Umar, a victim of a Russian torture pit (an interview)
Interview of the Week: Umar, a victim of a Russian torture pit
By Ichkeria.org
From the Russian literature of the 19th century we know well the tradition of digging pits and putting captives in them. Ermolov's soldiers were often taken to such pits, thereby paying for Russia's imperial ambitions. Recruits, plough-guys, who were snatched out from their families even in remote villages during general recruitment campaigns, realized that they were fighting in the North Caucasus, frankly speaking, for an unjust cause. Many young men died beyond the white and cold slipknot of Terek, and the individual fate of Tolstoi's "Caucasian captive," who got into a Chechen pit, seems too rosy in the mountainous background as compared with today's realities of the Chechen war. Chechens dug deep pits, because, thanks God, they did not have jails of their own. Local girls threw bread and lowered milk jars into such pits, and sometimes escapes for captives were organized. The Russian literature was in the stage of formation, Lermontov was writing his novel "Mtsyri." Almost 165 years have passed since then. And as a terrible history delusion these pits have been revived in mountainous Chechnya of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. To be more correct, these are small pits, because they are almost never deeper than 1 to 1.5 meters. Granddaughters of those who threw bread and lowered milk jars have already been raped and killed by Russia's drunken rabble. Chechens put into such pits cannot see the sky, because there is tight wooden planking with rare openings above their heads. Laughing Russian officers may even piss on them. None of the captives can stand straight up - everything is thought over and tested to create inhuman conditions. We wonder why there is so much evil in the hearts of those who was sitting at a school desk a few years ago living a peaceful life... But it is not a school meeting of parents, and everyone would answer this question in due time. The editorial team of Ichkeria.org has launched crime chronicle of the two Chechen wars. We would be grateful to anyone who could provide details of the on-going genocide of the Chechen people using your own memory and reasoning. Last name, military regiment's number, geographic situation (settlement, village), number of casualties, conversations of eyewitnesses and executors of terrible actions, your own accounts and assessment of what has happened, and, of course, documents. Remember that any true word is now worth its weight in gold. We open a new rubric with a phone interview. Our interviewee has recently been kept in a "pit" near Khottuni. Umar, from the village of Makhkety, talked on the condition of anonymity, which is quite reasonable. He is 26 and believes he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Part of this interview are available in Russian in RealPlayer format (click here to listen). Aside from Umar's phone story, we have received more details form him via e-mail.
Answer: ... When one of our relatives die we do not shave for two weeks. That's why I was unshaven and they took me. I was put into a BTR armored vehicle and driven to Khottuni, where the 45th military regiment is billeted.
Question: Were you explained the reason for your detention - just because you were unshaven?
Answer: No. They grabbed people as simple as that. If they do not like someone - they get him. Whom do they mostly take? For example, I am a former sportsman, sturdily built. They are most likely to take physically strong people. Perhaps, they have a criterion of their own...
Question: Could you say where is this pit approximately situated?
Answer: In the Vedeno district, near the village of Khottuni, where a 45th regiment is deployed. There are Defense Ministry troops, OMON and intelligence officers in this regiment. We were taken there. First we were interrogated and beaten. I was kicked and beaten with kalashnikov butts. And then - there are large pits, where people are being lowered with a rope - they are 5 to 6 meters deep. There are also so-called zindans - 1-meter-deep pits with wooden logs on the top. It is cold in such pits, you cannot sit on the ground - the right way to catch cold. People have to squat there. First, I spend a day in a zindan. There were also two other people. They said they had been sitting there for three days already. One of them - Murad - from the village of Elistanzhi, another - Khasambek from Kirov-Yurt. They were taken for interrogation, never to come back. Later I found out that their relatives ransomed them. The next day I was taken for interrogation. Four officers interrogated me for about eight hours. They were constantly asking kind of idiotic questions: "where is Maskhadov," "where are the rebels" or "where do they get arms and money." They beat me all the time. When they became bored of beating me, they wrap me with bare wires and put current through them. It continued until I fell unconscious. When I "switched off," they put me into a deep pit, where I spent four days. There also was an old man, 65, severely beaten up. He said his name was Khalid and that he was from the village of Agishty. He said he had spent five days in the pit. They detained him in the forest, where he was picked up brushwood. Every day an officer came and said we would be executed at dawn; in the morning we were told that the execution was delayed until the evening. Two days later they took the old man somewhere, and threw in a young man, who was beaten up so badly that he could neither stand, nor talk. I hardly recognized in him my fellow villager Aslan. He was arrested during a "mopping up" operation, same as myself. My relatives came there and asked to release me, but in vain. They said I would be sent to Khankala or Mozdok. They threatened me with execution. As it turned out, at the same time they were bargaining with my relatives. At first they demanded 5 kalashnikovs and $2.500 for my release, a safe release. As a result, $1.000 was collected and a kalashnikov was bought from soldiers. They were bargaining for two days. When it became clear that my relatives would hardly bring more, the price was lowered to $1.000 and a kalashnikov. I was blindfolded and taken out from the pit. They said they "were going to execute me." They put me into a BTR vehicle and later pushed me out and left to stand still. When I took off the strap, I realized it was Makhkety. As simple as that.
