Large-scale “cleansing” in Tsotsin-Yurt with robberies, detentions and beatings

December 30, 2001

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From December 30, 2001 to January 3, 2002, a large-scale “cleanup” was carried out in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt. At dawn, several groups (units of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, police officers, district military commandant’s office, special forces of the FSB and GRU) in accompanied by armored vehicles, entered the village. Moving along the streets, they checked house after house. Almost immediately, arrests of local residents began.

Before the start of the second Russian-Chechen war in the fall of 1999, approximately 15 thousand people lived in the village. By the winter of 2001, many had left, and, according to some estimates, only about 7 thousand residents remained here.

On the outskirts of the village on Stepnaya Street, at approximately 7.45, the military detained several men. Thus, without any explanation, Idris Zakriev, born in 1965, was detained in his home. His mother, Marzhan Zakrieva, his wife Laila and four children were in the house. According to the mother and wife, they heard how a group of military men who broke into their yard received an order via radio to take four people from the four outermost houses. Idris Zakriev tried to show his passport to the military. “Take away the document!” - said the military man. After which he was taken out of the yard. Neighbors saw how Zakriev’s hands were tied on the street, clothes were wrapped around his face and he was forced into an armored personnel carrier, which had the number A-611 on board. The mother, who tried to prevent her son from being taken away, was pushed into the basement by the military and threatened to throw a grenade there. Pointing machine guns at the children, they ordered the wife not to move either.

A similar scene occurred in the courtyard of a neighboring house where Musa Ismailov, born in 1964, lived with his wife and five children. That morning, the owner of the house, together with his eldest, 14-year-old son, was building a greenhouse on his property. The soldiers rushed in and ordered them to lie down on the ground. After searching the house, they took Musa Ismailov and his son away from the yard. Only thanks to the pleas of his mother was the teenager allowed to stay at home. Apparently, Ismailov was pushed into the same armored personnel carrier where his neighbor was.

The house where refugee from Grozny Kazbek Khazmagomadov lived was located in the outskirts of the village called Zarechye (Zarechnaya Street). Between 9 and 10 o'clock armored personnel carriers appeared on the street. One of them stopped in front of this house. A group of military men burst into the yard. In addition to Kazbek Khazmagomadov, there were four other men there - his relatives, who were doing their usual work - repairing furniture. First of all, the military forced everyone to lie down on the ground and began a search. Then they took the men outside, pulled their caps over their eyes and loaded them into an armored personnel carrier. The number on its board was covered up. They drove off and soon found themselves in some place where there was intense firefight. Then the shooting stopped and they moved on. Along the way, the military constantly beat the detained people. As it turned out, they were brought back to the house from which they were taken. Kazbek Khazmagomadov was pushed out of the armored personnel carrier, taken back into the yard, and some military man ordered him: “Quickly, car keys!” The fact is that in his yard there were two Niva cars that belonged to him and his relatives. Naturally, the military received these keys. Kazbek Khazmagomadov and four other men were transferred to a Gazel minibus, also apparently confiscated from one of the local residents. There was already someone's corpse covered in blood lying there. In the Gazelle, the military continued to beat the detainees lying on the floor. They were taken to the outskirts of the village, where a temporary filtration point was set up in a dilapidated building of former repair shops.

That same day, in the morning, more than a hundred alarmed villagers gathered near the mosque in the center of the village. The military approached them and began checking their documents. Then they separated up to 20 young men, loaded them into armored personnel carriers and took them to the outskirts of the village to a filtration point.

During the “cleansing” of Tsotsin-Yurt on December 30, separate military clashes occurred between employees of Russian security forces and members of the armed formations of the ChRI. Based on the testimony of local residents, as well as the results of an inspection of the village, it was possible to conclude that there were two cases of local shootings. Perhaps there were more. But there were no houses turned into fortresses and no ruins under which dozens of militant bodies were buried, as officials later reported.

In the center of the village, one house belonging to the Idrisov family was destroyed. In addition, the Medaevs' house in Zarechye was damaged. The Memorial Human Rights Center did not find any blown-up houses on the outskirts of the village, which, according to Russian presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky, were written about by Russian journalists.

