Abduction as a concealment tactic became prevalent in 2000 during the second Russian-Chechen conflict. The practice continues today, and it was the signature of the earlier Russian counterinsurgency regime. Due to the relatively small size of the nations composing the republics of the Northern Caucasus, the abductions have touched the lives of nearly every family in this region.
The legal vacuum surrounding the disappearances places most of the civilians in the Northern Caucasus squarely outside the system. Officials apply the law in such a way as to actively discourage the families of victims from seeking state assistance in solving these crime. Although families continue to file lawsuits with the police, both sides understand that the process merely serves to create more paperwork, shelved as soon as signed.
In their current context, the abducted are incorporeal, as if they never were. They are no longer with the living, but they are not listed among the dead. This project serves as both a historical document that may prompt action and new calls for justice, and as an acknowledgment of these atrocities and those who have suffered in their wake.
Batyr Albakov, was arrested by police on the night of June 10th, 2009 and remained missing for two weeks until his body surfaced in a Nazran morgue. Riddled with multiple bullet wounds it also displayed signs of severe torture. Over 500 individuals have been officially registered as abducted in the territory of Ingushetia since 2006. The current president of Ingushetia, Yunus Bek Evkurov offered his sympathies to the relatives but reminded the family that the military contractors who are in charge of the special operations responsible for the abductions are taking orders from Moscow directly.
Magomed Rashidov was abducted from his home in Gubden, Dagestan on December 24th , 2009. According to his father, Andurashid Rashidov, a group of officials had already visited the Rashidov family with a search warrant on December 11th . The men briefly looked around the house, asked the family where the light switch was located, ran a passport check and left. On December 24th a group of armed military men stormed the Rashidov house and went directly to the bedroom where Magomed was asleep. They assaulted his mother when she tried to intervene. The men then threw Magomed into a armed personal carrier and drove off to an undisclosed location. Magomed remains missing. The family has filed an official complaint with the authorities, who refuse any connection to the abduction, as well as with the human rights watch organization.
On new year’s day, 2001, Zelimkhan Murdalov was abducted by military officials and taken to the Khanta-Mantiyski VOVD located in the Okyabryrski District, Grozny. At the time the unit was under the command of Lt. Sergi Lapin. Immediately after the disappearance of Zelimkhan, his father, Astemir Murdalov, pushed for an investigation. The publicity, unprecedented throughout the Chechen conflict, made it difficult for the Kremel to ignore Murdalov’s case. Fearing the prosecution, Lt. Lapin attempted to escape but was apprehended and brought back to Chechnya for a exemplary trial. According to the witnesses who testified during Lapin’s trial, Lapin had spent 24 hours in a room with Zelimhkan, during which he had tortured him until he was close to death.During the trail it become apparent through witness testimony that on January 2nd , Zelimkhan was unconscious, barely breathing, his jaw was clamped shut, and his eyes were rolled back into his head. Both of his hands had open wounds, one was broken. The doctor, who reviewed Zelimkhan in his cell after, testified that he had, at the time, notified Lapin that without immediate surgery Zelimkhan would die. Nevertheless, nothing was done and Zelimkhan remained in this condition in his cell until the early morning of January 3rd, when officer Lapin arrived with several of his subordinates and dragged him out of the cell. Following the trial Lapin was convicted for acting outside of his authority and sentenced to 10 years in work camp. During the investigation, Murdalov's family survived several attempted assassinations, including a revenge attack in Oslo, Norway in 2005. Both parents continue to receive death-threats today. The body of Zelemkhan has not been found.
In the afternoon on December 26th , 2008, 28-year-old Matsalgov Islam was abducted from just outside of his house, in Nazran Ingushetia. He was coming home from work and found the road blocked by two vehicles, one marked UAZ and a blue Lada. Neither of the cars had number plates. Islam was thrown into the Lada and was taken towards Ossetia, past the Ingush-Ossetian checkpoint, located near the incident. After questioning witnesses, Islam’s relatives turned to the newly elected president of Ingushetia, Yunus Bek Evkurov, who agreed to meet the family in person. Fearing publicity would decrease the chances of finding Islam, the family kept the abduction out of the public eye for a month. Even so, the unofficial meeting with the president produced no results. The authorities that filed the case of abduction, suggested that insurgents were to blame. The family believes this is unlikely, adding that a car without number plates could never have crossed the boarder without a special authorization “from above”. Islam remains missing.
