After the end of September 1999, the federal forces began to deliver air and artillery strikes on the residential areas of Grozny and its suburbs, the residents of the village of Novye Aldy began to leave the village. Nevertheless, until the beginning of February, a part of the permanent residents remained in the village. This was due to many reasons.
The living conditions of the forced migrants from Chechnya, who found refuge in the territory of Ingushetia, the only region where they were received, were extremely difficult. There were not enough places in the camps and towns of internally displaced persons. If it was not possible to live with relatives, they most often had to pay for living in the private sector. As a result, most of the people who remained in Chechnya were elderly and poor, who sometimes had nothing to hire a car to travel to Ingushetia, not to mention renting a house. Often the whole family did not leave: a few people remained to guard the house and property from marauders ....

At the same time (until the beginning of December), only a few shells hit the territory of the village of Novye Aldy, and it seemed to the residents that it was safer to stay there. That is why many of them did not leave their homes.
In early December, Russian troops surrounded Grozny. Shelling and bombardment of residential areas, attempts to storm the city began. The entire territory adjacent to the village of Novye Aldy was subjected to intense artillery and bomb attacks. The inhabitants of the village were already physically unable to leave it. They did not know anything about the ultimatum to the residents of Grozny with a demand to leave the city, put forward by the military, or about the corridors allegedly open for the population to leave. However, such information could hardly help people: the organization of "humanitarian corridors" again came down to the creation of checkpoints at the exits from the city, which, moreover, had to be reached through streets and squares that were under fire.

Throughout December 1999 and January 2000, the settlement of Novye Aldy was periodically subjected to artillery and mortar attacks, and sometimes to aerial bombardment. And although most of the houses were not completely destroyed, practically not a single building remained with a whole roof. People all this time hid in basements and cellars. The plumbing was not working drinking water it was necessary to go under fire - either far - to the spring at the dam of the Chernorechensky reservoir, or closer, to the well located behind the school building and providing technical water. During this period, 75 graves of civilians appeared at the village cemetery - people died under bombing and shelling, the wounded died without receiving timely medical care. Malnutrition and stress caused an exacerbation of chronic diseases - the elderly were dying ...

During all this time, the positions of the Chechen armed formations were not located on the territory of the village. Perhaps this was due to the fact that there are no administrative premises (with the exception of school No. 39), no multi-storey buildings, and residential buildings, as a rule, do not have strong basements. According to local residents, a detachment of field commander A. Zakaev entered the village, but the militants, having not found suitable places for accommodation, left. In addition, the residents of the village themselves persuaded the militants to take pity on the village and not to fight on its territory....

On February 3, about a hundred residents of the village, including many old people, went under a white cloth to the location of the federal troops. When people approached the Russian positions, they opened fire on them, a Russian named Nikolai was seriously wounded. No one could help him: the soldiers did not allow people who threw themselves on the ground to even raise their heads. Only half an hour later, having apparently received "go-ahead" from the authorities, the military allowed him to get up from the ground and even bandaged the wounded man. However, it was too late: Nikolai soon died from his wound.

Residents returned home, taking with them the body of Nikolai...

The next day: February 4, in the afternoon there was complete silence. The inhabitants of the village came out of the cellars, many repaired the roofs, put the yards in order, stocked up on water, and started gardening.

On this day, a small unit of Russian military personnel entered the village of Novye Aldy for the first time. They conducted the first, preliminary check of the passport regime in the village. These were not conscripts, but people aged 25 and older, apparently contract soldiers. Local residents describe their behavior in different ways: some speak of the rudeness of the servicemen, others claim that they behaved correctly and even benevolently. In any case, they did nothing illegal in relation to people. Moreover, these soldiers warned some residents of the village about the danger of the next, tomorrow's "cleansing". But people did not believe, they could not imagine what a nightmare awaits them the next day...

