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The Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter the Database) encompasses 32,297 documents containing information about the situation in the entire North Caucasus region – including Ingushetia, North Ossetia and other republics – between 1992-2018. Overall, 22,180 documents in the Database concern the counter-terrorist operation in the Chechen Republic. The majority of these documents (20,887) contain information about the incidents which took place between 1999-2009, namely the active phase of the counter-terrorist operation in the Chechen Republic.

The Database is unique in that it accumulates materials from public sources (mass media, the Internet, books) as well as those collected by employees of well-known human rights organizations (diaries, photographs, procedural documents).

For instance, the Memorial Human Rights Centre (hereinafter the Memorial) is one of the largest information sources for the Database. This organization has published 16,235 documents. The materials of the Memorial cover the periods of both the first and second Chechen conflicts, as well as the post-war era. The scope of materials collected by the Memorial is broad. They include descriptions of the killings, kidnappings and disappearances of citizens, as well as special operations carried out in settlements with the use of military equipment, including the shelling and bombardment of cities and villages, and destruction of private property.

Furthermore, the organization has collected an extensive amount of materials with information on missing persons, including transcripts of interviews with the relatives of missing persons which have exposed details of the circumstances surrounding the kidnappings, and the state bodies to which they have subsequently applied with regard to the violations. Where possible, relatives have also submitted correspondence with law enforcement agencies, as well as photographs of the disappeared victims, to the Memorial, which have subsequently been registered and stored in the Database. Additionally, relatives of missing persons have allowed the Memorial staff to take photographs of passports, military tickets and other documents connected to the victims of the conflict. These documents have also been stored in the Database and linked to corresponding victims’ profiles.

The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) has also publicized a significant number of documents which has allowed for the systematization of the chronology of the military conflict. The type and subject-matter of the materials from the RCFS vary, with press releases making up 1,680 of the total 3,039 documents, and articles, photos, books etc. forming the remainder.

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Information Donors	Number and Type of Materials	Content Description
“Mothers of Chechnya”	26 publicly available lists	334 names of the disappeared men and women during the first Chechen war (1994-1996)
Chechen Committee for National Salvation	1,798 publicized press-releases and articles	Topics predominantly address the difficulties experienced by internally displaced persons, covering the periods of the first and second Chechen wars
Interregional Committee against Torture	180 publicized official documents	Procedural documents: citizen complaints and applications to law enforcement agencies; powers of attorney; notifications; responses from various authorities (e.g. from the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation or from the Presidential Administration)
Human rights activists A. Mnatsakanian and Kh. Saratova	1 document communicated to other NGOs	608 names of people who have disappeared under various circumstances, such as kidnappings from houses, disappearances during the course of sweeping operations (zachistkas) of settlements etc.
Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic	7 lists published on websites of official bodies	760 names of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic who have either died during hostilities, died as a result of diseases, as well or died as a result of road accidents between 2001-2007
Commissioner for Human Rights in the Chechen Republic	77 publicized lists	3,211 names of disappeared people during the first and second Chechen wars between 1994-2009
Human Rights Watch	494 documents	The materials are presented in the form of press releases (213 documents), articles and reports covering the details of bombings of settlements in Chechnya (zachistkas). A number of materials focus on the topic of internally displaced persons in the Chechen Republic and Ingushetia e.g. life in temporary camps, daily problems faced etc.
European Court of Human Rights	250 judgments (obtained through HUDOC)	2,534 names of victims of killings, kidnappings, torture, mine explosions, and lootings of property, as a result of which relatives have lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights
Norwegian Helsinki Committee	219 documents	Articles covering the periods of conflict in the Chechen Republic between 1994-2009, addressing in particular the activities of affected journalists in the North Caucasus. Some of the materials presented are videos (from October to December 1999) which demonstrate the destruction caused as a result of bombings and shelling of Chechen settlements

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The majority of the documents are in Russian (20,865) and the remainder are in English.

The Database also stores 490 images depicting various consequences of the conflict. This includes images of disappeared people and their relatives; individual and mass graves; corpses found displaying signs of severe torture; destruction of houses and other property; and public demonstrations and rallies.

Materials stored in the Database can be divided into the following groups:

The first group includes documents in the form of profiles of disappeared people which have been created on the basis of testimonies provided by relatives. Such materials contain detailed personal data of the victim, information about the circumstances of the violation, and measures taken by the family or state bodies to find their whereabouts.

The second group consists of procedural documents provided by relatives of the disappeared people. These include in particular: interrogation statements from those who have been granted victim status; witness statements; examination reports from the scene of the crime and reports of other investigative actions taken; and decisions relating to the granting of victim statuses, the suspension of criminal cases, as well as rulings of courts of different instances, such as declaring a disappeared person to be legally deceased. Relatives have retained these procedural materials in the hope of finding those missing who have become trapped in the war and have disappeared without a trace.

The third group accumulates eyewitness accounts of the bombings and shelling of settlements (zachistkas), life in camps for internally displaced persons, and the difficulties experienced by individuals once they returned back home to the Chechen Republic following the termination of war hostilities in some regions. This group of documents also includes applications submitted by relatives to human rights organizations requesting assistance in ascertaining the whereabouts of the disappeared people.

Each information source is used to create and search profiles of each victim in the Database. Each name mentioned in the materials was individually registered in the Database. The Database also gives the possibility to create different status profiles of an individual. For example, the same individual could be a victim in one incident, and a witness in another. This allows for a more structured understanding of the conflict and the ability to identify all existing connections between different people. For some individuals, several profiles can be registered in the Database with different information donors (for example, from the Memorial and from the ECtHR). This is especially true for victims of large-scale bombings or special operations, which attracted the attention of many human rights and international organizations.

For example, information about the killing of 18-year-old Elza Kungaeva by former Colonel Yury Budanov in 2000,^[1] was recorded by the Memorial, the RCFS and the Committee of National Salvation. Therefore, three profiles of E. Kungayeva are registered in the Database. Each of these profiles contains information that was obtained by each separate organization.

Due to this method, there are currently a total of 38,825 victims, who suffered in the Chechen Republic during the conflict, registered in the Database. However, this may not be reflective of the actual number of victims of the conflict.

The analysis of all materials has allowed for the collection of the most accurate information relating to each victim and violation. Each victim is analyzed using all of the collected documents and a single verified profile is created based on all source-profiles. All corresponding information available from the information donors is indicated in this single verified profile. In some cases, different sources may contain contradictory information – for example, conflicting information may be provided regarding the date or circumstances of the violation. In such cases, the information is either directly verified and confirmed with the sources, or if not possible, the discrepancies in the data are indicated in the profile.

Through this verification process, 16,633 unique profiles have been created for each victim from 38,825 source-profiles. Each profile contains the most accurate data relating to the victim, such as the victim’s health status, profession, distinctive features and the place of burial, information relating to the violation (date and place of the violation, circumstances, factors that caused the violation, status under humanitarian law), and the outcomes of complaints to national authorities, human rights organizations and the ECtHR.

It should be noted that the Database not only contains the profiles of those whose names were identified but also those whose first and last names could not be established. Such victims, both individuals and groups of individuals, were registered collectively as nameless victims, with currently 1,642 such profiles. Accordingly, these are groups of individuals ranging from two to 50 people, depending on the information provided. Such victims were registered, for example, in the following way: “Four young people from the village of Novye Aldy detained on June 4, 2006”. Nameless individual victims were registered in a similar manner: “A young teacher killed as a result of a mine explosion in a village. Chiri-Yurt, October 2000”. Profiles of nameless victims were created with sufficient to register a profile and specific information about the victim and the violation. Due to the absence of any individualized information, however, they are deemed to be unsuitable for the verification process and are therefore not included in the number of victims when generating statistics on the victims of the war in the Chechen Republic.

This integrated and comprehensive approach to documentation in the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database has allowed for the creation of the most accurate picture of the conflict in the North Caucasus.

The relevant statistics were updated on 26 March 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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References

^[1]RIA Novosti, “The killing point in the case of Elza Kungaeva”, June 10, 2011, https://ria.ru/20110610/386794477.html.

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In 2006, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Article 2 of the Convention stipulates:

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enforced disappearance is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.

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Russia is not a party to the Convention. Nevertheless, in 2001 the Russian Ministry of Defense approved the “Manual for the application of norms of international humanitarian law by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”. The manual lays down the obligation that prisoners of war, and especially civilians, must at all times be treated humanely by parties to a conflict, while military commanders should take steps to search for the dead and missing, irrespective of their affiliation to the conflict.^[1]

Despite this, numerous cases of disappearances during the war in the Chechen Republic were recorded by various human rights organizations, including the Memorial Human Rights Centre, Human Rights Watch, Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship and many others. Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in its judgments found violations against Russia, in connection with unlawful detentions and subsequent disappearances of residents of the Chechen Republic.

5,131 disappeared persons are registered in the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter the Database).^[2] It is certain that of these, 2,220 persons, that is 43% of those registered, disappeared during zachistkas carried out by the Russian Armed Forces. 2,911 persons, or 57% of the total number of recorded persons, disappeared in circumstances unrelated to such operations.

A more detailed classification of the circumstances in which people have disappeared is demonstrated in chart 1 and reveals the following: 633 persons (12%) disappeared in the course of large-scale operations conducted in rural municipalities (organized large-scale zachistkas in which major groups of armed forces and police were deployed with the use of military equipment) covering the greatest number of civilians; 1,580 persons disappeared as a result of targeted, local operations carried out against particular persons or groups of persons (in such cases people were taken from their homes during the zachistkas, from their workplaces or at checkpoints etc.); 1,663 persons disappeared as a result of random abductions in various circumstances which proved difficult to systemize. People were often abducted on the street and taken away leaving no possibility to trace their whereabouts; a person could just walk out of their home and never come back. Relatives and random witnesses would often submit information about the circumstances of the abductions to human rights organizations. 1,200 persons have disappeared in the Chechen Republic under unknown circumstances. This group also includes missing people whose names were mentioned in various lists without detailed information about them. 55 incidents of such disappearances require additional analysis and research.

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4,770 people, or 93 % of the total number of disappeared people, are male: 114 of them are minors and 98 are over the age of 60. At least 360 girls and women disappeared in the Chechen Republic during the conflict: 33 of these were minors and 17 were over the age of 60.

With respect to the status of the victims under international humanitarian law, it has been established that over 70%, or 3,679 persons, were civilians, including amnestied persons (as displayed in chart 2). At least 245 persons were combatants and 11 disappeared persons took part in the hostilities, though not regularly. Another disappeared person, marked as not actively taking part in the conflict, was the head of the passport office of one of the District Offices of the Interior (ROVD) in Grozny. He was taken at night from his house by the military.^[3] The status of 1,195 persons is impossible or difficult to determine.

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In many cases, people were kidnapped from their own home; it has been established that there were at least 1,705 such victims. There were many situations during the conflict in the Chechen Republic where camouflaged armed men would storm into a victim’s house, lift them from their bed and take them away in an unknown direction, beating them with arms, legs and machine guns.

By way of illustration, the following is how a resident from the village of Kurchaloy described her brother’s, Mr I.’s, kidnapping in July 2002:

At about 4 a.m. the neighbor´s dog began to bark loudly. I was sleeping by the window. I looked outside and saw armed men in camouflage storming into the courtyard. I only managed to put my dress on when, threatening with weapons, and shouting “do not move, or we will kill” they broke into my room. My two brothers were sleeping in a separate room. I do not know what happened there as my mother and I were not allowed access to them. Not only to them, but neither to the five-year-old nephew, who was also at gunpoint. After the military left, the child could not recover for a long time. Armored personnel carriers and UAZ vehicles arrived later. After the military left, taking I. with them, we learned that they knocked out my older brother by hitting him in the head with a gun. My father, who was about to leave for the morning prayer, was also pushed backwards with a butt blow. And I. was taken away.^[4]

After 2005, cases of such kidnappings using armored personnel carriers (APCs) or other equipment became less frequent. However, the method remained the same.

