Ingushetia: Enforced Disappearances , Extrajudicial Killings and Unlawful Detentions

Ingushetia: Enforced “Disappearances”, Extrajudicial Killings and Unlawful Detentions. December 2003 – June 2004

International Helsinki Federation

for Human Rights (IHF)

4 August 2004

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) is a non-governmental organization that seeks to promote compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and its follow-up documents. In addition to supporting and providing liaison among 42 Helsinki committees and cooperating organizations, the IHF has direct links with human rights activists in countries where no Helsinki committees exist. It has consultative status with the United Nations and the Council of Europe.

The IHF represents member and cooperating committees in Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Uzbekistan. Other cooperating organizations include the European Roma Rights Centre (Budapest), Human Rights without Frontiers (Brussels) and the Mental Disabilities Advocacy Center (Budapest).

President: Ludmilla Alexeyeva

Vice President: Ulrich Fischer

Executive Director: Aaron Rhodes

Deputy Executive Director/Legal Counsel:Brigitte Dufour

Chief Editor:Paula Tscherne-Lempiäinen

International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights

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2004 by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and IHF Research Foundation. All rights reserved.

“I would like you to understand that the hysteria about the so-called abductions of people, which is whipped up by some mass media, is aimed at discrediting us. This informational campaign is well paid for, and is meant to form a negative public opinion about security organs and special services. Our opposition is interested in fueling hostile feelings towards us, so that they can realize their plans on the territory of Russia, where Ingushetia is playing an increasingly important role. Therefore we want to point out the sanctioned nature of all security service actions which lead to limitation of personal rights and freedoms of the citizens.”[1]

(FSB officer A.I. Salavaitov in a discussion with university students, quoted by “Serdalo”, 27 May 2004)

Foreword

As part of a long-term effort to document the human rights situation in Chechnya and adjoining regions, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) herewith submits information on a number of cases, including disappearances, violent civilian deaths, and unlawful detentions in Ingushetia. The most recent information was gathered in the course of two IHF fact-finding missions in Ingushetia and Chechnya on 7 – 13 June and 25 June – 13 July 2004.

These cases are particular illustrations of a larger panorama of human rights abuses, but the details of every case cannot be properly documented. International and Russian mass media, for the most part, do not record events in most parts of the region and cannot work toward transparency that would create a safer environment for its inhabitants. The role of intergovernmental institutions remains marginal and limited to mild criticism of Russian conduct in the region. The IHF is unaware of any effective measures taken by the Russian authorities to address the climate of impunity for human rights violations related to the conflict.

The situation in Chechnya, including its repercussions on Ingushetia and other neighboring regions of Chechnya, continues to present the gravest challenge to human rights standards in the entire OSCE region, and as such remains a priority for the IHF and its affiliated Helsinki Committees.

I. The Situation in Ingushetia has Steadily Deteriorated over the Past Year

Ingushetia, which has sheltered tens of thousands of Chechen refugees, is no longer a safe place, neither for the refugees nor for Ingush citizens themselves.

Since the summer of 2003, human rights activists have been trying to attract the attention of the authorities in the Russian Federation and in the international community to the fact that mop-up operations, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and forced disappearances took place in refugee camps in Ingushetia more and more often. The atmosphere of impunity spread to Ingushetia from the neighboring Chechnya.

Then, in 2004, not only Chechen IDPs, but also more and more Ingush citizens started to become victims of forced “disappearances”. The method has usually been the same: armed and masked people in camouflage forcibly take the victim in an unknown direction without identifying themselves. In the best-case scenario, this person is found beaten several days later near some village. But in many cases the person disappears entirely.

On 23 April 2004, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, S.B. Fridinsky, dated and sent a letter[2]to B.I. Kodzoev, Ingush deputy of the Russian State Duma. This letter confirmed that the number of abductions in the republic is on the rise, and that relatives of the disappeared persons believe that the FSB is involved:

“We have considered your request [for information] about abductions that took place in 2002-2003 on the territory of the Republic of Ingushetia and that were committed by camouflaged armed persons – specifically, the cases of Ozdoev R.B., Jevloev Kh.M., Ismailov M.Kh., Jandiev T.M. and Mutsolgov B.A.

Our inspection showed that in 2002 in the Republic of Ingushetia 13 cases of abductions were registered, in 2003 – 20, and in the first quarter of 2004 – 7 crimes of this category. In the process of investigating criminal cases about persons abducted by camouflaged people, all claims that the illegal arrests was carried out by the FSB are considered, and measures are taken to check this information. However, there is currently no proof that power structures were involved in any of the open cases.”

