V. Punitive House-Burning Cases mid-July 2008 to March 2009

Shali District

Human Rights Watch is aware of six house-burning incidents in Shali district between July 2008 and March 2009-one each in the town of Argun and the village of Mesker-Yurt, and four in the town of Shali (including one house being set on fire twice). In each case the apparent aim was to punish its owners for failing to cooperate with the authorities' demands to convince their relatives to quit the insurgency. Human Rights Watch documented four of these incidents.[77]

Two of the homes in Shali town-belonging respectively to the families of Beslan B. and Rizvan R.-and the house in Mesker-Yurt were attacked on the night of August 28, 2008, one day after law enforcement captured an alleged insurgent in Mesker-Yurt.[78]

In the town of Argun, the mother of an alleged insurgent not only lost a large part of her house and property to the burning but was also tortured by law enforcement personnel after she attempted to find her son in the woods, to avoid further retribution against the family.

Burning of the house of Beslan B.'s family, Shali

On August 28, 2008, at around 3 a.m., armed men wearing masks and camouflage uniforms set fire to one of the two houses on the compound of Beslan B.'s family in Shali. The family is convinced that the house was burned by local law enforcement personnel in order to punish them for alleged involvement by a family member, Beka B., in an insurgent group.

On August 7, three weeks before the burning, Beka B. left home and disappeared. A few days later his father, Beslan B., was summoned to the Shali district police department, together with Rizvan R., the father of another suspected insurgent (see below). Police told both men that their sons had gone to the mountains to join the insurgents (police showed the men a photograph of their sons in the woods with a group of insurgents) and that Beslan B. and Rizvan R. had to bring them back or suffer the consequences. For the next 14 days police officials and PPSM-2 came to the Bs.' home on a regular basis, checking on the father's "progress" in bringing back his son, making new threats, searching the house roughly, and threatening to expel the family from Shali for not cooperating. Their last threatening visit took place just two days before the burning.[79]

On the night of the burning, Beslan B. was not at home. His wife Busana B., their daughter, and their daughter-in-law with her five children were sleeping in the larger of their two houses, and Beslan B.'s sister-in-law, Bilquis B., and her 28-year-old son were sleeping in the smaller one. The family was awakened by a loud noise in the yard. Three heavily armed servicemen broke into the yard, entered the smaller house, and forced Bilquis B. and her son outside, where they held them at gunpoint. The perpetrators set fire to the house and left.

Bilquis B., born 1959, told Human Rights Watch,

I actually saw them through the window making their way over the fence and approaching the door. They started knocking so loudly and I knew they'd break the door if I didn't open right away. So I opened up. One of them led me outside and made me stand by the garage. Another one dragged my son out of his room and forced him to join me there.

Bilquis B. said that as she was being held at gunpoint by the garage, she saw one of the assailants pick up a container that they had apparently brought with them. She smelled gasoline from the container and "in a flash the house was on fire." The arsonists left quickly and Beslan B.'s family called the town's fire station, but the firefighters failed to come. The Bs. managed to douse the fire with water before the walls and roof collapsed, but the fire gutted the interior, and all the furniture and other property was lost.

On the morning of August 29, Busana B. filed a complaint about the house-burning with the Shali district prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office forwarded the complaint to the district police department. According to a local police official Human Rights Watch spoke with, the police opened a criminal case but after two months, the investigation was suspended "as the identity of the perpetrators could not be established."[80] According to the family, the police neither questioned Beslan B.'s family nor inspected the crime scene. In May 2009, in response to a letter from Memorial, the prosecutor's office of Chechnya stated that, in fact, no criminal case had been opened by police as the police investigation established "no trace of criminal matter." Based on prosecutor's office demands, police authorities in Shali reopened inquiries into the complaint several times between September 2008 and May 2009 but, invariably, opted against opening a criminal case.[81]

The authorities, however, persist in pressuring Beslan B. to find his son. He told Human Rights Watch,

They [the authorities] are not doing anything about the burning. They are not talking to us about it. Whenever we ask the police any questions, they just shrug and say, "We don't know who burned this place and you cannot tell us who exactly they were. What can we do?" At the same time, they keep summoning me to the police, to the prosecutor's office, to the FSB [Federal Security Service] trying to get information about my son and his whereabouts. Armed servicemen in masks also keep coming to the house, searching for Beka's traces and weapons, tearing everything apart, scaring the women and children. They call our home a terrorist hideout. They were last here just two weeks ago. It seems that they'll never leave us alone. And they are not ready to believe that I genuinely cannot find my son.[82]

Repeated burning of the house of Rizvan R.'s family, Shali

Rizvan R.'s son, Ramzan R., age 21, left home allegedly to join the insurgents on August 7, 2008, together with Beka B., and soon afterwards Rizvan R. was summoned to a meeting with district police authorities together with Beslan B., Beka B.'s father. Rizvan R. told Human Rights Watch,

When Ruslan left, they took me to the ROVD [Shali district police department] and gave me an ultimatum: "Bring the boy back in two weeks or be ready for bad things to happen." I tried looking for him and they kept calling and asking for progress reports, and threatening me and the rest of the family ...

Unknown armed servicemen burned one of the two houses in Rizvan R.'s family compound in Shali, on August 28, 2008. About five months later, on March 12, 2009, this same house was torched again. Several days prior to the second torching, Rizvan R., pressed by law enforcement agents to speak at a community meeting about the threats of Islamist extremism and insurgency, denied that family members of insurgents were solely responsible for them, and stressed that this was a problem of the society as a whole. Officials and others criticized him vehemently and stressed that parents were accountable for their sons.