On October 23rd , 2002, at around five a.m., a group of military officers broke into the house of the Barshev family in Grozny. All were heavily armed and camouflaged. Despite the pleas of Laris Barsheva, their mother, Barshev Anzor, aged 21, and Barshev Sulumbek, aged 22, were dragged out of bed and forced out of the house bare-foot and undressed. The Barshev brothers were then thrown into a military transport and taken to an undisclosed location. For the next two months Larisa traveled between checkpoints, regional precincts, and locations that were suspected illegal prisons. Larisa also initiated a criminal investigation into the abduction at the prosecution office, but was told not to expect too much. Off the record, the investigator, who Larisa thinks sympathized with her, told her that his hands were tied and that he could not get permission to question those who he thought were responsible for the abduction. The investigation was suspended due to lack of evidence. The whereabouts of Sulumbek and Anzor remain unknown.
One early morning in March 2002, twenty military and law enforcement officials forced entry to the house of the Dzambekov family, in Goity, Chechnya. They were armed, masked, and camouflaged. After an hour of searching the house the men collected some household items, jewelry and documents, and dragged 23-year-old Imran Dzambekov, bare-foot and undressed, into the street. They ignored the questions of his mother, and refused to inform the family where they were taking Imran, or for what cause. Although Zainap, his mother, had written down the licenses on both of the vehicles involved in the abduction, the investigation into the case yield no results and was dropped due to the lack of evidence. The whetherabouts of Imran are to this day unknown.
On March 25th 2003 a group of 20 soldiers forcibly entered the Betav’s family house in Goity. The family caught unaware was startled from their sleep when their front door was kicked in. The men threw Isa Betaev and his wife to the floor then detailed a guard to keep them there at gunpoint. Their sons; Ibrahim; 22; and Leche; 21; were dragged into the street; stripped; and thrown into an APC. Isa repeatedly filed a case for investigation at the Goity prosecution office. The investigation was dropped due to lack of evidence. In 2008 the European Justice Initiative in Strasbourg found the Russian military guilty of the kidnapping and murderer of the Betaev brothers.
On the night of 9th of December 2001, newly weds Zarema and Mohammed Edilov were woken up by shouting outside of their house in Valerick, Chechnya. Immediately after three armed men in military uniform and masks kicked in the front door and stormed the bedroom. They pulled Mohammed out of bed and onto the floor, handcuffed him. Shouting and cursing the men dragged Mohammed out of the house and threw him into an Armed Personal Carried (APC). The men also assaulted Zarema who tried to protest the abduction by blocking the front gate. On the following morning, Zarema who went to search for her husband, discovered that other residents of Valerick: Ali Vadilov, Ahambi Isaev, and well as Rizvan Suleimanov were abducted by the same group of individuals on that night. Zarema repeatedly filed for an abduction case, but gain no results. the investigation was repeatedly dropped, due to lack of evidence.To this date, Mohammed Edilov’s whereabouts remain unknown.
On the night of December 7th, 2002 a group of military officials stormed the Nenkaev family house, located in Urus Martan, Chechnya. Armed and masked, they switched on the lights and dragged the brothers, Muslim Nenkaev, aged 20, and Isa Nenkaev, 25, out of the house. Both of them were thrown into an unmarked car and taken to an unknown location. In the morning, Moldi Nenkaev, the boys’ father Moldi immediately contacted that department, but the authorities denied any involvement in the abduction of the Nenkaev brothers. They suggested that the perpetrators must have been insurgents, not the military. For several years Moldi continued to seek an official investigation, but his case has been repeatedly suspended due to lack of evidence. In 2008 Moldi Nenkaev forwarded the case to the European Justice Initiative in Strasburg and is waiting for the court decision.