"I went further down the street. At 142 Mazaev Street, I saw the body of 72-year-old Magomed Gaitaev. His glasses hung on the fence, he himself lay in a pool of blood. The dog lapped it. He had wounds on his head and chest."
Inhabitant of Aldov

Many residents of Novye Aldy told about the death of a man named Victor. However, only one of them, Arsen Dzhabrailov, could explain more or less coherently who he was and how he got to Novye Aldy. The residents of Novye Aldy learned their surname and patronymic after the murder from a passport pierced by a bullet. Viktor Cheptura lived in the village of Michurina, on the eastern outskirts of Grozny. When Russian aircraft bombed his house, he moved to his sister, in Chernorechye. “In search of work, he came to me. I offered him to live with me,” says Arsen. “It was December 2 last year. He helped me, I helped him.”
On February 5, Viktor Cheptura left the courtyard of Arsen Dzhabrailov (Khoperskaya St., 17). Dzhabrailov heard how Victor was called to the servicemen who were standing at the crossroads of Voronezhskaya and Khoperskaya streets. Approaching them, he allegedly said: "Guys, I'm mine." But he was ordered to go forward and shot in the back. It happened in front of the house of Abdul Shaipov (Khoperskaya street, 22).
This scene was witnessed by a resident of the village of Shali, who lived nearby at that time (Khoperskaya St., 27). His story is close to Dzhabrailov's testimony. Victor was first interrogated by the commander of the unit operating in this part of the village. When asked who he was by nationality, he allegedly replied that he was Ukrainian. "Ah, a crest," the commander said and ordered: "Go, don't look back. Live." Victor walked several tens of meters towards the dam and was shot in the back.
Viktor's corpse was buried by local residents in a wasteland near Dzhabrailov's house. According to the information we have, a month later his body was dug up and taken away by people who introduced themselves as members of the investigation team.
Arsen Dzhabrailov handed over Viktor Cheptura's passport to employees of the Prosecutor's Office of the Zavodskoy District of Grozny.

Alvi Ganaev (about 60) and his two sons Aslanbek (about 34) and Salambek (about 29) were killed by Russian soldiers between 11 and 12 o'clock at the corner of Voronezhskaya and Khoperskaya streets. It appears that they were on their way home (near Bryanskaya Street 85) after the roof had been repaired. Two women from their family were injured: Malika (about 50) and Louise (about 39). 26-year-old L. (name not disclosed), hiding in the basement on the street. Bryanskaya, witnessed the murder and heard Malika Ganaeva calling for help:

15 contract soldiers came. There were 15 of them on each street: my house is tenth from the corner. When we came out with our passports, the soldiers opened fire. My neighbors at the beginning of the street - the father and two sons of the Ganaevs - were killed. Two women from their family were wounded. Malika hurt her ear.

I was on the street, I heard shooting, then I see how they fell, and I hear Maliki screaming: "Help!" We all rushed back to the cellars. The soldiers ordered the people to come out and threatened to throw grenades at them. They swore, shouted: "Come out, you sons of bitches, we will kill you all, we have an order!" Guarantors could be heard exploding in the cellars further down the street. This was between 11 and 12 o'clock.

Aina Mezhidova and Aset Chaadaeva alleged that the same soldiers who killed the Ganayevs later mortally wounded Ramzan Elmurzayev when he helped drag the Ganayevs' bodies from the street to a nearby courtyard. According to A. Chaadaeva, R. Elmurzaev was wounded in the stomach and died from internal bleeding early in the morning on February 6.

Yusup Musaev stated that he heard the shots with which R. Elmurzaev was wounded when he removed the bodies from the street in the afternoon: “I was in the yard at the time, I heard the shots, but I didn’t attach any importance to it - then the shots were a normal thing.”

On the morning of February 5, 60-year-old Yusup Musaev was in a neighboring house on the street. Voronezhskaya, 122. There were also his nephews, 51-year-old Yakub and 35-year-old Suleiman, who left in the morning:

Aba Maasheva, who is about 80 years old and has two nephews, was frightened and came to our house with her 15-year-old great-grandson. She said there were two dead people outside 112.

A few minutes later, about seven Russian soldiers in camouflage came to us and forced me and three others, including a 15-year-old teenager, to lie face down in the snow for half an hour while they searched the house. The soldiers warned not to go after the dead, they said: "If you go, you will lie down next to me."

According to Yu. Musaev, the shooting did not stop for another 2-3 hours, so he did not dare to leave. However, around 2 or 3 pm, he nevertheless ventured to check on his relatives. He went through the back yards to the corner of Voronezhskaya and Khoperskaya streets. There he saw four corpses stacked in a pile, one more lay at the gate of house No. 112 on Voronezhskaya Street, and another one between them. Among the stacked corpses, he identified the bodies of Alvi, Aslambek and Salambek Ganayev, as well as his cousin Abdurakhman Musayev. At the gate lay another cousin Y. Musaev Umar Musaev, not far - the body of Vakha Khakimov. All of them were shot.