On August 28, 2008, Rizvan R. was at home when, at about 2:30 a.m. (that is, around a half-hour before Beslan B.'s house was burned), about 10 heavily armed servicemen arrived in two cars, broke the fence, ran into the yard, and entered the house where Rizvan R.'s brother and nephew were sleeping. The servicemen dragged the two men out and put them face down on the ground, where two of the servicemen forced them to stay at gunpoint while the others doused the inside of the house with gasoline from canisters, then threw a blazing torch in through a window. Rizvan R.'s wife tried to step into the yard from the second house to plead with the assailants, but they pushed her back, shouting obscenities. The perpetrators left as the flames spread quickly and the windows broke.

The Rs. immediately called the town firefighters, but they failed to come. Finally, the Rs. and their neighbors managed to cut off the gas supply to the house and put out the fire before the walls and roof collapsed. However, the inside of the house burned completely.

Rizvan R. left Shali with his immediate family just after the house-burning. Weeks later he tried returning, after hearing rumors that relatives of insurgents would be left in peace. He returned alone, keeping his family in a safe place.

In March 2009 a police officer approached Rizvan R. and told him he had to attend a gathering in Shali the next day about the threats of "Wahabbism" and "extremism." He went, as told, to the House of Culture in Shali, to find that,

it was a big gathering with the head of the [district] administration, the head of [district] police, security servicemen, officials, mullahs, and lots of local youths. And suddenly they gave [me] the microphone saying that I asked for the floor at the start of the meeting. I felt lost ... And I said that if our boys run off with the rebels, maybe the parents did not do a good enough job with them, but then it's not only the parents but the society as a whole that influences how they grow up. So, the society is also responsible, and the parents should not be the only ones to blame. Then all hell broke loose. Everyone, from the administration, from the security services, the head of police, the Islamic authorities just pounced on me saying how shocked they were by my speech and how the family was always responsible and had to take the blame.[83]

On March 12, at around 3 a.m. two armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms and face masks drove up to the Rs.' compound, broke the fence again, and set about torching the already burned house. Just like the first time, they poured gasoline everywhere, went outside and threw a torch through one of the windows. Rizvan R. and his brother's family members watched them from the other house across the yard, too afraid to let his presence be known. They put out the fire only after the perpetrators left.[84] They did not report the incident to the law enforcement authorities as they thought this would only lead to further retribution.

Rizvan R. is in little doubt that the burnings were punishment for his failure to bring his son home. Of the March episode he remarked, "I was not surprised when that house was set on fire again right away. They were just punishing me for me speech, for the fact that I refused to cry and humiliate myself like all those parents [of insurgents] that they show on TV."[85]

The burned house is completely uninhabitable.[86]

Burning of the house of Sugaip S., Mesker-Yurt

On the night of August 27-28, 2008, unknown armed servicemen burned Sugaip S.'s house in Mesker-Yurt. Late that night, Sugaip S. heard cars approaching and stopping at his gate. He opened the gate and saw about a dozen heavily armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms and face masks jumping out of two cars. They pushed him aside, ran into his yard, threw several petrol bombs into the house where Sugaip S.'s wife and four sons were asleep, and left right away.

With the fire spreading fast, Sugaip S. had to drag his family members out of the window. Some neighbors came to help. Everyone was saved, and the fire was put out fairly quickly. However, the fire severely damaged several rooms of the house and destroyed most of the family's valuables including furniture, a television, and money.[87]

The torching of their house was one of various types of pressure exerted by the authorities on Sugaip S.'s family since their eldest son allegedly joined the insurgents in November 2007. Police have summoned Sugaip S. and his other two adult sons for interrogations about his third son, and law enforcement personnel conducted regular searches of Sugaip S.'s home. The police were clear about the family's "responsibility" to bring the son back and threatened Sugaip S.'s family with severe repercussions should they fail to cooperate.

In autumn 2008 Memorial raised the burning of the home of Sugaip S.'s family with the Chechen Republic prosecutor's office, which forwarded their claim to the police authorities. At that time, Sugaip S. hoped to have the perpetrators brought to justice. However, when several months later he was approached by Human Rights Watch, his position had drastically changed due, he said, to the pressure exerted on him and his family by the district police authorities. He did not specify what this pressure was, but said that he recently retracted his original testimony and informed the police and the prosecutor's office that the fire had been caused by a lit candle that had fallen over during the night. Consequently, the police closed the investigation.

Sugaip S. told Human Rights Watch,

Complaining only makes it worse. So, forget it. I don't want any help. It [raising the case with the authorities] only made things worse because everything, all the information, made it back to the police. So, we had visitors from the police quite a few times. They were threatening us, accusing us of complaining. My sons were detained several times. We decided we'd be better off if we just keep this quiet.[88]

A neighbor of Sugaip S. also told Human Rights Watch that police pressured him to testify that he had not seen any strangers approaching the Ss.' house during the night of the fire and that the fire was caused by a candle.[89] In May 2009, in response to a letter from Memorial, the Chechnya prosecutor's office stated that in November 2008 three family members testified that the fire was caused by "careless handling of fire," and therefore there were no grounds for opening a criminal case.[90]

Burning of the G. family house and subsequent torture of Azman A., Argun

During the night of August 4, 2008, unidentified armed personnel torched the house of Gabis G., age 60, and his wife, Azman A., age 56, in Argun. Their son, Gazi G. (born 1977) had allegedly joined the insurgents in 2006, after his younger brother (born 1981), was detained by Grozny police authorities in spring 2006 and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment on charges of an attempt on the life of law enforcement officers and participation in an illegal armed group (his parents allege that the charges were fabricated).[91]

The torching of Gabis G.'s and Azman A.'s house was part of a punitive campaign in Argun against relatives of insurgents (see Chapter IV, section "Government responsibility for Punitive House-Burning). Several days prior to the burning, Gabis G. and Azman A. were summoned, along with family members of other alleged insurgents, to a meeting with officials of the Argun administration and law enforcement leadership. They were ordered either to bring their insurgent relatives back or leave town, or face "decisive measures." In the days following the meeting, law enforcement personnel made threatening visits to the homes of several of these families, including the family of Gabis G. At least two of the families fled Argun. To date, the home of Gabis G. is the only one to have been burned.[92]

More than one month after the burning, Azman A. made a desperate attempt to find her son in the woods of Vedeno district, in southeastern Chechnya, and bring him home. Law enforcement personnel unlawfully detained her there and tortured her. She was later forced to confess to collaborating with insurgents, convicted on the basis of this coerced confession, and sentenced to a one-year suspended prison term in December 2008. 

