(With apologies, not certain whether this was previously posted). After sustained exposure, many of us get used to horrific news but, once in a while, you still stumble upon something that shocks you with the realization of how depraved humanity can get. & how shockingly silent the rest of us are.
Am not including the entire article due to its length. It was written by Krystyna Kurczab-Redlich, for the Polish-language edition of Newsweek, and was reprinted in the Observer on 27 October 2002. No “good” guys here - both sides are guilty of committing human rights abuses; whether or not Chechen rebels have utilized rape as a systematic tool of violence i have yet to discover.
Under the Jackboot, 14 October 2002, Newsweek (introduction by Christian Caryl)
…] Cut off and isolated, Russian troops’ best hope of discovering guerrilla activity is by grabbing citizens, almost at random, and coercing from them whatever information they might have.
In its most benign form, such raids are limited to theft of personal property - from cars, refrigerators and television sets to jewellery, clothes, pots and pans, and, of course, money. But they frequently turn ugly. ‘They arrived on 23 August at 5am,’ says Zuhra from Enikaloi. ‘There were about 100 army vehicles, all packed with soldiers. We ran out to meet them with our documents. God forbid you encounter an impatient ‘federal’. If you do, then in the best-case scenario you may be tortured or shot dead on the spot. In the worst case, they take you away. About 20 of them, armed to the teeth and wearing masks, climbed into the yard and the house. As always, they were dirty, unshaven and reeking of vodka. They cursed horribly. They shot at our feet. They took my identification papers and started to shred them. I had bought them for 500 roubles. They cost me everything I had. They went to our neighbours’ house, the Magomedova family. We heard shots and the screams of 15-year-old Aminat, the sister of Ahmed and Aslanbek. “Let her be!” screamed one of the brothers, “Kill us instead!”. Then we heard more shots. Through the window we saw a half-dressed OMON commander lying on top of Aminat. She was covered in blood from the bullet wounds. Another soldier shouted, “Hurry up, Kolya, while she’s still warm”.’
Sometimes those who survive wish they were dead, as in Zernovodsk this summer, when townspeople say they were chased on to a field and made to watch women being raped. When their men tried to defend them, 68 of them were handcuffed to an armoured truck and raped too. After this episode, 45 of them joined the guerrillas in the mountains. One older man, Nurdi Dayeyev, who was nearly blind, had nails driven through his hands and feet because it was suspected that he was in contact with the fighters. When relatives later retrieved his remains, he was missing a hand. The relatives of another villager, Aldan Manayev, picked up a torso but no head.
Article accessible in its entirety here.
