CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Local resident shot by guerrillas near Bamut

By Umalt Chadayev

CHECHNYA - On Saturday August 18 a group of armed men in camouflage uniforms detained three men, residents of the village of Assinovskaya, in an area of forest near the village of Bamut in the Achkhoy-Martanovsky district. They accused one of the men of being a traitor, and killed him.

Prague Watchdog’s correspondent has received information about the incident from a resident of Chechnya's Sunzhensky district. The resident says that one of the men detained by the guerrillas and then set free was a relative of his.

"My cousin and two of his friends worked as gatherers and suppliers of scrap metal," he said. "On the 18th they went into the forest as usual, in the direction of the village of Bamut. There used to be a large number of oil derricks there, but they are now practically destroyed. My cousin and his friends gathered scrap metal there and sold it to dealers on the black market. "

"A few kilometres from Bamut they encountered a group of armed men wearing camouflage uniforms. These men detained them, and then took one of them aside. According to my cousin, the guerrilla commander introduced himself as the Emir of the village of Bamut, and accused the man of having informed on two of their comrades who were killed in clashes with law-enforcers. Then he shot him with a submachine gun," the resident said. "The guerrillas didn't conceal their faces, and the leader even told them his name and said he was from Achkhoy-Martan. He asked them to tell the slain man’s family that what had happened as an act of blood vengeance.”

"Then the guerrillas told my cousin and a second man to collect the slain man’s body and take it home," he said. "Of course, they had to obey. The guerrillas then went off quietly in the direction of Bamut. Before leaving, they also said that they would deal with other informers in the same way in future, and told the men to let the local police know that they would soon get their hands on them, too."

The source did not report the slain man’s name, explaining this by the fact that his family did not want to make the case public. His funeral was held yesterday in Assinovskaya.

The republic’s law enforcement agencies have announced that criminal proceedings have been opened in connection with the killing.

(D/T)