Late at night on February 21st, 2001, approximately twenty military officials stormed the Abdulazizov’s house in Goity Village, Chechnya. The men arrived in several vehicles marked “UAZ”, and an APC with number plates covered in mud. They were armed, masked, and camouflaged and provided no explanation for their arrival. After conducting an unwarranted house search the men beat Zina Pukhigova, then dragged Salman Abdulazizov, out of the house. The following morning, Zina went to the Urus Martan prosecutor’s office to request an investigation. There she learned that five more people had been taken from the village on the previous night. For the next several years she continued to re-open the case, but it was perpetually dropped for lack of evidence. She had also attempted to search for her husband by contacting law- enforcement agencies on the regional as well as national level. The authorities responded to two of her letters. They sent her pre-formatted responses, one informing her that her case was being looked at, followed by another that stated it had been sent back to the law-enforcement officials in Chechnya. The fate and whereabouts of Salman are unknown.
On January 4th , 2003 Makhmodov Ismail disappeared on the way home from work, in Gudermes Village, Chechnya. According to the neighbors, he was road-blocked then forced into one of the military vehicles, an all grey UAZ with tinted windows and without number plates. His mother, Tamara, a school teacher, repeatedly initiated investigations into the abduction, but in vain. The case was closed due to lack of evidence. She continues to doggedly write to the president of the Russian Federation and says that she will continue to do so until receiving an answer. Ismail Makhmudov remains missing.
On March 6th , 2002, Musa Akhmadov traveled to a village in Vedeneno district, to deliver his pension to his aging father. On the way back, Musa’s car was stopped at a military checkpoint. His documents were confiscated; he was ordered out of the car and taken inside. The military officers told a relative who tried to protest the arrest, that Musa’s name was on the list of those wanted for terrorism. The following morning Akhmadov’s family discovered that nearly all traces of Akhmadov had been eradicated. They have since managed to establish that from the checkpoint he would have been transported to Hankala, the main occupational military base in Chechnya. Madina, his wife, filed an official complaint in accordance with article 126 of the Russian Federation’s criminal codex, reporting Musa Akhmadov as abduction. The investigation yielded no results and was dropped, two months later, due to lack of evidence. According to Madina, the personnel employed at the checkpoint where Akhmadov was abducted later confessed to the family that Musa was falsely accused and arrested by mistake. The whereabouts of Musa Akhmadov remain unknown.
In March 2008, armed, masked, and camouflaged law enforcement officers collected Eldar Navruzov from Makchatchkala; Dagestan. . They took him to an undisclosed location and advised him: "Don’t make it any worse for yourself, confess that you’re a Wahhabi." At first he refused; but after hours of torture he eventually acceded to their demands. His coerced admission stated that he was part of a gang lead by Vadim Budaev, who had been killed earlier that same year. Two months after his arrest, Eldar’s case was assigned a lawyer, but the testimonies of neighbors who witnessed Eldar’s abduction were not added to his case until eight months later. In February 2009, Eldar was released; but forbidden to travel anywhere until the trial. In April of 2009, as he was returning home from work. Two men jumped out of a silver 1999 Lada, with Dagestan number plates, and ran up to him ordering him to stop. Instead of following their orders Eldar began to scream “They’re kidnapping me!” and ran towards home, escaping the abduction. Eldar Navruzov was abducted again in November 2009 and has not been heard or since.
On the afternoon of October 31st. 2009 Armed masked men in military uniform stormed the home of Aziev family in Staraya Sunza, Chechnya. At gun point the men order the relatives of Rizvan Aliev to sum him home, the men then arrested an Rizvan and took him to an undisclosed location. Local prosecutors offered sympathies to the family but said they don’t have the power to investigate this case.
In June 2009 Memorial Grozny received information that a victim of abduction reported to Memorial earlier that year, Apti Zainalov, had been spotted in Atchko-Martan hospital with multiple bullet wounds. Apti was unconscious and being kept under strict surveillance. Memorial launched an immediate inquiry, but the organization lost access to Apti after the authorities noticed activity around Apti’s room. He was immediately relocated to a secure facility in Gudermess. This case was one of the last abductions investigated by Natalia Estemirova, a human rights advocate who was herself abducted and murdered on July 15th , 2009. While continuing to investigate Zainalov’s case, another employee of memorial, Akhmed Gisaev, received death threats, and immigrated shortly after, fearing for the safety of his family.