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Russian Outrages in Chechnya Creating "Climate Of Hate"
MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A bomb attack this week, in which a Chechen woman, died attempting to blow up a Russian general underscored the climate of hate wrought by a long campaign of looting, killing and kidnappings by Russian troops in the breakaway republic, a Russian human rights group said Friday.
"We don't know why a young woman was so filled with hate. But we know that the violence and the outrages committed by the federal forces give rise to hatred for the federal authorities and their representatives," the group, Memorial, said.
To back up its charges, Memorial released a copy of a letter written by Zainap Chankayeva from the Urus-Martan region in southwestern Chechnya in which she said that her son and nephew, both 16, had been taken away by Russian soldiers and subsequently disappeared.
"On September 19, around 10:00 am, some masked men, in uniform, appeared suddenly, firing in the air, and took away my son, Ramzan, and my nephew, Aslan, both aged 16. On October 8, I recognized one of the soldiers near the entrance to the Urus-Martan military command," she said.
However a complaint to the regional military administrator General Geidar Gadzhiev drew no response, Memorial noted in a statement.
Gadzhiev was seriously wounded when a bomb carried by an assailant exploded close to him Thursday. Another soldier was killed in the blast.
The woman, whose body was torn to pieces, has not yet been identified. But local police said she was aged around 30, the widow of a Muslim activist killed in clashes with federal forces.
Russia has been internationally condemned for its massacres of Chechen Muslims.
Memorial also released a letter sent to Russian state prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov by the 100 inhabitants of another village in the Urus-Martan region, Alkhazurovo, which denounced outrages committed by federal soldiers during a round-up operation from October 8 to 11.
They said Gadzhiev, commanding the operation, had beaten a pregnant woman, causing her to miscarry.
"On October 11, at a meeting where several villagers had gathered together to ask for an end to the outrages, General Gadzhiev lost his temper, seized Raisa Murtalyeva and kicked and punched her, causing her to miscarry, as has been attested by doctors," they said.
Several villagers were injured and two, men aged 52 and 24, disappeared during the operation, they noted.
There had been kidnappings prior to the operation, the villagers charged.
"On August 15, soldiers seized Akhmadov in broad daylight, and he has not been seen since. On September 24 at 3:00 in the morning soldiers in armored cars broke down the door of the house of the Shabanov brothers and took them to an unknown destination," they said.
Acknowledging that there were "a good many examples of soldiers and policemen acting honestly and decently," Memorial warned that the events in the Urus-Martan region "clearly show the impasse at which the policy of the federal authorities in Chechnya has arrived."
"The outrages by those who are supposed to defend law and order can only give rise to violence in return," the non-government organization said.
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