CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Disappearances of people continue in Chechnya

By Ruslan Isayev

CHECHNYA – Members of the so-called Chechen President's Security Service, known as "Kadyrovites", arrested 22-year-old Muslim Kutsayev in his home in the Kurchaloysky district on June 5, reported the human rights organization Memorial.

The soldiers told him they were policemen of the Kurchaloysky district police station (ROVD), but when his relatives later arrived at the police station, Kutsayev was not there.

After an intensive search by his family, it became clear that he was being held by the "Kadyrovites" in the village of Mayrtup.

Last year Kutsayev secretly left home to join the fighters in the mountains; after more than a month his parents managed to get him out of there and took him to the police.

At the beginning of this year he was sentenced to 4 years probation, which required his being under constant surveillance by the law-enforcement agencies.

In the adjacent Shalinsky district, Khanpasha Batayev, a resident of the Avtury village, was also kidnapped, but by unknown assailants and his whereabouts are still unknown. However his relatives think he was abducted by "Kadyrovites" as they had already taken him away several times during the past two years.

His latest abductions took place in August 2003 and in August 2004. In the latter case his two teenage sons were also taken away. All of them were beaten, but luckily were released soon after.

Translated by Mindaugas Kojelis.

(MK/T,B)