and Someone, I do not remember who, said about us, the I felt sad for myself when in my childhood I heard the Chechens, that we are the people with a burning stories about the exile, how people lived and died far sense of memory. Having read these words I away from our native land and how people, when they thought how precisely that person could understand returned after all losses and humiliations, were forced to and define our essence. I myself could never think ask for permission to dig dugouts in their own yards of it. I simply lived, worked, and got interested in from unknown people who had come from nowhere. In the past getting information about it from a very fact, the same was done with me. It turns out that it limited number of sources. Those who lived in was me who had been thrown in mud, me whose future Soviet times should understand what I mean. For life was turned into misery. Was it me only?

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 17 neither I, nor many with whom I discussed it can comprehend it so that I could perhaps accept it? But nobody is telling us anything. They simply gave us the bear fact: the 9th Line Street will henceforth be called Street Named after the Pskov Commandos. And that is all! Now live with it. And it is not an ordinary street that was renamed. This street is located in Staropromyslovskiy district. It is the very same district where in January and February, 2000 mon- strous crimes were committed for which nobody has been punished yet. It is here where heads were the chopped off, bellies of pregnant women were ripped up and people were burned alive. I say nothing of those who were simply shot. They were mostly old men and women, and not only the Chechens, the enemy as a matter of fact, but also the Ingushs, the Russians, and the Armenians... The orgy of permissiveness wiped out the whole families. The family of Said Zubaev, for example, who lived near this vicious 9th Line. In his yard only nine people were killed. His grand daughter, a teenager, beautiful Rumisa (before her eyes and the eyes of her seven-year old little sister the soldiers shot everyone whom she loved in her life) was put on an armored troop-carrier and taken away. It is still unknown where she might be now. Poor relatives keep searching for her in hopes that she is perhaps the only one who managed to survive. They even sent a request to "Wait for me" program that runs on Russian TV. But there is no news. Because the relatives do not want to believe the story published by human rights activists in one of their books that testifies to an astonishing- ly cruel murder of a girl from Staropromyslovskiy district that occurred approximately at the same time. Since there is no corpse, it means she is still alive... This face-saving formula has become a compass in the painful, years-long search of the disappeared inhabitants of the republic. But this search will hardly be successful. In the The sense of great injustice, the memory of humiliations, and same Staropromyslovskiy district where murders occurred not the blood with which our land showered more than with oil one day and not one week but almost a month, there was were that explosive that in September, 1991 threw away the nobody left to remove the dead bodies. Anyone who appeared authorities that existed then in the republic. Neither planted in the view of the soldiers who plundered and set houses on provocateurs (who afterwards were blamed for all the trou- fire could be killed. Many were killed under these circum- bles), nor anything else could ever move people to the streets stances. Their bodies remained there and were picked up to and put in their mouths the demand for independence. This the bones by wild dogs and cats. It was a great joy if people could only be caused by the hurt feelings for the parents (and managed to identify the body of a close relative thanks to the therefore, for us) and by the open wound that has lodged in remaining clothes because all the other things, such as rings, our hearts forever. It also became the starting point of our earrings or gold teeth, prior to beasts proper had been picked present tragic condition. up by beasts in camouflage. These bitter thoughts visited me when I learned about anoth- It was not possible to identify, for example, an elderly wom- er propaganda action undertaken by our zealous republican an in a wheelchair who was killed near the garages close to officials. I am talking about renaming a street in Grozny in the 9th Line. She did not have half of the head which had honor of the Russian commandos who had been killed far been torn off by a burst from a submachine gun and the from the city. I will not be evaluating their heroism. There remains of the body were eaten up to the bones by cats. The have already been different views of it, at times mutually archaic wheelchair served its owner well during her lifetime exclusive, expressed in articles written even not by the but could not help her after her death: there was nobody left Chechens. I am interested in something else, namely the log- who could tell who this wheelchair used to belong. Two ic of actions of the authorities. Where is this logic? What young girls risked their lives and buried the woman and the meaning is attached to this action? Perhaps it is so deep that wheelchair. By doing so they gave a chance for a possible