For example, one day in October 2007 at 4.30 a.m. three armed, camouflaged men broke through a window into the house of a resident from the village of Voykova near Grozny. Only one of the kidnappers spoke Russian without an accent. Holding those who were in the room at gunpoint, the unknown men asked for the owner of the house who was in the bedroom with his wife and small child. As soon as they saw him, they attacked him and started beating him with their machine guns. The man did not resist. His wife attempted to intervene but one of the attackers pointed his gun at her. The victim was then only able to put on his pants before a black bag was taped over his head and he was forced to leave with the armed men. In the morning, the victim’s relatives filed an application to the prosecutor’s office, but the criminal case was only initiated ten days later. Since then, nothing has been known about the victim.^[5]

The abovementioned pattern of kidnappings occurring during the night was quite common. In total, 879 incidents of such disappearances have been recorded. It is of note that a curfew was imposed in the Chechen Republic during the counter-terrorist operation which only permitted the military to move freely during the night. Hence, it is highly likely that representatives of the federal forces were responsible for the kidnappings of individuals, especially those who were taken from their own homes. It has been established that at least 264 persons disappeared at checkpoints set up by the federal authorities. This suggests that representatives of the armed forces or law enforcement agencies may have been responsible for the disappearance of these people. For example, on 13 September 2000 at the checkpoint in Urus-Martan, unidentified law enforcement officers detained a 24-year-old and a 30-year-old local resident. Subsequently, the father of one of them told:

10-15 minutes after the detention, I approached the checkpoint located in front of the factory and asked their commander why they had arrested my son and his friend. The commander replied that he did not know the people who did this. He explained that 6-7 people dressed in military camouflage uniforms approached the checkpoint and presented GRU certificates. The same people detained his son and his friend. During our conversation, the gates of the factory opened and a gray UAZ car with tinted windows and without license plates left the yard, driving at high speed. I did not see those sitting in the car. The commander with whom I was speaking said that they had left in this car.

It is noteworthy that in this case the ECtHR established that the violation was committed by the Russian authorities and also found Russian security forces responsible for the kidnapping of the men.^[6]

In some cases, relatives of the victims conducting their own investigation were able to ascertain the whereabouts of their fathers, husbands, brothers or sons. It is a well-known fact, for instance, that people were often taken to the military base in Khankala, the remand prison in Chernokozovo located in the Naursky District, the ORB-2 or various police departments and Departments of Internal Affairs (VOVD). They were subsequently transported to different locations. It remained a consistent pattern that relatives lost track of the location of the victims at this stage and no further information regarding their fate could be found.

One such example is the case of a resident of the Vedeno District whose sons were kidnapped by the military in July 2001. Two weeks after the kidnapping, the mother received a note from her sons in which they informed her about the whereabouts of their detention. Through the help of an employee from the regional Ministry of Interior department for the fight against organized crime (RUBOP), the mother learned that her sons were detained in the Federal Security Service (FSB) office in the Shalinskiy District. The deputy military commander told the woman that he had been promised to be shown the cells in which the two detainees were being held. However, they were subsequently told that the brothers had allegedly been transferred to the district center of the village of Vedeno. Since then, no new information has been provided regarding their fate.^[7]

It has been established that at least 422 persons disappeared at filtration points or places of restriction or deprivation of liberty. At least 217 persons disappeared at the military base in Khankala alone, and at least 33 in the infamous Chernokozovo SIZO detention center. The remaining victims disappeared in ROVD, VOVD, OMON (Special Purpose Mobile Units) bases, various detention centers or temporary filtration camps.

In relation to the geographical distribution of the disappearances in the Chechen Republic (chart 3), Grozny ranks first with at least 1,700 disappeared people. This is followed by the Shalinsky District with 495 disappeared persons and then the Urus-Martanovsky and Groznensky Districts. These most populated areas are located in the central part of the Republic, close to Grozny. In the more remote areas of the Chechen Republic, such as Itum-Kalinsky, Sharoisky, and Shatoi, the number of disappeared people registered in the Database is much lower. These are, generally speaking, hard-to-reach mountainous areas where it was difficult for human rights activists to gather information about the victims of the war.

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The analysis of the materials allows the following conclusions to be made about the status of disappeared people in the Chechen Republic (chart 4): 

• 2,698 persons (53% of all those who have disappeared) were civilians who had suffered from the actions of the Russian Federal Forces;
• 961 persons (19%) were civilians, who suffered from the actions of unidentified forces;
• 19 civilians (0.3%) disappeared as a result of actions by insurgents; 
• 169 victims worked in local law-enforcement bodies;
• 34 disappeared persons were seconded from other regions of Russia;
• 60 missing persons were members of armed groups opposing the federal forces; and 
• the statuses of 1,190 persons who have disappeared are difficult or impossible to determine in view of available information.

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The relevant statistics provided were updated on 14 May 2019 and again on 16 May 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to the story of a missile attack on the village of Shaami-Yurt and the detention of its inhabitants.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section.

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References

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^[1]A Manual on International Humanitarian Law for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (approved by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation 08.08.2001), § 72.

^[2]The statistic does not include residents of the Chechen Republic who had been abducted in neighboring regions, as well as residents of Ingushetia, Dagestan and other republics of the North Caucasus, who have been victims of abductions and unlawful detentions in connection with the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic. The Database mainly contains information about violations committed during the period of the second armed conflict that started in 1999. However, it also contains sporadic facts recorded during the first armed conflict.

^[3]Victim № 45528.

^[4]Incident № 2176 «Kidnapping of a resident and subsequent zachistka in Kurchaloy, July 2002».

^[5]Incident № 5166 «A Kidnapping of M.A.I., Grozny, October 2007».

^[6]Judgment of «Abaeva and Others v. Russia» (Application No. 37542/05), April 8, 2010.

^[7]Incident № 782 «Kidnapping of two brothers in the village of Selmentauzen, July 2001».

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Special or sweeping operations, or zachistkas as they are often referred to, were perhaps the most serious scourge experienced by the civilian population in Chechnya during all those years of war. The Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter the Database) shows that as many as 5,887 people’s lives were affected by such operations. This number includes all victims of zachistkas, regardless of the type of violation, and constitutes more than 35% of the total number of recorded victims. 4,352 persons, that is at least 73% of victims of all types of violations, were civilians. This publication describes the types of sweeping operations carried out in the Chechen Republic, the circumstances surrounding them as well as the violations committed during the course of those military operations.

The statistics of the Database indicate that out of 5,887 persons registered, 3,460 died or disappeared during zachistkas; the number of victims of the latter violation constitutes 2,202.

It should be noted that at least 1,285 persons were subjected to ill-treatment by perpetrators during or as a result of the sweeping operations. Civilians were not just insulted and humiliated verbally, but were also subjected to beatings and even torture for various purposes, including the extraction of information or simply as means of amusement by the military.

According to the data, the property of at least 859 persons was damaged or stolen as a result of special operations. This also includes situations where money was extorted from people in exchange for one’s life or the return of a kidnapped relative. For example, on 29 April 2001, at around 10 a.m., a sweeping operation began in some areas of the village of Alkhan-Kala. Ten men were detained in the course of the operation and taken to the military base in Khankala. The relatives of the detainees went to the military base in Khankala, and with the help of a Chechen intermediary working there, tried to obtain information about the detainees’ respective fates. The Chechen worker soon informed the relatives that everyone was alive and that the military was ready to release them on the condition that a ransom of 1,000 USD was paid for each detainee. After an attempt to negotiate, the amount of the ransom increased to 2,000 USD per person. The mentioned Chechen worker was soon detained himself, while the second intermediary from among the local residents was killed. As a result, communication was discontinued.^[1]

According to the Database, throughout the duration of the war, in total 1,780 cases of sweeping operations had been conducted in Chechnya.

A distinction can be made between the two types of special operations conducted in the Republic depending on their intended purpose. So-called addressed operations were targeted special operations, whereas large-scale special operations used large amounts of military equipment and personnel. Each are addressed separately below. 

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Targeted special operations

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Targeted operations were considered as local troop and police operations carried out against a particular person or a group of persons within the territory of a particular household or a flat, blocking a street or an area. Such operations were accompanied by murders and the unlawful detention of one or more persons, often resulting in their disappearance. Often, military personnel may have received a tip or information about the alleged involvement of a particular individual in the activities of the armed forces. A number of such operations are provided as examples below. 

On 3 July 2004 at dawn, in the village of Starye Atagi in the Grozny District, unidentified armed people in armored personnel carriers (APCs) and UAZ vehicles took three residents from their houses, one of whom was 71 years old. According to the relatives of one of the kidnapped victims, the military had arrived at sunrise. Those who were in the house were awake at the time, as they were preparing for the morning prayer. Having broken into the courtyard, the military, without explanation, grabbed the only man who was in the house. They did not explain the reasons for his detention and took the victim’s passport with them. In the evening of the same day, at around 7 p.m., all three abducted men were brought to the outskirts of the village and thrown out of a car. As they had been severely beaten, they were in critical condition. The beatings had impaired the vision of one of the victims. The victims refused to talk about their whereabouts and conditions of their kidnapping.^[2]

In the late evening of 9 May 2004 in the village of Goy-Chu in the Urus-Martanovsky District, Russian law-enforcement officers, as it was revealed later, kidnapped a 25-year-old local resident. According to his relatives, it took them just a few minutes to do so. Without any introduction or explanation for their presence, armed men in masks forced him into an unmarked vehicle and took him in an unknown direction. The man’s whereabouts were established the following day. His relatives found out that he was being held in a temporary detention facility in the Urus-Martanovsky ROVD, where he was being subjected to torture and beatings. The officers subsequently returned to Goy-Chu and searched the man’s house. Once again, they failed to provide an explanation to the relatives for the reasons behind the search. Unable to recover anything illegal, they then planted a grenade in one of the rooms in the house and stated they had found it during the search.

On 12 May 2004, the abducted 25-year-old was found in the Urus-Martan hospital in a critical state. The relatives took him to Ingushetia for medical treatment, but he died on route. An autopsy revealed that he had died of acute renal failure, pulmonary edema and vital organ damage as a result of the torture and beatings he had received.^[3]

The victims in this incident were the deceased himself and four of his relatives who had complained multiple times to the various national bodies, but nevertheless failed to initiate an effective investigation into the kidnapping and murder of their relative.

No less than 1,441 cases of targeted special operations carried out in Chechnya during the wars are documented in the Database (see chart 1). During these, at least 2,949 people were injured and 2,098 people were either killed or had disappeared.

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Among the victims of targeted sweeping operations, 145 were female, five of which were minors. Accordingly, 2,804 victims were men, of which 93 were minors at the time of the violation.

As noted above, sweeping operations were not only followed by the kidnapping and killing of civilians, but also included the plundering of property. At least 388 people suffered from barbaric raids during the targeted sweeping operations.

It has been established that the property of 140 people was either destroyed or damaged. This included the common practice of breaking down doors, breaking windows, burning houses and killing livestock. In one of these incidents, which took place on 30 November 2003, unidentified law enforcement officers arrived with several APCs to a resident’s house in Argun. The military kicked the owner and his spouse out of their house into the courtyard and set the house alight using a Molotov cocktail. They left the courtyard only once the house had been completely engulfed in flames. The military also stole a briefcase from the house which contained documents relating to the house owner and family photos. The owner was detained and beaten whilst in detention and two of his sons were kidnapped. The corpse of his son was discovered in Grozny four months after the kidnapping.^[5]

The plundering of property affected the lives of at least 221 civilians in the Chechen Republic. The military not only took away valuable items such as gold and money, but also other household goods such as, hygiene items, food, equipment, clothing, bed linen, blankets, kitchen utensils etc.

Other violations relating to the right to property included extortion or the paying of bribes in exchange for the release of a kidnapped relative. In total, the Database contains 63 such cases. Often, relatives were forced to “buy out” those abducted and detained in exchange for machine guns.

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Large-scale sweeping operations

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Large-scale sweeping operations were troop and police operations which were accompanied by the blocking of either a part of or an entire settlement(s) and did not usually target a specific individual. In some cases, settlements could be blocked for a period ranging from several days to a month. Hundreds of people at a time could therefore become victims during such raids.

In total, at least 2,947 people became victims of such large-scale, as well as smaller, special operations.

At least 1,505 of these victims were particularly vulnerable at the time of the sweeping operations (see chart 2). For example, there were at least 167 people over the age of 60, 87 teenagers and 61 children under the age of 14 that were injured during the large-scale special operations. In addition, ten pregnant women, and at least 58 disabled and 63 sick people were also victims. 

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The majority of the victims were civilians. Their numbers amount to 2,192, or 73% of the total number of victims who suffered during the large-scale sweeping operations.

One such sweeping operation was carried out in the village of Tsotsi-Yurt in the Kurchaloyevsky District between 25 March – 1 April 2002. The operation was initiated in response to an APC explosion on the outskirts of the village which resulted in the death of one military personnel. On the night of 25 March, the village was blocked by the Russian military. The following morning, personnel from the temporary department of internal affairs and the military commandant’s office of the Kurchaloyevsky District entered the village. All men aged 14 and over were detained and taken to a temporary filtration point. Those who found the means to buy their way out were not taken away. Approximately 300 people in total were detained during the sweeping operation, all of whom were beaten and subsequently forced to sign an acknowledgment declaring that they had not suffered any mistreatment at the hands of the military personnel. 14 of the local residents were denied release by the military and the reasons for their detention remain unknown. As in the cases of targeted operations, these large-scale operations were also accompanied by lootings. In Tsotsi-Yurt, personal belongings as well as livestock were stolen from local residents.^[6]

Other large-scale sweeping operations took place in the village of Sernovodsk in the Sunzhensky District on 2 July 2001, and in the village of Assinovskaya in the Achkhoi-Martanovsky District of Chechnya between 3 and 5 July 2001. In both cases, APCs had exploded using blast mines which resulted in the deaths of at least five servicemen.