Toward evening, Yu. Musaev noticed that the house of his brother Ibragim Musaev was on fire (Voronezhskaya street, 116). As he said, they "tried to put out the fire, but it was all in vain - it was too late. By that time it was getting dark, and there were still no nephews, so we went home."

At about 8 pm, three neighbors came to Y. Musaev, who said that they had just found the bodies of his nephews Suleiman and Yakub at house number 22 on Khoperskaya street. and dragged them to Voronezhskaya, 122.

31-year-old Zhanna Mezhidova:
"I saw a corpse on Voronezhskaya Street. His name is Vakha..., he is 43 years old. He repaired the roof. He got hit in the chest, he was covered in blood. The men did not let the women examine the body and took him into the house so that the cats and dogs would not eat. "

Khampash Yakhyaev, 42, his cousin Musa Yakhyaev, 48, and an 80-year-old Russian woman, believed to be Elena Kuznetsova, were killed by soldiers around one o'clock in the afternoon when they came out of a basement in 2nd Tsimlyansky Lane.
A witness to the murder, 53-year-old Aina Mezhidova, said that the soldiers were 35-40 years old, they wore bandages on their heads, some wore knitted hats. According to her, they were in gray or green camouflage.
At about one o'clock in the afternoon, A. Mezhidova was in the basement in 2nd Tsimlyansky Lane, along with the Yakhyaevs, E. Kuznetsova, and a Chechen woman named Koka, who had a daughter, Nurzhan:
Six soldiers entered the yard... Koka came out first. She greeted the soldiers: "Good morning." Koka thought that the soldiers would respect her age, so she went first, but the soldier cursed, hit her with the rifle butt, and kicked her back down into the basement. I saw her fall.
When Koka fell, [Kuznetsova] came out, Khampash and Musa. The soldiers checked their passports. Hampash asked why the soldiers cursed the old woman and why they hit her. I was just about to get up upstairs when she saw a soldier killing Hampasha. I rushed back and got out through another exit. Hampasha was shot in the head point-blank. First they killed him, then Musa, and then [Kuznetsova]. She lived in Aldy for 40 years.
The mother-in-law of Kh. Yahyaev, Zina Yahyaeva, saw the bodies of three who died on the same day:
On the fifth... I came to my son-in-law's house. I saw under the canopy the bodies of my son-in-law and his friend Musa. The son-in-law's hands were tied with wire, he was shot in the head, shot right in the face, in the eyes. The young man took a photo. Musa had similar wounds, his head was smashed.
There was a Russian woman... with them in the basement... The soldiers killed her and burned her body in the basement. It smelled bad in there. She was first shot and then burned. ... They all had their heads smashed - many shots in the head.
Musa's cousin Nurzhan and his aunt Koka gave me the men's passports. They found it in their mouths. The passports were clean; it looks like they were shot first, and then the soldiers stuffed their passports into their mouths.

Having got out of the basement, A. Mezhidova rushed to the street. Matash Mazaeva to tell others about what they saw. On the way to the house, she came across several corpses of other residents of Alda:
Then I ran to Matash Mazaev to tell people what happened. On the way, I came across the body of Koka [about 40 years old], a saleswoman from a pharmacy for Matash Mazaev. She was shot in the stomach, her intestines hung. Then I saw Akhmed Abulkhanov at his house on Mazaev.

Lema Akhtaev, 32, and Isa Akhmatov, 41, lived in the house of 37-year-old Ramzan Tsanaev, judging by the stories, in 4th Tsimlyansky Lane. Residents of Alda believe that the burnt remains of two men, found by them in a burned down neighboring house, belong to L. Akhtaev and I. Akhmatov.
A. Chaadaeva previously treated L. Akhtaev's shrapnel wound received during shelling, and I. Akhmatov's finger injured by an ax. When she found out that day what was happening in Aldy, she felt worried for both and asked her brother Timur to go and visit them:
Ramzan told Timur that Lema and Isa were taken away by the soldiers, they said that they themselves would treat them with "brilliant green". Timur doubted this, saying that the soldiers were not taking anyone away and that they should be looked for in burnt houses. We went to a neighboring house, burned it down, and began to clear away the rubble. Nothing was found that day, but there was a smell of burnt meat.
Timur went there on February 6 and found them. He found the keys to the safe that Lema had. He continued to dig and found part of the burnt corpse - a fragment of the spine with the remnants of soft tissues. It was from Lema. Nearby I found a skeleton and fragments of bones.

