Mopping-up operation in the villages of Starye and Novye Atagi
The following text is based on preliminary information of Human Rights Centre Memorial about the "mopping up operation" in the villages of Starye and Novye Atagi. Translated by Prague Watchdog.
A large mopping-up operation has been underway since last Monday, January 28, in the villages of Starye and Novye Atagi, 15 kilometres south of the Chechen capital Grozny. On February 4 around two hundred inhabitants of the two villages and their relatives gathered in front of the pro-Moscow Chechen government building in Grozny.
The federal forces conducting the "mopping-up operation" have been deployed around a poultry farm where a "temporary filtration camp" was established and males are brought there for a check. Up to now 24 people have been reported missing, including nine policemen of Chechen nationality. The policemen were disarmed, beaten up and detained after one of them had interceded for a girl who failed to have a local registration.
Besides, the head of the local administration, Vakha Gadayev, was beaten and the car of the deputy prosecutor of the Grozny rural district was destroyed by a Russian armoured personnel carrier when Gadayev was trying to put the "mopping-up operation" in the village in line with the law.
On February 4 a delegation of five people met for a two-hour negotiation with the head of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov, Prime Minister Stanislav Ilyasov and others. As a result of the meeting a government committee on the events in Starye and Novye Atagi was created. The members of the committee should immediately leave for the villages in order to became familiar with the situation.
A note: Human rights centre Memorial drew the attention of Vladimir Kalamanov, Russian President's envoy for human and civil rights in Chechnya, to the events in the villages. Deputy prosecutor of Chechnya is present in the area where the "mopping-up operation" is taking place.
|
