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VIII. Special Operations Involving Cruel and Degrading Treatment

Special operations in Ingushetia are search-and-seizure raids officially aimed at seizing insurgents who are believed to be in the targeted areas, and at searching for weapons in residents’ homes and/or workplaces. Sometimes they are carried out in response to armed attacks by insurgents in the area. According to Memorial, human rights are blatantly violated in the conduct of such operations.²¹⁷ Some of the extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, abductions, and torture documented in this report occurred during search-and-seizure operations. This chapter describes beatings, looting, and other cruel and degrading treatment against Ingushetia residents during special operations. 

Research by Human Rights Watch and Memorial in 2007 found that special operations generally follow the pattern of sweeps and targeted raids²¹⁸ seen in earlier years in Chechnya.Depending on the circumstances, the operations can target a specific household, a neighborhood, or an entire village. Groups of armed personnel—security services, local police and federal Ministry of Internal Affairs troops—arrive in a given area, often wearing masks and riding in military vehicles, minibuses, and passenger cars that in many cases lack license plates. They surround a neighborhood or an entire village and check peoples’ dwellings. The servicemen do not identify themselves, show official warrants, or provide the residents with any explanation for the operations.

The prosecutor’s office has failed to investigate complaints from Ingushetia residents about operations involving human rights violations.²¹⁹

Human Rights Watch recognizes that Russian authorities have a legitimate right to conduct law enforcement and security operations in any part of the Russian Federation in order to identify and detain suspected criminals and to seize illegal weapons. However, such operations must conform to Russia’s domestic law and international human rights obligations.

In order to be in compliance with those obligations, law enforcement officials, when using force, must exercise restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense and to the legitimate objective to be attained.²²⁰ As far as possible, non-violent means shall be applied before resorting to the use of force and firearms.²²¹ Universal human rights standards prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, without exception or derogation.²²² In a recent case against Russia, the European Court of Human Rights stated that difficulties inherent in the fight against crime cannot justify limits on the protection to be afforded in respect of the physical integrity of individuals.²²³ Furthermore, governments are under a positive obligation to effectively investigate all allegations of ill-treatment by law enforcement personnel and hold those responsible accountable.²²⁴

Sweep operation, Gairbek-Yurt

On April 10, 2007, soon after 5 a.m., unidentified armed personnel carried out a sweep operation in the village of Gairbek-Yurt in Nazran district. The sweep was conducted in a distinctly abusive manner.

About 100 masked servicemen in camouflage uniforms arrived in armored vehicles, Gazel minibuses, and cars, cut off the village from the access road, surrounded the area around the local school, and proceeded to search the houses. According to residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the servicemen forced their way into homes with no warrant, and responded with obscenities to any questions regarding their names, affiliation, or reasons for the search. Men, women, and children were forced to stand outside at gunpoint barefoot and in their nightclothes.²²⁵

Movsar N. (not his real name) told Human Rights Watch,²²⁶

One of [the servicemen] threatened me with the butt of his gun, just to frighten me … I asked, “Who is your commander?” He yelled, “Shut your trap!” They cursed for 10 minutes or so and pushed me in the back with their guns when I tried to ask questions. They broke the door; I had to fix it and get a new lock … There is a 60-year-old woman living on the right side of the street. They threw her outside and she had to stand in the cold in her nightclothes for hours. They threw things around, walked on the carpets in their muddy boots … 

Human Rights Watch was also able to speak to the woman mentioned by Movsar N. Milana V. (not her real name) was distressed by the behavior of the servicemen,²²⁷

They were all in masks and they were so rude! They searched my house, even though they had no official papers, threw around the bed linens, the pots and pans, emptied a bag of rice on the floor. Finally, they found an old, rusty rifle, which remained from my late husband. They pushed me out of the house in my nightgown and I had to stand like that for something like two hours.

In the end, they took us to Karabulak and led us into some kind of a trailer. There was a young man there sitting by the computer. He asked me questions about the rifle, put everything in writing, gave me a copy of that document and let me go. So, why did they have to do all those terrible things to me before?

After the sweep, the head of the Nazran district police department and two members of the Ingushetia parliament spoke with villagers. The department head confirmed that Ingush police were not made aware of the operation. Moreover, he said that when the district police officer for Gairbek-Yurt, Yusup Shibilov, tried to enter the village during the sweep, armed personnel prevented him from doing so.²²⁸ The parliamentarians also collected residents’ written complaints and promised to raise the issue with competent authorities. However, no investigation into the operation has been carried out.