Following the explosion on the outskirts of the village of Sernovodsk, the military stopped over 100 vehicles. The first wave of attacks against the local population, including women and children, involved searches, the use of explosives, and shelling and beatings. During this process, dogs and cows were shot, and gold jewelry was forcibly taken from the women. The ensuing second attack resulted in a wave of soldiers detaining the entire male population. The arrested individuals were taken to the village of Samashki and tortured. The Database contains the names of 44 such persons who became victims of punitive measures by the military in Sernovodsk. All of them were illegally detained and three of them disappeared.^[7]

During the sweeping operation in the village of Assinovskaya, at least 300 people were detained and taken away to a field at the edge of the village, where they were interrogated and beaten. During this operation, the military personnel also engaged in mass lootings, extortion, beatings, the insulting and torture of residents, and illegal arrests. On the evening of 3 July, the majority of the detainees, together with a number of those kidnapped from Sernovodsk and who were transferred to Achkhoi-Martan, were taken to a forested area near the village of Chemulga and released. Since it was dangerous to walk through the forest or move along the roads blocked by the military, the released individuals remained in the forested area for approximately one day.  It was only on 5 July, and after having risked their lives to do so, that the released individuals reached the village of Chemulga. From there, they were finally able to travel back to their places of residence or Ingushetia.^[8]

The statistics provided were updated on 26 March 2019 and again on 14 May 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to the story of a refugee from Alkhan-Kala concerning the “sweeping operation” in the village.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of women who left the village of Katyr-Yurt.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman who visited her village following a “sweeping operation”.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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References

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^[1]Incident № 646 «Zachistka in Alkhan-Kala, April of 2001».

^[2]Incident № 1222 «A Targeted special operation in the village of Starye Atagi, July 2004».

^[3]Incident № 1301 «Apprehension and murder of a Goy-Chu resident, 9 May 2004».

^[4]The total number of victims, distributed by geography, may be higher than the indicated number of 2,949 in the text. This is due to the fact that in the Database a geographical location may be recorded more than once in cases where a single victim suffered several violations in the same geographical location.

^[5]Incident № 1074 «Special operation in Argun, November 2003».

^[6]Incident № 596 «Zachistka in the village of Tsotsi-Yurt from March 24 to April 4, 2002».

^[7]Incident № 510 «Incidents in Sernovodsk, July 2001».

^[8]Incident № 2411 «Zachistka in Assinovskaya, July 2001».

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According to the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter the Database), the total number of victims killed in the context of the armed conflict is at least 5,181.^[1] This number does not include victims that have disappeared.

Among the victims were civilians, military and law enforcement officers as well as members of the armed forces (see chart 1):  

• 3,272 civilians;
• 1,160 military personnel, including those locally recruited and seconded from other regions of Russia;
• 339 militants; and
• 410 victims whose status was unclear due to lack of information.

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Circumstances of death

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Information relating to the role and belonging/legal status of the deceased in the varying circumstances is best reflected by the figures displayed in the following table: ^[2]

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	Civilian population	Military personnel	Militants/irregular fighters	Unknown or controversial status
Bombardments and artillery shelling	712	15	8	10
Sweeping operations (zachistkas)	863	111	162	87
Armed clashes	23	357	196	38
Clandestine (terrorist) attacks	126	305	6	6
Landmine explosions	145	16	3	11
Death from the use of military equipment	37	99	0	5
Death caused by other circumstances	1 137	486	48	229

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The term “clandestine attack” refers to two kinds of attacks. The first are so-called sabotage attacks which are unexpected and ambushed attacks directed against the military aims of an enemy. The second type are terrorist attacks which according to international law, and different from sabotage attacks, are aimed to deter and intimidate civilians and can be committed by state agents.^[3] Thus, terrorism pursues a particular aim; to spread terror among the public and to intimidate an indefinite number of people. Additionally, while both terrorism and sabotage attacks are committed unexpectedly, the latter are aimed at combatants and military objects.

It is noteworthy, however, that the Russian mass media and authorities have used the term ‘terrorist attack’ to refer to all types of attacks committed, which have also included those directed against military objects and combatants. Such representations attach a general and vague meaning to the two definitions which are in fact fundamentally different.

To provide some examples of such attacks, on 10 October 2002 at 18.00 an explosion took place during a leadership meeting on the third floor of the Zavodskoy District Office of the Interior (ROVD) building in Grozny. The extent of the explosion was such that two floors of the four-story, reinforced concrete building were almost destroyed. All those present in this part of the building (including the entire leadership team) were trapped under the rubble. Efforts to extract the bodies continued in to the night and until the following morning, by which time 17 individuals had died and a further nine wounded.^[4]

On 27 December 2002, a vehicle equipped with explosives broke into the territory of the Government House in Grozny taking the lives of 72 people.^[5] A similar incident took place on 9 May 2004 at the Dynamo stadium in Grozny.^[6]

Cases of accidental or intentional driving over by military vehicles on people, including representatives of the authorities were also quite often. For example, on 22 August 2004, an armored personal carrier (APC) of federal forces hit a VAZ car on the Rostov-Baku highway. This resulted in the death of a traffic police officer from the village of Goity in the Urus-Martanovsky District.^[7]

In another case, on 6 October 2000 at noon, in Grozny, an ACS (self-propelled artillery installation) crushed a civilian car belonging to a local resident. Three members of his family – his wife, 29-year-old pregnant daughter and two-year-old granddaughter – were all in the car. His daughter and his granddaughter died immediately. His wife was hospitalized with severe injuries. At the time of the crush, the car was parked near the ruins of their house which the father of the family was inspecting. He was not in the car and therefore survived. Witnesses claim that the accident was not accidental: the driver went out of the column and deliberately sent the ACS to the car parked on the side of the road. ^[8]

In another case, an APC of the federal forces hit a Gazel car carrying five passengers. As a result, two passengers in the Gazel were killed: a young boy of 20 and his 16-year-old sister. According to a bystander, the APC had hit the Gazel minibus when it had pulled to the side of the road to give way to the military. An eyewitness claims that the driver of the APC and three military men were intoxicated during the incident.^[9]

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Means and methods of causing death

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The prohibition of the means or methods of warfare that cause excessive suffering is a general principle of international humanitarian law.^[10] Yet despite this principle, the torture and beatings of victims causing excessive suffering and often resulting in their death was widely used throughout the Russian-Chechen conflict.

A total of 113 victims who were killed as a result of cruel treatment are registered in the Database; 85 of these were civilians.

One such example took place when a local resident from the village of Geldagan in the Kurchaloyevsky District was taken from his house by the military in February 2003. He was held for two days at the local Federal Security Service Directorate (UFSB), where he was hung from the ceiling with his arms and legs tied together, and beaten with a piece of pipe and fittings. He was kept in a drafty and unheated room with concrete floor all night long. Three days later and notwithstanding any medical treatment, he died as a result of the injuries sustained. ^[11]

It was also common practice to torture combatants who had surrendered to the Russian troops which often resulted in the death of the victim. For example, in March 2000, in the village of Goy-Chu (also known as the village of Komsomolskoye) following an armed clash between the military and fighters, a large number of fighters surrendered to the military. Many of those who had surrendered were transported to a military base in the village of Khankaly, where they were kicked and beaten with rifles and batons. They were also tortured using electric shocks, and were denied water, food and access to medical care. They were also kept in overcrowded cells with no fresh air and as a result, the wounds they had sustained began to fester. At least nine people died as a result.^[12]

Women and the elderly were no exceptions to receiving such treatment. For instance, it has been established that two individuals, a man and a woman over 60, died as a result of beatings received from the military and representatives of OMON (Special Purpose Mobile Units). ^[13] In total, at least four women became victims of beatings leading to death.

Among the methods used to kill individuals with particular cruelty was the use of sharp and cutting objects. There are 206 victims in the Database whose corpses were found at least with stab wounds.

Other cases exhibited shocking displays of cruelty where victims were simultaneously cut and beaten. One example, which reveals the appalling extent of the methods and means of torture, is the case of a resident from Urus-Martan who was detained at night in his house during a special operation, and whose body was found five days later a few kilometers from the city. The victim’s cervical vertebrae were broken, his throat was cut, his body was pierced with a metal object. Bruises and burns were found on his body, his fingernails had been pulled out, he had knife wounds on his back and shoulders, two front teeth had been smashed, he had suffered an impaling chest wound from a sharp object, his genitals had been partially cut off, and bones in his arms and legs were broken. There was also the trace of a close range gunshot wound on his skull behind his ear. It should also be noted that the clothes the victim had worn when he was abducted – a leather jacket, sweaters and trousers – had been removed, and he was instead dressed in camouflage pants. ^[14]

In another incident, local residents were horrified to find a decapitated head impaled on a stake on a gate near the local administration building in the village of Mesker-Yurt. That same day, on the outskirts of the village, the body of Mr S.S. was found.^[15] His skin had been partially torn off. According to one source, the young man was killed on suspicion of his cooperation with the federal forces. According to other sources, however, “the reason for the murder was his refusal to pay contributions to insurgents as well as criminal activity in the petroleum business.”^[16]

The database contains information on at least 61 victims whose bodies were found decapitated. Of these, 55 were men and six were women. 46 victims were between the ages of 18 and 60 at the time of their murder, and at least five victims were over the age of 60. The ages of ten of the victims remain unknown.

The bodies of 14 victims were found bearing signs of electric shock.

At least 37 victims were burned alive. Often, victims would be burned alive in their own homes. For example, on 10 August 2005 at around midnight, the house of a resident of the village of Dyshne-Vedeno in the Vedensky District was attacked. Eight fighters entered the premises and seized the owner and tied her to a bed with adhesive tape. The attackers then dowsed the rooms of the house with petrol and set it alight, leaving the woman tied to the bed. They claimed that the old woman had been cooperating with the federal authorities, and that her grandson was working with the police. ^[17]

In another case, on 20 April 2001 in Grozny, three students, whom the Russian military had tried to detain the day before but had been unsuccessful due to the intervention of teachers and classmates, were burned alive in a car adjacent to one of the educational buildings. The car was initially shelled using machine gunfire and explosive bullets. The driver was somehow able to get out of the car, but was pushed back in by the attackers who subsequently closed the doors and set the car alight. The car burst into flames while the three victims had still been alive inside, as was established by the position of their corpses. ^[18]

In another case, in the Achkhoi-Martanovsky District, fighters from the gang of the famous field commander Arbi Barayev blew up an “Ural” service car belonging to the Voronezh OMON in the Achkhoi-Martanovsky District of Chechnya. The driver of the truck, though experienced, was unable to escape from the burning car due to multiple injuries and died in the fire. ^[19]

Another 18 victims were found with, among other injuries, signs of suffocation. The bodies of at least two of these victims also had signs of fatal gunshots to the head. Often, suffocation was used as an additional method of torture to the cruel means described above. Generally, besides suffocation marks, the victims’ bodies also displayed numerous signs of beatings, stab wounds and incision wounds.

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Extrajudicial killings

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The Database also contains cases of extrajudicial killings. These crimes were usually committed in circumstances where the victim was under the physical control of the offender(s), or where the victim was more vulnerable; for instance, a pregnant woman or a child.

The key factor in determining extrajudicial killings for the purposes of the Database was the probability that the offender had the intention to cause the death of the victim, and that the victim most likely had no possibility to defend themselves. Situations in which individuals, often men, were taken away following sweeping operations (zachistkas) and subsequently found dead, did not always fall within this category. However, situations in which, for example, a group of military personnel or fighters had stormed into a house and killed the victims in front of their family members were included. In such situations, it was highly unlikely that any of the civilians were able to effectively defend themselves against a group of armed individuals whilst fearing the fate of their families.

One of the most striking examples of an extrajudicial killing was the murder of a man in the middle of the street in the village of Akhkinchu-Borzoy in July 2009. The officers of the Kurchaloyevsky District Department of Internal Affairs had stopped a car, in which a father and his 17-year-old son were returning home, at a checkpoint. According to several young witnesses and local residents, security forces had thrown the father, heavily beaten, in front of them at night. He was being asked if he had helped the fighters. He shook his head to indicate a negative response and was asking the security forces to release his son. The security forces then shot the victim in front of the witnesses saying: “This is what happens to those helping the fighters!”^[20]

In another case, following a terrorist attack in the village of Iliskhan-Yurt in May 2003, a large group of armed men in camouflage uniforms and masks forcibly entered the house of the relatives of two sisters who were suspected of committing a crime. The armed men subsequently shot four people: two men aged 38 and 41 who were both the sons of one of the sisters, as well as the sisters’ 62-year-old brother and his 25-year-old daughter. The family members who survived the attack stated that the criminals had spoken in Chechen without an accent.^[21]

A total of 1,192 cases of such extrajudicial killings are documented in the Database. Of these, at least 146 victims are women.

