Novye Aldy: One Year Later
February 5 is the first anniversary of the well-documented massacre in Novye Aldy in the suburb of Grozny. During a so-called mopping-up operation following the fall of Grozny in late January 2000, Russian troops killed some sixty civilians.
Russia has not recognised that more than a serious crime took place in Novye Aldy on February 5, 2000, and exerted minimum efforts to brought those accountable to justice.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has documented and monitors the case, the acting deputy procurator of the Chechen Republic stated in January 2001 that the investigation had been suspended for the failure to identify the perpetrators.
However, HRW has found out that soldiers of one of the units that were in Novye Aldy on the day of the massacre had not been questioned at all and also that no one had questioned some of the survivors of the massacre who claimed that they would be able to identify the perpetrators.
(to be continued)
Background material: Human Rights Watch (in English) and Memorial (in Russian).
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