Question: Umar, almost no one can get out of such pits until they are ransomed?
Answer: The problem is that, for example, my relatives managed to collect money. Otherwise, one can sit in a pit for two or three weeks. Moreover, even if it is warm outside, it is damp down in the pits. Therefore people fall ill there, and they also are beaten up. If no relatives show up, or if they take a rigid stance towards an individual, he might be sent to Khankala or Mozdok. When the information about filtration camps drew public attention, they stopped bringing detainees to one and the same place. Now in each unit or regiment they have their own "places," where people are being kept.
Question: Could you tell the exact dates of your detention?
Answer: I do not remember now. They arrested me in early November last year. I spent five days there. One day - in a zindan, and four days - in a pit.
Question: Not long ago Moscow-based journalist Anna Politkovskaya visited Khottuni. In her reports she repeatedly mentioned about terrible pits, where Chechen are being kept in inhuman conditions. And now there is a wave of information lie about her reports, some people say she invented the whole story. That's why such accounts as yours are of great importance. Could you provide more details about staying in the pit? For example, how many people can stay in one pit?
Answer: A pit - is like a small room, about 3x4 or 4x5 meters. As for such statements, it is a lie, the entire world knows that people are being killed daily in Chechnya, and something is going on there every day. Perhaps, no on wants to see it. Perhaps, no one is willing to quarrel with Russia over it. What about it - Chechens-aboriginals, they live in mountains... It is easy to find out about it. Foreigners come to us very often. They walk around, take pictures, ask questions. Then they leave, and that's it. And silence follows...
Question: How many pits could be found between Makhkety and Khottuni?
Answer: Don't think that pits are growing there as mushrooms. There are several pits in each regiment. This is like a closed territory. People are taken out of the pits or moved around blindfolded. They do not let you see. Only when you are in the pit, they put the strap off.
Question: What kind of food they lower into the pits?
Answer: No food. Sometimes they throw bread into the pits, and that's all. You know, it is very hard to talk about it. Recalling seems unpleasant. Physically a person could endure a lot. It is hard from the moral point of view. Many people break, they do not want to live.
Question: When you were released, were you told to keep your mouth shut?
Answer: They said nothing at all.
Question: That means they are acting with impunity, they have free hands. They do not even afraid of publicity, of this story?
Answer: What are you talking about! Just come to Chechnya, to the Vedeno district, there are about 10 to 15 villages there, and tens of villagers from every settlement - considering everyone, may be hundreds - came through these pits. And this is only in one district. Chechnya is divided into two parts - mountainous and flat. Sometimes Red Cross comes to flat Chechnya, and journalists are often there. It is much safer to live in Shali or Argun, or other cities. They cannot take you just like this in a city, and even if they do, people are likely to see it. Living in mountainous villages is dangerous. Lawlessness reigns there. Russia's troops - are always drunk. The whole day. In broad daylight - when you are staying at home or is heading somewhere - life still goes on, you know - they might bombard the village. We have many people killed in this way. They have nothing to do, boredom, and they start firing at roofs, or shelling the entire village. And someone always dies. Mines are being planted on roads, where people are walking. There are tension wires, so cattle die. And also there is no light or gas, people have to go to forests to pick up brushwood, they must cook and heat their houses. They are not allowed to go there. Those who dare are being shot dead without warning. Or a sniper may play with them, just because he is bored. And no matter who is there - a man or a woman. As compared wiht the first war, this war is much more brutal. Towards civilians. From the side of soldiers, officers, mercenaries, intelligence agents. I was lucky. Indeed. I could say I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Many people who went through it had been given some medicines. They add something to their food to provoke hallucination or fear fits.