Targeted raid, Ordzhonikidzevskaya

On June 1, 2007, around 6 p.m., Khazhbiker Merzhoev’s house in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya was raided by FSB and military servicemen. They broke into the Merzhoevs’ yard and opened fire over the heads of the children who were playing there. They ill-treated the disabled Khazhbiker Merzhoev and beat his elder son Ramzan. They also hurt Merzhoev’s teenage son, Adam, including breaking one of his fingers.

Khazhbiker Merzhoev told Human Rights Watch,²²⁹

I suddenly heard gunfire in the neighbors’ yard, then a large group of armed men, in masks—about 70 men, maybe 100, they arrived in 7 or 8 Gazel minibuses—burst into our yard. They yelled, “Freeze! Get down!” and shot in the air. They forced me onto the ground. One pulled my pants-leg up, and said, “What is that?!” I said, “Prosthetic leg” (my leg was amputated in 1991). Then he said, “So, you are still alive, son of a bitch?” My daughters were crying, “Please, please, don’t kill us!” They hit my 21-year-old son, Ramzan, with a gun butt, put a plastic bag on his head, and forced him into their minivan; they continued to beat him there. Some of them went to the market to get my younger son, Adam. I had to tell them he was there. And Adam was just a 9^th grade student! They brought him back to the house in the minivan; he was handcuffed. One of the soldiers kept his foot on Adam’s face. They beat him with gun butts and broke his finger. His head was covered with bruises.

The servicemen began searching the house but did not find anything. An FSB investigator from the group wrote a search report that indicated that among the witnesses to the search were several troops from military division #04062 who took part in the operation. The report noted that the search was aimed at seizing weapons, ammunition, and explosives allegedly hidden in the house but that no such objects or substances were found.²³⁰ Both Ramzan and Adam were released.

The Merzhoevs promptly lodged a complaint with the prosecutor’s office of Ingushetia, which forwarded it to the military prosecutor’s office at the military division #04062. The military prosecutor’s office replied to the prosecutor of Ingushetia, Yuri Turygin, “According to the information provided by the head of the Ingushetia branch of FSB of the Russian Federation—the military entity tasked with the conduct of search operations—staff-members of the Ingushetia branch of the FSB of the Russian Federation did not take part in the June 1, 2007 search at the Merzhoevs’ house”²³¹ Therefore, according to the military prosecutor’s office, there was “no evidence suggesting that on June 1, 2007, FSB officials conducted a search at the Merzhoevs’ house.”²³² At this writing, the perpetrators of this abusive operation remain unpunished.

According to Khazhbiker Merzhoev, his house was also raided by the FSB back in September 2006. During that raid, the security servicemen were specifically looking for his son Ramzan. When Merzhoev explained that Ramzan had been drafted to the army nine months earlier, one of the FSB officers shrugged, “OK, then it’s a mistake; there must be a mistake in the warrant. We have a car full of these papers. We have search and arrest warrants for everyone in Ingushetia.”²³³

Targeted raid, Surkhakhi

As mentioned in Chapter VII, on June 17, 2007, armed personnel killed Ruslan Aushev in a special operation in the village of Surkhaki, and abducted his cousin Magomed Osmanovich Aushev and took him to Vladikavkaz, where he was tortured in custody.²³⁴ About a week later, on June 25, villagers held a rally to protest these violations.²³⁵ 

Two days later, on June 27, North Ossetia FSB personnel raided the houses of Bamatgirei Aushev and his relative, Eset Ausheva, in Surkhakhi at around 4.30 a.m. Up to 100 armed servicemen in camouflaged uniforms, many of them wearing masks, entered the village in Gazel minibuses, UAZ vans and other vehicles. They attempted to kidnap Khalid Aushev, age 27, and beat two minors, Adam Aushev and Khamzat Aushev, ages 17 and 16.

Human Rights Watch spoke to several witnesses to the operation, the aim of which was purportedly to seize Eset Ausheva’s son, Magomed, age 25—cousin of Magomed Osmanovich and Magomed Maksharipovich Aushev, both mentioned above—who was not in the village that day. But some residents thought that the targeted raids were aimed at punishing the village for holding the protest rally.