The house-burning

According to Azman A., on the night of August 4, 2008, approximately 10 armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms approached the back of the house in three cars. Azman A. and her husband, their youngest son Gapur G. (born 1993), daughter Gubati G., daughter-in-law, and young granddaughter were all forced outside.

The servicemen were rough, and pushed Azman A., Gabis G. and Gapur G. into a silver Zhiguli car and drove them to the outskirts of town. In a separate car, the assailants drove Gubati G., her sister-in-law, and the little girl to another edge of Argun. By the time the family members were released and returned home, the house was already ablaze.  Azman A. told Human Rights Watch,

They didn't let me even put on my shoes. They kept us in that car for a while. Then finally someone called them on the cell phone, they had a quick conversation and told us to get out. We rushed back and saw the fire. We did our best to put it out with the help of neighbors. It was too late, but, fortunately, we had no gas that day, so the gas tank did not explode, and in the end we managed to save half of the house.

The next day an official from the Argun district administration told the family to leave the village because "such were the orders." Azman A.'s family left, but she remained behind and was subsequently summoned by the Vedeno district administration head. Azman A. told Human Rights Watch, "He said my son [Gazi G.] was somewhere in Vedeno [district], and I had to bring him back or we'd continue having problems.[93]

Detention and torture of Azman A.

Azman A. set out to do just that. In mid-September 2008 she left for Tazyn-Kale, a village in Vedeno district where the family had once lived. Azman A. said she thought that if she showed up in the village, which had been fully deserted by its residents in the course of the second Chechen war, Gazi G. might come out of the woods to meet her. She took a shuttle taxi to Tsenteroi, a village in Nozhai-Yurt district,[94] and planned to walk through the woods toward Tazyn-Kale in Vedeno district, which are accessible only by foot. She had barely taken a dozen steps toward the woods when a minivan full of armed servicemen drove up at high speed. They threw her into the vehicle and took her to a large house, which she described as "the first house" after the entrance to Tsenteroi. There, they tortured her for several hours and kept her in the basement all night with another severely beaten prisoner, who appeared to be a minor. The next day they handed her over to the Nozhai-Yurt district police department.

Azman A. told Human Rights Watch,

There were about 20 servicemen based in that house, all of them young Chechens in camouflage uniforms carrying sub-machine guns. They did not cover their faces or anything. And they did not really ask me any questions. But they beat me horribly on my legs with heavy batons.

They also hooked me up to electric wires, and that was the worst. They had that machine of sorts, which looked like a phone, and they would put wires to my back and to my head and then turn a knob. The pain was blinding. I fainted each time they hit me with shocks on my head and they poured water over me, waited for me to come to and then did it again. I lost count of the shocks ...

Several young guys were doing it and laughing. They mocked me: "So, you were on your way to your son in the woods? Now you won't be walking anywhere, not anytime soon!" And they hit me on my legs with batons time and again. My legs were bloodied and a bone cracked. When they tortured me with electric shock, [there was] an older man, also a Chechen but in his forties, who was supervising the young ones doing it. At some point I must've lost consciousness for a long time ... When I opened my eyes the older man was saying ..., "See, women are very tenacious. I told you she wasn't dead!"

The servicemen dragged Azman A. to the basement, where there was a teenage boy handcuffed and lying on the floor, badly beaten. Azman A. said,

He was dripping blood and kept his face covered by his arms. He kept begging the guard, who was watching over us, to loosen the handcuffs, but the guard ignored him. The kid looked 14 at most; I was crying all night just looking at him and not being able to help ...

The next afternoon an investigator from the Nozhai-Yurt district police department, accompanied by a female colleague, collected Azman A. from the house in Tsenteroi and took her directly to the Nozhai-Yurt temporary detention center (IVS), where she was held for 10 days. On the second day, a wound on her leg, where the bone was cracked, became very swollen, and she was also in pain and had a fever. The police took her to hospital; on the way, one of the officers instructed Azman A. to tell the doctors she "fell into a pit." Azman A. complied, but a female doctor, who was treating her, tried to confront the policeman by saying, "There is no way those wounds resulted from her falling into a pit." Once Azman A.'s wounds were cleaned and treated, she was taken back to the IVS.[95]

Azman A. was released on the morning of her eleventh day in detention. An investigator told Azman A. she was free to go but had to first sign an interrogation report. She signed the document without having read it. By doing so, she admitted that upon request of her son, Gazi G., she had attempted to take food and some clothing to him and other members of his illegal armed group. According to Azman A., on the day of her unlawful detention, she was indeed carrying some honey, butter, tea, and men's clothing, including a pair of underwear, as she hoped to meet her son and bring him back with her. On December 3, 2008, the Nozhai-Yurt District Court found Azman A. guilty of collaboration with an illegal armed group under article 208 part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code, and gave her a one-year suspended prison sentence.[96]

Naur District

Human Rights Watch documented two cases of house-burning in Naur district that took place, one after the other, on the evening of December 23, 2008. The same group of unidentified law enforcement servicemen appeared to have torched both houses.