18 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 times with the same monument to his passport because if they did they General Alexey Ermolov. To keep it in would definitely have taken the money the capital of the republic whose people inserted in it. Or a street named after he promised to destroy, extinguish with Rumisa Zubaeva who at the age of 14 famine and by weapons and he did it learnt the real meaning of hell and van- quite successfully, is, at first sight, an ished afterwards. If not today, it will all awful nonsense. But the authorities saw happen tomorrow, and if not in a year, a different logic in it. It seemed to them then five years from now. Because that another reminder of the fact that Russia is the same, it is destined to that people had been subdued and that democracy. The time is, in fact, differ- it did not have any rights, except for ent now and the world is not the same the right to submit, will not be too any more. much. Had it not been for their stub- And if we shall not do it, then it will be bornness there would be no such tragic done by our children. The Chechens are subsequent developments in the the people with a burning sense of Northern Caucasus? It all, in fact, memory! In fact, we do not forget any- began with the demolition of the monu- thing and the memory about our dead is ment to the hated general. always sacred for us. And there is noth- The people who made this decision to ing to hide here: we are not able to for- rename the street should have thought give, especially the mockery of the dead of the feelings of those for whom they bodies. identification in the future because the stand first of all. There is a watershed A young man with a nickname Stalker soldiers burned corpses to cover up. between the Chechens and the Russian wrote on one of the Chechen forums: state. It exists whether we like it or not. The alive were also burned. Before the "To estimate the future on the basis of There were wars and there were mur- eyes of the mother who eventually the present is not the most successful ders, and mostly if not always we were became insane, they threw into the cel- approach. We know how often the life not guilty of them. But the main thing lar and set on fire sisters Shema and throws our people out of the frying pan is, and it is clear, that all the same there Shaiman Inderbiev. In the beginning of into the fire. So there is no future. We will be no street with such name in February their third sister Deshi collect- live in the present." Grozny. There will be other streets. For ed their remains into two pillowcases example, a street named after Ayzan However, the future is still formed in and tried to drive through Ingushetia to Amirova who was found by her husband the present. It means that the next gen- the cemetery in the village of Valerik. in a cellar with the ripped up belly from eration of the Chechens who live with She was detained at the "Caucasus" which their unborn child fell out. Or a the pain for the humiliations experi- checkpoint. The police saw the horrify- street named after Adlan Akaev, PhD, enced by their parents and for their life ing cargo and called FSB officers who chairman of the department of physics that had been ruined before their birth is attempted to arrest the girl. "Be human, of Grozny Pedagogical Institute. The destined to wander in the same dark allow me to bury the sisters," - the girl murderers did not even bother to check room in search of the door... tried to appeal to their conscience... All this happened on the 9th Line, which henceforth is offered to us to be P.S. When this article was already written and the issue was called the Street Named after the Pskov Commandos, or near it: on the 5th Line, about to be printed, it was thought that the 9th Line in Tashkala the 8th Line, or Shefskaya Street. Sure, it was not them because there were in would be renamed. Eventually it was Zhigulevskaya Street in the the mountains at that time but the same Russian soldiers, wearing the same same Staropromyslovskiy district that received the name of the insignia and with the same names Petya, Vasya and Igor, who fulfilled the Pskov Commandos. It turned out even worse: the action to "per orders given by the same generals with the surnames well-known to us and who petuate the memory of the defenders of the integrity of Russia" stood behind these murders. Why should they be given such honor? No, was organized exactly on that place where peaceful civilians had not exactly. Why should there be such disgrace to us? Aren't our dead human? been shot. In his speech the Deputy Governor of Pskov region Didn't they have the right to live? Didn't we love them? Are we unable to Viktor Gitin said: "It is especially important that the Chechen peo suffer? To shred into pieces, to burn, to feed to ple did not forget about those fighters who gave their lives for wild animals, and then finally to insult the memory of the dead and to pour poi- peace on the Chechen land." Indeed, the Chechen people did not son on the unhealed hearts of the aliveÖ Was it impossible not to do this, this forget and will hardly ever forget… last thing, really? Or, perhaps it is much simpler. Just like during Soviet

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 19 RETURNING Dosh #1(19)2008 In a small cellar there were two girls sitting next *** Lidiya YUSUPOVA to each other. A weak light of a candle could It took an hour to reach Ingushetia. They came to hardly illuminate their faces distorted by fear. stay with their friends from Grozny. Other Pushes from explosions continually forced them refugees found shelter in this street and in neigh to squeeze convulsively. They were both silently boring streets. The owners of the houses hud crying. Suddenly a small door of the cellar dled together with them and shared everything opened with a bang and a stream of incoming air that they had. put out the candle. The earth was shuddering from bomb explosions. The children began to cry Every morning Seda walked to Nazran. There loudly not concealing their fear any more. A shiv she stood in a long line to get to the trailers of the ering female voice whispered worthless words of Federal Migration Service to get an exit permit consolation in reply. that would allow her to leave the republic. Finally she obtained all the required papers. The next Auntie, shall we leave? day she came to the train station together with The woman nodded with a heavy sigh. the children. It took an effort to get a seat in a car compartment. *** The train was gaining speed. The train attendant, Like a black winding tape the road escaped from an elderly woman with a swollen face, under the wheels of the car. The fallen asleep hous announced loudly that there would be no stops es shrouded by the fog and deserted streets were through Mineralnye Vody. flying by. Seda turned back. The girls were asleep leaning on elbow over the bag with their belongings. An elderly man sat next to Seda and the children.

20 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 There was an 8 years old girl with soldiers and carried them all the way me away. In fact I am no relation to him. She studied her fellow travelers with us. We thought that sooner or lat him. He is Russian and I am with a long look and then introduced er we would bring them somewhere Chechen. herself: and bury there..." "Uncle Seryezha" was nervously look My name is Kheda. ing around in the corridor. And my name is Fatima, one of The girl was standing at the door of Please say that the girl is travelling Seda's nieces reacted briskly. the compartment and listening anx with you, he asked Seda in a low iously. The second Kheda, their new voice, I am taking her to my relatives I am Kheda too, said the second friend, interfered in the conversation: in Pyatigorsk, we used to be neigh niece. bors. Her parents are wounded and Auntie, while you were away, police After introduction the children moved her mother asked me to take her men came here and asked if there to a vacant shelf and started talking away. were any adults with us. I said that I vigorously about something. travel with you. If I tell them that I trav He handed the girl's birth certificate. el with uncle Seryezha, they can take Seda nodded. Seda was silently looking out the win dow. She recollected her mother's stories about the eviction, about the 1940s. "Winters here are just like in Kazakhstan." "Mom, tell me how you managed to survive there," Seda asked. "What can I tell? We lived with only one dream to return home," the woman responded with a sigh and continued: "The soldiers came at dawn and ordered to pack our belong ings quickly. I woke up the brother. He was 14 years old and I was 16. There were only the two of us at home. Mom had been taken away earlier and we did not know where she was... One of the soldiers began to shout at the brother because he was slowly putting on his clothes and raised a rifle at him. I could not think what to take. Then an officer came in. He stopped the soldier and told me: "Daughter, take warm clothes, take food, the road will be long." Then he left. I quickly collected what I could. Then they put us and our belongings on carts and escorted to the railway station. There they put us in the cars in which cattle is usually transported. They were narrow and it was impossi ble not only to sit but even to stand. The train took off. We soon lost count of days. It was a long journey. Occasionally the train stopped, they pulled out the sick people out of the car. Through a crack in the car we saw how they threw the dead into the snow. They did not allow us to leave the cars. Many did not survive and died, among them were children and women... Then we began to hide the bodies. We did not show them to the