"The soldiers took the girl to an empty house, and after a while they returned with the words:" Hide this bitch somewhere ... More are coming after us, they will rape and kill her anyway. "She was seventeen or eighteen. This is not the only case , a married woman was also raped. But people keep it a secret, they say nothing happened, because it's such a shame. People just don't talk about it."

When in the house of S.F. soldiers came to Aldy, they are said to have demanded money and jewelry from the inhabitants. When leaving, they took S.F. by force. with you on the armored personnel carrier. One of the witnesses, who asked not to be named, said that she was among the women who went in search of S.F.:
They found her lying on the edge of Alda: her hair was disheveled, blood was flowing from the corner of her lip. They say she was raped, but she herself denies it. Her clothes were torn. I was amazed by what I saw. When we found her, we were afraid that the soldiers would return, and we went to the house on... the street. They put her in the basement with other women.

It is also known about the gang rape of four women, the subsequent murder of three of them and the attempted murder of the fourth. The women killed were 35, 32 and 29 years old. The last of them, on February 9, was found by her relative, who, in turn, told another relative about the incident.
According to her, when she went to Aldy on February 9 to visit relatives, she found one of them in a basement not far from their house in a completely depressed state. She was told that around noon on 5 February, the woman went with three other women to check on their homes in the upper Alda and were seized by Russian contractors, who allegedly raped them in turn; the soldiers were 40-50 years old, they had shaved heads and wore beards, two of them had bandages on their heads. There were 12 soldiers, and "many" raped. It was said that women were also forced to perform oral sex. One of them is said to have suffocated when one of the soldiers sat on her head. When two other women began to scream, the contractors strangled them. According to the survivor, she was also forced to perform oral sex and passed out. Then the contractors shouted: "She's dead! She's also dead!" - after which they left.
This is how the witness described the condition of the victim:
The hair was in different sides, all skinned, neck dirty, genitals in the blood. She vomited. My relative went to my father's house and brought some food. But she did not recognize her, she screamed: "Get out!" She fought in hysterics: "Don't touch me, get out!"
Eyes rolled up. A relative poured water into her mouth, she vomited. She lay down; when she saw me, she screamed again: "Don't touch me!" She then moved away, screaming and crying.
Then the said witness found the bodies of three murdered women in the yard. With one of the men, they buried them in a shallow grave.

"Zina"
Aina Mezhidova helped wash the bodies of some of the women killed during the February 5 massacres in Aldy and during the shelling of the village. She said that 19-year-old Zina (name withheld), who helped her wash one of the victims, told her that she had been raped "many times" and taken "from yard to yard." According to A. Mezhidova, the girl lived in Aldy with one of her male relatives, who was not at home when the soldiers arrived.

On July 26, the European Court of Human Rights considered the case Musaev and Others v. Russia, about the mass execution of civilians in the village of Novye Aldy. The applicants' claims were supported by lawyers from the Memorial Human Rights Center (Moscow) and...

On July 26, the European Court of Human Rights considered the case Musaev and Others v. Russia, about the mass execution of civilians in the village of Novye Aldy. The applicants' claims were supported by lawyers from the Memorial Human Rights Center (Moscow) and the European Human Rights Advocacy Center (EHRAC, London).

All five applicants are relatives of those killed. On February 5, 2000, Yusup Musayev witnessed the murder of nine people, seven of whom were his relatives. Suleiman Magomadov lived during the events in Ingushetia and, having learned about the “cleansing”, came to Novye Aldy to bury the remains of his two brothers, who were burned on February 5, possibly alive. Tamara Magomadova was the wife of one of the murdered Magomadov brothers. Malika Labazanova, in the yard of her own house, witnessed the murder of three of her relatives by the federals: a 60-year-old woman, a 70-year-old old man, and a 47-year-old disabled person. All of them were shot because they could not collect the amount demanded by the killers as a ransom for their lives. Khasan Abdulmezhidov, Labazanova's husband, escaped execution due to the fact that he was at that time in the house of neighbors.

The Russian government presented its arguments to Strasbourg. It did not deny that on that day in Novye Aldy the St. Petersburg riot police carried out a “special operation”, but specified that the participation of riot police in the killings was not proven by the investigation. Yes, it turns out that there was an investigation - on March 5, 2000, the prosecutor's office Chechen Republic opened a criminal case on the fact of mass death of people. The investigation came to nothing. To establish the names of the killers from the army and the riot police, the prosecutor's office turned out to be beyond its power. The European Court has repeatedly asked to provide him with copies of the investigation materials. The Russian government invariably denied him this, citing secrecy.