Maksharip Aushev, a relative of Khalit Aushev, told Human Rights Watch,²³⁶

Several dozen of them broke into the house of our family member, Bamatgirei. They never explained anything, never showed any papers. Just yelled, cursed, and pushed people around. They got their hands on Bamatgirei’s boy, Khalid, and dragged him into one of the Gazels [minibuses]. But you see, by that time our family simply could not tolerate such things anymore. We had already lost Ruslan Aushev. So, our people just blocked the road for the FSB and refused to let them out of the village. They got scared, threw Khalid out of the car and left. On that same day, Khalid’s father and other relatives took Khalid to the Ministry of Internal Affairs [of Ingushetia] and asked the officials to question him and clear the situation. The ministry’s officials confirmed that he was not wanted by police. They spoke to him and had him released. During the time he was at the ministry, some Ossetia FSB officials approached the building and demanded for Khalid to be handed over to them. But they refused to do so at the Ministry, particularly as our family members were waiting by the doors and watching.

While one group of FSB officials was attempting to seize Khalid Aushev, another group of their colleagues blocked Azovskaya Street and raided the house of Eset Ausheva. Ausheva described the operation to Human Rights Watch,²³⁷

They were so many, I really lost count. And so very malicious! They dragged my two younger boys [Adam Aushev and Khamzat Aushev] out of their beds practically naked and forced them against the wall in our yard. They asked them questions about their elder brother [Magomed], screamed that Magomed blew up some kind of a cemetery. They kicked them and threatened to shoot them. They also made my elder daughter stand in the yard at gunpoint for over an hour in her nightclothes. She is still very young and was absolutely terrified. They searched the house all over and did not find anything. Then, one of them told me, “We came to kill your son [Magomed].” I asked, “What do you mean, kill him?” and he yelled, “Remember Ruslan Aushev who was recently killed here? We were the ones who did it. And now we’ll kill your son and blow your house up. You deserve it!”

According to Eset Ausheva, her son Magomed was in Rostov buying car parts. He did not know the security services were looking for him. Two days after the special operation, Magomed Aushev returned home.²³⁸ On the way back to Ingushetia he drove through numerous checkpoints, where his documents were checked by law enforcement personnel. The fact that he was allowed to proceed through checkpoints without any problems suggests that his name was not on any wanted list in those regions or on the federal wanted list. Eset Ausheva told Magomed that North Ossetia security services wanted to detain him.

Upon his return, Magomed Aushev immediately went to the Ingushetia Ministry of Internal Affairs to inquire about the situation. He told his mother that they looked for his name in their databases and said, “We have nothing against you. You are free to go, as far as we are concerned. It’s Vladikavkaz [security personnel in the capital of North Ossetia] that wants you.” The next day, Magomed Aushev left his family’s home and went away to an unknown destination. At this writing, his relatives have had no information as to his fate or whereabouts. Eset Ausheva believes that her son fled because he was afraid to share the fate of his relatives, Ruslan and Magomed [Osmanovich Aushev].²³⁹ (For details on the subsequent further abduction of Magomed Osmanovich Aushev along with Magomed Maksharipovich Aushev in Chechnya, see Chapter IX.)

Sweep operation, Ali-Yurt

A particularly brutal sweep was carried out in the village of Ali-Yurt on July 28, 2007, in response to an attack by insurgents the previous day in the Ingush capital, Magas, less than four kilometers from Ali-Yurt.

On the evening of July 27, insurgents armed with submachine guns and grenade-launchers attacked the FSB building and the presidential palace in Magas. One military serviceman was killed and several servicemen were wounded. The Ingushetia prosecutor’s office immediately opened a criminal investigation into the attempted killing of law enforcement officials and unlawful possession of weapons and ammunition. A representative of the Counterterrorism Operative Headquarters in Ingushetia stated to the press the day after the attack that it had been launched near the village of Ali-Yurt and that therefore a “state of counterterrorist operation” was imposed on the village.²⁴⁰  The representative further said that on July 28, before dawn, Ali-Yurt was blocked by internal troops of Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, servicemen of the Ingushetia Ministry of Internal Affairs, and units of the United Group of Forces in the North Caucasus, who were tasked with verifying the residents’ identities, checking all the dwellings, and identifying alleged insurgents. 

