ダゲスタンにおける「チェチェン式掃討作戦」の現在

　9月23日から30日にかけて、チェチェンの西隣りのダゲスタン共和国、ツンチンスキー地区・フツラフ村(人口340人)では、チェチェンでの掃討作戦を思わせるような事件が起こった。ロシアの人権団体メモリアルが報告する。

　フツラフ村への掃討作戦において、ロシア政府当局は、組織的に、かつ大規模に法を破って、住民たちに残虐な行為をおこなって尊厳を奪った。メモリアルは、この事件を捜査し、関係者を法によって処罰することを要求する。このために、下記のような証拠を、ロシア捜査委員会(Russian Investgations Committee)に送付した。

　同村での掃討作戦は、明らかに最近の武装勢力の行動に関連している。われわれは、これまでの北コーカサスでの悲惨な紛争を調査してきた経験から、このような懲罰行為が、暴力をさらに増大し、ダゲスタンの状況を不安定化させるだけだと確信している。

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　ツンチンスキー地区は、ダゲスタンとグルジアの国境付近の高地に位置する。ダゲスタンの首都マハチカラからは自動車の道が悪いので10時間ほどかかる。（以下、地理は略：訳注）

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　ツンチンスキー地区の治安悪化は、今に始まった話ではない。ここの深い森林は武装勢力が隠れるのに適しており、警察への襲撃や、道路を通る軍部隊への待ち伏せ攻撃も起こっている。

　ここに記すのは、ここ半年間に起こった武力衝突の例である。

　4月11日、内務省軍が非合法武装勢力と交戦し、5人の兵士が死亡、7人が負傷する事件があった。

　翌日、治安部隊の兵士が、自動車でツンチンスキー地区での作戦から戻る際に攻撃を受けた。兵士2人が死亡し、3人が負傷した。

（などなど。詳しくは原文参照：訳注）

***
　10月初めに、いくつかの人権団体が、フツラフ村で起こった掃討作戦の情報を受け取り、メモリアルと、「ダゲスタンの母親たち」のメンバーが現地調査を行い、当局者や、村人たちの話を聞いた。土地の様子を写した写真はこちら：
http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/14/1410111.html

　9月23日、ウラル型、ウァズ型の自動車に乗った治安部隊が村にやってきた。詳しい所属はわからないが、村人たちは、内務省軍とFSS（連邦セキュリティサービス)国境警備部隊だと考えている。

　かなりの量の補給品が、村の外に配置された。治安部隊は村を封鎖し、村につながる道に拠点を設営した。

　30台ほどのウァズ型自動車が村に入ってきて、100人以上の、迷彩服を着て、マスクをした兵士達が運ばれてきた。彼らは家々に立ち入って捜索を始めた。彼らが話す言葉は、ロシア語とアヴァール語だった。

　兵士たちは、傍若無人に家々の中を捜索しては、次の家に移った。家に人がいてもいなくても押し入った。村人らは自分から身分証明書を見せたが、この作戦の目的な何も教えられなかった。兵士たちはきわめて横暴に振る舞い、村人から金を取り、それだけでなく、医薬品や、電球、薪などなど、野営で使えそうな物は何でも取って行った。（かなりの高地なので、補給状況が悪いのである）

　冬のためにとっておかれた備蓄品も奪った。コンポートの入った瓶など、家の住人の目の前で飲み干された。（兵士たちは明らかに飢えているのである。彼らは軍から十分な食料を与えられず、掃討作戦で現地調達するように命じられているのだろう　訳注）

（いくつか略奪の描写が続いて）

　この日、治安部隊は村人を逮捕し始めた。男性も女性も。そして村の外に連れ出した。最初に逮捕されたのは、家族が武装勢力に参加していたり、関係を持っていると疑われた村人だった。

　被逮捕者たちは、最初に検査場に連れていかれ、何人かはそこで尋問や虐待が行われた。通過できた者たちは、フプリンスクにある内務省庁舎に連行された。ここでも尋問があり、何も言わない者は、ビニール袋を頭からかぶせられた。
（続きはいずれ訳すかも知れません。よかったら原文サイトへどうぞ）