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 21 A police major and a civilian person Seda left the children to the care of checkpoint of Federal Migration entered into the compartment. The her relatives and returned to Service. All the passengers had to major asked to show the documents Ingushetia. The way back home to leave the buses. The bags remained on the children and copied Seda's Grozny was not supposed to be easy. on the seats. The soldiers with dogs began to check them. They took away passport information. The road to the Chechen Republic passports and announced that people The civilian screamed: was closed. Every morning Seda could get them back in the window of walked to the checkpoint at the exit Where is the letter of attorney the trailer. The people formed a line. from Nazran. Hundreds of people regarding the children? The FMS officers required detailed crowded here also trying to get to information from each passenger. Seda looked at him but said nothing. Grozny or at least to learn something They searched their names and sur about their relatives who remained in What letter of attorney? They have names in a computer database. the Chechen Republic. Those who passed the check suc just got out from hell! protested the cessfully got their documents back major. She could see the tired faces of hun gry men and women who got chilled and were allowed to return to the bus. But the civilian insisted: to the bone while waiting long hours. Such stops occurred frequently. Each If there is no letter of attorney, then we The children were crying. Groans and time the checks detained the buses shall take away the children from you. shouts could be heard from different for several hours. They reached the

directions. But the road was tightly village of Asinovskaya only by seven The girls were numb and fearfully blocked by the federal troops. Having o'clock in the evening. There were exchanged glances achieved nothing out of long waiting two passenger cars that travelled Do not pretend that you take care of people went back home in the dark to together with the buses. Later Seda the children. You bomb them day and those who gave them shelter in learned from a conversation among night! Seda could hardly constrain Ingushetia. the women that in one of these cars her anger. Seda was exhausted from uncertain there was an old man who asked to let him see the land of his ancestors To avoid the conflict, the major ty. Every new step was even harder to before death. When they reached slammed his folder and muttered make. Nevertheless, she walked to Asinovskaya and the old man was "Case closed!" He returned the docu the checkpoint every day. Only two told that he was in the Chechen ments and left together with his partner. weeks later, during the first week of Republic his soul found eternal rest by *** November, several buses arrived sunrise. here. Instantly the buses got jam Late at night the train arrived in packed with people, mostly women. The line road was jammed with traffic. Mineralnye Vody. The police exam Grad rocket launchers were doing ined the luggage and documents. Soon they were stopped at the first their job without rest on both sides of

22 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 the road. Their salvos were shaking the ground. Seda was moving with this human stream unconsciously. Sleet was falling and she got chilled up to the bone. *** Seda kept walking but she did not understand what she was searching for. She was shivering though she did not feel the cold. How nice that I saw you! Mariam, a neighbor from Grozny, called Seda. Are you going home? Let's go togeth er. They agreed to set out next morning. They did not expect any transporta tion, so they had to go on foot. They decided to settle for the night in an empty house. The owners hastily abandoned it to escape from bomb ings. Now in the rooms there were refugees from the crowd that was creeping along the road. Seda didn't get a wink of sleep all night waiting for the dawn. The morn ing was gloomy and foggy. Together with Mariam she was on the road again. The road was a neverending flow of cars and trucks loaded with household items, fowl and animals. They were waiting for someone to take pity and allow them access to Ingushetia. She could read torment, bitter grief and hopelessness on the grey faces of the refugees. She walked as if in a dream. The friends who she met on her way bombardment and shelling intensi Seda and her sister rushed out of the were trying to convince her not to fied. Heavy bombing often occurred house to hide themselves in a small return to the city. They told that the city during the moments of prayers. The cellar which could not protect them was bombed day and night and the attacks calmed down for half an hour from a direct hit but could save them residents had abandoned Grozny. and then resumed again. from splinters. The women were persistent and con In December it became very cold. The Suddenly it became silent. The inter tinued their journey. The thought that soldiers blew up gas lines and warmth nal voice prompted that now some her native house was close was disappeared from houses. To get warm, thing terrible would happen. warming her soul. people started to cut trees and disas Seda turned to the sister: sembled and burned wooden fences. *** Let's say goodbye and forgive each One day at the end of December a November was surprisingly warm and other, she did not finish speaking massive bombardment began at sunny. when there came a deafening explo dawn. Everything around was on fire sion, then another one, even more Under the roar of bombardments and and falling down. Blast waves powerful... airstrikes the remaining residents of knocked out window frames and Grozny moved to live in cellars and doors. Tiles flew up from the roofs It seemed as if unknown forces were basements. In the beginning of winter and the ground was shaking. coming from under the ground and tear