Despite official assurances that the special operation in Ali-Yurt was being carried out “in full compliance with Russian law,”²⁴¹ local residents complained of gross violations of their rights. According to Ingushetiya.ru, an internet information agency with a broad network of volunteer correspondents in Ingushetia, approximately 50 individuals, including elderly people, women, and children, were beaten by armed personnel. Among the victims were the local mullah, a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy, and an 11-year-old boy. After the operation, 30 people sought medical assistance and several of them had to be hospitalized.²⁴²

Local residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch confirmed this report.²⁴³ They told us that the operation began soon after 4 a.m.  Armed personnel arrived in APCs, military vehicles, and Gazel minibuses. Dozens of armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms, many of them also wearing masks, forcefully entered, fired their weapons in the air, beat  residents, hit children and threw them to the floor, dragged people outside and forced them to lie flat on the ground in their nightclothes. All attempts to ask questions or pleas to stop the violence were met with cursing and beating.

Two high-level Ingush officials—the minister of internal affairs and the head of the Security Council—tried to access the village at about 8 a.m. but were not allowed in until approximately 10 a.m., when they were able to have an ambulance accompany them into Ali-Yurt.

The operation went on until the afternoon and appeared to have a distinctly punitive character. When the servicemen were beating the residents of Ali-Yurt they were accusing them of being terrorists and hating the security services and the military. The only question the armed personnel asked, if any, was, “Where are the fighters?” but they did not seem to pay attention of the responses.  

Magomed-Girei Aspiev told Human Rights Watch,²⁴⁴

When I opened the gate for them [servicemen], I was barely able to duck from the butt of the gun that one of them was trying to hit me with. They just threw themselves at me. About 35 of them all together. Most had their faces covered by masks but those who did not—they looked Russian to me… They demanded passports for all of my family members. I went into the house to get them. Half of the servicemen came with me. My wife was crying in the bedroom holding on to the smaller children. One of them pointed his submachine gun at her and yelled, “Tell this bitch to keep quiet, or I’ll make her quiet in no time at all!”

I started to protest and they dragged me out of the house. In the yard, I saw my three elder sons—they’re 16, 15, and 11—spread on the ground in their underwear. The oldest was beaten so badly he was covered in blood. I lost it and tried to jump at one of the servicemen. They threw me on the ground and started beating me up.

Aspiev’s neighbor, Tamerlan Tatriev, was also beaten. He was woken up by servicemen violently banging on his gate and threatening to throw grenades into the yard if the gate was not opened immediately. Tatriev, who was recovering from a broken leg and could not move quickly, sent his wife Patimat to let the servicemen in. Tatriev described the ensuing events to Human Rights Watch,²⁴⁵

Because of my limp it took me a while to get up and walk down from the second floor. They [servicemen] just rushed toward me and threw me down the stairs. When I fell on the floor, they hit me on the back of my head and kidneys with the butts of their submachine guns. There were six of them. They put the barrel of a gun against my wife’s neck, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her from room to room, using her like a shield. My son and nephew, high-school-age kids, were beaten so badly they could barely walk for a month. My back and ribs were black and blue. And while the servicemen beat us, they screamed, “Where are the terrorists? Where were you last night?” But they never listened to us; it was one blow after another!

Another local resident, Yusup Tsoroev, gave a similar account of the events. Tsoroev was especially distressed by the fact that his pregnant wife was also beaten,²⁴⁶

The servicemen were in the yards and screaming, “We’ll count to three and throw a grenade!” I rushed to the door in my underwear, opened it, and one of the military [men] struck me with his gun on the left temple. I saw stars and fell from off the porch. They beat me with their feet and the butts of their submachine guns. They hit me on the stomach and the head. One of them sat on top of my head while the other two pulled my legs apart, forcing me into splits and twisting my legs. The pain was unimaginable but I was constantly thinking about what they could do to the woman [wife, Tanzila Esmurzieva]. She was very [pregnant] and in her condition anything could happen … They yelled, “Why did you kill that soldier? Why did you shoot?” I said I did not shoot and they just screamed, “Shut up, you son of a bitch!” and hit me again …

When they finally left I went back into the house and saw [my wife]. She was lying on the floor … Her face was covered with blood, her lip split, and her throat swollen. When I saw that, I was more frightened than when the people were beating me. I ran out to call for help and saw over the hedge how those servicemen were “working” on my neighbor, Batyr Zeitov. He was getting the worst of it! I tried to tell them to stop but one of them threatened me with his gun. The woman was my first concern. Fortunately, we got her to the hospital in time! 