http://www.memo.ru/eng/news/2011/10/19/1910111.html
> We do not know what dictated this 'sorting'. Maybe there were too many detainees to be kept in any one of these places, or maybe it was ordered for other reasons by those organising the clean-up operation.
>
> In each of these locations beatings and torture took place. It must be said that not everyone was subjected to this: the female detainees were insulted and intimidated, but were not beaten or tortured. In some cases the interrogation was also properly conducted with men - for instance with the detained teachers of the local school. However the majority of the detained men were subjected to severe treatment: beatings, torture with electricity, and faked firing squads. They demanded information on the boeviks and hidden weaponry, and for them to denounce their neighbours.
>
> Mostly the detainees were released the same day, but sometimes the next.
>
> The clean-up operation lasted for many days. At points over the course of a week siloviks could enter the same house three or four times. Each time it was a nightmare for the owner: brutality, abuse, the seizure of family members, and looting.
>
> The largest detention took place on the last day of the operation, September 30th, at the exit to the mosque. After Sabbatical prayers, siloviks arrested men and transported them to their camp at Khuprinskii border outpost and then to Tsuntinskii regional DIA. Amongst the detained villagers was a minor. Yet another adolescent was used by the siloviks as a human shield when they were searching the villagers' houses. Once again the detainees, predominantly the men, were subjected to humiliation, beatings, and torture. Again the detainees were released either the same day or the next.
>
> ***
>
> According to Patimat Kurbanovna Magomedova, born 1945, 20,000 rubles were taken from her house - everything she had saved on her pension for her grandson's education. Kaysarat Magomedova, born 1940, had her telephone's battery charger, lightbulbs, medicine, and money taken by soldiers. Sakinat Omarovna Kurbanova, born 1952, complained of the fact that they took all the lightbulbs from the house as well as the children's medicine. Sakinat's sister-in-law had her floor and sofas smashed. When Sakinat attempted to intervene, the siloviks beat her. 'When I asked them why they were doing this, I was given the response: "We have the right to do this every day. We act in the name of the President",' she reports.
>
> The siloviks visited Ayshat Koynieva, born 1940, when her husband was not home. They ordered her to open the safe in the hope of finding weapons. Having found nothing, they instead took dried meat. 'If you didn't give them your food, they put a gun to your head. They took many young women to the outpost, photographed them, interrogated them, then released them. They raided twice a day - in the morning and in the evening,' notes Ayshat.
>
> On September 23rd the disabled son of Khati Gazimagomedova, Akhmed Kamilovich Guseynov, born 1990, was forced out the house with the butt of a gun and taken to the camp at the entrance to the village where the filtration point was. There Akhmed was beaten and tortured with electric current. They then placed a bag over his head, buried him in earth up to his neck, place a gun to his ear, and asked him what he knew about those helping the boeviks. 'I went there (to the camp - HRC 'Memorial') in tears, asking them to release him, but no-one listened to me. They simply tormented my son. I begged them, saying that he had been an invalid since he was a child, that he was psychologically unwell, backward...They played music to cover the sound of his cries, but I head them all the same,' says Khati.
>
> Akhmed returned home at 8pm filthy with cigarette burns on his cheek. He told his family that the siloviks lay him on his front and jumped on him. They ripped the belt from his trousers into pieces and threw it away. 'They said: "If he is a walking invalid, then he will become a chairbound one". My throat completely dried up, I pleaded with them to release my child, not to torment an invalid,' says Khati.
>
> Shamsudin Shamsudinov tells of how, on September 23rd, three masked siloviks took him from his home to their camp where he saw approximately 100 units of military hardware. They sat him in a UAZ car and started to interrogate him. The siloviks were interested in possible connections between Shamsudin and the boeviks, and whether he knew of anyone allied with the boeviks. They took his passport and mobile phone which were returned to him after several days. Towards evening that same day, Shamsudin was dragged to a lock 'URAL' truck where they placed a plastic bag over his head, taped it around his cheeks, and began to torture him with electric current. According to Shamsudin, the torture lasted from 2-6pm. 'After they took me out of the car, they buried me up to my neck, fired a volley of shots, and threatened to kick me. They exerted psychological pressure on me: "We've already buried a man and a woman, and you will lie right next to them". All this lasted for 20 minutes,'
> tells Shamsudinov. He was then taken again to the 'URAL', manacled, and the interrogation continued. He was released the next morning.
>
> Teacher Magomed Rasulov told us how on September 24th during the final lesson ten masked soldiers, armed with automatic rifles, burst into the classroom. The children were very scared; one hid under his desk, another fled. They demanded from Magomed the whereabouts of the teachers of elementary school Ramazan Kurbanov and Guseyn Koyniev, 'They then took me at gunpoint: "Hurry, show us where they live". And so at gunpoint they took me to the houses of Kurbanov and Koyniev in the village. On the way we encountered Koyniev who they took for questioning and then released me. They interrogated him and then released him after half an hour,' recounts Rasulov.