Burning of Vakha V. 's house and attempted kidnapping of his nephews, Sovetskaia Rossiya (Rubezhnoe) village

On December 23, 2008, in Sovetskaia Rossiya village(also known as Rubezhnoe), a large group of armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms set fire to the house of an elderly local resident, Vakha V. (born 1932). Vakha V.'s son, Vadud V., had left home and allegedly joined a group of insurgents in autumn 2007. Since then, Vakha V. was regularly approached by local police authorities who insisted that he bring his son back, and warned him that the rest of the family would suffer if he failed to do so. Vakha V. has no doubt that the house was burned as a form of punishment. About six months before Vakha V.'s house was burned, a group of unknown armed servicemen broke into the house of Vakha V.'s brother and attempted to kidnap the latter's two sons. The Vs. are convinced that the kidnappers wanted to use the young men as hostages in order to force Vadud V. to turn himself in.[97]

At around 4:30 p.m. on December 23, Vakha V. was visiting a neighbor. Suddenly, he heard screams and the sound of sub-machine gunfire coming from the direction of his house. He immediately rushed home. He saw six or seven cars next to his gate, one of them an UAZ minivan, as well as some armed servicemen and his youngest son, daughter-in-law, and young grandson. The yard was full of servicemen, several of whom were in the process of setting the house on fire. They did not wear masks, but local residents did not recognize any of them, as they were apparently not from Naur district.

Vakha V.'s son and daughter-in-law told him that the servicemen had driven up en masse, broke into the house, and forced the family out into the street at gunpoint. When Vakha V. tried to enter the yard, the servicemen started shooting in the air and made him step back. For the next half hour, Vakha V., his relatives, and neighbors could only watch helplessly. Once the house was fully ablaze, the servicemen drove away.

As there is no fire brigade station in the village, local residents put the fire out themselves. By that time, however, the entire house, with the exception of a small kitchen, was destroyed by fire. A village policeman arrived but failed to register the crime, explaining to Vakha V. that there was nothing he could do because "those men ["Kadyrovtsy"] have all the power" and asking for his understanding.[98] Vakha V. decided not to pursue the case further.

Local police continued to pressure Vakha V. He told Human Rights Watch,

They never leave me alone. They summon me to the district police department and keep telling me that I have to bring my son back for my own good. They keep saying, "Bring him back if you don't want to pay a high price." So, this is part of the price. I no longer have a home.

I have not made any official complaints ... And after all, this is only a house ... It's much more frightening to think of what they [armed servicemen] can do to people. After the burning, I had to send my youngest son and his family away because [I was afraid] they would abduct him and hold him hostage. I'm an old man now. I'm almost 80. It's hard. But there was no choice, particularly after what they did to our home and how they had tried to kidnap my nephews this past summer.[99]

Vakha V.'s two nephews live in Moscow but were visiting their parents in Sovetskaia Rossiya in July 2008 when several heavily armed servicemen in fatigues broke into the house and held all the family members at gunpoint against the wall. They started dragging the two young men away when numerous relatives of the Vs. who live in the same neighborhood heard gunshots, gathered around the houses, and succeeded in preventing the abduction. Vakha V.'s brother, Veza V. told Human Rights Watch,

It's a miracle we were able to stop them from taking our boys. But there is simply no end to this. They [armed servicemen] broke into our house and tore it apart twice after [the failed kidnapping]. We cannot let our sons visit anymore. It's too frightening. My brother [Vakha V.] was summoned to the district police department again just a few days ago, and they made it clear to him that unless he brings his son [Vadud V.] back home, the family would suffer the consequences. The burning of his house is not an end of this-just another step. They won't leave our family alone. I only wish we could bring that guy back, hand him over to the authorities and be done with it. But how do we know where to find him? And our family is not alone in this: after they were done with my brother's house, they drove directly to Novoterskoe [another village in the Naur disctrict, approximately 30 km from Sovetskaia Rossiya] and burned a house of a local family, which is in a similar situation with their son also hiding in the woods. Why are the families being punished? This is against Russian law, against the constitution![100]

In May 2009, in response to an enquiry from Memorial, the Chechnya prosecutor's office stated that a fire report from the village had been registered by district police authorities on December 25, 2008. The police ran several checks into the report and chose not to open a criminal case "for lack of a criminal act." Following the letter by Memorial, the Naur district prosecutor's office ordered the police authorities to start another inquiry into the fire report. At this writing no criminal case has been opened.[101]

Burning of Mita M.'s house, Novoterskoe

The burning of the Mita M.'s house in Novoterskoe immediately followed the burning of Vakha V.'s house in Sovetskaia Rossiya and was reportedly conducted by the same perpetrators. Having left Sovetskaia Rossiya around 5:30 p.m., numerous heavily armed servicemen reached Mita M.'s home by approximately 6 p.m. Mita M.'s two sons allegedly joined the insurgency in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Since then their parents have been under heavy pressure from the district law enforcement authorities. The pressure intensified in 2008 and culminated in the burning of their home.

At around 6 p.m. on December 23, Mita M. and his family left home to go to Grozny, where they were planning to spend the night. Just before 7 p.m. Mita M.'s brother, also a resident of Novoterskoe, called him on his cell phone and said that his house had been torched. Mita M. immediately returned to Novoterskoe to find his home almost fully destroyed by fire. Several eyewitnesses told Mita M. that as soon as he drove off they saw about seven vehicles full of armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms approach the house gate at high speed. Some of the servicemen surrounded the house, and the others went inside and started pushing the furniture together and pouring gasoline over it.[102]

Mita M.'s house shares a party wall and joint roof with a house belonging to Umar U. According to an eyewitness, Umar U. approached the servicemen and tried to plead with them, explaining that if they burned Mita M.'s house, his home would also be destroyed by fire. Umar U. hoped that his official status (he is head of a village administration in another district) would make the servicemen reconsider. Their apparent leader, however, simply shrugged, "We can give you 15 minutes to split the roofs. That's all you've got. Your neighbor's place is to be burned now and there's nothing to discuss."[103]

The perpetrators torched the house, stayed long enough to ensure that it was fully ablaze, and then left. When Mita M. arrived, his neighbors had started putting out the fire. The fire fighters arrived and prevented the fire from spreading to Umar U.'s house, but Mita M.'s house was completely destroyed.