At the time of their murder, at least 100 victims were over the age of 60 and at least 35 victims were under the age of 18. Eight of the victims were under 14 years of age and 27 victims were between 14-17 years old (chart 2).

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It must also be mentioned that of the victims of extrajudicial killings, at least five were pregnant women, 29 had a disability at the time of their murder and 23 were ill with various diseases (chart 3).

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The relevant statistics were updated on 18 March 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Media library

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References

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^[1]The statistics do not include residents of Chechnya who had been abducted in neighboring regions, as well as residents of Ingushetia, Dagestan and other republics of the North Caucasus, who have been victims of abductions and unlawful detentions in connection with the armed conflict in Chechnya. The Database mainly contains information about violations committed during the period of the second armed conflict that started in 1999. However, it also contains sporadic facts recorded during the first armed conflict.

^[2]These figures are not mutually exclusive, meaning that a person could, for example, become a victim of a mine explosion during a zachistka.

^[3]ICTY, Prosecutor v. Galic, Case No. IT-98-29-T, Judgment of 5 December 2003, §133.

^[4]Incident № 180 «Explosion in Zavodskoy district of Grozny, October 10, 2002».

^[5]Incident № 567 «The explosion of the Government House in Grozny, December 27, 2002».

^[6]Incident № 247 «The explosion at the stadium Dynamo, May 9, 2004».

^[7]Victim № 43643.

^[8]Incident № 5596 «The death of family members T-ovi in Grozny as a result of an accident, October 2000».

^[9]Incident № 317 «Accident in the village Chishki, July 2006».

^[10]International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Database on international humanitarian law. «Rule 70. Weapons of a Nature to Cause Superfluous Injury or Unnecessary Suffering», https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_cha_chapter20_rule70.

^[11]Victim № 49575.

^[12]Incident 312 «Incidents in Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoye), March 2000».

^[13]Victims №№ 50637, 50594.

^[14]Victim № 47100.

^[15]Victim № 70590.

^[16]Victim № 70590.

^[17]Victim № 55362.

^[18]Incident № 909 « The shooting of students of Grozny, April 18-20, 2001».

^[19]Victim № 57491.

^[20]Incident № 5833 «Detention at a checkpoint in Dzhugurty, July 2009».

^[21]Incident № 274 «The shooting of Sh. B. family members in Bachi-Yurt, May 2003».

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The historical report “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children”, presented in 1996 to the UN General Assembly, drastically changed the outlook on the situation of children during armed conflict and demonstrated the devastating impact of wars on their rights. According to the author of the report, Ms. Grace Machel:

“The physical, sexual and emotional violence to which they [children] are exposed shatters their world. War undermines the very foundations of children’s lives, destroying their homes, splintering their communities and breaking down their trust in adults.”^[1]

Twenty years later and despite the progress achieved, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Leila Zerrougui, still regards children as the principal victims of modern wars and calls upon member states to designate the protection of children as a priority in peace and security. According to Ms. Zerrougui, the scale of suffering and violation are:

“Directly related to the denigration of respect for international humanitarian and human rights law by parties to conflict.”^[2]

Each publication on this website, in one way or another, highlights violations of the rights of children in the context of the armed conflict in the North Caucasus. This publication provides a complete picture of the violations of children’s rights in the region and in the Chechen Republic, by presenting the specific relevant statistics and general trends. In this respect, the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter the Database) already contains verified information concerning children affected by the conflict. The violations against children include, among others, killings, kidnappings, disappearances and torture. The gathering of statistics in relation to the victims of violations of the right to property or respect for private and family life still continues. Consequently, this publication is divided into two parts. The first part examines the victims that have already been registered in the Catalogue of the Database while the second presents preliminary statistics and accounts relating to children who have not yet been fully verified for the purposes of the Database. It is important to consider both classifications in order to understand the scale and specificities of the violations against all victims registered in the Database.

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Violations against children among the verified number of victims

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The victims registered in the Catalogue of the Database have been thoroughly verified against all information sources, meaning that the available information is as complete and reliable as possible. Thus, the Catalogue contains information relating to at least 934 minors under the age of 17 who have been affected by the conflict in the entire region. The majority of these victims, that is 826 children, suffered violations within the Chechen Republic.^[3] The Database has made it possible to further group and register these victims separately as adolescents and children under the age of 14, the latter group being particularly vulnerable and helpless in armed conflicts. Chart 1 breaks down the number of affected children by age, revealing that 526 victims in Chechnya (64%) were registered as adolescents, with the corresponding 36%, that is 300 victims, to be young children under the age of 14. 

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Chart 2 below further reveals that, of the total number of children affected by the conflict in Chechnya, the number of affected boys (619) is at least three times greater than the number of affected girls (207). This is down to the perception that boys, especially adolescents, could be potential combatants and therefore were considered threats and targets in the war. While a small number of children did participate in the armed conflict in Chechnya (according to the Database, at least six adolescents took part in hostilities), the vast majority of the victims, that is 805 children or 97%, were civilians. In the case of 15 victims, no precise status could be determined.

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As the statistics generated in the Database reveal, the overwhelming majority of the civilian child victims in Chechnya (627 children under the age of 17) suffered as a result of actions conducted by military personnel or forces acting in their interests. The most devastating circumstances under which violations by the military were committed were sweeping and special operations, so-called zachistkas, which left231 child victims, as well as bombings and shelling incidents which left 174 such victims. For example, on 7 October 1999, at least 95 people were injured during the bombing of the village of Elistanzhi by the Russian Air Force. The village, which did not harbor any military facilities and instead homed several internally displaced persons, was attacked with missiles and aircraft bombings by the Russian Air Force. Among the identified victims were at least 16 children, 13 of which died as a result of the injuries sustained. Others suffered severe lacerations and shrapnel wounds; the youngest of the victims, an 11-month-old boy, was shell-shocked and left deaf. Most likely, the total number of victims, including children, is higher than that currently registered in the Database, however, because the incident occurred in the beginning of the second military conflict in a remote region of the Republic, human rights defenders have not been able to collect all information relating to it. As a result of the attack, a school and private households in the village were destroyed. According to the head of the surgical department of the Shali Central District Hospital to which the survivors were taken for treatment:

“The whole hospital provided help, the whole hospital. All nurses, auxiliary nurses and doctors from all departments were there. Doctors who were at home were called on duty. Chief and deputy chief physicians arrived. It was a horrific day, indeed!”^[4]

The parents and relatives of the victims stressed that in addition to the physical injuries sustained, the children who survived the bombardment also suffered severe psychological trauma.

In another case, during a zachistka of the village of Tsa-Vedeno on 27 December 2000, the military blockaded the entire village and began to open fire indiscriminately. The special operation, officially aimed at the destruction of armed gang groups, resulted in mass violations of the rights of civilians. According to eyewitnesses, the illegal detention of adolescents was conducted on a mass scale. The corpses of three adolescent boys previously kidnapped by the military were found bearing signs of torture during the second day of their search.^[5]

Chart 3^[6] shows the most common violations committed against children among the verified number of victims. The statistics of the Database indicate that at least every second child victim of the conflict (that is 447 children) under the age of 17 in Chechnya either died or disappeared. 257 children were unlawfully arrested or kidnapped. Other violations resulted in 101 children becoming victims of torture and ill-treatment, 204 children’s physical health was seriously affected and 122 children had their sense of security destroyed as their home was illegally invaded. 

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The Database contains information relating to the particularly inhumane deaths of at least 18 children under the age of 17. One such victim was an 11-year-old boy from the village of Kurchaloy. On the evening of 7 June 2001, the boy asked his mother for four rubles and ran towards a food kiosk to buy himself some chewing gum before the kiosk closed. In a hurry, the boy dropped the money and as he was searching for it a shot from a rifle-fired grenade was fired from the side of a Russian roadblock. One of the fragments of the exploded grenade shattered the bone in the child’s left leg, and another struck his head with a fatal wound. According to the official version of events which was circulated in the media, the boy had blown himself up while installing a mine. The child’s teachers, however, explained how the boy had been a distinguished student possessing diligence and knowledge and had graduated from the first four classes of the local school.^[7]

It should also be noted that the Database contains information about at least 28 children who were injured in Chechnya at the hands of militants. Often, they were not the main target of the attacks, however they suffered the consequences of the violations nonetheless. For example, on 29 September 2005, a police car was shelled in Grozny. As a result of the attack, four people were killed, including two girls aged three and nine years old. The girls were the daughters of a local police officer who happened to be in close proximity to the crime scene at the time.^[8]

With respect to 152 children under the age of 17 who were victims of the armed conflict, there is no information about the perpetrators.

Thus, based on the above cases and statistics, it can be concluded that the rights of children in the Chechen Republic were violated to a similar extent as the adult population during the conflict. Moreover, children did not enjoy any special status or protection despite the vulnerability owing to their age and status.

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Violations against children among the unverified number of victims

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In addition to the victims verified in the final Catalogue, the Database contains information about violations against children that are still undergoing the verification process and are still being counted. It should be noted that the same victims may have been registered from different information donors therefore obscuring the exact number of victims, which can only be determined after the profiles have been thoroughly verified. Accordingly, the Database currently contains information concerning 955 unverified victims under the age of 17 of the war in Chechnya.

The table below displays information about the sources/information donors that have provided data relating to these, as yet, unverified victims. The materials are processed both in Russian and in English and are checked against all data sources.

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Chechen Committee for National Salvation	87
European Court of Human Rights	243
Human Rights Watch	24
Interregional Committee against Torture	1
Memorial Human Rights Centre	500
Norwegian Helsinki Committee	7
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society	93
	955

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Some of the victim profiles in the Database, both collective and individual, have not been identified, which means that distinctive information relating to the victims could not be found. Such victims, due to the impossibility of establishing more detailed data, will have most likely not been included in the final Catalogue of the Database. However, these profiles nevertheless play a significant role in assessing the extent of the damage experienced by the population during the conflict.

In one case, for instance, a former prisoner from a filtration camp in the north of Chechnya, who was released for ransom in 2000, recalls the horrors of camp life and describes the experiences of children who were detained there with him. According to the prisoner, torture, beatings and rape were common methods of treating all prisoners, with no exceptions:

“Everyone is being raped, there was a 10-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister among the prisoners arrested for “lack of documents”. The boy was being beaten, and the girl was being raped.”^[9]

Assessing the available statistics, both among the verified and unverified number of victims, one can apprehend the scale and specificity of the violations described. The difficult situation for children during the conflict was aggravated by the fact that adolescents were also perceived as potential combatants in the conflicts and subsequently became targets to attacks.

The statistics were last updated on 26 March 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to the interview with a 14-year-old child who was shelled by a helicopter.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman whose village Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoe) was stormed and the possible death of her children.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman concerning the bombing of the village of Gikalovsky.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a refugee from Alkhan-Kala concerning the “sweeping operation” in the village.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section.

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Listen to the story of the killings of people in the Staropromyslovsky District and the removal of corpses by their relatives.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section.

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Listen to the witness’s account of the death of her nephew due to a mine explosion and the death of her uncle.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of women who left the village of Katyr-Yurt.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman who visited her village following a “sweeping operation”.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Media library

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References

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^[1]Red Cross and Red Crescent Magazine, Children and War, September 2003, https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/resources/documents/misc/children-in-war-publication-131003.htm.

^[2]UN General Assembly, Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, July 2016, A/71/205, https://undocs.org/ru/A/71/205.

^[3]The Database mainly contains information about violations committed during the period of the second armed conflict that started in 1999. However, it also contains sporadic facts recorded during the first armed conflict.

^[4]Incident № 2287 «Bombing of Elistanzhi, October 1999».

^[5]Incident № 3369 «The killing of three teenagers in the village of Tsa-Vedeno, December 2000».

^[6]Some victims were subjected to many violations at the same time or for a period of time. The chart shows the most common violations against victims.

^[7]Incident № 3921 «The murder of an 11-year-old boy in Kurchaloy, June 2001».

^[8]Victim №№ 42853, 42861.

^[9]Document № 27573.

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The civilian population, which is often targeted in the context of ongoing armed conflicts, is frequently affected by various methods and strategies of warfare, including prohibited ones. Sexual violence has been used as a tool of terror against both civilians and combatants for centuries and has devastating and long-lasting consequences for society as a whole. Unfortunately, regardless of the strict prohibition under human rights, international criminal and humanitarian law,^[1] sexual violence during war is still a frequently used tool, threatening human dignity, life and health. Sexual violence can take various forms and manifestations and also differs in its severity on a case-by-case basis. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines sexual violence as:

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Any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic or otherwise directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.^[2]

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Being a topic too taboo to discuss due to a number of cultural, religious and ethnic norms, such crimes often result in the impunity of the perpetrator, causing irreparable physical and psychological trauma to victims.

