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RUSSIA (News Agencies)-Despite recent Russian government assurances that all crimes against civilians will be investigated, Amnesty International continues to collect evidence of daily abuses in Chechnya while the perpetrators remain unpunished. Amnesty International reports that Russian atrocities of torture and rape continue in Chechnya. "One of them was an investigator, called Vasiliy. I heard how he ordered: ‘Let's do it.’ And they began forcing wooden clubs into me... I cried and cried and called for help, I was in so much pain. I lost consciousness many times. I heard one of them say: ‘We will make you incapable of producing children,’” said “Zelimkhan”, a survivor of the Internat filtration camp. Amnesty International has received new disturbing testimonies from survivors of the Internat filtration camp in the town of Urus-Martan in Chechnya that detainees, including children, have continued to be raped and subjected to other brutal torture. Amnesty International had previously obtained testimonies from four former detainees at the Internat camp, who independently confirmed torture and ill treatment in the camp. The organization also has information, including the conclusions of a postmortem medical examination, that at least one person died as a result of torture and ill treatment at the Internat camp. Amnesty International's field researcher recently interviewed two victims in Ingushetia, who were held in the Internat between 6 May and 13 May 2000. Twenty-year-old “Zelimkhan” was detained on 6 May at his parents' house in Urus-Martan by a group of about 15 Russian federal forces officers, allegedly members of the special detachments (OMON) from the Russian city of Penza. He was taken to the outskirts of Komsomolskoye village, ordered to take his clothes off, handcuffed and forced onto his knees in front of a hole in the ground, three meters deep and five to six meters wide. "Zelimkhan" was beaten with clubs for roughly two hours by four OMON officers while the rest of the group watched and laughed throughout the ordeal. He was asked to sign a confession stating that he was a Chechen fighter and that he took part in the fighting around Komsomolskoye. They threatened to kill him and to send him to Chernokozovo camp where he would be raped by the guards. Later the same day, "Zelimkhan" was taken to the Internat camp where he was brutally gang-raped by four or five OMON officers. |
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