"We lost our home, all of our property, our documents, and 90,000 rubles [approximately US$3,000] that we saved up for the funeral of my father-he is very old and sick," Mita M. told Human Rights Watch.

In an exception to the pattern of house-burnings, the firefighters reported the fire to the Naur district police, which was thereby compelled to start an investigation. Mita M.'s neighbors were interrogated by the investigator and initially described the circumstances with full accuracy. However, according to Mita M., they withdrew their initial statements after law enforcement officials threatened them. In mid-February 2009 Mita M. received a letter from the police stating that no criminal case would be initiated as the fire had started on its own.[104]

Mita M. described the pressure his family had been under prior to and after the burning of his house:

Before the burning, our place was searched by police several times and we also received police summons almost on a monthly basis. It was all about "bring your sons back or get ready for trouble." I don't know what made the boys join the rebels, but the police have a picture of theirs out there in the woods-they found it at that rebel internet site... Last year the police and the village administration even made my wife go all the way to Shatoi [a mountain district of Chechnya] to attend a meeting of local law enforcement leadership with relatives of those that left for the woods. The head of Shatoi district police department was telling them, "Get your kids back or you won't be left alone. This is in your best interests. You'll all suffer if you fail to do this."

Well, we lost everything in that fire, but the authorities are still not leaving us in peace. Just three or four days after the burning we were summoned to the district police here and it's the same old song: "Bring your sons back! We warned you time and again, you did not do it and you see what happened. Bring them back before it gets any worse!" If I only knew where they were I would've done it. But I cannot simply go into the mountains and look! I'll be detained as an abettor of the insurgents in a split second if I attempt this. After the burning of our house, a district FSB official I'm friendly with told me that I had to send my youngest son away because they would abduct him and hold him hostage to make the other ones return. So, I did just that. There is no other way to keep him safe.[105]

Shatoi District

In Shatoi, Human Rights Watch documented one case of house-burning and one in which the authorities warned a family's house could be burned if the family failed to make their son return. Regarding the latter, the threats and other harassment against the X. family were fully consistent with the pattern described in this report. The threat-made in early summer 2008-was not carried out, however, because the family live in a small apartment building and burning their home would have meant destroying all the neighboring apartments.[106] For that reason, we have not included the X.'s case in this report.

Burning of the house of Sapar S.'s family, Aslambek Sharipov village

In the early hours of June 18, 2008, unknown armed servicemen set fire to the house of Sapar S.'s family in Aslambek Sharipov village. The owner of the house, Sapar S., had moved to another region of Chechnya in 2004 and allowed his 44-year-old sister-in-law, Sanu S. to live in the house with her son Surkho (born 1987). In late June 2007 Surkho left home, allegedly to join the insurgency. Between then and mid-June 2008 the Shatoi district police conducted several searches at the house and had numerous meetings with Sanu S., trying to get her to bring her son back and threatening her with severe repercussions should she fail in her efforts. Both Sanu S. and Sapar S. attribute the burning to Shatoi-based law enforcement servicemen.[107]

On June 17 Sanu S. went to visit her father and brother in the neighboring village of Yukerch-Kiloi and chose to spend the night. In the morning, one of her neighbors called her brother to tell him that the house where she was living had been burned the night before.[108] Sanu S.'s neighbors told Human Rights Watch that around 2 a.m. they saw several armed servicemen drive up, make their way to the house, and set it on fire. They returned to their vehicles about 15 minutes later and stayed there for a while, probably to make sure that the fire spread fully. The neighbors were too frightened to call the firefighters or interfere in any way.[109]

Sanu S. lost everything in the fire, including her only photographs of her son. She told Human Rights Watch, "[M]y passport, Surkho's school diploma and certificates of awards, my daughter's papers, and some pictures of Surkho [were all burned] ... He is my only son and I don't even have a picture of him now."[110]

Sanu S. described the pressure and threats from law enforcement authorities prior to the fire:

When my Surkho disappeared in June 2007 we really thought something happened to him. He was a quiet, studious boy, a third-year [university] student.... And then two weeks later they showed us a picture of Surkho in a group of rebels. It was so awful. Everything has been a nightmare since then. Before they burned this house, police kept coming for searches-they tore the house apart five times during the year. But that's OK. It's part of their job, right?

But they also kept summoning me and my daughter to the district police department. Sometimes just by ourselves and sometimes with other people like us, whose boys are in the woods. They were telling us to bring the boys back. But I have not heard from Surkho a single time!

The police chief was saying that we had to get our sons back or everyone would be killed, all the families would be destroyed, because the families were responsible, like the president said on TV. I had a minor heart attack because of those threats and my concern for Surkho. It's OK for them to give warnings to families like mine. It's also their job. But why do we have to suffer? Why do I have to suffer? Why are they destroying my home? What did I do? And if they think this will make my son return, they are wrong: it'll only make him so angry that he'll never come back ...