On December 30 (according to various estimates from 9 to 10 a.m.), a blue (according to other sources - blue) Niva entered the village from the neighboring Mesker-Yurt. The car tried to break away from the armored personnel carriers following it with military personnel sitting on their sides. Local residents saw how the car turned onto the dam running along the Khullo River, but here its engine stalled. The people in the Niva (witnesses say there were three) jumped out of it and headed towards the village. At that moment, the military opened fire and wounded one of those escaping. Nevertheless, they managed to run through the garden into the yard of 70-year-old Lecha Idrisov, an authoritative person in Tsotsin-Yurt. The military immediately surrounded the house and opened fire on it with small arms and heavy machine guns. The people inside began to shoot back. At that time, in the house were: Lecha Idrisov, his wife and daughter-in-law Aminat with a small child, as well as a local resident, father of two children, Khamzat Israilov, who was doing tin work in the yard. They tried to leave the shelled area. The owner of the house opened the gate leading to the street and asked the military to allow his family to escape from the shelling, but he was refused. Moreover, the military blew up one of the houses in the courtyard and continued shelling. The family was forced to hide during the battle in a house under fire. Thus, Russian security forces deliberately exposed local residents to mortal danger. However, later the situation in the village became even worse. Armored vehicles began to arrive at the battle site from other areas of Tsotsin-Yurt.

Duka Zakriev together with acting The head of the local administration, Turko Dikaev, was on the outskirts of the village, not far from the place where the detainees were taken. There was also an armored personnel carrier with tail number A-611, in which, apparently, were his son Idris Zakriev, as well as Musa Ismailov, who were among the first to be captured by the military. He tried to beg the military to let his son and neighbor go. Just at this time, intense shooting began in the center of the village. Soon a general who did not give his last name approached them. He said that if in half an hour the people holed up in the Idrisovs’ house did not surrender, then Tsotsin-Yurt would be razed to the ground. However, the military themselves violated the ultimatum. Before the old men had time to move away from the command post, the assault began. A little earlier, an armored personnel carrier carrying detained people drove to the shooting site at high speed. Using Musa Ismailov and Idris Zakriev as a human shield, the military began to advance towards the house where Chechen resistance fighters were defending themselves. Witnesses claim that during the ensuing shootout, those captured were wounded, but not killed. According to eyewitnesses, the military killed both of them after the assault was completed.

The Chechen fighters holed up in the house also died. But the owners, fortunately, remained alive. Lecha Idrisov (slightly - in the leg and ear) and Khamzat Israilov were injured. The latter was taken by the military to a filtration point. Then the military began to detain people living near this house. In particular, Abdulla Khusiev, Said-Magomed Bataev, Adam Umarov and others were captured. On Aliyev Street near the water pump, the military detained Ramzan and Said-Emin Vakhaev, born in 1961 and 1967, respectively.

On the same day, at about 5 p.m., an intense firefight began in Zarechye. There, the Medaevs' house was fired at from a large-caliber machine gun from Russian armored vehicles. The owners of the house were forced to hide in it from the shelling. Residents of nearby neighborhoods could not explain who shot whom. After the end of the shootout, the owner of the damaged house, Magomed Medaev, his 14-year-old son and two other people were detained by the military and spent a day at a filtration point. There they were all beaten, except for the teenager. However, everyone was later released.

The entire time the “cleansing” continued, robberies constantly occurred in the village. On the morning of December 31, the military took away from the surviving building in the Idrisovs’ household everything that the owners managed to save from the fire and shelling. What the military could not take, they destroyed. They shot the cow and took the carcass.

Residents of Pionerskaya Street Yunus Mezhiev, Yakub Abubakarov and others testified that in the afternoon of December 30, their houses were robbed by the military. Employees of the Memorial Human Rights Center saw obvious signs of robberies in the houses.

Women were confiscated from gold jewelry, threatening that if they did not remove their earrings voluntarily, they would be torn out of their ears by force.

Both carpets and food were loaded onto the armored personnel carriers. There were cases when the military quarreled among themselves over booty. Shots were fired every now and then, threatening property owners who resisted with violence. Then from the neighboring streets, not seeing what was happening, other soldiers fired in their direction. According to the testimony of residents of Tsotsin-Yurt, as a result of these shootings, there were casualties among the military.

Many robbed people were forced to write receipts with the following content: “I give two sheep to Russian servicemen for killing two militants.”

From the book “People Live Here”, Usam Baysaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006.