Appeal from the citizens of the town of Argun
Appeal from the citizens of the town of Argun
Human rights centre Memorial has received the following open letter, written by a group of citizens of the town Argun on May 21, 2001.
This is an open letter from the inhabitants of Argun, a town which has recently become a training ground for Russian soldiers. Our repeated pleas for help have gone unnoticed. Not one application from us to Babychev, the war commandant in the Chechen republic, has been paid due attention.
We are becoming more and more certain that the policy of the armed forces aims at setting us against them and and the administrative structures established by them, so that even those who always abhorred the idea of resistance no longer have any choice. In no other way is it possible to explain the mayhem inflicted on us, the inhabitants Argun.
During the course of endless "cleansing" operations, our sons, and more recently our daughters too, are illegally detained. Many of them disappear without trace. If they aren't killed, many of them return home with evidence of torture upon them, rather they do not return home but we have to ransom them. Not one of these detentions takes place in the presence of a public prosecutor's employee or a representative of the local municipal administration, although one of these representatives should without fail be present.
For the whole of the last 9-10 months uninterrupted, round-the-clock shooting has been added to the “cleansing” operations giving the impression of mythical fights and exchanges of fire, supposedly between Chechen fighters and Russian soldiers during which innocent civilians are killed and housing destroyed.
In just one night, the 18th - 19th May, as a result of gunfire in Argun, houses were destroyed on two streets, Gydermesskaya street and Novaya street, and two people were injured. Every hour and every minute our lives and those of our children are subjected to serious threat.
Many inhabitants of Argun, not having any work or any earnings, have to keep cattle to support themselves and their families. But recently we have been deprived of even this. Our cattle and sheep are treated like live target practice by Russian soldiers, who shoot at them purely for some lighthearted sport. Every evening 2-3 cows and bulls are missing. On only one street, Pushkin, in the last 9-10 months, people have lost 5 cows and 3 bulls. Now, shepherds are refusing to graze the cattle, and this means many families are on the brink of starvation.
Russian mass media broadcasts daily about etablishing peace in Chechnya. We are becoming more and more certain that these same people allegedly coming here to establish peace, are not interested at all in stabilizing the situation. Its not at all a secret that a soldier's salary increases sharply in wartime, and that is surely the reason why we and our children are subjected to gunfire every day, after which victorious reports are broadcast about dead fighters and the number of weapons used.
What are we and our children being turned into? Why is this happening for such a worthless goal? Is there any person in Russia who has the power to stop this incomprehensible arbitrariness and mayhem that is inflicted on us by the Russian soldiers?
Considering all that is said above, we demand that:
1. The illegal search anddetention of people is stopped
2. The gunfire in Argun stops
3. A list of all detained inhabitants of Argun is given to us
4. That the so-called "cleansing" operations take place in future only in presence of municipal authorities, that is an employee of the public prosecutor or a local civil servant
5. The shooting of our cattle ceases, so we can graze them in peace.
In the case of our application being ignored, we will take it upon ourselves to inform international Human Rights organisations about our situation.
On behalf of all inhabitants of Argun
21st May 2001
Khamuraeva
Khamsueva
Sharipova
Magomadova
Shokchirova
Abumuslimova
Akhmadova
Khamidova
Khanileva
Saueva
Bemurkaev
Aliev L.
Musaeva Ya.
Timiraliev
Source (and translated by): Memorial
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