According to Memorial, seven people, all of them young males, were detained during the operation in Ali-Yurt and delivered to the Ingushetia branch of the FSB. There, the detainees were beaten and interrogated about the insurgents. Three of the detainees had black bags put on their heads, were dragged into a vehicle and then thrown out on the road between the villages of Surkhakhi and Yandyrka. The other four were simply released. Ultimately, no one from the village of Ali-Yurt faced criminal charges in relation to the July 27 attack.²⁴⁷

Some of the Ali-Yurt residents who needed medical assistance wanted their injuries to be documented by medics to back prospective complaints to the prosecutor’s office regarding unlawful actions by armed personnel. However, in some cases, Nazran hospital staff was very reluctant to reflect the full extent of villagers’ injuries in their medical records, and in other cases openly refused to do so.²⁴⁸

Magomed-Girei Aspiev described his experience at the hospital as follows,²⁴⁹

My elder son, Timerlan, was in such a bad condition that they had to keep him at the hospital for 10 days. On the third day, I went to visit him and met three people from our village who had just been released from the hospital. They told me that the doctors never gave them any medical documents. I went to the chief of traumatology and asked where their case histories were and where my son’s case history was. He said he did not know. I went to the head physician and asked the same question. She said she did not know either. I started pressing her for an answer and she just broke down crying. She kept saying, “What can I do?”

I went back to the chief of traumatology demanding the case histories. He said he could not. I went back to the head physician. I spoke very harshly, and she started wailing again … The chief of traumatology asked me to leave his office … Finally, he gave me the case histories. But they were just about bruises. And if my son had mere bruises, why did they kept him [hospitalized] for 10 whole days? He complained about pains in his kidneys and his heart. It was something serious.

Yusup Tsoroev told Human Rights Watch that when he and his acquaintances pressed the hospital for their respective medical records, not a single case history could be obtained: “The doctors said that some [officials] arrived at the hospital, took all the case histories, and left, and they could not say who they were or where they came from.”

Under Russian criminal procedure, a referral by an investigator is required in order to have a forensic medical exam. Tsoroev said the investigator would not issue such referral promptly, and that it took six days to obtain the referral and have the examination carried out.²⁵⁰

According to Ingushetiya.ru, 30 Ali-Yurt residents who were beaten during the sweep lodged complaints with the Nazran prosecutor’s office.²⁵¹ Following the preliminary inquiry, the prosecutor’s office of Ingushetia forwarded the complaints to the military prosecutor’s office with a recommendation to open a criminal investigation.²⁵² However, the military prosecutor’s office returned the complaints to the Ingushetia prosecutor’s office stating that there was insufficient evidence regarding the involvement of military servicemen in the abuses in Ali-Yurt. Finally, the Ingushetia prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case on “abuse of office” by law enforcement officials.²⁵³ However, the prosecutor of Ingushetia, Yuri Turygin, informed Memorial representatives during a meeting with them on October 30, 2007, that the investigation had been unable to establish the identities of the perpetrators of specific abuses or the identities of their commanders.²⁵⁴

Magomed-Girei Aspiev, who immediately became the most active member of the group of local residents demanding accountability for perpetrators, was openly threatened by unidentified law enforcement or security personnel. A day or two after he filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, he noticed three men standing by his gate around midnight. When he approached the gate he saw that they were dressed in sportswear and looked Russian. One of them said, “When will you stop complaining?” Aspiev asked, “And who are you?” His interlocutor then put a gun to Aspiev’s forehead and ordered him to go back into the house. Aspiev reported the incident to the prosecutor’s office but the authorities did not take any steps to protect his personal security.

At this writing, the investigation into what happened on July 28 has not yielded any meaningful results. Yusup Tsoroev shared his frustration with Human Rights Watch,²⁵⁵

It really hurts! Supposedly, neither the leadership of the republic nor the leadership of the Russian military know who did it. Here are men in uniforms and armed to the teeth coming into the village, abusing masses of people, and leaving. And then no one is able to explain what happened. As if they fell from the sky. Any bandit can walk around killing us and there would be no protection whatsoever!