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 23 ing it into pieces. She heard the rumble *** enough. Well, they went away. They of aircraft and new salvos of ground took away a few of our things. Now A week later Seda decided to go to artillery. It last for several infinite hours. other soldiers come here and plunder the village again, this time together every day. But do not touch us. *** with Mariam. They managed to pass She sighed and added: Seda came out of the cellar. Splinters of safely the open space. There was not tiles, broken glass, pieces of destroyed a single undamaged house in the Once they evicted us, we were dying walls and tumbled down trees were street. They could see grave hills in of famine and cold but they at least everywhere. Pity pieces of wires were some yards. In a side street they did not throw bombs at us. hanging from power line poles. Houses noticed an old woman who was hiding Seda was silent for a moment and were burning, animals were roaring, behind an undamaged brick fence. then said: and people were shouting. Do not go any further, she warned In those times they needed the There were soldiers marching along wiping her tears, There are soldiers bombs for the fascists and now they the street. Armored personnelcarri there, they shoot both women and have no place to store them. So they ers were rolling. Looking at this Seda men. Yesterday they killed everyone decided to spend them on us... recollected the movies about the in that house. Nevertheless, Seda and Mariam man Great Patriotic War. For an instant Seda entered into the yard covered by aged to get to the house of her rela everything happening seemed to her sleeves and cloths stained with blood. tives. But the street was deserted. All as if she was watching a movie. She glanced in one of the windows the houses were completely destroyed. Soldiers in dirty clothes were breaking and froze. into empty houses and in a rage were Among the ruins they noticed a All the walls were splashed with dragging everything that could come wheelchair. There was a killed woman blood. Dead bodies were near the handy. The protests of the residents sitting in it. walls. She wanted to enter but were answered with loud dirty swearing. stopped. There could be mines inside. It was dangerous to bury her today. *** After 15 o'clock snipers fired at every They wanted to kill me and my old thing that moved. Military units made a camp behind the man too, the old woman said, but village on a hill. Every morning a col one soldier said that they had Let's return tomorrow. umn of armored vehicles passed along the street in the direction of downtown. Combat action there never stopped. Once Seda dared to go to the neighbor ing village where her relatives lived. She passed by the mosque and began to cross the road. She noticed several dead bodies of men near the garages. Suddenly she felt a hot wave against her face and several bul lets whistled. "If they wanted to kill, they would have killed. I need to turn back, let them think that I got Scared."

24 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 DEMOGRAPHY

Dosh #1(19)2008 THE CHECHEN WAY Malika BETIEVA Today the demographic situation in the Simply there was no uniform database that could Chechen Republic is considered to be stable. allow monitoring this situation. Physicians of maternity hospitals were the first to Moreover, here we observe the highest ring the bell. The number of newborn babies with increase in population. The Chechen republic various pathologies grew in a geometrical progres- shows the highest population growth rate not sion. The situation reached its apogee when statisti- cal data for 2007 was printed in press. According to only across the Northern Caucasus but also in this data, the infant mortality rate in the Chechen all of Russia. It seems rather optimistic. Republic grew up 3.9% compared to the previous However, there is one essential thing that year and exceeded the country average by 1.6 times. In the opinion of experts, the growth of early neona- spoils this picture: alongside the high birth tal and neonatal mortality rate is directly connected rate in the Chechen Republic, infant mortality with the deterioration of health condition of preg- rate is also high. nant women, heavy pregnancy and congenital pathology. Officials from the Ministry of Health Care of the Until recently this theme was not discussed at all. Chechen Republic have their own view of this issue. More precisely, it was not exposed at the republican Major factors contributing to the growth of infant level. Not because there was no cause for trouble. mortality rate, in their opinion, are the heavy social, economic and ecological situa- tion, a low level of the material base in hospitals, late visits to women's consultations, and also the shortage midwifes and obstetricians. In December of last year, the Minister of Health Care of the Chechen Republic Shakhid Akhmadov expressed the opin- ion that the figure of 3.9% was probably not exact. He assumed that it could be even higher. The matter is that the Chechen Republic was only recently included in the uni- form register of statistical data of the Russian Federation. Therefore, not all data has been processed yet. According to the republican Ministry of Health Care, the highest infant mortality rates are registered in Shatoy, Nozhay-Yurt and Gudermes districts and in the city of Argun. This rate is also high in Nadterechniy district (from