The number of sexual crimes that are registered in the Database of the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center (hereinafter the Database), committed in the context of the conflict in the North Caucasus, is limited and disproportionate when compared to other crimes committed during the war.^[3] Among the registered cases, the Database lists crimes of a sexual character to include insults and humiliation, acts of a sexual nature by threat of force or coercion, rape (including gang rape or with the use of foreign objects), castration and other crimes.

The Database contains information on at least 45 victims of sexual violence who suffered during the conflict in the entire region. 41 incidents took place in the Chechen Republic and more than half of those cases, that is 26 incidents, occurred in 2000. There are no cases of sexual violence occurring after 2005 recorded in the Database (see chart 1).^[4]

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30 persons, or 73% of the total number of victims of sexual violence in the Chechen Republic, were civilians (see chart 2).^[5] The majority of them, 28 victims, suffered at the hands of the Russian security forces or forces acting in their interests. In two cases, the perpetrators could not be identified.

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In at least 31 of all reported cases in the Chechen Republic, victims were women and often those belonging to a vulnerable group. For instance, two of the victims were minors and at least three women were pregnant at the time of the attack; two of them were killed, and one was released in exchange for a ransom. The following is an eyewitness account of the sexual violence perpetrated in the Republic, the eyewitness himself having been harassed, tortured and kept in a water tank by military personnel:

But the worst of all, the most painful and humiliating, was when those animals forced us to look at girls, who were forced to stand with their hands stretched out, while they were being raped. Moreover, they did it in the most perverted manner. Later R. confessed that sometimes she was forced to “serve” 20-30 people, and T. was pregnant. X was subjected to violence as well.^[6]

Among the victims of sexual violence, there were at least ten men, three of whom were civilians. Some of the reported cases are particularly horrifying due to the extent of their cruelty. One such case resulted in a public outcry. On 6 September 2000, on the outskirts of the Naurskaya village, a 55-year-old local shepherd was subjected to sexual violence. Four military personnel from the federal forces castrated the victim using a fishing line and forced the man to swallow the hacked parts of his sexual organ. The abuse did not end there. The military personnel subsequently raped the man using a stick. Two days after the incident, local residents turned to the commandant of the village demanding that the perpetrators be punished. However, following talks with the commandant, the victim abruptly changed his testimony. Shockingly, as per the victim’s initial testimony, the military personnel had told him that he was the fourth victim to be subjected to such cruel treatment.^[7]

Other victims belonging to vulnerable groups were those with sicknesses, disabilities, and those whose freedom was restricted at the time of the violation. In one case, the victim, who was severely disabled, was kidnapped in Shali on 5 March 2004 by unknown military personnel and subjected to intolerable torture. He was beaten for a long period of time, subjected to electric shocks and sexually abused. According to the victim:

The people who tortured me found more elaborated methods of torture. They tied my penis and scrotum with a rope and subsequently pulled the rope and tied its other end to a hard object. Then they began to pull the end of the rope. At that moment, I was in hellish pain. Once they relaxed the rope, the same questions were asked again.^[8]

In search for justice, the man turned to human rights organizations and the district prosecutor’s office.

Often, sexual violence was accompanied by other human rights violations. The Database counts at least 11 such victims whose right to life was also infringed, meaning that the victim either disappeared or was killed following the sexual violence. Eight of these victims were killed with extreme cruelty. One of the victims was a young man who, on 1 April 2001 in the village of Alkhan-Yurt, was kidnapped by the military from his own house at night in front of his relatives. The provocative nature of this crime and the alleged impunity of the perpetrators was such that on the same day the military brought the bare corpse of the victim back to his house and threw it outside. There were signs of strangulation on his neck, his jaw was broken and his back was severely scraped due to being dragged along the ground. The individuals who washed the body of the victim claimed that it also bore signs of rape.^[9]

In at least 11 cases, in addition to the perpetration of sexual violence, the right to respect for the private and family life of civilians was also violated. It was not uncommon for military personnel to rape women and girls in front of their families. For example, on 29 December 2001 in the village of Gekhi of the Urus-Martanovsky District, Russian military personnel burst into the house of a civilian and raped the owner in front of her son. Following this, the mother and son were tied together and blown up.^[10] In another case, during a sweeping operation (zachistka) in the city of Argun in December 2001, military personnel attempted to kidnap a young woman – a mother of two small children – in front of her family. According to the young woman’s mother:

In the presence of all [the military] began to harass her. They stripped her to the waist, even her bra was taken off. They grabbed her breasts, while saying dirty words and insulting her. They wanted to take her with them.^[11]

The relatives who prevented the kidnapping acknowledged that they could no longer live in their village.

As can be seen from chart 3,^[12] cases of sexual violence were recorded in ten districts of the Chechen Republic, with the majority occurring in Grozny and the Naursky region (13 cases in each of the locations).

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Moreover, despite the number of registered cases of sexual violence in the Database, the actual number of victims may vary significantly. Victims of sexual violence rarely seek justice, preferring to deal with the consequences of the crimes themselves, though not always successfully. According to information from the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center, at least one victim is presumed to have committed suicide as a result of the sexual violence.^[13] The Database reveals that these often “invisible”^[14] yet destructive crimes of sexual violence have caused irrevocable injuries to the victims, their relatives and the entire community in the context of the military conflict in the Chechen Republic.

The statistics were updated on 20 March 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to the story of a victim of rape and robbery carried out by soldiers.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Media library

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References

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^[1]International Journal of the Red Cross, «Sexual Violence in a Situation of Armed Conflict: Violation of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law», https://www.icrc.org/ru/download/file/27907/894_irrc_gaggioli_rus_web.pdf.

^[2]World Health Organization (WHO), Violence and its impact on health. Report on the situation in the world (ed. Etienne G. Krug and others). Moscow publishing house. The whole world, 2013, p. 155.

^[3]See other publications on the NEDC website. 

^[4]There is uncertainty of the exact date of the commission of these crimes due to the lack of information.

^[5]The Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Project uses the definitions of civilian population and combatants/irregular fighters depending on the degree of involvement of the population in hostilities, based in the context of the non-international armed conflict in Chechnya,

^[6]Document № 7966.

^[7]Incident № 3076 «Sexual abuse of a man in the Naurskaya village, September 2000».

^[8]Document № 6269.

^[9]Incident № 892 «Killing of A.M. B. in Alkhan-Yurt, April 1, 2001».

^[10]Incident № 3334 «Killing of the family I-ov in Gekhi, December 2001».

^[11]Document № 10589.

^[12]For the districts missing in the schedule (Achkhoi-Martanovsky, Galanchzhosky, Itum-Kalinsky, Nadterechny, Nozhay-Yurtovsky, Sunzhensky, Sharoysky and Shatoysky districts) no record of sexual crimes exists in the N. Estemirova Documentation Center Database. In addition, two incidents were recorded under “Famous landmarks” in the Database. In these cases information is available about a specific landmark relating to the incident, but not the area (for example, the incident occurred at a specific checkpoint). Furthermore, in four cases the sexual violence against the victim occurred in several locations which has created some uncertainty in relation to the geography of the cases.

^[13]Victim № 58556.

^[14]International Journal of the Red Cross, Sexual Violence in a Situation of Armed Conflict: Violation of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law (G. Gaggioli), Number 894, Volume 96, p. 2, https://www.icrc.org/ru/download/file/27907/894_irrc_gaggioli_rus_web.pdf.

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The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Blaškić case referred to Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and interpreted the notion of civilian population as “persons who are not or are no longer members of the armed forces”.^[1]

All the data available in the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter – the Database) on the civilian population that suffered during the second Chechen war has been analyzed and registered in accordance to this definition.

Thus, of the total 5,181 victims killed in Chechnya during the conflict, at least 3,271 were civilians.^[2] This constitutes approximately 63% of the total number of people killed during the war. This data also includes those who, as per the abovementioned definition, were no longer members of any armed forces at the time of their death. This could be, for example, civilians who had previously participated in hostilities, but ceased to do so and subsequently returned to civilian life.

The statistics demonstrate that the majority of civilian victims (1,929 individuals) were adults, that is between the ages of 18 and 60. In addition, at least 294 children (146 under the age of 14 and 148 teenagers) and 304 people over the age of 60 died as a result of the hostilities. The age of 744 victims remains unknown. The majority of the victims, that is 2,559 individuals, were male. As for the number of female victims, at least 712 women and girls died during the war.

Based on the information analyzed in the Database, it can be assumed that approximately 42% of the civilian victims were, at the time of their death, in vulnerable conditions due to factors such as pregnancy, illness, disability, or by reason of age (see chart 1). It has been established that at least 23 pregnant women died in the conflict. 47 victims suffered from differing degrees of disability; for example, some individuals had limb defects, others were paralyzed, deaf or blind.

At least 21 of the killed victims suffered from psychological or mental illnesses, including dementia. In some cases, due to their mental illness, victims had adversely reacted  to the sight of the military and subsequently attempted to run away from them out of fear. In response to these actions, the military simply shot down the victim with no actual attempt made to apprehend the victim in any other way.^[3] Such was the case for a 17-year-old victim.^[4]

Victims were also vulnerable when placed in situations where they were unable to resist the attack. This includes, for instance, cases where the victim was wounded or in cases where the victim was a combatant but was unarmed. At least 630 people found themselves in such situations, where their movements were restricted and they could not escape or hide. In general, these circumstances emerged during sweeping and special operations (zachistkas). In the course of such operations, the military would surround houses to restrict victims from escaping or hiding and subsequently enter the houses and shoot those present.^[5] In other instances, individuals were taken away during the zachistka, and their corpses were discovered later, close to the village.^[6] Victims were also placed in desperate situations when they were detained at random and without reason. Their mutilated corpses were subsequently discovered by their relatives.^[7]

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The civilians who died during the war can be divided into three main groups (see chart 2). The first group encompasses victims whose deaths were attributed to the actions of military personnel or members of the Russian security forces. The second group consists of civilians who lost their lives as a consequence of acts committed by militants/irregular fighters and the third group includes those who were killed as a result of actions committed by unidentified individuals.

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Data from the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center allows for, among other things, a geographical analysis of the violations in question, particularly in relation to the locations of the crime scenes i.e. where the murders were committed, as well as the circumstances surroundings the violations. For instance, it can be concluded that at least 882 victims were killed either at home or after they were forcibly taken away from home; 508 of them were shot while 69 were killed using cold steel arms.

According to data, at least 126 civilians were detained and killed at a checkpoint controlled by the Russian military.

The table below provides a clear breakdown of the relevant data:^[8]

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	Use of firearms	Cold steel arms	Use of hard, blunt objects	Decapitation	Use of electric shocks	Asphyxiation	Burning alive	Night or curfew
Household	508	69	31	15	5	3	13	419
Checkpoints	74	15	6	3	1	5	4	11
On the road	201	19	12	6	–	1	–	13
Filtration camps[9]	8	5	1	–	1	–	–	6

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Based on the data above, the majority of the murders were committed by use of a firearm. Furthermore, excessive forms of cruelty, such as decapitation and the burning alive of victims, have been exposed in the data.

Assessing the data, a number of observations can also be made in relation to the circumstances surrounding the death of civilians during the conflict.

At least 712 people were killed during the bombing of villages and cities in Chechnya, including both land and aerial attacks. Between September and December 1999, Chechnya came under attack on 58 separate occasions with the use of tanks, artillery and aircraft. In 2000, the number of attacks dropped to 55 and since 2001, the number of air attacks have decreased significantly. In 2001 and 2002, there were 31 and 16 such attacks, respectively.

Moreover, at least 863 civilians were killed in the course, or in the aftermath, of special operations of various sizes. In Grozny alone, at least 307 civilian deaths can be attributed to the actions of military personnel. Examples of the largest special operations – or  zachistkas– that took place are: the village of Novye Aldy on 5 February 2000 (at least 62 civilians killed);^[10] in the village of Chechen-Aul of the Groznensky (Selsky) region, between 11 and 26 June 2002 (at least 12 people killed);^[11] and in the village of Alleroy in the Kurchaloyevsky District, between 15 and 27 August 2001, during a complete blockade of the village (at least 8 people killed).^[12]

Large-scale operations were also carried out in Argun, Starye Atagi, Tsotsi-Yurt, Alkhan-Kala as well as other cities and large villages.

It should be noted that this data does not refer to those individuals who disappeared during the zachistkas.

The data also establishes that at least 145 victims were killed as a result of explosions of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. At least 47 of these victims were minors and 11 of them were over the age of 60 (as shown in the chart 3 below).

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A number of civilians were also killed as a result of rear-end collisions by military vehicles. The Database shows that rear-end collisions by armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery mounts and tanks had fatal consequences for 36 victims. 