At about the same time, Abubakar Kostoyev,[3] who at the time was the Interior Minister of Ingushetia, confirmed in an interview with “Novaya Gazeta” correspondent Anna Politkovskaya[4] that forced disappearances (abductions) are conducted by special services military men, who call these operations ‘special activities’. In most cases they come from Chechnya, and if they have a ‘special coupon’ (i.e. special pass), the Ingush militia has cannot examine their cars. As indicated by a Federal Interior Ministry order, the Ingush militia should not obstruct these ‘special activities’ in any way.

At all checkpoints the military men from these cars identify themselves as FSB officers, and if the militia tries to prevent such a vehicle from passing to the Ingush territory, the men refer to an agreement with the Head of the FSB Administration in Ingushetia, General Sergey Koryakov.

The situation in the republic is becoming more and more tense. The people are waiting for a response from the authorities, which behave as if nothing is happening. The official mass media remains quiet. On 19 March 2004, the desperate relatives of abducted Ingush residents arranged an unsanctioned meeting in order to force the Ingush authorities to address the problem. The meeting was broken up.

Are legal structures going to put an end to the impunity in the republic? Rashid Ozdoev, Deputy Prosecutor of Ingushetia, responsible for investigating unlawful activities of security force structures, attempted to do that. An official of the Prosecutor’s Office, he spoke openly about the cases of unacceptable conduct of power structures, displeasing General Sergey Koryakov, Head of the Ingush FSB. Ozdoev repeatedly made written and oral protests requiring FSB officials in the Ingush Republic to stop violating the law.

On 11 March 2004 Rashid Ozdoev disappeared.

Everything that is further known about Rashid Ozdoev`s abduction became known not as a result of effective measures undertaken by the law enforcement agencies of Ingushetia, but in the course of independent investigation conducted by his father, an ex-judge and prominent lawyer Boris Ozdoev.

II. The Disappearance of Rashid Ozdoev, Ingush Deputy Prosecutor who Opposed Illegal Activities of FSB, on 11 March 2004 in Ingushetia

In the night of 11 March 2004, armed men forcefully stopped the car of Rashid Ozdoev at a gas station near the village of Verkhnya Achaluki (district of Malgobek) and abducted him. According to witnesses, two cars, a white Gazel and a white Niva, blocked the road and thereby halted Ozdoev’s dark green VAZ 21099. Several armed people in camouflage emerged from the Gazel and, without any explanations, forced Rashid Ozdoev (1975), Tamerlan Tsechoev (1962) and reportedly one more unknown passenger into the Gazel. Taking Ozdoev`s car, they headed for Nazran. The witnesses claim that the perpetrators spoke Russian without any accent.

On the same day at about midnight all three vehicles – the white Gazel, the white Niva and the dark green VAZ 21099 – were seen approaching to the building of the Ingush FSB. Niva and VAZ had traces of damage. When the assistant of the officer on duty asked for documents, he was told in an abrupt manner that the visitors are expected by Sergey Koryakov, Head of the FSB. The assistant called Koryakov and was ordered to let the vehicles in.

When the relatives conducting an independent investigation asked to be allowed to address possible witnesses of the incident via local television, they were refused. The last thing they could find out about Ozdoev was that a brutally beaten person resembling him was seen in Khankala (the main military base of Chechnya).

Rashid Ozdoev was one of the few Prosecution officers who seriously tried to combat abductions and other grave violations of the law in his republic – until he himself was abducted.

On 14 March 2004 the office of Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Ingushetia opened a criminal case under article 126 of the Russian Criminal Code (abduction of a person). On 2 April 2004 it opened another criminal case under the same article in connection with the abduction of Tamerlan Tsechoev. So far, the investigation has not produced any real results.

When the two rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Rudolf Bindig and Andreas Gross, conducted their fact-finding visit to Moscow, Grozny and Nazran in order to prepare their report to the PACE on the political and human rights situations in the Chechen Republic in the end of May 2004, they also met the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Sergey Fridinsky. The list of cases, about which they requested further information, also included the forced “disappearance” case of Rashid Ozdoev. Fridinsky promised to provide them with further information about the steps his office has taken in order to solve the case.

According to an article in the Washington Post,[5] Boris Ozdoev and other male elders of his family, following an Ingush custom, convened a meeting with one of the FSB officers and his relatives. At the meeting this FSB officer admitted his own involvement as a driver, and said that Koryakov ordered the operation. Musa Ozdoev, a retired economist and cousin of Boris Ozdoev, confirmed that he was at the council meeting and heard the FSB officer admit his involvement. The Ingush webpage ingushetiya.ru[6] published the name of this officer, Rustavel Sultygov, and claims that this confession was recorded on a cassette and that Sultygov promised to tell investigators everything he knows. But then “Sultygov got fearful of Koryakov and testified that he knew nothing.”

The Washington Post article also quotes an FSB spokesman disputing that Koryakov has ordered Ozdoev’s abduction, claiming that “if he ever did this he would be removed from his post immediately.”