The Ss. believe that the decision to torch the house could have been triggered by the fact that two nights earlier, several insurgents set fire to the house of a policeman in the nearby village of Musolt-Ali and ambushed a group of policemen who came to the site, killing one and wounding two of them.[111]

Sapar S. feared the consequences of filing a complaint about the burning of his house, but in early autumn reported the crime to both the Shatoi district prosecutor's office and the prosecutor's office of the Chechen Republic. Some time later, he was summoned to the Investigation Committee of the republican prosecutor's office and questioned about his complaint. According to Sapar S., the neighbors who saw the perpetrators at the scene of the crime refused to provide any information to the prosecutor's office for fear of immediate repercussions. The complaint was forwarded to police authorities in Shatoi for investigation.[112] At this writing, there have been no further developments in the case.

Sapar S. told Human Rights Watch,

Russian laws don't allow for anything like this! It's just outrageous! If the boy is a criminal, they [the authorities] would find him and hold him accountable. It's their job! But why am I being held responsible for another person's actions? Why is my house being destroyed? Why am I being punished for someone else? And I'm not the only one. I heard of about 20 families in Chechnya that suffered the same treatment-in Argun, in Shali, in Naur districts. Mass media outlets are not reporting those crimes. No one dares speak about them or do anything. They [the perpetrators] enjoy complete impunity![113]

Vedeno District

Late on December 4, 2008, a group of insurgents killed Khaji Saidullaev, administration head of Agishty, a village bordering on Vedeno district. They also killed Saidullaev's wife, Taus, and son, Salman, and set the family's home on fire.[114] That same night, apparently in an act of retaliation, a group of unknown law enforcement servicemen in Vedeno district burned two houses belonging to relatives of alleged insurgents in the village of Tevzani and another in a nearby village, Khatuni. The next day, a large group of law enforcement officials arrived in the village of Elistanzhi and set fire to the house of a local family related to two self-acknowledged insurgents. Human Rights Watch documented all the house-burnings with the exception of the one in Khatuni; when a Human Rights Watch researcher arrived in the village the house appeared deserted and basically undamaged. The neighbors that Human Rights Watch approached said that the family left a while ago. They confirmed that armed men set fire to the house on the night of December 4-5 but said that the perpetrators left quickly and they succeeded in putting out the fire.[115]

Two of the three families that suffered house-burning in the Vedeno district dared complain to the authorities with the assistance of Memorial. At this writing, the complaints have not yielded any tangible results.

Burning of the house of Davlet D.'s family, Tevzani

At around 2 a.m. on December 5, 2008, a large group of unknown armed servicemen burned the house of Davlet D. in Tevzani.[116] Davlet D.'s two sons have been allegedly fighting on the side of the rebels for several years, and for about three years the family has been receiving threats and warnings from law enforcement and the district administration.

Davelt D. and his wife Dushta D. were at home alone when heavily armed men dressed in camouflage uniforms drove up in six cars. They broke into the yard, forced Davlet D. to open the door, put him and Dushta D. face down on the floor at gunpoint, dragged them to the second house on the family compound, and locked them in. From the window of that house the Ds. saw how the perpetrators doused their home with gasoline and torched it. Once the house was in flames, the armed men left towards the house of Abbali A., another resident of Tevzani whose son has allegedly joined the insurgency (see below).[117]

Davlet D. described the burning to Human Rights Watch:

They were 30 people or so. Only two of them were masked, probably because they were from around here and were afraid of being recognized, but I could not see the faces of the others either-they forced me down on the floor before I could get a glimpse of anything. I was barefoot and hardly dressed.

Because Davlet D.'shouse is next to a spring, he and his neighbors were able to put out the fire. The roof and walls of the house are still standing, and Davlet D.'s family is now living in the one room that remained intact.

Davlet D. described the harassment he had endured prior to and after the burning, which had grown so intense that he was driven to publicly renounce his son:

Since my two sons ... left for the woods,[118]they [law enforcement servicemen] have been threatening me. I'm summoned to the district police department all the time. They have my sons' pictures out their in the woods. They keep telling me that I need to bring my sons back, that I'm the one responsible, that I and the rest of my family have to pay for their deeds, that we can be killed for this ... I cannot bring those two back. There is just no way.

So, in the winter of 2007 I renounced them in the mosque. According to our tradition, they are no sons of mine any more. I hoped it would help. But it did not. Now, with the house gone, I also thought they [law enforcement authorities] would leave me alone. What else can they do short of killing me? But now, they keep pressuring me. I was summoned to the police department just recently and it's the same story ... The events in Agishty [killing of the Saidullaevs and burning of their house by the insurgents] happened the day they burned my house, that's true. But according to Russian laws, fathers cannot be held accountable for their sons, so why are we being punished?[119]

Dushta D. told Human Rights Watch,

The burning of our home was the last straw. We were so frightened before but now it's become completely insane. We cannot sleep. We keep jumping up at night whenever we hear a car approaching. We will not complain to any authorities. Not only is it useless but if we do, those same people or some others will certainly come back for us-this time to kill us.[120] 

Burning of the house of Abbali A.'s family, Tevzani

At about 3 a.m. on December 5, 2008, the house belonging to Abbali A. and his family in Tevzani was set on fire by unknown armed servicemen. According to several residents of the village interviewed by Human Rights Watch, prior to burning the home of Abbali A.'s family, the same servicemen had torched and destroyed the Ds.' house. As in that case, the As. and other local residents view this burning as an act of retaliation by the law enforcement for the killing of the Saidullaevs in Agishty earlier that night by a group of insurgents.[121] One of Abbali A.'s sons, Akhmat (born 1980), is believed to have joined the insurgency in 2006.

Abbali A. (born 1938) and his wife (born 1947) were at home with six other family members, including three small children. They were awakened by noise outside, and saw six or seven cars next to their house. Heavily armed servicemen dressed in camouflage uniforms, some of them wearing face masks, jumped out of the cars and broke into the yard. Several of the servicemen forced the A. family out into the street. The servicemen were all Chechen and behaved very roughly, pushing the A.s about, hitting them, ordering them to move faster, and screaming obscenities.

