"The Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship"
PRESS-RELEASE #423
FROM MAY 16, 2003
The Tomb-like Silence of the Russian Authorities Confirms the Involvement of the Special Services of Russia into the terrorist act at Dubrovka
The Appeal of the inter-regional public organization "The Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship"
On April 28, 2003 in issue #30 of "The Novaya Gazeta" there appeared the article "Who Remains Alive" written by an observer of the newspaper Anna Politkovskaya. It states that the hijacking of the Theater Center at Dubrovka was, at least, controlled by the Russian special services. Anna Politkovskaya managed to meet Khanpash Terkibaev who claimed to have been a member of the terrorist group. He also claimed to have followed orders of some special service. In April 2003 Terkibaev was a member of the Russian delegation at the European Council as a "representative of the Chechen public". At present Terkibaev is a special correspondent of "The Russian newspaper". Terkibaev's name was in the list of the members of Baraev's group that had been published by "The Izvestia" not long before the the Theater Center assault held by the special forces. According to Anna Politkovskaya, "The Novaya Gazeta" has got some other evidence that Terkibaev was among terrorists.
Taking into account that all the terrorists who could have given the evidence of the exclusive importance to investigate the terrorist act and to find out the people behind the group, were shot dead by the police special forces during the Theater Center assault, that was committed in spite of the fact that the majority of the terrorists were under the influence of some poisoning gas and thus were absolutely defenseless at the time of the assault, we consider Anna Politkovskaya's version of the terrorist act more than probable.
It goes without doubt, that the information reported by Politkovskaya is both of the great public importance and of the exclusive importance for the national safety of the Russian Federation. "The Novaya Gazeta" has appealed to the General Procurator Office of the Russian Federation to investigate the information tackled in the article. The chairman of the All-Russia social movement "For the Human Rights" Lev Ponomaryov, the manager of the museum and The Social Center named after A.D.Sakhsrov Yury Samodurov and the writer Alexander Tkachenko have demanded the same.
There has been no respond from the Russian authorities yet to the social appeals of the leaders of the Russian human rights movement. The General Procurator Office has done nothing they should have done to check the information tackled in the article. They have interrogated neither Anna Politkovskaya nor Khanpash Terkibaev; they have not demanded "The Novaya Gazeta" to put at their disposal all the additional information concerning the case that was received in the course of the journalist investigation whereas as it goes from a number of publications the editors of the newspaper have it at their disposal. The silence is kept by all the branches of power from the president and his administration that seem to pay no attention to the severe accusations against them and to the so-called "groups of opposition" in the State Duma that have not even tried to start the process of the parliamentary investigation. The silence is kept by the majority of mass media. And what is worse the silence is kept be the Russian society.
The passiveness of the law-enforcement structures and the silence of the official power in connection with both the present situation and the "Ryazan training" accident of 1999 when some members of the FSB were first detained on a charge of a terrorist act and then released, confirms the gravest suspicion that the Russian special forces must have been involved into planning and carrying out the terrorist act at Dubrovka and the explosion of dwelling houses in some cities of Russia in autumn of 1999.
We think that the President of the Russian Federation has no longer any moral right to head the Russian state as we have to establish a fact that he was either involved into preparing that "controlled terrorist act" or isn't able to control neither Russian special forces nor his own nearest circle of advises and consequently the situation in the country.
We also think that the Russian political spectrum lacks the really democratic opposition and that all the parliamentary groups claiming themselves the opposition are free to move as little as the Kremlin allows them.
To sum it up, all what is going on confirms the old idea that there is no public society in Russia able to influence the situation in the country. And it makes it possible for the Russian authorities to use terrorism as their political method to reach their own political aims contradictory to the interests of the Russian society, to the safety of the citizens and the state.
We appeal to all the people who are not indifferent to the fate of the country, to the future it is going to have, to everybody who has not lost the feeling of self-protection and worries about their children's and their own safety. The time has come not only to express the attitude to the so-called ruling elite and their policy that is getting more and more alike an endless special operation. It is necessary to do our best to deprive those who come from the secret service with the present president as their head of the possibility to make their political capital on their co-citizens' blood. It is necessary to do our outmost to make them leave for ever. Being realists and understanding that our voice is hardly to be heard and that the country is going to face the dictatorship, we consider it our moral obligation to make our position known.
Co-chairmen of the Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship
Stanislav Dmitrievsky,
Imran Ezhiev.
This is an unoffical translation from the Russian by Front Line
Spokespeople for the federal forces today informed members of the Society of the Russian-Chechen Friendship of the death of their volunteer Aslan Davletukaev, committed between 10th and 16th of January 2004. The certain killing and grievous assault prior to death was well known to the ruling authorities (expressed in abbreviations DV) for some time, however until now a strict decree forbade the release of this information to the widespread community of NGOs, fearing retaliations of the family members. This decree was lifted today.
On January 10th 2004 around 2215 in the village of Avtur, Shalinsk region of the Chechen Republic, Aslan Sheripovich Davletukaev (born 1973) was kidnapped by the armed forces of the Russian Federation. At the time of the kidnapping, the victim was at home 41 Ordzhonikidze st. watching television with a friend, whose name is known to the editors and members of the state criminal department but we are not releasing at this moment for fears of his safety. There were around 50 kidnappers who arrived in three military and two civil vehicles marked ‘UAZ’, which are commonly known as ‘pills’ in the Caucuses. As stated by the witness, some of the kidnappers (7-8) wore masks, and those who didn’t had an Asiatic appearance. They all spoke Russian. Under gunpoint, the soldiers took only Asla Davletukaev away, although both men were beaten.
From the moment of the kidnapping, family members of Aslan as well as Imran Ezhiev, Hamzat Kuchiev and others from the Society of the Russian-Chechen Friendship carried out searches for him through official and unofficial channels. Aslan’s father forbade SRCF to announce news of his son’s kidnapping to the media, as he hoped to find and free his son by paying ransom. Kidnappings for financial profiteering is common practise of the Russian and internal forces in the Chechen Republic.
On the morning of January 16th 2004 near a highway into Gudermes town, reconnaissance units of the Russian army found the body of Aslan Davletukaev bearing evidence of torture and mutilation. Aslan’s arms and legs were broken, others parts of his body punctured by a sharp metal object. Death was the result of a bullet wound in the back of the head.
On January 17th 2004, the body of Aslan Davletukaev was buried in the Avtur cemetery.
From the year of 2000, Aslan’s work was to systematically collect information on the human rights situation in Chechnya for SRCF. Therefore the Society does not exclude the possibility that his kidnapping and murder was as a result of his work.
Editorial of the Information Centre Russian-Chechen Friendship
This page was updated on 22nd January, 2004