Instead, by way of another argument, the Government argued that not all domestic remedies had been exhausted in this case. Obviously, 7 years is too short a period for Russian justice to establish the truth and punish the criminals.

On July 26, a court in Strasbourg unanimously rejected this argument of the Russian government. The Court held that the Russian authorities were responsible for the unlawful killings of the applicants' relatives. The court also ruled that the investigation of the massacre by Russian justice was ineffective.

According to the court decision, Russia must pay compensation to the applicants for non-pecuniary damage: Yusup Musaev - 35 thousand euros, Suleyman Magomadov - 30 thousand euros, Tamara Magomadova - 40 thousand euros, Malika Labazanova and Khasan Abdulmezhidov - 40 thousand euros. In addition, the Government will pay Tamara Magomadova EUR 8,000 in respect of pecuniary damage and will also pay the applicants' legal costs and expenses in the amount of EUR 14,050 and GBP 4,580.

170 thousand euros that Russia will pay for a lost cause is nothing for Russian state, especially since the money will be paid from the state budget, and not from the pockets of those specific officials and judges who are responsible for the inefficiency of justice. 170 thousand euros is nothing for the relatives of the victims, because how much money can you value the lives of loved ones?

The decision of the European Court is not a triumph of justice, but only an indication to the Russian authorities of the inefficiency of the national judicial system and an indirect accusation of biased investigation and court.

The triumph of justice would have taken place if the murderers of 56 civilians in the village of Novye Aldy were brought before a criminal court and punished in proportion to what they had done in the suburbs of Grozny on February 5, 2000.

Special Reporting by Anna Politkovskaya

What became the subject of discussion in Strasbourg last week has long been known: in detail, with the designation of departments and units whose servicemen committed this heinous crime in Novye Aldy. Novaya Columnist Anna POLITKOVSKAYA collected testimonies from survivors and published them at the same time - in February 2000. And then she continued the investigation, talking about how the investigation was inactive and who specifically slowed down the proceedings: no one wanted to look for the bastards who killed with a shot at point-blank range and burned women and the elderly alive. Even now, after 7 years, eyewitness accounts are unbearable to read - and we did not dare to publish them in the newspaper, they posted them on our website. And the reaction of the authorities at that time was customary: Politkovskaya was accused of juggling facts, inciting passions and protecting "bandits". Now the European Court of Human Rights has put everything in its place. Only killers are free, with epaulettes and orders, and there are no prerequisites for the fact that they are going to be prosecuted.

These are inhuman stories. They say that for reliability they must be divided by some number (10, 100, 200?). But how many do not divide - it will still be terrible.

<…>Reseda begins to draw a diagram of their street in Aldy and how the punishers moved. “Here is our house,” says Reseda, “and here is Sultan Temirov, a retired neighbor. He, still alive, was cut off his head by contractors and taken away with them. And ... the body was thrown to the dogs ... Later, when the feds went to other houses, the neighbors took away one left leg and groin from the feral dogs - they were buried ... ".

Witnesses believe that more than a hundred people died during the cleansing in Aldy - there is no more precise data yet. Those who remained on the streets of Voronezh and named after Matashi Mazaev were especially affected.<…>Such a selection was made by chance: just the street named after Mazaev is the first one when you enter Aldy.

Reseda continues her imaginary journey home: “Let us go.<…>Next is the Khaidarovs' house. Father and son, Gulu and Vakha, were shot there. The old man is over 80. A middle-aged Avalu Sugaipov lived behind them, refugees stayed with him<…>two men, a woman and a 5 year old girl. All adults were burned with a flamethrower, including the mother, in front of her daughter. Before the execution, the soldiers gave the baby a can of condensed milk and said: "Go for a walk." The girl must have gone crazy. The Musaevs lived on 120 Voronezhskaya Street. They shot old Yakub, his son Umar and nephews - Yusup, Abdrakhman and Suleiman.<…>

The elder sister Larisa continues. She says things that the fantasies of a mentally healthy person are inaccessible to. The fact that the trees on their street are now “decorated” with shapeless bloody stains - because they were brought to them for execution. “But the trunks can’t be washed! Therefore, for example, I will never be able to go back there.”<…>.

