Bachi-Yurt seal-off removedRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus – The village of Bachi-Yurt, located some forty kilometres east of Grozny, was several days ago unblocked by Russian forces, which completed another “mopping-up” operation there.
During the nine-day operation Bachi-Yurt was encircled by armoured vehicles and all roads leading there were blocked. Virtually all the male population of the village underwent a “filtration” procedure. Men were also taken into a dark-window car where a masked man was deciding whose identity would be additionally compared with a computer database.
The local people claim not a single Chechen fighter was arrested in the “mopping-up” operation, though soldiers took away several people. Their whereabouts remain unknown. The “mopping-up” operation was accompanied by robberies and beating of males. Federal soldiers ransacked the local pharmacy as well as medical and obstetric facility. Besides, they beat the village administration head who, as the Russian military had promised, was to keep an eye on the operation’s compliance with human rights standards.
Bachi-Yurt residents claim they have actually nothing against “mopping-up” operations and tracing down those who breach law. They do not even oppose detentions of suspected people. However, they protest against robberies and lawless practices.
As a matter of fact, large-scale searches, checks, robberies and acts of humiliation against the people in Bachi-Yurt took place just when the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) discussed the conflict in Chechnya, with the Russian delegation attempting to justify the abuses of the federal forces in Chechnya.
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