Evidence mounts of Russian troops’ abuse in Chechnya

MAURA REYNOLDS

MOSCOW, JANUARY 7: Human-Rights workers are collecting what they describe as mounting evidence that Russian troops committed unjustified killings and other abuses during military operations in two towns in separatist Chechnya over the past eight days. Usam Baisayev, deputy director of the regional office of the Russian human-rights group Memorial, said the first military operation began in the town of Tsotsin-Yurt on December 30 and appeared to target Chechen men.

‘‘The soldiers kept shooting at any Chechen male they saw for four days in a row,’’ Baisayev said from his office in the city of Nazran, on the border with Chechnya. ‘‘They did not even bother to figure out whether the person they were about to deprive of life is or was a member of a rebel gang.’’

The operations began as Russia shut down for the country’s biggest holidays — New Year’s Day on January 1 and Orthodox Christmas, which is being observed on Monday. Most newspapers stop printing during the period, and TV news broadcasts are reduced.

Russian military officials have issued perfunctory reports about the operations, saying the troops are rooting out rebels hiding among the civilian population. The official reports have said Russian troops ‘‘destroyed’’ 100 rebels, including several field commanders, during a ‘‘special operation’’ in Tsotsin-Yurt. They have not mentioned any detentions or arrests; officially, suspected rebels are supposed to be taken into custody during an investigation into their activities.

The second operation began on Thursday in the town of Argun to hunt down as many as 30 alleged rebels who may have escaped from Tsotsin-Yurt, according to official reports. No civilian was allowed into or out of Argun for a fourth day on Sunday.

‘‘The ring around militants is getting tighter,’’ Colonel General Georgy Shpak, commander of Russia’s paratroop force, told the Itar-Tass news agency Friday. ‘‘The troops are intensifying special operations because it is easier to fight militants in winter.’’ Russian officials say the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet KGB, is overseeing the Argun operation along with military and civilian prosecutors. They have reported that 38 suspected rebels have been detained there. ‘‘I have been there myself today,’’ Vsevolod Chernov, the chief prosecutor of Chechnya, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday on the TV-6 network.

‘‘There have been no complaints from the people. Military and local prosecutors as well as representatives of the public — elders from the city of Argun — are taking part in the operation.’’ Information about events in Chechnya is often fragmentary and unverifiable because of poor communication and a lack of impartial observers. Most Russian news reports are based on official statements from military headquarters; the Chechen rebels’ website routinely exaggerates rebel gains.

Kheda Saratova, an investigator with Memorial, spent three days in Tsotsin-Yurt before leaving on Saturday and collected evidence that at least 37 civilians were killed by Russian troops. She said that in order to retrieve the bodies, relatives of the victims were forced to sign a statement acknowledging that their loved ones were members of rebel groups. ‘‘Troops kill peaceful civilians and then try to pass them off as rebels,’’ she said after reaching Nazran, in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia. (LATWP)