<…>Malika Labazanova is a baker from the village of Novye Aldy on the outskirts of Grozny. She has been baking bread all her life.<…>In work, Malika had only one break - but he broke her life into two halves: BEFORE February 5 and AFTER February 5.<…>

Starting on February 6, Malika herself put the corpses in the basement. She herself protected them from hungry dogs and crows. She buried herself. And then she washed the basement tiles ...

<…>For several weeks, the families did not bury "their" corpses, contrary to all traditions - they were waiting for prosecutors to carry out the necessary investigative actions as they should. Then, without waiting, they buried him. Later they began to wait for death certificates - few did. However, soon the employee of the Grozny prosecutor’s office who issued documents indicating the cause of death * (stab wounds, gunshot and bullet wounds) was suddenly urgently transferred to another place of work, and everyone with “his” certificates was summoned to the administration of the Zavodskoy district and ordered to hand over in order to receive in exchange “new death certificates” (as people were explained), in which there was no “cause of death” column at all ...

<…>There are no results of the investigation. For ten past months the witnesses were never questioned. No one dared to make sketches of the criminals, although some of the killers did not hide their faces.

Now it is quite obvious that the Prosecutor General's Office is successfully putting the brakes on the case of the tragedy. She officially replies to those who are interested in New Aldins with replies: they say, on control<…>. To all those who are interested - but not to the New Aldins - prosecutors lie without hesitation that the Chechens, true to their customs, simply do not allow the bodies of the dead to be exhumed and therefore the investigation does not have the physical ability to move forward ...<…>.

However, it turned out that, no matter how hard it was for them, the Novoaldintsy ASK, PLEASE, DEMAND to perform all the necessary exhumation measures, insisting that the main material evidence - bullets - be finally removed from the bodies.<…>But all these insistent demands were answered with mocking vileness: a team of military forensic experts swooped into the village to put papers prepared in advance for people to sign ... About the fact that relatives refuse to exhume.<…>

Ordinary employees of the State Prosecutor's Office, somehow involved in the investigation of the Novoalda tragedy at different times, agree to "talk" only with guarantees of complete and eternal anonymity.<…>If, however, the Novoalda nightmare is allowed to unwind before specific chasers are charged, the Prosecutor General's Office believes that Novye Aldy will be followed by other similar cases. The same employees of the Prosecutor General also spoke about their own personal intimidation: they are also allegedly threatened by gentlemen officers<…>.

Anna Politkovskaya, columnist for Novaya Gazeta

* The investigator for especially important cases of the Main Directorate of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus T. Murdalov gave people a document with the following content: during the check of the passport regime, a massacre of civilians of the indicated village was committed, including the murder of ... (the surname of the deceased followed. - A.P.). An investigation is underway into this fact by the Main Directorate of the Prosecutor General's Office in the North Caucasus.” The investigator managed to write out 33 such documents.

The village of Novye Aldy is located on the southern outskirts of Grozny. Before the war, about 10 thousand people lived here. The village had a library and a clinic. There were 1,500 children in the local school. The settlement arose in the late 50s, when people who returned after deportation received land plots here - five acres per family. On this land they built houses for themselves and their children, for a future happy life.

Historians will someday write detailed studies about the recent war in Chechnya. What happened in Novye Aldy settlement on February 5, 2000 is told by eyewitnesses whose testimonies were collected by the Memorial Human Rights Center.

Aset Chadayeva:

“I lived in the village of Novye Aldy from the autumn of 1999 to February 2000. Until February 3, people here died under bombs, died from shrapnel wounds. The "work" of Russian aviation brought the chronically ill and the elderly to heart attacks and strokes. People were dying of pneumonia - they were sitting in damp cellars for months. In just two months, until February 5, we buried 75 people.

On February 5, at about 12 noon, I heard the first shots in the street. My father and I went out and saw how the soldiers set fire to the houses. Our neighbor was repairing the roof, and I heard the soldier say: “Look, Dim, the fool is making the roof,” and he answered: “Take it off.” The soldier raised his machine gun, he wanted to shoot. I yelled, "Don't shoot! He's deaf!" The soldier turned and fired a burst over our heads.

Then my brother, born in 1975, followed us, and we went to meet these fascists. The first thing they shouted was: "Mark them, Gray, with green foreheads, so that it would be more convenient to shoot." They immediately put a machine gun on my brother and asked: “Did you take part in the battles?” The brother replied that he did not, and then they began to beat him.

In case they were raped, I tied a grenade to myself in advance - it could be exchanged for four packs of Prima cigarettes.

