 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(June 2019) |
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev | |
|---|---|
| Born | Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev |
| Disappeared | February 2000 (age 25) |
| Nationality | Russian |
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev (Yandiev) was an Ingush insurgent fighter, who disappeared in February 2000 after being filmed in the company of a Russian Army general who ordered him to be taken away and shot. To this date, his body has not been found.
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev was captured in a group of Chechen fighters sheltering in a hospital in the village of Alkhan-Kala, during the military siege of the Chechen capital Grozny.
What appears to be the execution order was caught on camera in the television footage recorded by journalists from CNN who were travelling with Russian forces along with representatives of several Russian television stations.
Yandiyev, dressed in a Soviet-model military camouflage uniform, can be seen in the footage standing injured while Russian soldiers are kicking him and other Chechens in their wounded legs. With television cameras rolling, a top Russian military official then aggressively interrogates Yandiyev before finally ordering his execution. Yandiyev and the Russian quickly get into an argument, and the officer eventually shouts: "Take him away, damn it, finish him off there, shit, - that's the whole order. Get him out of here, damn it. Come on, come on, come on, do it, take him away, finish him off, shoot him, damn it..." Yandiyev was then separated from the other prisoners and the soldiers led him away. He has not been seen since.
The officer in the footage, then General Alexander Baranov, has not been charged with any misconduct, and served as the chief commander of the North Caucasus Military District from July 2004 to May 2008. He was also since promoted to the rank of Colonel General and awarded with a title of the Hero of the Russian Federation.
According to his mother Fatima Bazorkina, her son's disappearance stemmed from a tragic misunderstanding. She said Khadzhi left university as soon as the Second Chechen War broke out in 1999 to search for his father, who he believed was besieged in Grozny but had actually left Chechnya to join Bazorkina at a relative's house in Ingushetia. Bazorkina said she never saw her son after August 1999.
Following Yandiyev's disappearance, Bazorkina scoured the republic's mass graves and detention centers where Russian troops kept suspected fighters. After she saw the CNN footage of her son she appealed to prosecutors, who opened a criminal case in July 2001, 17 months after his disappearance. In February 2004 they closed it again, citing lack of evidence.
In 2006, Yandiyev's mother sued Russia to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for failing to adequately investigate the case. On July 27, 2006, in a landmark ruling, the Court has held Russian Federation responsible for the "disappearance" and presumed death of Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev. The court awarded Mrs Bazorkina 35,000 euros in damages and 12,241 euros for costs and expenses. [1]
On May 15, 2007, the court had thrown out Russia's appeal of the ruling. [2]
The Second Chechen War took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 to April 2009.
Army General Alexander Ivanovich Baranov is a Russian general, and was the Commander of the North Caucasus Military District from July 2004 to May 2008. He is a recipient of the Hero of Russia award.
The 1999–2000 battle of Grozny was the siege and assault of the Chechen capital Grozny by Russian forces, lasting from late 1999 to early 2000. This siege and assault of the Chechen capital resulted in the widespread devastation of Grozny. In 2003, the United Nations designated Grozny as the most destroyed city on Earth due to the extensive damage it suffered. The battle had a devastating impact on the civilian population. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 8,000 civilians were killed during the siege, making it the bloodiest episode of the Second Chechen War.
In Chechnya, mass graves containing hundreds of corpses have been uncovered since the beginning of the Chechen wars in 1994. As of June 2008, there were 57 registered locations of mass graves in Chechnya. According to Amnesty International, thousands may be buried in unmarked graves including up to 5,000 civilians who disappeared since the beginning of the Second Chechen War in 1999. In 2008, the largest mass grave found to date was uncovered in Grozny, containing some 800 bodies from the First Chechen War in 1995. Russia's general policy to the Chechen mass graves is to not exhume them.
Human rights violations were committed by the warring sides during the second war in Chechnya. Both Russian officials and Chechen rebels have been regularly and repeatedly accused of committing war crimes including kidnapping, torture, murder, hostage taking, looting, rape, decapitation, and assorted other breaches of the law of war. International and humanitarian organizations, including the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, have criticized both sides of the conflict for blatant and sustained violations of international humanitarian law.