>
> On September 24th soldiers raided the home of Magomed Kadyrov, born 1932, and took two stacks of firewood that he had stored for winter. 'I had paid 8000 [rubles] for each. They simply took my firewood, not staying to listen to my reasoning. I was telling them that I am a pensioner, an old man, that I'd bought these two stacks of firewood for winter. My pension is 4000 rubles. How much do I already have to collect, and when, given that winter is almost here?! There is already frost on the ground,' he complains.
>
> As mentioned above, the largest number of locals were arrested on September 30th. According to witness Magomed Ubeydulaevich Magomedov, born 1987, they arrested him when leaving the mosque after Sabbatical prayers allegedly to check his documents and took him to their camp behind the village. There they pushed him into a 'URAL' vehicle and tortured him with electric shocks. The soldiers were interested in whether he knew who was helping the boeviks and demanded that he give them names. They released him the next morning.
>
> Magomed Magomedov, born 1981, was taken to the Khuprinskii outpost when he was leaving the mosque. There they beat him and interrogated him, wanting to know about his step-brother who was in the forest with the boeviks. After this he was taken to the Tsuntinskii regional DIA where he was beaten again. 'They then handcuffed me and took me along with Magomed Isaev to the village of Khebda. Before taking us out of the vehicle they put a black bag over my head and secured it with tape. They began to spit on us, asking us if we knew who was helping the boeviks. I could have named anyone in the village. They lay me face down somewhere and for half and hour tortured me with electricity. On the road they threatened to take us to Khankala in Chechnya where it would be even worse for us,' writes Magomedov.
>
> He and Magomed Isaev remained in the vehicle overnight with bags over their heads and no outer garments. Towards morning they were taken to Tsuntinskii RMIA where they were fed and at 7pm the were released.
>
>
>
> On September 30th 13-year-old Tagir Magomedov was walking home to get his father Sirazhudin's passport, when soldiers arrested the boy and took him to Tsuntinskii RMIA and kept him in a cell. When his father came after him, he was told that Tagir was on their lists (it is not clear which lists they meant; supposedly 'lists of suspects'). They detained him until 11pm and then released him.
>
> Dalgat Yusupov was taken by soldiers to the Khuprinskii border outpost where they interrogated him, beat him, and placed a plastic bag over his head. The soldiers wanted to know which religious movement Dalgat was affiliated with. He was then taken to the Tsuntinskii region MIA where he was beaten so severely that he vomited into the bag which they did not remove.
>
> After being beaten by siloviks at the Khuprinskii border outpost and at the Tsuntinskii regional MIA, Magomed Isaev, son of Khadizhat Alieva, could only move around with the help of crutches, but the soldiers would not release him so that he might receive medical aid. On October 1st, when Khadizhat was waiting for him at home, siloviks seized her younger son Sheykhulislam. He was herding cows past their camp. Soldiers took him into a tent, placed a bag over his head, beat him around the head, and demanded he confess that his step-brother was 'in the forest'. The next day masked siloviks made the 17-year-old Sheykhuislam at gunpoint enter houses and break the locks. They then searched the houses.
>
> P.S.
>
> Officially a special forces operation in the village of Khutrakh in the Tsuntinskii region did not take place. None of the villagers were arrested, and during the searches and inspections of the homes nothing illegal was carried out. Anyway, nothing about this is mentioned in any official statements. Thank God that, in comparison to the most atrocious of the Chechen clean-up operations, no-one from Khutrakh went missing or was killed. However this outcome does not render the siloviks' actions legal nor does it in any way justify them. Moreover, this extortionate violence on the part of the security forces only plays into the hands of the boeviks and supports their propagandist ideologies; information on the clean-up operations in the Tsuntinskii region can already be found on their websites, where they write about the unlawful acts of 'infidels that we can only fight against with weapons'.
>
> In light of this the question stands: is this what the clean-up operations wanted to achieve in the village of Khutrakh in the Tsuntinskii region of Dagestan?
>
> Statements of the inhabitants of Khutrakh (in the words of the villagers recorded by human rights activists and signed by the villagers- in Russian):
>
> Sh. Shamsudinov (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/shsh.pdf),
> Kh. Alieva (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/ha.pdf),
> Kh. Gazimagomedova (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/hg.pdf),
> I. Pakhruev (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/ip.pdf),
> M. Isaev (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/mi.pdf),
> M. Kadurov (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/mk.pdf),
> M. Rasulov (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/mr.pdf),
> R. Kurbanov (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/rk.pdf),
> S. Abdulaeva (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/sa.pdf),
> U. Magomedova (http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/13/p/um.pdf).
>
> October 18, 2011
> http://www.memo.ru/eng/news/2011/10/19/1910111.html