For example, in October 2000 in Grozny, a civilian vehicle belonging to a resident of the city was crushed under a self-propelled artillery. The car-owner’s entire family (wife, daughter and granddaughter) was in the vehicle at the time of the incident. The owner himself was examining the ruins of his house and therefore incidentally survived. Witnesses claimed that the incident was not in fact an accident as the operator of the self-propelled artillery exited the convoy and deliberately set course for the victims’ car parked at the side of the road. Residents of nearby houses and bypassing motorists immediately attempted to obstruct the artillery, however were unsuccessful. The military column from which the artillery had diverged did not stop but drove towards Khankala. A criminal case was initiated and the serviceman responsible was convicted and given a five years’ suspended sentence.^[13]

It must be mentioned that in seven of these rear-end collision cases, which together left 36 victims, including five children, the military personnel had been intoxicated at the time. 

Civilian deaths also occurred in the midst of armed clashes due to regular fighting between federal forces and militants in Chechnya. Accordingly, the Database contains details about 23 people killed in armed clashes, of which five were women.

The statistics provided were updated on 18 March 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to an interview with a father who found his sons executed in a barn.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman whose village Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoe) was stormed and the possible death of her children.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section.

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Listen to the story of a resident who witnessed a missile strike in the center of Shali.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a refugee from Alkhan-Kala concerning the “sweeping operation” in the village.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of the killings of people in the Staropromyslovsky District and the removal of corpses by their relatives.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman who survived the storming of the city of Grozny.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a witness to the bombing of the city of Urus-Martan.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of the killings in the city of Grozny between January-February 2000.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of women who left the village of Katyr-Yurt.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman who visited her village following a “sweeping operation”.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a witness to the bombing and shelling of the city of Shali.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section.

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References

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^[1]ICTY, Prosecutor v. Blaškić, Case No. IT-95-14, Judgment of 3 March 2000, § 180.

^[2]The Database mainly contains information about violations committed during the period of the second armed conflict that started in 1999. However, it also contains sporadic facts recorded during the first armed conflict.

^[3]For instance, Victims №№ 54942, 45544, 45928.

^[4]Victim № 48368.

^[5]Incidents № 274 «Execution of family Sh. in the village of Bachi-Yurt, May 2003».

^[6]Victim № 7249.

^[7]Incident № 186 «Special operation in Chechen-Aul, October 2002».

^[8]The data in the table shows the number of cases in which particular circumstances were recorded. Due to the fact that several circumstances could be recorded in the Database in relation to the same victim, the total number of actual victims may be lower than the numbers indicated under specific circumstances.

^[9]Little information is known surrounding the deaths of those individuals that had been taken to filtration camps. In most cases, the bodies of those who disappeared were returned bearing signs of torture.

^[10]Incident № 271 «Zachistka in Novye Aldy, February 5, 2000».

^[11]Incident № 148 «Zachistka in Chechen-Aul, June 2002».

^[12]Incident № 981 «Zachistkа in Alleroy, August 15-27, 2001».

^[13]Incident № 5596 «The death of family members T. in Grozny as a result of an accident, October 2000».

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The publication “Torture of civilians” on this website describes the systematic use of torture as a method of violence against the civilian population in the Chechen Republic. The treatment of combatants and irregular fighters did not differ in this respect, and was often exacerbated due to their status.^[1]

According to Article 1 of the Convention against Torture,^[2] the definition of torture includes four elements:

• Intent;
• Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person;
• For such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, or intimidating or coercing him, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind;
• Inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

The principles of international humanitarian and human rights law uniformly prohibit the use of torture against both civilians and combatants. The 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols (1977); the European Convention on Human Rights (1950); the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984); and other international documents consistently prohibit all forms of torture, including during both international and non-international armed conflicts.^[3]

Within the context of armed conflicts, it has not been uncommon for warring parties to seek to “legitimize” the prohibited methods of warfare used during military actions.

For example, on 30 March 2006 at a press conference in Moscow, Chechen President Alu Alkhanov admitted not only to the use of torture, but also the frequency of such incidents in the Chechen Republic. According to him: “Torture during interrogation is used throughout the world. However, in Chechnya, the level of such crimes is two to three percent higher”.^[4]

This publication refers to statistics provided by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter the Database) confirming the widespread practice of the use of torture against combatants and irregular fighters during the armed conflict. Often, the practice of torture was also accompanied by other violations. In some cases, however, due to insufficient information concerning the nature of the violation, it was difficult to confirm whether the circumstances did indeed amount to torture. Analysts responsible for registering information in the Database only register violations qualifying as torture on the basis of the most accurate information. In light of this, the following publication is divided into two parts. The first part represents the statistics and accounts relating to victims, as well as the nature of the violations, which allow for precise conclusions to be drawn about the use of torture against the victim. The second part describes violations, which could have been qualified as torture or violations which accompanied torture. Such violations include cruel and inhuman treatment, offences of a sexual nature, murder committed with particular cruelty, beatings and other injuries. 

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Statistics on the use of torture against combatants and irregular fighters

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The Database contains information on at least 145 combatants or irregular fighters who were tortured in the context of the conflict in the North Caucasus,^[5] 130 of whom were tortured in the Chechen Republic. The majority of these victims in Chechnya (113) held the status of combatants, while the remaining 17 were considered as irregular fighters (chart 1).

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The vast majority of the victims in Chechnya (128 victims) were men, with only two women among the victims, both of whom were among other members of the armed forces who surrendered to Russian troops.^[6] Like other captives, they were subjected to repeated torture and beatings, inhuman treatment and humiliation.^[7]

At least 109 victims were adults at the time of the violation (between 18 to 60 years old) and in 21 cases the age of the victim could not be determined. Among the combatants/irregular fighters there were also victims belonging to vulnerable groups such as: those suffering from sickness (three victims); those with disabilities (two victims); internally displaced persons (one victim); and those in a helpless state (one victim).

In addition to these groups, just over half of the victims (75) were unarmed at the time of the violation, and therefore ought to have been subjected to treatment as established by international humanitarian and human rights law, yet this was not the case. In one such case in January 2000, irregular fighters who were trying to force their way through Grozny, which had been blockaded by Russian troops, were subjected to cruel treatment.^[8] Many of the victims were hit by exploding mines while passing through a minefield and sustained severe injuries, following which they were transferred to the local hospital in the village of Alkhan-Kala, the basement of a nearby store, and to several private houses. Later, however, the hospital was cordoned off by federal forces and the wounded fighters who had been taken to the basement of the store were killed. Others who were injured were captured by the military and had their bandages removed, and were transported by bus to a concrete bunker located on the territory of the oil-producing directorate in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt. There, the wounded victims were beaten, tortured, and deprived of food and medical care. According to one of the victims:

I was held in a bunker in Tolstoy-Yurt for six days. They beat me on my wounded leg, and beat me very cruelly. There was no need for an amputation of the leg, but the military had shattered the bone.^[9]

As a result of such ill-treatment, more than ten victims died from their wounds and lack of medical care in the bunker; the rest were transported to other places of detention.^[10]

Regarding the role and belonging of the victims, 78 belonged to members of the armed forces opposing the Russian Federation; 46 represented the security forces of the Chechen Republic; and six were employees of law enforcement agencies sent from other regions of the country.^[11] The vast majority of the victims (114) had their freedom of movement restricted at the time of the violation and thus could not escape the suffering.

In at least 16 cases in Chechnya, torture resulted in the death of the victim. The majority of these victims were members of illegal armed groups who had surrendered to Russian servicemen in March 2000 during the notorious battles for the village of Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoye) in the Urus-Martanovsky District.^[12] According to the collected data, those who surrendered were systematically tortured: some were kept in trucks in conditions of extreme overcrowding, they were deprived of food and water, and the sick and wounded did not receive any medical assistance.^[13]

The Database also contains information about the deaths of local security forces as a result of the use of torture. In the context of the military conflict, representatives of local law enforcement agencies were placed in a difficult situation as they were threatened by the activities of both irregular fighters and the federal services. The Database describes the case of the death of the head of the local police who was arrested for unknown reasons and kept in one of the Chechen camps.^[14]

According to a human rights activist who wished to remain anonymous: “His arms were broken, and his spine was damaged … He died at the end of the month, and his family had to buy his corpse from the Russians.^[15]

Among the methods of torture registered in the Database are instances of bone fracturing; scalp removal; severing of ears; removing nails from fingers and toes; use of gas; suffocation; stabbing; deprivation of food and water; use of pliers and fire; and the use of electric currents. Relatives or neighbors of these victims were often punished in a similar manner. For example, on 16 March 2000 in the town of Shali, two members of illegal armed forces, as well as two civilians – the son and brother of one of the suspects – were captured by military personnel. According to locals, all four were taken away and tied to the rear of a UAZ vehicle. The following day, the mutilated corpses of two victims were transported from the commandant’s office for burial. The faith of two civilian victims remains unknown.^[16]

The practice by the Russian military of requesting ransom in exchange for the return of combatants or other fighters to their relatives (either dead or alive) was not as widespread as in the case of civilian victims. This is a result of the particular status of the victims which deterred relatives from divulging information. Yet despite this, the discontinuation of the persecution of the victims was not guaranteed. According to a former irregular fighter who was tortured by the military:

“Yes, I was amnestied, my family paid seven thousand dollars for this. But this amnesty means nothing. I am under threat of secondary detention. My relatives have already been told that they are looking for me to arrest”.^[17]

As a result, the man was forced to leave the Russian Federation for his safety.^[18] In another case, in the village of Alkhan-Yurt, the Russian military severely beat the senior lieutenant of the local security forces, who had intervened and tried to prevent local residents from being robbed. Despite the fact that the lieutenant had managed to buy himself out in exchange for liquor and money, he nevertheless died on the third day following his release.^[19]

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Statistics of violations which may have qualified as torture against combatants and irregular fighters

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As mentioned previously, a number of violations did not squarely fit within the definition of torture due to insufficient information being available, and were consequently registered in the Database as other violations by the analysts. This section describes violations, both mental and physical harms suffered by the victims, which could possibly be defined as torture.

In addition to the above statistics, the Database contains information about the following violations perpetrated against combatants and irregular fighters in Chechnya: beatings or other injuries (64 victims); inhuman or degrading treatment (59 victims); murder committed with special cruelty (31 victims); and sexual offences (one victim). Furthermore, the mutilation of corpses was recorded in 37 cases. The project’s website contains publications which describe in detail some of the violations listed below. 

According to the Database, in some cases, episodes of beatings lasted for hours;^[20] victims of such treatment were unable to move after or did so with difficulty,^[21] and evidence also suggests that the beatings were characterized by extreme cruelty.^[22] For example, on 16 July 2000 at five o’clock in the morning in Grozny, a special unit of federal law enforcement agencies detained five individuals, among which were four members of the Chechen police. During their detention, three victims were cruelly beaten and one of the victims had a bloody bandage on his head. The victims were kept in a military camp in Khankala until August 2001 and then taken away in an unknown direction.^[23]

The Database also contains information about victims that suffered a “cruel death”^[24] or were “brutally murdered”.^[25] In the absence of other data, however, such information did not disclose the entire nature of the crimes. There is also information about the beheading of victims, though it is impossible to determine whether the victim was beheaded before or after their death. Among such cases is the murder of a member of the security forces in Grozny. On 17 July 2005, unknown persons drove to the market in Grozny and threw a strange object out of their car. It transpired that this object was in fact a human head attached with a note reading “munapik” (translated from Arabic as “unfaithful”). Servicemen soon arrived and took the severed head with them.^[26] Additional information concerning the circumstances of the death of this victim is not available.

Thus, as the statistics of the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database reveal, the practice of the use of torture against combatants and irregular fighters during the conflict in the Chechen Republic was – as in the case of the civilian population – widespread and, in many ways, perhaps more exacerbated. 

In many cases, torture was used against captured victims who were usually wounded and unarmed. Amnesty was not always a guarantee, as those who were supposedly amnestied were nevertheless subjected to repeated harassment and new arrests. Given the conditions in Chechnya at the time, amnesties had become a mechanism to identify insurgents in order to further repress them in one way or another. Many of the amnestied Chechen fighters were subsequently detained, tortured, and killed.

The materials of the Database show the large-scale use of torture as a method of warfare.

The statistics provided were updated until 11 April 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to the story of a refugee from Alkhan-Kala concerning the “sweeping operation” in the village.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Media library

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References

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^[1]The Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Project uses the definitions of civilian population and combatants/irregular fighters depending on the degree of involvement of the population in hostilities, based in the context of the non-international armed conflict in Chechnya.

^[2]The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, December 10, 1984, Article 1. Also, see the interpretation of Article 1 in the International Journal of the Red Cross, «In truth the leitmotiv …»: prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment international humanitarian law. (C. Droege), volume 89, No. 867, September 2007,  https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/resources/documents/article/review/review-867-p515.htm.

^[3]See, for example, the International Committee of the Red Cross, «Prohibition and Punishment of torture and other forms of ill-treatment», June 2014, https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/assets/files/2014/141443_ru_torture_factsheet_ru%5b1%5d.pdf.