Several of the servicemen held the A. family at gunpoint about 30 meters from the house, while the others pushed furniture together inside the house, broke windows, and poured gasoline in the rooms and attic. Once the house was torched, the arsonists waited for the fire to spread throughout the house, then left.[122] The family and their neighbors could not put out the fire quickly because the outdoor taps were not working.

Abbali A.'s 73-year-old sister-in-law, Aidat A., who observed the arson from her house about four meters away, told Human Rights Watch,

There were so many of them [servicemen], they were shooting in the air, and all the neighbors were just hiding in their houses afraid to step out until they finally left and everyone started trying to put the fire out. The children were beyond themselves with fear and crying hysterically; some neighbors took them in for the night. The house was in flames ... there was no water in the street, so in the end the house burned completely.

My brother-in-law has a son who left to join the rebels about two years ago. So, when the rebels killed those three people in Agishty and burned their home the others [law enforcement servicemen] went after my brother-in-law, as if he's responsible. And certainly, he and the rest of the family had had repeated warnings from the authorities that we needed to bring [him] back. But we know nothing about him-whatever he is doing and wherever he is-so how could we possible manage to do that?[123]

Burning of the house of Nazir N.'s family, Elistanzhi

On December 5, 2008, a large group of unknown armed servicemen torched the house of Nazir N. in Elistanzhi. According to Nazir N., his two nephews, Nurid N. and Nart N., joined the insurgents in 2000 and have been accused of a number of serious crimes, including killings and attempted killings of law enforcement agents and public officials. For years the authorities have demanded that Nazir N.-as the closest relative of Nurid N. and Nart N.-bring back his nephews and have threatened him with repercussions. Finally, after the killing of the Saidullaevs in Agishty, his home was burned.

On the afternoon of December 5, 69-year-old Nazir N. had just returned home from the mosque. Just after he entered the house, his street and the neighboring one were, he said, "overflowing" with cars full of heavily armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms. Several dozen of them entered his yard, pushed him aside, and went into the house. They started moving furniture, piling up household items, clothes, and wooden boards, which Nazir N. was going to use to repair the floor. They poured gasoline from containers everywhere.

When Nazir N. realized that the servicemen were planning to set fire to his house, he tried to point out to the man he thought was in charge that the roof of his house abutted his neighbor's, that the houses' walls were less than one meter away from one another, and that torching his house would mean setting fire to his neighbor's house. The perpetrators said that their intentions and orders were quite clear, and his house had to be burned.

Nazir N. then suggested that they bring over a local excavator operator to have him try to split the roof and destroy a part of the wall of his home to put more distance between it and the wall of the neighboring house, and they agreed. Twenty minutes later the excavator operator and his machine were brought to the house, and the excavator driver, following the elderly man's directions, separated the roofs and broke a part of the wall that was less than one meter from his neighbor's house. Then the perpetrators torched Nazir N.'s house, and everyone looked on as it burned.[124]

Nazir N.'s wife, Nurset, asked the servicemen who they were and who was in command.[125] One of them said he was in charge of the group, disclosing neither his name, nor rank, nor the name of the unit. Nurset N. asked him, "Why are you doing this to us? Who told you to burn this house?" The commander said that the orders "came from Kadyrov." Nurset N. questioned the reply, saying that President Kadyrov was reportedly on the haj in Mecca at that time and, therefore, could not have given any such orders. The commander retorted by saying that the minister of internal affairs of Chechnya gave the order on the president's behalf.[126]

For many months before the burning of their home, the N. family suffered extensively from ill-treatment by law enforcement officers who broke into their house, pushed them around, threatened them, and even beat them up on several occasions. Nazir N. told Human Rights Watch,

They kept coming in the middle of the night or in the small hours of the morning. They yelled obscenities and beat us. Sometimes they were Chechen and Russian servicemen together. At other times, especially recently, they were just Chechens. The Chechens kept telling me, "Why don't you make them return? They are your family and, therefore, your responsibility. We were also fighting in the woods but we came back, right? Why aren't they coming back? You have to make them do it!" And they would not listen to me when I explained that it was hopeless, that I had already tried and failed, and that there was no way for me to accomplish what they wanted.[127]

According to Nazir N., he continues to be pressured by the authorities, who regularly summon him to the Vedeno district administration and police department and make threats about what would happen if he failed to bring back his nephews.

Nurset N. described the desperate situation her family now faces:

What are we going to do? How will we live? No one in the village will let us in because everyone is afraid of helping us. We never even get any humanitarian aid when it's being distributed because people think that if the authorities see them do something good for us they'll be perceived as sympathizers with the rebels. Someone let us stay in this house here till the end of the winter but it is only temporary. He made it clear we have to get out by the end of March, and this is less than two weeks away. They [law enforcement servicemen] literally threw us out in the streets with nothing but a set of clothing and one pair of galoshes. Our daughter is still a student. What will happen to her if we go? And at the same time, how can we now take care of her?[128]

After his house burned, Nazir N. asked a local policeman, with whom he was friendly, for advice as to what could be done to improve his family's situation. The policeman only shrugged: "Nothing really. Not only can I not help you but there is nothing I can even think of. Those [Kadyrov's] armed units have free reign. They have all the power."[129] The N. family sent a letter to President Kadyrov pleading for the persecution to stop. Several months after the burning, in spring 2009, Memorial raised their case with the prosecutor's office of the Chechen Republic, having good grounds to believe that addressing police authorities would be useless at best. In May 2009, the Chechnya prosecutor's office informed Memorial that the district police authorities had had no information about the alleged incident and were instructed by the prosecutor's office in April 2009 to look into the information provided by Memorial.[130] At this writing no criminal case has been opened.