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 25 about 9.6% in 2006 it increased to fact that 80-90% of women of repro- mutation of plants exceeds 10.2 times in 25.4% in 2007, i.e. by 2.6 times), in ductive age suffer from anemia and 20- the settlements where there had been an Achkhoy-Maratnovskiy district (from 30% from a heavy form of anemia. environmental contamination by prod- 7.9% up to 30.2%, i.e. by 3.8 times) and High levels of toxicoses and heavy ucts of oil refining, benzpyrene and in the city of Argun (from 8.8% up to forms of gestosis cause heavy and oper- heavy metals. 32.0%. i.e. by 3.6 times). ative delivery. In the opinion of members of According to the Ministry of Health In her opinion, another important factor Parliament, to solve all these problems, Care of the Chechen Republic, 31.5% of is the absence of a versatile hospital it is necessary to produce effective rec- babies died at home last year. Experts with specialized divisions in the republic. ommendations which would allow confirm that the causes of it are nega- Children's sanatoria and dairy kitchens improving the demographic situation in tive socio-economic factors, acute defi- do not function. There are no specialized the republic. In particular, it is necessary ciency of pediatric staff and an insuffi- hospitals for treating children suffering to make changes to the national priority cient level of medical aid at the pre-hos- from tuberculosis, no branches for pre- project "Health": to provide free-of- pital stage. However, to make the full mature babies and pathologies of new- charge services in the field of extracor- analysis of infant mortality rate now is borns. Over five thousand children and poral fertilization; full medical examina- impossible for two reasons: the absence women are sent to specialized clinics tion of pregnant women registered with of morbid anatomy services and reli- outside the republic every year. women's consultations; to create genetic gious bans. According the Chief Pediatrician, health consultations in all settlements; to renew To reduce maternal and infant mortality, and demographic parameters are also obligatory routine medical inspections of as confirmed by physicians, efforts at influenced by the growth of tuberculosis, the population; to strengthen sanitary the state level are necessary. the use of drugs, a low level of a labor education; and to monitor the realization of the national project. Besides, the This need was also expressed at one of safety, and the deterioration of food quality. members of Parliament insist on the the sessions of the Parliamentary necessity to accept a national program Committee on Social Policy of the According to statistics provided by which would allow improving the eco- Council of the Republic. The head of the Makhtieva, many women have at least logical conditions in the republic. Committee Aslambek Aidamirov said two or three chronic diseases. These are that the issue of protection of women's problems of blood circulation, breath, The solution of all these problems can and children's health is the "most burn- digestion, mental frustration and gyne- change the situation in the Chechen ing" today. Infant mortality rate in cologic diseases. Republic. Moreover, it will allow stop- 2006 was 18.4 for a thousand people ping the growth of mortality rate. On Aslambek Aidamirov added that the June 23rd, there was a charitable and for the first 9 months of 2007 it high infant mortality rate is a direct increased to 19.2. marathon "Health of the Nation" in consequence of a critical level of envi- Grozny. All the money collected during Alla Makhtieva, Chief pediatrician of ronmental contamination. Scientists of this event, 35 million roubles, will be the Republic, thinks that the growth of the Chechen State University conducted spent on treatment of children suffering infant mortality rate is caused by the a research proving that the level of from cardiac anomalies.

26 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 ROSTOV DOCTORS AND THEIR CHECHEN PATIENTS Patients from the Chechen Republic consider - When the war started in the Chechen Republic, the Dosh #1(19)2008 director issued an order allowing priority acceptance of Lydia MIKHALCHENKO the Rostov doctors as almost miracle makers. people from there without any appointment day or Askhab Vakhaev, a 5 years old resident of the night. Many women after treatment in our village of ChiriYurt near Grozny arrived in Department of Gynecology tell their friends about their impressions. Information about us is passed by Rostov for the first time. Alas, it was not a tourist word of mouth. Many who learned about the Institute trip. The boy had cancer. He came for surgery. from girlfriends, neighbors or relatives come to us. The doctors removed a tumor on his left temple. "Danger: Radiation!" His mother Zargan was really happy that they could It is a warning sign on the doors of the Department of get to Rostov. The doctors in the Chechen Republic Radiology. Ilyas Elmurzaev is taking here a repeated told her that if the operation had to be made in a local course of treatment. He speaks in a gentle voice as if hospital, the boy could have become blind. he is whispering. It all started with a usual cough. The doctors in the Chechen Republic doctors told him it The Rostov Oncologic Research Institute accepts over was bronchitis. So, Ilyas was treated for bronchitis until ten thousand patients from Southern Federal District his shoulders, the neck and the face became swollen. and some other regions every year. Approximately one When he arrived in Rostov, the doctors diagnosed can- tenth of all patients are residents of the Chechen cer. The top part of the right lung was obviously dim. Republic. Over the past three years the number of The salary of the 46 years old driver of postal service patients who arrive from the republic for treatment in was hardly sufficient to pay for his hospitalization. His Rostov increased 1,100 to 1,500 people. wife Petimat Arsambaeva who is constantly in hospi- The number of cancer patients in the former zone of tal with him told us: "counterterrorist operation" increases every year. More - In our village of Gvardeyskoye of Nadterechniy dis- and more children in the Chechen cities and villages trict, there are cancer patients in every family, some- become victims of monstrous illnesses. Malignant time two cancer patients in one household. How one tumors are often detected in young women and men. can remain healthy? There was no electricity and gas The causes become clear when you realize what con- in the district for a year. Instead there were explosions, ditions these people lived in over the past years: dis- radiation and waste of oil refining factories in the gusting ecology, radiation that is mysteriously poison- atmosphere. While the war was on, we lived in con- ing the republic, explosions, bombardments, famine, stant fear though the village was not bombarded. There and the absence of electricity and heat. The system of were only military helicopters flying very low above public health services was destroyed and it is impos- the houses and frightening people. sible to perform exact diagnosis timely. And there is another direct consequence of the war: stress and To rescue one's life and to protect the family were the depression. main goal during wartime. Health could wait. Galina Nerodo, Deputy Director of the Institute, told us: Farkhad Dzhabarov, Chief of the Department of Radiology, explained to us:

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 27 Polyclinic The polyclinic of the Rostov Oncology Institute is the first Department that accepts absolutely all. Here people are reg- istered and diagnosed. Larissa Vashchenko, Director of the polyclinic, told us: - We provide radiologic, computer, ultra- sonic, and morphologic testing to diag- nose the patient or to exclude an erro- neous earlier diagnosis, then we send the patient for further treatment. Patients from the Chechen Republic get here on a stretcher more often than others. Many women of reproductive age suffer from infertility. When you ask them why did not turn to a doctor earlier, they answer that there had no place to go.