^[4]«Chechen President Recognizes the Use of Torture in the Republic», Nezavisimaya Gazeta, March 1, 2006.

^[5]The Database mainly contains information about violations committed during the period of the second armed conflict that started in 1999. However, it also contains sporadic facts recorded during the first armed conflict.

^[6]Victim № № 65531, 67287.

^[7]Incident № 312 «Incidents in Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoye), March 2000».

^[8]Incident № 492 «Detention conditions of detainees, 1999-2000».

^[9]Document № 1653.

^[10]Document № 1653.

^[11]It is worth noting that, unlike their role and belonging, the status of a person during a conflict could vary depending on certain circumstances. Due to the fact that the focus of this publication is the torture of combatants, these statistics do not include employees of local and federal law enforcement agencies who were not in the line of duty (NISO) and were not combatants at the time of the violation. There are eight such victims.

^[12]Incident № 312 « Incidents in Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoye), March 2000».

^[13]Incident № 312 «Incidents in Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoye), March 2000».

^[14]Incident № 492 «Detention conditions of detainees, 1999-2000».

^[15]Document № 27577.

^[16]Incident № 942 «Detention and murder of civilians in the city Shali, March 2000».

^[17]Document № 1653.

^[18]Document № 1653.

^[19]Incident № 4635 «Killing of G-v in Alkhan-Yurt, 2000».

^[20]Victim № 60655.

^[21]Victim № 63408.

^[22]Victim № 45554. 

^[23]Incident № 164 «Kidnapping of Chechen policemen in Grozny, 16 (17) July 2000».

^[24]Victim № 59017.

^[25]Victim № 54022.

^[26]Victim № 57404.

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International humanitarian law absolutely prohibits the use of torture. This unconditional ban is also encompassed in a number of international human rights treaties, including: the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols; 1950 European Convention on Human Rights; 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; 1985 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and other international and regional agreements which prohibit various forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as punishment, including in armed conflicts.^[1]

According to Article 1 of the Convention against Torture, the definition of torture includes four elements:

• Intent;
• Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person;
• For such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, or intimidating or coercing him, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind;
• Inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.^[2]

Unfortunately, in various armed conflicts that occur across the world, the above prohibitions are maliciously and massively ignored. The conflict in the North Caucasus is no exception. As the statistics of the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database (hereinafter the Database) demonstrate, torture of the civilian population was a common method used on an impressive scale to obtain information and intimidate society as a whole.^[3]

The practice of torture during the armed conflict in the North Caucasus, particularly in the Chechen Republic, was accompanied by other violations. In some cases, however, due to insufficient information concerning the nature of the violation, it was difficult to confirm whether the circumstances did indeed amount to torture. Analysts responsible for registering information in the Database only register violations qualifying as torture on the basis of the most accurate information. In light of this, the following publication is divided into two parts. The first part represents the statistics and accounts relating to victims, as well as the nature of the violations, which allow for precise conclusions to be drawn about the use of torture against the victim. The second part describes violations, which could have been qualified as torture or violations which accompanied torture. Such violations include cruel and inhuman treatment, sexual offences, murder with particular cruelty, as well as the beating of victims and other injuries. 

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Statistics of violations of torture against the civilian population

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The Database contains information on at least 1,295 civilian victims of torture in the context of the conflict throughout the region, of which 1,173 or 91% suffered in the Chechen Republic. As can be seen from chart 1, the majority of the crimes in Chechnya occurred between 2000 and 2002.

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Most of the cases took place in 2001, with at least 390 cases of the torture of civilians within the Republic registered in the Database.^[4]

The majority of the victims in Chechnya – 1,119 victims – were men. At least 54 women were also among the victims.

In 1,131 cases a connection was established between those responsible for the torture and the actions of the Russian Federation security forces or forces acting in their interests. In eight of the cases, information reveals that irregular fighters were responsible for such violations. In the remaining 34 cases those responsible for the violations could not be identified.

At least 78 of the victims subjected to torture were minors; 67 of whom were teenagers and 11 were children under the age of 14. One such case relates to two girls aged four and five from Urus-Martan. On the night of 29 December 2000, the military entered the family’s house demanding money and gold. Unsatisfied with the looted goods, the military began torturing the girls’ grandfather and grandmother using an iron. The children themselves were also subjected to torture as the soldiers stepped on the children’s feet with their boots asking them where the money was kept. The military only left the house in the morning once they had stolen all the family’s valuables. The district prosecutor’s office initiated a criminal case in relation to these events.^[5]

Other victims of torture in Chechnya belonged to vulnerable groups such as: those suffering from sickness (at least 42 victims); internally displaced persons (37 victims); those with disabilities (27 victims); the elderly (30 victims); those in a helpless state (17 victims); those with mental disorders (eight victims); and pregnant women (five victims) (chart 2).

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In one case, instances of torture and murder were recorded during a high-profile incident in the village of Dai in the Shatoysky District. On 11 January 2001, during a special operation by the Russian military which began in the mountain villages of the region, a UAZ car carrying a driver and five passengers and returning to the village was shelled by military personnel. As a result of the shelling, three citizens were killed; the remaining three citizens, including a pregnant woman who was also the mother of a large family, were caught and interrogated near the scene of the incident. During the interrogation, according to the testimony of eyewitnesses, the military personnel tortured the three captured civilians using a nutcracker and hammer and subsequently slit the throat of two of the victims. The bodies were then placed in a UAZ vehicle and set alight. Among those killed was a 65-year-old director of a rural school.^[6] It must be mentioned that this incident generated a lot of publicity and is itself unique, given that the case against the military was taken to court. As a result, in 2007, a major from the GRU special forces was convicted of murder and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment to be served in a high-security penal colony. Three other members of the special forces were convicted in absentia.^[7]

The majority of the victims (860) tortured in Chechnya were restricted of their freedom at the time of the violation and thus were unable to escape from the perpetrators. In just over a third of all the cases in the Republic (414 cases), the torture was followed by the violation of the right to life, meaning that the victim was either killed or disappeared. 

Among the methods and injuries of torture registered in the Database are instances of bone fractures; scalp removal; cutting off ears; removal of nails from fingers and toes; use of gas; suffocation; stab wounds; and the deprivation of food and water. One of the more common methods of torture against the civilian population was the use of electric shocks: at least 35 such victims are registered in the Database. Electric wires were connected to open areas of human bodies, including the genitals of the victim. In some cases, current sources of power were used, while in others specially prepared devices were used. For example, during the interrogation of kidnapped detainees during a sweeping operation (zachistka) in the village of Samashki on 22-23 April 2002, soldiers tortured the victims in equipped compartments of an Ural car, by placing a rubber hat with wires on their heads and connecting the wires to a source of electric current.^[8]

During illegal arrests and mass kidnappings, victims were often kept in premises unfit for detention such as filtration points, pits, cells, secret prisons and other similar types of premises. In such situations, the treatment of detainees could be qualified as inhuman or as torture given the deprivation of the most basic needs.

More than half of the cases of torture in the Republic (624 incidents) occurred in the context of large-scale or targeted sweeping and special operations.^[9] Such law enforcement operations were aimed at exposing irregular fighters and attacks were carried out with the mass violation of the rights of the civilian population, including illegal arrests, lootings, beatings, torture, disappearances and murders. The actions of security forces were often punitive. For instance, on 27 April 2000, a zachistka was carried out in the village of Tsotsi-Yurt, during which civilians from at least 30 houses were abused and had their properties pillaged. Whilst checking civilians’ passports, the military destroyed or damaged the documents and conducted illegal arrests. As a result of the special operation, several local residents were kidnapped and at least two subsequently disappeared. Two of the victims were found emaciated and beaten on the Rostov-Baku highway a few days later. The hands and feet of one of the victims were stabbed with skewers. According to the victim:

We were not interrogated, but only beaten. They were saying repeatedly that they know that we are not fighters. During the entire stay in this basement we were denied food, only sometimes we were given water.^[10]

One of the victims suffered from tuberculosis at the time of his kidnapping. He was detained in a basement where his torturers would throw in smoke bombs and close the basement door. Following this exercise, tear gas was also used which began to poison him. As a result, the man died at home following his release.

Death as a result of torture or beatings is marked as a separate category in the Database and at least 85 such cases of cruelty against civilians in Chechnya have been recorded. In at least 77 cases, the victim died from the actions of law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation or forces acting in their interests. Two victims suffered torture at the hands of irregular fighters and in six cases it was not possible to determine the identity of the perpetrators. In many cases, victims who had been badly injured but were still alive were released from detention to die outside:

Thus, on 26 November 2001, during a zachistka of the village of Avtury, the military kidnapped the owner of house and his nephew from his own house. The detainees were tortured and beaten in a nearby forest. The servicemen both forcibly poured kerosene into their mouths with the words: “You have been fasting all day, you need to eat”.^[11]

The victims were then thrown out onto the Avtury-Shali highway; shortly thereafter, the nephew passed away.

As can be seen from the materials and statistics of the Database, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment also served perpetrators with mercenary motives. Being a cruel method of inflicting pressure on victims, torture was often used as a means to extort victims and their relatives of their property. Under such duress, victims would often not wait for ransom requests but rather offered property to the perpetrators themselves. 

Such extortion was recorded in the Database in at least 102 cases; in some incidents, ransom was paid in exchange for the corpse of the victim so that relatives were able to bury the body. Among the requested items for ransom, the most common were monetary payments (including, foreign currency), jewelry, weapons, cars and alcohol. An example of such a case occurred on 3 July 2001 in the village of Makhkety when two brothers disappeared while harvesting firewood on the outskirts of the village. Following 20 days of searching for their whereabouts and negotiations with military personnel, the two brothers were returned to their parents in exchange for a ransom: three automatic rifles and 1,000 USD. According to witnesses, the brothers had almost been beaten to death.^[12]

Thus, as the statistics of the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center reveal, torture of the civilian population was systematic and served various motives, ranging from punitive special operations to mercenary motives. This included the desire for enrichment and also to intimidate civilians in order to deter them from cooperating with insurgents. Geographically, cases of torture were recorded in almost all districts of the Republic, with the most cases occurring in Grozny (see chart 3).^[13]

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Statistics of violations which could have been qualified as torture against the civilian population

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As mentioned previously, a number of violations did not squarely fit within the definition of torture due to insufficient information being available, and were consequently registered in the Database as other violations by the analysts. With limited information available, it was not always possible to draw a line between, for example, beatings or crimes of a sexual nature and the crime of torture. This section describes violations, both mental and physical harms suffered by the victims, which could possibly be defined as torture.

Thus, the Database contains information about victims among the civilian population in Chechnya of the following violations: beatings or other injuries (1,106 victims); murder committed with particular cruelty (383 victims); inhuman or degrading treatment (297 victims); and crimes against sexual inviolability (30 victims). It should be noted that cruel treatment was not only inflicted on those that were still living: the mutilation of corpses was recorded in at least 280 cases. The project’s website contains publications which describe in detail some of the violations listed above. However, examples of specific incidents in which torture may have been used are also provided below.

On the night of 23 February 2003, a local resident was abducted from his house in the village of Dachu-Borzoy. According to available data, soldiers arrived in a military armored personnel carrier (APC) and broke into the sleeping family’s house. They began to inspect the rooms and subsequently started beating the owner. His wife, who began protesting, was beaten with machine guns and his elderly mother was also hit. The soldiers then threw the man into the APC and took him to an unknown destination. The large number of blood stains found in the house is indicative of the use of a knife to sustain injuries. The same night two other locals were kidnapped and disappeared.^[14]

In other cases, the methods used to murder the victims bore semblances to the use of torture. For example, in March 2000, corpses were discovered near a cemetery in the village of Tangi-Chu. The ears and noses of the bodies had been cut off and wires were found around their necks. Based on the description of the corpses, military personnel had most likely tied the victims – who were still alive – to the APCs and had tortured them in a manner consistent with the injuries found on the corpses. It has been established that one of the victims, a local resident, had been kidnapped by the military two weeks earlier from his own house during the noon prayer. A teacher, tractor driver and housewife were identified among the other bodies.^[15]

Often, the infliction of physical and especially mental suffering could only be determined on the basis of the victim’s subjective perception of a situation. However, this does not always reveal the complete picture of an incident. For instance, on 2 June 2004, a number of women were arrested at the Government House in Grozny during a spontaneous rally, organized by relatives of victims who had disappeared during different periods in Chechnya.

One of the arrested women, mother of a young disappeared man, described the conditions of the detention following the arrest: “For the time that we were kept (this is more than two days), we were subjected to a humiliation that is beyond words.” 

By means of an example, she recounted that when the detainees had asked for water, officers of the security forces instead gave them a mug of urine. While providing a subjective account of her experience, the available details of the incident are limited and thus the entirety of the ordeal can only be inferred. In terms of the consequences, however, it is known that following her release, she spent another week in bed in poor condition.^[16]  

Considering the above, many violations may have been accompanied by the use of torture, and thus the scale of the violations described in this publication most likely covers a much larger number of torture victims in the Republic. As reflected in the statistics, and the accounts of victims and witnesses, various methods of torture were executed on a large scale against the civilian population of Chechnya.