Kurchaloi District

According to information obtained by Human Rights Watch, a total of 10 houses belonging to families of alleged insurgents were burned in Kurchaloi district, including five in Alleroi (two of them torched on July 30 and another three on October 2, 2008), three in Ahkinchu-Barzoi (July 16), and one each in Khidi-Khutor (July 13) and in Tsenteroi, President Kadyrov's home village (July 22, 2008). Human Rights Watch was unable to access Alleroi and Tsenteroi for security reasons, but we confirmed Memorial's reporting on the burnings in these villages through off-site interviews with residents of the respective villages.[131] We documented the three burnings in Ahkinchu-Barzoi as well as the burning in Khidi-Khutor.

Burning of the three houses belonging to Tamerlan T.'s family, Ahkinchu-Barzoi

On July 16, 2008, at approximately 1 a.m., a group of masked servicemen in camouflage uniforms burned three houses belonging to Tamerlan T.'s family in the village of Ahkinchu-Barzoi. Because the sons of Tamerlan T. and those of his first cousin, Timir T., are fighting on the side of the insurgents, police have pressured the family to provide intelligence on the insurgents and make the young men leave the insurgency. Prior to the burning, the houses of Tamerlan T. were frequently searched by police, and the family members were often summoned to and threatened at the Kurchaloi district police department.

Tamerlan T. (born 1957) and his sister Taus T. (born 1962) lived in two separate houses on the same family compound. According to Taus T., a noise woke her in the middle of the night on July 16. From the window Taus T. saw several armed servicemen in the yard; a few of them approached her house, and the others went to her brother's house. The servicemen told Taus T. to get out. She wrapped her 26-year-old daughter, who is paralyzed, in a blanket and carried her outside, struggling under her weight. Once in the yard, she saw Tamerlan T., his wife, and two daughters forced out of their house. The perpetrators pumped gasoline out of Tamerlan T.'s car into buckets, doused their houses with it, and torched them.

Taus T.'s paralyzed daughter was screaming as she watched her home burn. Taus T. and Tamerlan T. saw another fire across the street and realized that the house of their cousin, Timir, was also burning. Several neighbors came outside and tried to approach the burning houses but the servicemen kept them from getting close. After about a half-hour the perpetrators left.[132] The fires destroyed the houses of Tamerlan T. and Timir T. The walls of Taus T.'s house were left standing, and months later the neighbors helped the T. family rebuild it.

Taus T. told Human Rights Watch,         

They did not let us take anything out. It all burned-furniture, clothes, all kind of mementos, our documents, everything. My brother's son Taram-he is 20 now-left for the woods in May 2007, and we have had no peace since then. The police carried out mop-up operations in our yard, they always called Tamerlan in, threatened him with all kinds of things if he failed to bring Taram back. But how do they expect Tamerlan to do that if we haven't heard from Taram for almost two years now? Timir was in a similar situation with his son in the woods as well.[133]

When a Human Rights Watch researcher was photographing the ruins of Timir T.'s house, a neighbor approached and said that Timir had been specifically warned by law enforcement authorities that he would be in trouble if he tried to rebuild his house. The neighbor also said that when some information about the burning of the Ts.' houses was published on the internet, law enforcement personnel asked members of the T. family who they had complained to and threatened them with severe repercussions if they said another word to anyone. The Ts. were allegedly forced to sign a document stating that the fires were caused by burning coals that had fallen from the stove and other trivial causes. [134]

The neighbor asked Human Rights Watch to also visit several nearby villages on the way back so that police would not realize that we had come specifically to Ahkinchu-Barzoi. "If they think you just came to us because you knew something happened here we are all going to be in trouble," he said.[135]

Burning of Isaxat I.'s house, Khidi-Khutor

Isaxat I. (born 1962) was visiting relatives in another village when a group of armed men in masks and camouflage uniforms drove up to her house in the middle of the night on July 13, 2008, in two white UAZ vans. Neighbors told Isaxat I. they saw the men entering the house, and loading their cars with valuable household items and building supplies that had been stocked in the yard. The servicemen then doused the house with gasoline and torched it. They also set fire to the family tractor, which was parked next to the house. The perpetrators left after approximately 30 minutes, once they were certain that the house was ablaze. Fearing repercussions, the neighbors did not try to put out the fire.[136] Because her house burned completely, Isaxat I. was forced to live with relatives. The fire destroyed not only her rather large house-it had seven rooms and a 14-square-meter terrace-but also all her property, including some money, family mementoes, and documents.[137]

Isaxat I.'s sons, Inal (born 1983) and Ikram (born 1987), left home in 2004 and 2007 respectively. Their mother told Human Rights Watch she had no information as to their fate and whereabouts and that they have never attempted to get in touch with her. In recent years Kurchaloi district police summoned her repeatedly for questioning and told her that Inal I. headed an illegal armed group and Ikram I. was also fighting on the side of insurgents.

Isaxat I. has not lodged any complaints about the destruction of her property as she is afraid it could only exacerbate the situation for her family.[138] She told Human Rights Watch,

I'm all alone. Their father [Isaxat's husband, Magomed M.] stepped on a booby-trap during the first [Chechen] war and got killed. My situation is desperate as the authorities stopped paying me benefits for my youngest son, who's still a minor. They are saying there is some kind of a formal reason for it but in reality it's all because of my other sons, those who are supposedly in the woods. Though I really have no idea where they are and if they're still alive. Before the house was burned, the police would summon me every few weeks. They kept asking, "When have you last seen them? When did they last contact you? What do you know about them?" They refused to believe that I knew nothing, kept pressing me to bring them home and threatening that I'd be in trouble for failing to do that.

Now, with the house already destroyed, they don't bother me that often. They probably realize I have nothing more to lose.[139]