"They grow up quickly here" Julia Kozel, Chief of Children's Department says that over two thirds of her patients are from the Chechen Republic. They come with system dis- eases of neck and stomach lymph nodes. We often observe neuroblastomas, Wilms tumors, and kidney and brain tumors. There are many hematologic patients and patients with acute leukemia. There are also congenital ill- nesses. Children with such anamnesis were treated for three or four months at home in the Chechen Republic, they were observed there, they were taking antibiotics and courses of physical ther- apy by nothing helped. It was only when they came here it was found out that they had a malignant tumor. - Today 30 beds, it is a third of all beds in Experts from the Institute unanimously the Department, are given to patients from say: almost all oncologic diseases can be - Recently we had a 16 years old girl from the Chechen Republic. They usually get cured but only at early stages. If the the Chechen Republic. She had an open here with the third or the fourth stage, the republic could have a diagnostic service, form of tuberculosis and rectal cancer. She ultimate stages of cancer development. In there could be fewer losses. A timely diag- was first directed to a tuberculosis clinic many cases surgical intervention is no nosis is fifty percent of success in treat- where she was cured of tuberculosis. Then longer possible. Then we provide palliative ment. However, oncologic diseases of she came to us for surgery. First we treatment: we remove pain, we try to stop nerves can only be diagnosed with the removed the tumor and then performed a the growth of a tumor by means of ioniz- help of computer tomographic scanner and reconstructive surgery. ing radioactive sources of irradiation, and they are absent in the hospitals of the When we speak about children, the doc- we provide preventive maintenance of tors are facing another problem: elemen- relapse. The rate of recovering patients Chechen Republic. tary misunderstanding. Many children from the Chechen Republic is lower than Only a few who require specialized treat- from the Chechen Republic almost do not of residents of other regions because we ment succeed in getting to the Rostov speak Russian. deal with patients in a very serious condi- Oncology Institute. Hundreds of Russian tion. We already know the schedule of citizens die of cancer at home for the Some officials of the Chechen Ministry of trains from Grozny. Someone on a stretch- lack of money and forces to get not only Health Care subject to serious danger the er always arrives at our doors an hour to Rostov but even to other neighboring lives of children who suffer from cancer after the arrival of the train from Grozny. republics where they accept cancer because even in such situation they con- - Do patients pay for their treatment patients. It is still impossible to count tinue to stick to the notorious red tape. themselves? cancer patients in the Chechen Republic. - We absolutely do not need the results of - Each republic has a quota, the number of Until recently, the Chechen Ministry of tests that had been taken there. The chil- patients who are treated free-of-charge Health Care did not collect any such sta- dren are losing at least a month before during a year. There are 250 places allo- tistical data. The figures in the reports they are directed to us! We take all these cated for the Chechen Republic and in cannot be considered authentic. One tests here ourselves again when the reality we take about 800 patients. We try report may show 2,495 people registered patient arrives. What are they wasting the to reduce the expenses of our patients to while a similar document may show half time of the patients reducing their chances the minimum. of this number. of recovery?

28 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 CONTROLLED

DOSH Documentary Film October, 2008 POGROMS Abdulla DUDUEV

DOSH Magazine presented a documentary film was something like a stamp, so the award was always about bloody Chechen pogroms that happened handed to a Kazakh. But he never got offended because of it. He liked his business. He did not care much about in Kazakhstan in March, 2007, when a crowd of honors and awards. over 300 drunk Kazakhs cruelly murdered three He found happiness in his amicable family, his nine sons Makhmakhanov brothers in the village of and five daughters. Elsa was a very kind person ready to share generously with everyone the pleasure of life that Kazatkom and selected trading kiosks and was overflowing his heart. …Until that terrible day of houses of the Chechens were attacked in the March 18th, 2007. In a flash of a bloody blade it killed the neighboring village of Malovodnoe. harmony of his previous peaceful times and his trust in life that he managed to keep all these years. In the middle of February 2007, strangers started to The majority of the Chechens presently living in appear in the village of Kazatkom of Almaty region of Kazakhstan are the citizens of Kazakhstan. They are Kazakhstan. The Kazakhs and the Russian have long those who remained here when the deported Vajnakhs lived here together with the Chechens, the Turks, and the moved back to their historical native land in 1957. Kurds. These strangers attempted to pit the Chechens During the deportation of the Chechens and the Ingush and the Kazakhs against each other. One of the Kazakhs in 1944, Elsa Makhmakhanov from a highmountainous living in Kazatkom who had recently had a fight with his village of Cheberloy was only 13 years old. His future Chechen neighbor told us later that several strangers spouse Khava was almost six. Their life in the Kazakhstan visited him and offered to call the Chechens down. But exile was as heavy as that of all of their compatriots. To survive, they had to undertake different jobs, despite the early childhood, illnesses, cold, or other difficulties. Elsa Makhmakhanov was never afraid of difficulties. He got used to working, became attached with his soul to this land, and fell in love with it. He got in exile when he was still a boy, but he grew up here, and this territory became his native land. He decided to remain in Kazakhstan. It seemed, for ever … He devoted all his life to working on land and to growing animals. He worked at the collective farm for over forty years. His 14 children grew up here and became true, reliable assistants to their father. He managed to give higher education to all of them. He taught them how to distinguish good from evil, justice from injustice, and, the most important, he developed a strong bond to honest work in them. Elsa was a wellknown respected cattle breeder in Kazakhstan. Every year he received regional and repub lican awards for extraordinary performance and exceed ing state plans. He was named the "Distinguished Cattle Breeder of Kazakhstan." Several times Makhmakhanov was nominated for the medal of Hero of Socialist Labor award but the fact that he belonged to the exiled people

