Dzokhar-Ghala/Agency Caucasus – While it has become a widely accepted practice to suppress the relatives of Chechen resisters as a way of forcing the resisters to surrender, one suc h recent incidence of suppression has caused a severe tragedy.
Memorial, a Russian human rights organization, carried out an investigation into what can be called "a surrender in coercion" that led to the killing of three civilians on June 28. It found out that three civilians were murdered by unidentified criminals who are believed to be tied to security forces in a forest three kilometers away from the Roshni-Chu village of Urus-Martan province, Memorial told Kavkazki Uzel.
One of the three victims was identified as Ismail Mahmudovich Tazurkayev, born in 1969, who lived in the Noviye Aldi village of Dzokhar-Ghala. The other one was identified as Zaidat Abdurrahmanovna Husenova, who lived in the village of Proletarskoye. The third victim was named as Israpil Umarovich Musihanov, born in 1987.
According to one of the Resistance web sites, the murdered civilians were the relatives of Chechen resisters whom the security forces kept hostage in order to force the resisters to surrender.
According to information supplied by the Chechen resisters, the exchange of fire between the civilians and the security forces left at least security forces dead. One other Resistance web site identified one of the killed security forces as a senior official of the Interior Ministry.
It is a common practice, if not implicit, in Chechnya to hold hostage the relatives of Chechen resisters to force the resisters to surrender.
One of the most widely known instances of keeping hostage of this kind is the one that led former Defense Minister Magomed Hanbiyev of Ichkeria to surrender in March 2004. According to human rights organizations, Hanbiyev gave up after as many as 40 relatives of his, including women and children, were held at ransom by the presidential workers of intelligence service. A couple of months later, the security forces kidnapped the brother as well as sister of Aslan Mashadov, former President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and kept them in a secret prison as hostages. It is claimed that the prison is located somewhere near the village of Hosi-Yurt, where the current President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and his ancestors come from. Mashadov’s brother and sister were released only after he was murdered. Security forces kidnapped relatives of Shamil Basayev, Dokka Umarov and Abdulhalim Saydullayev at other times as well.
ÖZ/FT