We were ordered to gather at the crossroads. I gathered people from our street so that we could all be together. Only in our small alley there were ten children under 15 years old, the youngest was only 2 years old. The soldiers again began to check passports, one said: “We will evict you. They gave you a corridor, bastards!? All this was accompanied by foul language.

As soon as I moved away from the intersection, shots rang out again. The women shouted: "Asya, Ruslan is wounded, bandage him!". Ruslan Elsaev, 40 years old, after the check, stood near his house, smoked. Two soldiers fired at him for no reason, one bullet went right through his lung, two centimeters from his heart, the other hit his arm...

My brother and I again went out into the street and again heard wild cries: a neighbor, Rumisa, was carrying a girl. It was nine-year-old Leyla, the daughter of a refugee from the village of Dzhalka. Leyla fell in hysterics, rolled on the ground, laughed and shouted in Chechen and Russian: “They killed my mother!”. My brother took her in his arms and carried her to our house. I ran to the yard [of the neighbors] - there lay Leyla's mother in a pool of blood, from which steam was still coming in the cold. I wanted to pick it up, but it falls apart, a piece of the skull falls off - probably, a burst from a light machine gun cut it ... Two men are lying nearby in the yard, both have huge holes in their heads, apparently, they shot at point-blank range. The house was already on fire, the back rooms, in the first one, the murdered Avalu was on fire. Apparently, some flammable liquid was poured on him and set on fire. I dragged a forty-liter flask of water, I don’t know how I lifted it, poured out the water. To be honest, I did not want to see the body of Avalu, let it remain alive in my memory - he was an exceptionally kind person. Neighbors came running and put out the fire. Twelve-year-old Magomed walked around the yard, repeating: "Why did they do this ?!" The smell of blood was simply unbearable...

I ran back along the main street, they could shoot there at any moment, I had to move around the yards. I saw Gaitaev Magomed - he was disabled, had an accident in his youth, he had no nose, he wore special glasses. He is lying, he was shot in the head and chest, and these glasses are hanging on the fence.

Russian soldiers finished off my sick, wounded civilians, old people and women.

Lema Akhtaev and Isa Akhmatov were burned. We then found the bones, collected them in a pan. And any commission, any examination can prove that these are human bones. But no one cares about these bones, these dead.

Shamkhan Baigiraev was also burned, he was taken from his house. The Idigov brothers were forced to go down to the basement and were thrown with grenades - one survived, the other was torn to pieces. I saw Gulu Khaidaev, the old man who was killed. He was lying on the street in a pool of blood. The soldiers killed the eighty-year-old Akhmatova Rakiyat - first they wounded, then finished off the recumbent. She shouted: "Don't shoot!"...

Marina Ismailova:

On February 5, in the morning, firing from machine guns, machine guns and grenade launchers began to be heard in the village ... They killed and burned people without asking for documents. Those killed and burned had passports and other documents in their pockets or in their hands. The main requirements are gold and money, then they only shot ...

Two brothers of retirement age, the Magomadovs - Abdula and Salman, remained on Matash Mazaev Street in house No. 158. They were burned alive in their home. Only a few days later, after a huge effort, we found their remains. They fit in a plastic bag...

Louise Abulkhanova:

Everything happened very quickly. When the shots rang out, I felt bad. I distinctly remember only that those who entered our yard first demanded money. The old man [Akhmed Abulkhanov] went somewhere and brought 300 rubles. The soldiers were dissatisfied, cursing... Then shots rang out. Brother and sister Abdulmezhidov, our neighbors, died together with my father-in-law. Akhmatov Isa was found in the house of the Tsanaevs only a few days after the incident. He must have been burned alive...

I don't know when or how this war will end. How many more victims will be brought to the altar of Putin's presidency. I only know that after all these horrors, I will not be able to respect the Russians. It is unlikely that we will get along in one state.

"Ruslan"(name changed at his request):

On the morning of February 5, I was repairing the roof and saw a house on fire at the beginning of the village. Behind him, a second, a third flared up, shots began, the screams of people. The feds were in headscarves, of mature age. They herded everyone to the crossroads of Kamskaya Street and 4th Almazny Lane.

We started walking from the first street, went into the house of the Idigov brothers. Two brothers were herded into the basement and two grenades were thrown there. One remained alive due to the fact that the second covered him with himself. Three people were shot in a neighboring house: one old man, 68 years old, and two young guys. They were not asked for documents. Shot straight in the head.

