GROZNY — Chechens held by Russian occupation forces in a notorious prison in the bombed-out Oktyabrsky district of Grozny are still haunted by nightmarish years of torture and abuses.
"On the first day, they let the German shepherd dogs loose on me," Alavdi Sadykov remembered in documents released by the Russian human rights group Memorial on torture counts given by Chechens, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Monday, June 12.
Then "they cut off my ear," recalled the former school teacher who was held for three months for alleged possession of explosives — a charge he says was fabricated by Russian investigators.
"They humiliated us -- it gave them pleasure," said Sadykov.
International human rights watchdogs said in a recant joint statement that rape, torture and extrajudicial executions by Russian troops have become everyday occurrences in Chechnya.
Thousands of Chechens have also been abducted and never seen again.
Human Rights Watch said that the wide-scale "forced disappearance" of Chechens with the full knowledge of Russian authorities is a crime against humanity.
The small mountainous republic of Chechnya has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, with just three years of relative peace after the first war between Russian forces and Chechen fighters ended in August 1996 and the second broke out in October 1999.
At least 100,000 civilians and 10,000 Russian troops are estimated to have been killed in both wars, but human rights groups have said the real numbers could be much higher.
Thousands of refugees from war-torn Chechnya live in battered tent camps in neighboring Ingushetia and refuse to return home because of continuing insecurity.
Torture for All
Human rights groups say thousands of Chechens have been abducted by Russian forces and never seen again.
Sadykov said he saw up to 40 prisoners — both men and women — during his detention in the building.
"There were four cells in this cellar, one of which was a big room called the 'special room' where the torture and beating of prisoners took place," he added.
"When commissions came to inspect the prison, they would take us to another cell."
Memorial said former detainees are beginning to speak out about the abuses that took place at the facility and the organization has gathered documentation on eight people who were held here and then disappeared.
"Every prisoner held there was tortured," said Natalya Estemirova, head of Memorial's Grozny office.
She said her organization had spoken to at least 20 people who were held in the facility and who have told tales of abuse similar to Sadykov's.
"We know that there are bodies buried near the building and in the court and elsewhere."
A Russian interior ministry unit was based in the building — a former institute for deaf children that became a heavily-guarded compound surrounded by barbed wire during the war — until it was abandoned last month, Memorial campaigners said.
Today, builders are refurbishing the building and the floors of the cellar are covered in rubble.
But just before builders moved in, traces of the hidden hell remained visible — graffiti etched on the walls with names, dates and supplications.
"Heaven for the martyrs -- hell's flames to the non-believers," read one. "The day of reckoning is near," said another.
One inscription read simply: "Everything has passed and this too will pass."
I remember that.... that was pretty bad. Who kills innocent children to make there point like that!?!
Everyone. War's a female dog like that.
(Note: I am not condoning the actions of any meathead who kills innocents. In my book, whether you kill a civilian by accident or on purpose, you're a bloody idiot, nationality and religion be damned)
(Note: I am not condoning the actions of any meathead who kills innocents. In my book, whether you kill a civilian by accident or on purpose, you're a bloody idiot, nationality and religion be damned)
When a group goes into a school and takes little kids hostages to make there point. It makes me an instant enemy of there point.
I've come accross these kinds of torture by filthy, communist Russians.....I have heard of raping while the person/child is dead....I've forgotten the word.
I've come accross these kinds of torture by filthy, communist Russians.....I have heard of raping while the person/child is dead....I've forgotten the word.
Necrophilia, perhaps. That is one disgusting crime.
I've come accross these kinds of torture by filthy, communist Russians.....I have heard of raping while the person/child is dead....I've forgotten the word.
Necrophilia. Come across torture in what way? Were you picked up by Russians?
The 1997 election of separatist President Aslan Maskhadov led to turbulence within the country and, despite Russia's early recognition of their independent status as well as the 1997 Moscow peace treaty, a chilly relationship with Moscow continued. In May 1998, Valentin Vlasov, a personal envoy of Boris Yeltsin, was kidnapped and released on November 13. Further tensions arose in January and February of 1999 as President Maskhadov announced that Islamic Sharia law would be introduced in Chechnya over the course of the next three years. In March of that year, General Gennadiy Shpigun, the Kremlin's envoy to Chechnya, was kidnapped at the airport and ultimately killed. At the same time, President Maskhadov himself survived several assassination attempts.
[edit]
Terrorist activity in 1996-1999
Despite the signing of the 1996-1997 peace agreements the pro-Chechen terrorist activity in Russia continued.
November 16, 1996 - Terrorists blew up an apartment building in Kaspiysk (Dagestan); 69 persons, mostly relatives of border guards, died.
April 23, 1997 - A bomb exploded in the Russian railway station of Armavir; three people died.
May 28, 1997 - A bomb explosed in the Russian railway station of Pyatigorsk; two people died.
December 22, 1997 - TheDagestani Central Liberation Front and the Arab warlord Ibn al-Khattab raided the base of the 136th Armoured Brigade of the Russian Army in Buinaksk (Dagestan), destroying its 300 vehicle motor pool, including 50 T-72 tanks, and killing scores of soldiers.
April 16, 1998 - A Russian army convoy was ambushed in Ingushetia near the Chechnya border. A general, two colonels and three soldiers were killed and Ingush militants were blamed.
March 19, 1999 - An explosion occurred in the Central market of Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia) and 64 people died.
April 7, 1999 - Chechen gunmen killed four Russian policemen patrolling the border near Stavropol.
June 18, 1999 - Chechen fighters attacked Russian border posts in Dagestan. Seven men were killed and 15 wounded in separate confrontations.
Additionally, numerous acts of violence were reported in Chechnya itself. The violence peaked on July 16, 1998, when fighting broke out between Maskhadov's National Guard led by Sulim Yamadayev and radical Wahhabi militants in the town of Gudermes. Over 50 people were reported killed. On June 21 the Chechen security chief, Lecha Khulygov, and a guerrilla commander, Vakha Dzhafarov, fatally shot each other in an argument.
Kidnapping-for-ransom flourished. On October 25,1999, Shadid Bargishev, the top anti-kidnapping official, was killed in a remote-controlled car bombing; he was about to begin a major offensive on hostage takers. On December 10, Mansur Tagirov, Chechnya's top prosecutor, disappeared while returning to Grozny. On several occasions, Russian special forces raided Chechen territory.
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