The statistics provided have been revised and verified until 12 April 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to the story of a victim of rape and robbery carried out by soldiers.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a journalist detained and tortured by the military.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Media library

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References

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^[1]See, for example, the International Committee of the Red Cross, «Prohibition and Punishment of torture and other forms of ill-treatment», June 2014, https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/assets/files/2014/141443_ru_torture_factsheet_ru%5b1%5d.pdf.

^[2]Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, December 10, 1984, article 1. Also, see the interpretation of Article 1 in the International Journal of the Red Cross, «Truly the leitmotif …»: prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment international humanitarian law. (C. Droege), vol. 89, No. 867, September 2007, https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/resources/documents/article/review/review-867-p515.htm.

^[4]During the first conflict and prior to the beginning of the second conflict (1994-1998), 23 cases of the torture of civilians were registered in the Database. Another 14 cases were recorded after the end of the second military conflict in Chechnya (2010-2018). There is a degree of uncertainty in the graph, as in some cases the exact date of the incident was unknown.

^[5]Incident № 689 «Torture and robbery of a family in Urus-Martan, December 30, 2000».

^[6]Incident № 430 «The killing of civilians in Dai, January 11, 2002».

^[7]«Major of the GRU special forces convicted of the murder of six civilians in Chechnya», April 11, 2008, Lenta.ru, https://lenta.ru/lib/14173255/ (accessed on: 06.04.2019).

^[8]Incident № 565 «Zachistka in Samashki, April 2002».

^[9]For more information on zachistkas, see the publication «Zachistkas and their consequences on civilians» on the project website

^[10]Incident № 347 «Zachistka in Tsotsi-Yurt, April 2000».

^[11]Incident № 1753 «Zachistka in Avtury, November – December 2001».

^[12]Incident № 5004 «Kidnapping of brothers M. in the village of Makhkety, July 2001».

^[13]In those areas of Chechnya that are not included in the graph, no case of torture is registered in the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center Database. In addition, four incidents were marked in the database by the «Famous Landmarks» geography, meaning that there is information about a specific landmark of the incident, but not about the area (for example, the incident occurred along the route on the federal highway Kavkaz «M29»). There is a small uncertainty due to the fact that torture of one person could be committed on the territory of several districts; in some cases, the exact geography of torture was unknown.

^[14]Incident № 441 «Kidnapping in Dachu-Borzoy, February 2003».

^[15]Document № 8133; Incident № 4145 «Discovering of six corpses in the village of Tangi-Chu, March 2000». 

^[16]Document № 6299.

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In other publications on the website, we have already touched upon the practice and statistics of torture committed against the civilian population, combatants and irregular fighters during the conflict in the North Caucasus. The legal definition of inhuman and degrading treatment, enshrined in international treaties, has a wide scope and differs from the legal definition of torture. First of all, the key difference lies in the degree of the victim’s suffering. Unlike torture, these other forms of ill-treatment do not necessarily require the existence of a specific purpose.^[1] As per the definition of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is based on the principles of international humanitarian law, inhuman and degrading treatment includes:

Inhuman, cruel, abusive and degrading treatment, insult to human dignity, and physical or moral influence.^[2]

Despite these differences and its wider scope, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as torture, is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian and human rights law.^[3]

According to the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center (hereinafter the Database), serious human rights violations such as killings, disappearances, kidnappings and other violations were often mentioned as accompanying crimes to the crime of inflicting inhuman and degrading treatment, as committed in the context of the conflict in North Caucasus. However, the counting of victims who did not have these accompanying offenses is still in progress. Accordingly, this publication is divided into two parts and provides a complete overview of the events that took place in the North Caucasus. The first part concerns victims that are registered in the Catalogue of the Database; this section also describes the accompanying violations mentioned above. The second part focusses on the statistics and accounts regarding those who have not yet been fully verified in the Database. It is important to consider both classifications in order to understand the scale and specificities of the violations against all victims registered in the Database.

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The practice of inhuman and degrading treatment among the verified number of victims

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The Database counts 509 victims who experienced inhuman and degrading treatment in the context of the conflict in the North Caucasus.^[4] 433 of these cases occurred within the Chechen Republic. As chart 1 shows, the majority of the victims (377 victims) in Chechnya were men. Approximately one eighth (56 victims) of the total number of victims in the Chechen Republic were female. It is only in the number of total victims that the treatment between men and women differs. As the accounts in the Database reveal, the gender of the victims was not a decisive factor in determining the degree of cruel treatment experienced.

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For example, during the sweeping operation in the village of Tsotsi-Yurt in July 2002, a local family was severely attacked by the military. The military broke into the family’s house and threatened to shoot a person present who was suffering from a mental illness. Military personnel subsequently began brutally beating the family members. Not even the new-born, a girl less than a year old, was spared; she was beaten in front of her mother. 

Throwing the warm romper on the child’s head and holding her up by the neck, they were beating her with the twisted towel and shouting “Chechen bastard!“^[5]

Following this ordeal, the girl’s mother was dragged into the attic and was held down by an attacker, unable to move. The victim’s husband was kidnapped. The next day, the victim was attacked in the street by the same military personnel who attempted to force her into sexual intercourse. As she was trying to resist, the military injected a green liquid into her anus causing her to lose consciousness from the severe pain this caused. The victim’s husband eventually returned home a few days after the kidnapping and torture he had endured, however the peace and security of the family had been destroyed.^[6]

As in the case above, in many instances, the victims registered in the Catalogue were also subjected to other violations during the conflict. Inhuman treatment was often accompanied by beatings, torture and killings. Most of the victims, that is 295 of the total 433 in Chechnya, were illegally detained or kidnapped. At least 137 victims suffered a violation of their right to life, meaning that they were either killed or disappeared. In 115 cases, the right to respect for private and family life was violated. In many cases, the military unlawfully broke into the victim’s house and conducted unauthorized searches. Other commonly related violations in the Database include the violation of the right to health (106 victims), torture and sexual violence (96 victims), violation of the right to property (78 victims), and violation of the right to personal integrity (38 victims).

According to the statistics from the Database, 68% of the victims of inhuman and degrading treatment in Chechnya (297 victims) were civilians. The overwhelming majority (294 victims) suffered at the hands of the military or forces acting in their interests. The perpetrators in the remaining three cases of civilian victims could not be identified. 59 victims of inhuman and degrading treatment are registered as combatants and irregular fighters in the Database. The role and belonging of 77 victims was impossible to identify due to insufficient or contradictory information. 

More than half of the total registered cases of inhuman and degrading treatment in the Chechen Republic (281 cases) took place in the context of mass or targeted sweeping and special operations.^[7] These operations were officially directed against the militants, however, in reality, the civilian population’s rights were violated on a mass scale. During one of the sweeping operations on 3 May 2001 in the village of Tsa-Vedeno, 33 local residents were detained by the Russian military, who had arrived to the village in armored personnel carriers, UAZ and Ural vehicles, as well as in helicopters. The detainees were redirected to various detention facilities. Three days later, six men from two families from the village were released in critical conditions. According to fellow villagers, the men constantly had their personal dignity humiliated in the detention facilities. For instance, while the detainees were kept in a pit, the guards would stand at the top of the pit and urinate on them. Some of the kidnapped victims never returned back home.^[8]

Chart 2 provides a breakdown of these victims in Chechnya by age. As can be seen, in addition to the adult population of the Chechen Republic, at least 11 elderly people (over the age of 60) became victims of inhuman and degrading treatment. These acts of violence have also been established in relation to minors, with ten adolescents and seven children under the age of 14 recorded in the Database.

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One such example occurred during a sweeping operation in the village of Gekhi-Chu in February 2000, when an entire family suffered at the hands of the military. A pregnant woman and her husband were interrogated and beaten in the yard of their house by soldiers who conducted the operation. This ordeal took place in front of four children. All the family members, half-dressed and bare-footed, were forced at gunpoint to lie in the snow and to remain in that position for approximately four hours. Two days later, the woman passed away. All the four children suffered mental trauma.^[9]

In another incident, an elderly woman was detained by security forces on 2 September 2004 at a checkpoint between Urus-Martan and the village of Martan-Chu. The reason given for her detention was that the Russian special services suspected her son to be a militant who had taken hostages in Beslan. However, this information was not confirmed and after several days in detention, the woman was released.^[10] According to available data, the woman had both her hands tied behind her back and was withheld water and food for the entire duration of her detention. Her mouth had also been taped and an opaque bag was placed over her head.^[11] The woman, who had previously been subjected to unlawful prosecution by members of the security forces, complained in desperation:

Currently, these nervous shocks have greatly undermined my health. Why, according to which law do they do this to me?^[12]

In addition to the elderly and children, other victims registered in the Database belonged to vulnerable groups such as: the sick (18 victims), internally displaced persons (14 victims), those with disabilities (13 victims), those in a disabled state (five victims), those with mental disorders (five victims) and pregnant women (three victims). Chart 3 below illustrates these statistics.

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Furthermore as can be seen from the above chart, for the majority of all the victims, their freedom was restricted at the time of violence; they were, for example, either kidnapped, detained or held against their will, with no capacity to defend themselves.

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The practice of inhuman and degrading treatment in relation to unverified victims in the Database

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The victims described above were verified and registered in the final Catalogue of the Database. However, in addition to these verified victims, there are registered victims in the Database who were also subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment but are still in the verification phase. It should be noted that the same victims may have been registered from different information donors therefore obscuring the exact number of victims, which can only be determined after the profiles have been thoroughly verified. In some cases, due to the lack of sufficient information the profiles registered in the Database appear without names, in cases of both collective and individual victims. As it is impossible to establish more accurate data, such victims will most likely not be included in the final Catalogue of the Database. However, such profiles are nevertheless important for assessing the extent of the overall damage suffered by the population during the conflict.

The table below displays the statistics of the donors of information regarding the victims of the conflict. The materials are processed both in Russian and English and are verified against all data sources.

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Chechen Committee for National Salvation	34
European Court of Human Rights	81
Human Rights Watch	34
Interregional Committee against Torture	1
Memorial Human Rights Centre	538
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society	103
	791

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Accordingly, another 791 victims of inhuman and degrading treatment in the Chechen Republic are registered in the Database. Similar to the victims registered in the final Catalogue of the Database, the vast majority of unverified victims – 653 victims i.e. 82% – were civilians who suffered as a result of acts committed by the military or forces acting in their interests. At least 39% of all unverified victims in the Chechen Republic belonged to a vulnerable group of the population. The final tally of victims of inhuman and degrading treatment will only expand the already large-scale data on all victims of the conflict in the North Caucasus. Yet it is still possible to arrive at the conclusion that victims who were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment during the conflict suffered physical and psychological trauma. Those who survived are still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the conflict.

The statistics provided were updated on 20 March 2019 and again on 6 April 2019.

The data is subject to change in view of the ongoing work by the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center on the search and identification of victims of the armed conflict.

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Audio library

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Listen to the story of a victim of rape and robbery carried out by soldiers.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a journalist detained and tortured by the military.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a refugee from Alkhan-Kala concerning the “sweeping operation” in the village.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the witness’s account of the death of her nephew due to a mine explosion and the death of her uncle.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Listen to the story of a woman who survived the storming of the city of Grozny.

For details on this story, see the “Audio” section. 

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Media library

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References

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^[1]See, for example, the International Committee of the Red Cross, “Prohibition and punishment of torture and other ill-treatment”, June 2014, https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/assets/files/2014/141443_ru_torture_factsheet_ru%5b1%5d.pdf.

^[2]See, the website of the International Committee of the Red Cross, https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/resources/documents/misc/69ubby.htm.

^[3]Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, December 10, 1984. Also, see the International Journal of the Red Cross, «In the truth of the leitmotiv…»: prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in international humanitarian law. (K. Droege), vol. 89, No. 867, September 2007, :https://www.icrc.org/ru/doc/resources/documents/article/review/review-867-p515.htm.

^[4]The Database mainly contains information about violations committed during the period of the second armed conflict that started in 1999. However, it also contains sporadic facts recorded during the first armed conflict.

^[5]Document № 13366.

^[6]Incident № 389 «Zachistka in Tsotsi-Yurt, July 2002».

^[7]For more information on zachistkas, see the publication «Sweeping operations and their consequences on the civilian population» on the project website.

^[8]Incident № 99 «Disappearance of three residents in Tsa-Vedeno, May 3, 2001».

^[9]Incident № 308 «Shelling and zachistka in Gekhi-Chu, February 2000».

^[10]Incident № 209 «Persecution of the family Sh., 2001 – 2005».

^[11]Document № 7650.

^[12]Document № 5072.

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