Chechnya

Zumsoj: Civilians Forced to Flee Their Native Village

On January 14, the village of Zumsoj, in the Itum-Kalinsky district of Chechnya, was attacked from the air. One house was leveled to the ground, several other houses were seriously damaged. The same day, troops were brought in by helicopter. Before landing, the helicopters subjected the village to rocket and machinegun fire, although there were no combatants in the village and no one resisted the attack. The troops carried out a mop-up operation involving looting, the destruction of property and abduction of civilians.

On January 15 and 16 the troops, intoxicated with alcohol, broke into houses, verbally abused residents, destroyed and looted anything of value: money, valuables, TVs, clothing, pharmaceuticals, children’s clothes. One family had documents – passports of the mother and older daughter, birth certificates – and money (250,000 rubles, which the family had received as compensation for their destroyed house) taken. In some families troops killed domestic birds and horses. In front of indignant villagers the stolen items were loaded into helicopters.

Late at night on January 14 troops detained a local resident, Shirvani Nasipov, born in 1956. In the morning of January 15 two other men and a teenage boy were kidnapped: Vakha Mukhaeva (1955), Magomed Emin Ibishev, aged 30, and Atabi Mukhaev,15 years old (son of Mukhaeva). The same day the helicopters left the village. The whereabouts of the 4 kidnapped remain unknown.

The villagers sought legal help, but to no avail. Moreover, on January 28 troops returned to the village and remained. Looting and verbal abuse continued. This time, fortunately, nobody was kidnapped.

This is not the first attack on the village. In November 2003 the village was subjected to mass indiscriminate fire which resulted in many residents fleeing Zumsoj. Of 56 households in 2003 only 15 are inhabited now. The residents of Zumsoj are convinced that the recent pogroms are aimed at forcing them to leave the village.

Zumsoj is a high mountainous village which is very hard to reach. Every month the villagers collect money to hire a car to buy food supplies for a month from the district center. The military probably think that if there are no residents in the mountain villages, it will be easier to isolate and eliminate Chechen combatants who are concentrated in the hills. The village is of historical-architectural value with its ancient towers, where many families have lived until now. The main reasons for Zumsoj residents wanting to remain living in such harsh conditions are their desire to preserve family heirlooms and the lack of funds to enable them to resettle elsewhere.

Source: February 2005 from Human Rights Centre “Memorial” in Nazran