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 29 March 17th. But on March 15th, district authorities unexpectedly refused permis sion for the meeting. On March 17th, there was a fight in a billiard room of the neighboring village Malovodnoe. It was established in court that several clients who were drunk began to beat a local villager who was a Kazakh. His Chechen friend Magomed, a distant rel ative of the Makhmakhanovs, attempted to intercede for the friend. Then the thugs attacked Magomed. Club manager called Takhir Makhmakhanov on the phone. Takhir rushed to the billiard room and rescued Magomed. He took Magomed to hospital. But one of the instigators of the fight Selimbaev arrived to the hospital soon after them. According to witnesses, there was a quarrel between him and Takhir. Eventually they reconciled and parted after having set tled the conflict. That illfated Sunday morning of March 18th nothing indicated a trouble. The large and amicable Makhmakhanov family had a tradition to get together on weekends in the the Kazakh was surprised that strangers willing to make mischief between the house of their parents in Kazatkom. The had learned about that fight and were will Chechens and the Kazakhs. youngest brother, 32 years old Amir, a stu ing to do him a favor. He turned down their Having felt something bad, Shamil and dent of London Business School, arrived in offer to help. Sado Makhmakhanov requested permis the morning. Two other brothers arrived Two weeks later, former chief of local police sion from the head of district administration with their families: Nazhmutdin arrived from Zapparov passed to one of the to provide the hall of the recreation center Kaliningrad and 50 years old Khadzhimurad Makhmakhanov brothers an invitation for a for the meeting where they intended to dis arrived from Astana where he worked as serious conversation from the same cuss the developing situation with fellow vil deputy director of court administration strangers who were roving in the neighbor lagers. department at the Supreme Court of hood. But the senior brother told the The official agreed with one condition: at Kazakhstan. younger brothers not to meet with these the meeting they should have discussed At the same time in Malovodnoe, located 8 strangers. One of those days, there was first of all the latest message of President kilometers away from Kazatkom, a huge also another ridiculous and suspicious Nazarbaev to the Kazakh people. The crowd of over three hundred men gathered occurrence. An unknown man about 50 Kazakh and Chechen elders volunteered to in front of the village administration build years old approached the house of the organize the meeting. The date was set for ing. As it was later established in court, the Makhmakhanovs on people had been brought March 11 and asked: "Did here from different areas of you order the gate? I Kazakhstan, some came came to check the size." from places located 60 and The women did not know even 100 kilometers away anything about it and from here. Everything had made a phone call to the been already prepared here: mother. She said that no disposable tableware, one had ordered a new snacks and, the main thing: gate and asked the man vodka. The thugs were to wait until she returned offered to drink quite a lot home. But the man disap before the "fight", obviously, peared without a trace. to make them more spiteful. Everyone familiar with the Two hours later the crowd Makhmakhanov family armed with pipes, bars, shot knew that their house guns, cans with gasoline, never had a gate: their and bottles with Molotov house was always open. cocktail got into fifty expen The situation was becom sive cars, obviously not ing more disturbing. A lot belonging to this intoxicated of things indicated that crowd, and accompanied by someone was very much several police cars drove in

