Russian forces have summarily executed 41 civilians, many of them women and children, in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny, according to a report issued by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) organisation. HRW has called on Russia's acting President, Mr Vladimir Putin, to institute an immediate and vigorous investigation into the deaths, "President Putin must act on these terrible war crimes committed by Russian soldiers," HRW spokeswoman Ms Holly Cartner said. "The Russian government failed to respond appropriately to earlier reports of summary executions, and now such abuses have happened again."
Evidence has been compiled on the killing of 41 named individuals, some of whom were taken into custody by Russian forces and later found dead. Some of the bodies were mutilated.
Among the deaths confirmed by HRW were those of the entire extended Zubayev family of six females and three males. A tenth member of the family, eight-year-old Eliza, is missing. Two witnesses, who had been among civilians hiding in cellars in Grozny, told HRW that the family, led by its 68-year-old patriarch, Said Zubayev, decided to leave the cellar and go to their home. Said Zubayev left first and the others followed at intervals. Arriving at their home, Zeinap Zubayeva, wife of Said, accompanied by her daughter, Malikah, found Said Zubayev shot dead in the street. The following day the two witnesses visited the Zubayev home and found eight bodies in the yard. One witness told HRW: "What I saw was awful. All the members of the family were shot. Judging from the bullet cases they were shot by a heavy machine gun. Malikah and Luiza were holding their daughters. The house was still smoking. There were tracks of an armoured personnel carrier in the yard."
HRW representatives attended the post-mortem examination of Magomet Goigov (31), who was found dead in a garage after having been arrested by Russian soldiers. The autopsy took place in the Republican Hospital in Nazran, the capital of the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia.
There were at least 13 bullet wounds in the body. One bullet had gone through the right eye and shattered the back of the skull. Another bullet had gone through the right elbow and another into the right thigh. Multiple bullets had entered the body through the right side of the chest and exited on the left side. There were bruises on the face and testicles and his right ear had been cut off.
The bodies of two other Chechen males were discovered in the garage with Goigov. The corpses of Risvan Taimaskhanov (22) and Khamid Khashiev (45) were taken to a morgue in Malgobek in northern Ingushetia for examination and were not seen by representatives of HRW.
According to HRW, Goigov, Taimashkanov and Khashiev were stopped by Russian soldiers when they were trying to take an injured woman out of Grozny for medical treatment. The woman was shot dead and the men were taken to an unknown destination. Relatives of the three men claim the Russian forces shot them and their bodies were later dumped in the garage, where no traces of shooting were found.
Reuters adds: Russian war reporter Andrei Babitsky was in a village in southern Chechnya until Sunday, but his whereabouts are now unknown, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman said yesterday. Babitsky, a reporter for Radio Liberty, has been the subject of a diplomatic outcry since Russian forces arrested him last month, then said they had turned him over to Chechen rebels in a prisoner exchange.
The spokeswoman said Babitsky had been in the village of Alkhazurovo, but the ministry did not know where he was now.
Radio Liberty said it believed Babitsky, whose reports angered Moscow, had been seen two days ago in the hands of a pro-Moscow Chechen militia.