Question: That means they are carrying out monstrous experiments in such pits?
Answer: Who need experiments nowadays!? They are bullying. They give a person some stuff and laugh. They find it funny. There is an anecdote in Chechnya. "A soldier came home from the Army. His friends are asking: "Have you happened to shoot at a man" and he replies: "No, we fired only at tin cans and Chechens." They consider a soldier who kills a Chechen as a hero. Total imbecility. I do not understand how could it be explained. I cannot watch TV, there is so much lie about us. And people buy this lie. Every time you turn on your TV set - you hear: Chechens killed, abducted, slaughtered or shot someone. I have never heard on Russian TV that a Chechen saved someone's life, or a Chechen surgeon operated on someone, or a Chechen tractor driver worked out in the field. They present this kind information on purpose, to make people hate us. And keep silent when we are being exterminated. I wanted to say a couple of words about Englishmen (two Englishmen and one New Zealander who were decapitated in Chechnya). I read somewhere that according to a survey by Harvard University the level of Afghanistan's development is equal to that of the 14th century. We could say that after the first war, when we lost economy, cities and villages - we are living, perhaps, in the 17th or 18th century. Because we have fallen behind. There are no schools. After the killing of the Englishmen we are believed to be the beasts. Mad people. Why no one says that criminals do that? Everyone knows that criminals have no nationality. They intentionally underscore - Chechens. Including women, children, the elder and common people.
Question: Do you have special words to address people in the West or free people in non-free Russia?
Answer: I would say only one thing. There are a lot of people - women, children, who need to be protected from barbarians that are staying there. I do not know what pressure shall be exerted on them. I do not ask people to support Chechens in their strife for independence. The international community has to stop killing of innocent civilians, to stop killing on racial basis. To save their basic right to live. Because human life is the most precious thing in the world. Because even Russians - they are Christians - and it is written in the Bible "Do not Kill." And Jesus Christ's words: "People, do not desecrate the earth by shedding blood, because the earth could be cleared only by the blood of those who shed blood." I think this is right to the point, and no comment is needed. Protect these people. Umar's story once again proves the words of Moscow-based journalist Anna Politkovskaya about punitive pits in the 45th regiment near Knottuni. Russian military command does its best to prevent any evidence of their crimes from leaking out. But they would hardly manage it. Despair is great in Chechens, and there would always be witnesses, as well-known Konan-Dole put it. Umar sent us the list of Makhkety's residents who went through "pits." You could find it below.
1) Izrail Dzhabroilov (86)
2) Bekkhan Akhmadov (25)
3) Aslmabek Mitsayev (33)
4) Sulumbek Mitsayev (28)
5) Mumadi Ayubov (57)
6) Zabura Ayubova (54)
7) Khava Timisheva (22)
8) Aslan Ustarkhanov (21)
9) Ibragim Khazuyev (22)
10) Supyan Khazbulatov (45)
11) Khasan Daudov (19)
12) Aslanbek Shamilev (45)
13) Shaikhi Shamilev (47)
14) Saipudi Edilov (51)
15) Shaikhi Chabdurkhanov (46)
16) Salombek Chabdurkhanov (25)
17) Vakha Chabdurkhanov (47)
18) Apti Ismailov (34)
19) Abu-Bakar Abdurakhmanov
Afterword:
We address to readers of our website asking them to send to the editorial board similar or other accounts of human rights violations in Chechnya.
Fax #1: +31 20 6794740
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Email: webmaster@ichkeria.org
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