Ingushetia witnesses mop-up typical of ChechnyaRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus – In a dawn raid on Tuesday, uniformed people in armoured personnel carriers drove into a Chechen refugee camp located on the grounds of private company URS. Breaking down doors of the camp, which houses about 600 refugees, the soldiers dragged men out into the street where they forcibly knocked them down and then began videotaping them, from the front and side.
Four men, including the head of the camp, were separated from the others and placed into the armoured vehicles before a complete check began of each tent in the camp. Eyewitnesses said that several of the refugees’ video recorders, cameras, several pairs of jeans and two car radios were confiscated.
The refugees state that among the military personnel were Chechens, Ingush, and Russians. The operation lasted less than an hour. Then the convoy, including the four detainees, drove off in the direction of Chechnya. However, instead of driving through Nazran, they went via Osetia and the Chermensky check-point; after reaching the Chechen-Ingush border, a few vehicles returned to Nazran.
The employees of Memorial's office in Nazran were the first to learn about the incident and joined in the search launched by the families of the arrested men. However, finding them will not be easy, as the reactions of the Chechen Prosecutor’s Office to appeals from human rights defenders are always slow in coming, said Lipkhan Bazayeva of Memorial.
“At the moment we are preparing announcements to be sent to the Prosecutor’s Office. Their response will take at least two months,“ declared Bazayeva. (O/E,T) |
