Three died in car after Russian soldiers’ attack in SernovodskRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus - On April 5 drunken Russian soldiers on two armoured personnel carriers with illegible numbers opened fire against a Zhiguli car in the village of Sernovodsk in the Sunzhenski district, west of the capital Grozny, as a result of which all three passengers died right on the spot.
The three victims were an unknown, elderly driver, an unknown woman at the age between 45 – 50, and Madina Umarova, about 28, a mother of three young children.
On April 7 the residents of Sernovodsk staged a protest meeting demanding the punishment of those responsible for the killings and the withdrawal from Chechnya of Russian soldiers who commit atrocities. People also called on representatives of local authorities to step down to support the protest. Among those who resigned were the director of the local vocational training school No. 16 S. Gazmogamayev, head of the Assinovskaya settlement administration N. Terkhoyev, a state-run farm director I. Chilayev and the imam of the Sernovodsk mosque M. Amriyev.
During the protest the council of elders of Sernovodsk made a resolution to appeal to the UN, PACE, OSCE and other international organisations urging them to take measures to halt the genocide of the Chechen nation. The imam of the Sunzhenski district A. Goyev stated that should atrocities committed by federal soldiers continue, religious authorities will be forced to call on Chechen people to embark on civil disobedience. |