Russia incurred much international criticism for its conduct during the Second Chechen War, which started in 1999. The governments of the United States and other countries condemned deaths and expulsions among civilians. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR) passed two resolutions in 2000 and 2001 condemning human rights violations in Chechnya and requiring Russia to set up an independent national commission of inquiry to investigate the matter. However, a third resolution on these lines failed in 2004. The Council of Europe in multiple resolutions and statements between 2003 and 2007 called on Russia to cease human rights violations. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) between 2005 and 2007 conducted legal cases brought by Chechens against the Russian government, and in many of these cases held Russia responsible for deaths, disappearances and torture.
The Battle of Grozny of August 1996, also known as Operation Jihad or Operation Zero Option, when Chechen fighters regained and then kept control of Chechnya's capital Grozny in a surprise raid. The Russian Federation had conquered the city in a previous battle for Grozny that ended in February 1995 and subsequently posted a large garrison of federal and republican Ministry of the Interior (MVD) troops in the city.
The Novye Aldi massacre was the mass murder of Chechen civilians in which Russian forces went on a cleansing operation (zachistka) summarily executing dozens of civilians. The village had been cluster-bombed a day prior to the massacre, and local residents urged to come out for inspection the next day. Upon entering the village, Russian forces shot their victims in cold blood, with automatic fire at close range. The killings were accompanied by looting, rape, arson and robbery. As a result of the deadly rampage by Russian forces, up to 82 civilians were killed in the spree. Houses of civilians were burnt in an attempt to destroy evidence of summary executions and other crimes. Looting took place on a large scale and organised manner.
Nura Luluyeva was a Chechen woman who was kidnapped and murdered by a Russian death squad in 2000.
Arbi Alautdinovich Barayev was a Chechen warlord and terrorist, who in 1996 became the founder and first leader of the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) in Chechnya.
Malika Umazheva (1937–2002), a former school teacher, was the former head of the pro-Moscow administration of the Chechen village Alkhan-Kala. Umazheva was an outspoken critic of unlawful zachistka ("cleansing") raids that Russian forces conducted in her village and had had several confrontations with a high-ranking Russian federal officers during the months prior to her death. She also worked closely with the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.
The Alkhan-Yurt massacre was the December 1999 incident in the village of Alkhan-Yurt near the Chechen capital Grozny involving Russian troops under command of General Vladimir Shamanov. The villagers claimed that approximately 41 civilians were killed in the spree, while human rights groups confirmed and documented 17 incidents of murder and three incidents of rape.
Shakhid Raduyevich Baysayev was a Chechen civilian who was forcibly disappeared after being detained by Russian special police forces on the outskirts of Grozny, Chechnya on 2 March 2000. His body was never found.
The Alkhan-Kala operation was a zachistka operation by Russian forces in Alkhan-Kala, Chechnya, starting on 25 June 2001, during the Second Chechen War. The week-long sweep of Alkhan-Kala erupted into armed clashes with Chechen separatists, and the initial raid resulted in the death of Arbi Barayev, a high-ranking Chechen insurgent commander and organized crime leader.
Viktor Alekseyevich Popkov was a Russian dissident, Christian, humanitarian, human rights activist and journalist.
Zachistka is an unofficial Russian military term for "building (room-to-room) clearing operations" featuring armed patrols and house-to-house searches. The term is mostly associated with, but not exclusive to, the Second Chechen War as a result of Russian operations in Chechnya. Several zachistka operations became notorious for their accused or confirmed human rights violations by Russian forces, including ethnic cleansing and pillaging, and the term zachistka is used in English exclusively to refer to these violations, particularly in Chechnya and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Filtration camps, also known as concentration camps, were camps used by the Russian forces for their mass internment centers during the First Chechen War and then again during the Second Chechen War.
Zelimkhan Khoussainovich Bakaev was a Chechen singer. He disappeared in Chechnya on 8 August 2017, while on a brief visit to the region to attend his sister's wedding. He is widely believed to have been abducted, tortured, and murdered by the Chechen authorities as part of their systematic persecution of homosexual men.