On 27 May Novaya Gazeta published a letter to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation allegedly written by a member of the FSB of the Stavropol region. In this letter someone called Igor Onishchenko acknowledges having participated in the abduction and mutilation of a prosecutor who was identified by Novaya Gazeta as Rashid Ozdoev. He writes: “Personally, I and Sergei maimed more than 50 people, we buried about 35.”[7]

On 2 August Novaya Gazeta, published an article with the answer from the Deputy Prosecutor General, Sergey Fridinsky, to an inquiry from Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov regarding Ozdoev´s case[8]:

Deputy Ryzhkov sent our article (“Confessions of a death squadron fighter”, Novaya Gazeta, 27.05.2004) to the Office of the Prosecutor General as forced reading, together with an information request. So Mr. Fridinsky had to condescend to a reply.

Before publishing Fridinsky’s answer to deputy Ryzhkov, we should note that at the time this answer was composed, the Office of the Prosecutor General already possessed not only Onishchenko’s letter, but also an audiocassette with similar, non-anonymous confessions of another death squadron fighter. He also works at the Ingush UFSB under general Koryakov. The contents of both Onishchenko’s letter and the audiocassette are shocking.

Now you may read the letter from mister deputy prosecutor general:

“… The investigation established that Onishchenko Igor N. does not work at UFSB of the RF in Stavropolsky kraj. In the FSB department of city of Budennovsk there is a vice supervisor named Onishchenko Alexey Nikolaevich, who did not write anything to the prosecutor’s office. During the investigation of criminal case #04800001 (disappearance of Ozdoev R.B.) the FSB of the Republic of Ingushetia reported that it is unaware of the location of the person in question, nor is it aware of the detainment itself or of any accompanying operations.”

As there are strong indicators that the forced “disappearance” and possible extrajudicial execution of Rashid Ozdoev, were indeed ordered by Koryakov, it is to be hoped that in case the investigation will find evidence of his involvement, he will not only be dismissed from his post, but also brought to justice. Unfortunately, so far the prosecutor´s office did not act in a robust enough manner in order to verify the FSB involvement in a serious manner, also because it (as well as the Ingush executive organs) lacks the necessary political support of the federal authorities.

III. Some Cases of Disappearances and Extrajudicial Executions of Chechen IDPs in Ingushetia

The following cases only partly reflect the current situation in present-day Ingushetia. They were given to the IHF by the Human Rights Center ‘Memorial’.[9]

On 2 March 2004 at about 5 pm near Altievo (Nazran) a Chechen resident Akhmed Bansukaev, suspected of involvement in illegal armed formations, was killed by armed officers of an unidentified security force structure during a so-called ‘special operation’. Witnesses report that Bansukaev did not show any resistance when detained.

On 4 March 2004 at about 5 am in Psedakh (Malgobekskiy district)armed people of an unidentified security structure broke into the house of a Chechen IDP Luisa Guluyeva (1964). Aiming a gun at her daughter Zharadat (1988), they demanded that she disclose the whereabouts of her husband Shaihi Visaitov (1957). The woman said that he had left for Nazran two days ago and did not come back so far. They answered, “If you don’t know where the father is, we will take the son”, took Khoj-Akhmed (1986), beat him up and drove away. The mother’s request to inform her where the son is being taken was ignored.

When local police arrived at the site of the incident, the officers did not let them interfere, threatening to fire at them.

In two days Luisa Guluyeva managed to find out that her son was kept in Makhketi village of Vedenskiy district of Chechnya (where the Visaitovs had lived before the war), and that he will be released as soon as his father shows up.

On 6 March 2004 at about 5 pm a Chechen refugee Soslanbek Ulbiyev (1973), temporary residing in Ingushetia (Karabulak city, 47 Bachalov st), was unlawfully detained. 35 men in camouflage, some of them masked, came in 5-6 cars, entered the house, and conducted a search without showing any IDs. Then, without any explanation, they took Ulbiyev away. When his wife asked, “Where are you taking him?” the people recommended addressing the City Interior Department of Karabulak (GOVD). When the relatives turned to this GOVD police station an hour later, nothing was known of Ulbiyev’s whereabouts.

On 13 March Ulbiyev was unexpectedly ‘released’. He was dumped in a forest area between Tolstoy Yurt and Gorjacheistochnenskaja (Grozny district, Chechnya).

On 10 March 2004 Bislan Dokuyev (1985), of the ‘Satsita’ IDP camp in Ordzhonikidzevskaya, was unlawfully detained by armed officers of unidentified security force structures and of Chechen origin. They came to Dokuyev's tent and called for Bislan. He came out with his mother, Markhet Dokuyeva (1952). When Dokuyeva saw what was happening, she tried to prevent the officers from putting her son into the car, but was knocked down by a rifle butt blow. The officers of the Ingush militia who were on duty in the camp did not even try to interfere.

About four days later, the battered Bislan was dumped in the field near Mesker-Yurt (Shali district, Chechnya).