30 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3 the direction of Kazatkom. According to rushed to crush Chechen trading kiosks in the three brothers could be saved had it eyewitnesses, two officers of the local the center of the village and to plunder been allowed by the chief of regional police Department of Internal Affairs, Uzak Chechen houses. They were taking out TVs, who hastily arrived at the hospital where the Zhakupov and Bolat Kasymzhanov even electronics, equipment, and cattle. halfalive brothers were delivered. A nurse made a phone call to their superiors before Deputy Chief of Almaty Region Department asked him: "What shall we do, blood is com departing from Malovodnoe to Kazatkom. of Internal Affairs Zhakupov personally ing out of the mouth of one of them At this moment, one of the Makhmakhanov observed the events. Like a traffic guide at a (Khadzhimurad)?" and the police chief brothers was driving through Malovodnoe in crossroads, he efficiently operated the answered: "Stitch up his mouth!" the direction of Almaty when he heard an "boisterous nature": the thugs obeyed his On the second day of the tragedy, the announcement from the loudspeakers of commands. The police that was supposed majority of Kazakhstan official massmedia one of the police cars that was accompany to protect peaceful residents was actually in presented a false interpretation of these ing the column: "Let the column pass!" He charge of the medieval bloodbath. events. It seemed as if it was a single pre waited until the column of cars passed and continued his way to Almaty. A few minutes later this column stopped right in front of his parents' house. The four brothers Makhmakhanov who were in the house during that moment had only time to grab two hunting guns. Unarmed Khadzhimurad came out of the house for negotiations. Takhir, Amir and Nazhmutdin also stepped out of the house and stood in front of the crowd with two shotguns. Suddenly someone struck Khadzhimurad on his head with a bar. He fell down. The brothers tried to stop the crowd and began shooting first in the air, then in the ground and the feet of the attackers. But the drunk crowd flew into a rage and pressed as if they were crazy. Then the brothers opened fire for effect. The crowd started to throw stones, bottles, and bars at them. To rescue the members of household: the old parents, the women and young children, all the 16 people who remained in one of the houses, Khadzhimurad, Nazhmutdin and Amir ran in the direction of the field so that the crowd could follow them. In the meantime, the second house and the Moreover, the police arrested two fabricated version of the events, according cars parked on the site were set on fire by Makhmakhanov brothers, Zelimkhan and to which the victims of the pogrom were someone from the crowd. The smoke from Sado, who arrived to rescue their relatives. declared guilty because they themselves this enormous fire was becoming denser. The brothers were kept in custody for had been killed and plundered. Deputy of While the arsonists were having a good almost two days at the district police sta Parliament of Kazakhstan General Serik time, the others noticed the escaping tion. Abdrakhmanov justified the murderers in brothers and rushed towards them across According to Zelimkhan, Viceminister of this way: "The Makhmakhanov family lived the field. Several kilometers away from the Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan Shpekaev not by the law but by a law onto themselves. house, Amir, Khadzhimurad and told them: "The people demand that the They lived too rich! This has been causing Nazhmutdin were out of breath and they Chechen should be evicted. And it is likely 'heartburn' among our people for a long stopped. that we will evict you." When Zelimkhan time." Sado Makhmakhanov, having learned by asked him: "So, go ahead and evict us, why An independent newspaper Epokha was the phone about what happened, rushed to the kill us?" ViceMinister scornfully said: only newspaper in the republic of house of his parents. In Malovodnoe, near a "Don't be a clever ass!" Kazakhstan that published an objective gas station, he stumbled over a person lying For five hours the police did not let the chronicle of the tragedy and this issue of the in dirt who was halfnaked and stained with ambulance cars approach to the bleeding newspaper became the last one. Epokha blood. It was his senior brother victims of the pogrom! was closed instantly. Because there should Hadzhimurad. It turned out that Nazhmutdin As a result the Makhmakhanov brothers be no alternative version of the events. and Amir were transported to Malovodnoe died in hospital without regaining con Many were impatiently awaiting the reaction while they were unconscious and the crowd sciousness: the younger Amir died first, of Nursultan Nazarbaev, President of continued to beat them. then Nazhmutdin, and four days later Kazakhstan. It only followed 40 days later. In the meantime, part of the crowd started Khadzhimurad. The doctors who later were The head of Kazakhstan found applicable to shout "Kazakhstan for the Kazakhs!" and afraid to witness in court confessed that all only to remind the Chechens of who had

DIGEST ISSUE #3 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH 31 the instigators of the pogrom who was shot in the back of the head by one of the attack ers right at the place of the pogrom. And it was Takhir Makhmakhanov who was accused of this murder. An international arrest warrant was issued against him. One high ranking general of Kazakhstan National Security Committee told the elder Makhmakhanov on the basis on anonymity that there was a secret order to shoot Takhir as soon as he would be found and it should be passed for resistance during the arrest. Our trip to Kazakhstan and shooting the documentary was not easy. Many eyewit nesses who had expressed willingness to speak on camera in earlier telephone con versations were evading the interview the last minute. As they told us later, after our telephone conversations they were visited by officers from the National Security Committee who threatened to organize problems similar to those of the Chechens. Today many Chechens and Russians wish to leave Kazakhstan. They do not see any given shelter to them during the deporta and the Parliament of Kazakhstan were future for themselves here. One can often tion, and he called on them to be grateful ignored entirely. As if they never existed. see ads on the gates "The house is for for it. As if Comrade Stalin, the father of all At the same time, law enforcement agen sale." But how can one sell it when nobody Soviet peoples, had asked the deported cies put pressure upon the Chechens from is willing to buy? Any prospective buyer is whether they wished to stay here for a while Malovodnoe demanding that they should approached by strange persons who warn: or the inhabitants of places of exile whether not write in their statements that there had "Do not buy or we will burn the house they were willing to host the deported! been any pogroms. As it was discovered down!" Court hearings resembled those during the later, this was necessary to transform the Soon after these events, the authorities of trials of Russian military Budanov and murder of the Makhmakhanov brothers into Kazakhstan expressed the desire to take Ulman that had taken place in Rostovon a criminal conflict and to open two different the presidency of the Organization for Don: with groups of support of the murder criminal cases. Security and Cooperation in Europe in the ers and fascist yelling at the victims and all It doesn't take Poirot or Sherlock Holmes to year 2010 and the body's council approved the Chechens. see not only interest but also direct partici this move. Can the country whose authori In December 2007, the Almaty Regional pation of rather influential persons from ties warm up and provoke xenophobia court pronounced its sentence in the case various Republican authorities in the brutal instead of fighting against it set a good of Amir's and Khadzhimurad's murder. The punishment of the Chechens. No matter example while heading this respectful investigation of Nazhmutdin's murder with how dis European institution even for one year? regard to offense committed by unknown gusting a persons remains unfinished until now. Two crowd of defendants were sentenced to 10 years of drunk imprisonment and the third was sentenced thugs is, to 12 years. Two more were put on proba they are not tion for burning the cars and the house. And the main there was no criminal case opened with instigators regard to the policemen, numbering, of what according to eyewitnesses, not less than 16 happened (and 16 were only those who were wearing but only the uniform), who plundered the house of the pawns in Makhmakhanov family. someone's As of today, the organizers of the pogroms mean but have not been found. Participation of the quite sober policemen in this crime, which is obvious to hands. many, was not even considered. The Evidence to appeals that the Makhmakhanov family this is the sent to the State Office of Public profession Prosecutor, the National Security al murder Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, of one of

32 Caucasian INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE DOSH DIGEST ISSUE #3