Houses were burned. People heard shouts: “Where is the money!?”. The Magomadov brothers were thrown into the basement, shot and set on fire. The fire spread to other houses...

The corpses that I buried were of different ages, from young to very old, but there were many that could not be identified.

Malika Labazanova:

… And then they started shooting. They shouted at the same time that they had an order to kill everyone. I ran to the neighbors, knocked on the gate - no one opened it. Only Deniyev Alu came out to knock and brought me three pieces of paper for one hundred rubles. I carry this money, I go up to my gate and see: my cat is walking, her insides have fallen out. She goes and stops, goes and stops, and then she dies. My legs buckled, I thought that everyone in our yard was killed ...

When I handed him 300 rubles in a white cloak, he just laughed. “Is this money? You all have money and gold,” he said. “Your teeth are gold too.” Out of fear, I took off my earrings (my mother bought them for my sixteenth birthday), I give them back and ask you not to kill me. And he shouts that it is ordered to kill everyone, calls the soldier and tells him: “Bring her into the house and shake her there.”

In the house, I immediately rushed into the boiler room, where I hid behind the stove. It was the only thing I could do in that situation. And the one who accompanied me went back. He was looking for me. Not finding it, he returned to the house again. And then the shooting began in the yard. I rushed to the soldier, began to ask, beg him not to kill. “I won’t kill you, they will kill me,” he said. And such fear seized me that both the bombings and the shelling - everything that had happened before that day, I was ready to relive everything, if only he, this soldier, would withdraw the machine gun aimed at me.

He began to shoot: at the ceiling, at the walls, shot through the gas stove. And then I realized - he will not shoot me. I grabbed his legs and thanked him for not killing him. And he: "Shut up, you're already dead."

Yusup Musaev:

Soldiers rushed into the courtyard, they laid us face down on the ground. They swore obscenely: “Bitches, lie down, cattle!”. Musaev's cousin Khasan was put a machine gun near his ear, Andi Akhmadov was also lying, he was held at gunpoint. Next lay the boy and I, they put a machine gun between my shoulder blades ...

Then the soldiers went further into the yards, shots were heard. I thought about the brothers, went to look outside and immediately found them ... And four more people - Ganaev Alvi, his two sons - Sulumbek and Aslanbek, the fourth - Khakimov. When we began to drag the corpses into the yard, the military began to shoot from the corner ... In the evening my cousin came and said that he had found nine more corpses. Among them are two of my nephews.

Testimony of a woman who asked not to be named:

I ran to Matash Mazayev Street, I saw people who had been shot lying there. There were only soldiers on the street. I ran back, and they shouted to me: “Stop!”. I ran and they shot at me.

When I returned to my room, one soldier sat down and said: “How can I save you? I don't want you to be killed. You look like my mother." He called his guys and they sat with us...

At night, we brought the corpses into the houses. I saw 28 corpses - all of our neighbors. I washed the corpses. Mostly shot in the head - in the eyes, in the mouth. Gadayeva had a bullet wound in the back of her head.

Markha Tataeva:

On February 5, we were sitting with our neighbor Anyuta. She looked out into the street. I ask: "What is there?" She says: “People are being shot there,” and she began to cry.

I go out, and our neighbor Abdurakhman Musaev is standing there and shouting: “Well, bitch, why are you standing there - shoot!”. The soldiers laugh, Musaev shouts: “Bitch, shoot, come on! Well, what are you standing, creature - shoot! It turns out that he stumbled upon his grandson, who was lying there, shot.

They were contractors. One was with a tattoo, and on the back of his hat was a fox tail. He stood and laughed, then he saw me and from the machine gun right at me! Anyuta grabbed me and pushed me into the house, and he didn't hit us. We ran across the yards to Anyuta's house, where we sat for two hours. Then I decided to go home, although she asked me not to leave.

I went into the house, and after about five minutes my dog ​​flies, barks with might and main. Everyone go. I read a prayer. Then she put on overalls to look more pitiful. I open the door, just turn around, he is at me with a machine gun: “Come on, creature, bitch, come here!”. I come up, I want to show the documents - in general, I was not at a loss. And he is looking for a reason to make me confused: “Oh, you are a sniper, you helped the militants, why did you stay at home? Why didn't you leave, what were you doing here? Where are your parents, in the house, yes? I say: "No, they left." “Where did they go? What do you have?" I say: "Documents". And he: “I don’t need, b ..., your documents!” – picks up and throws them. I had 35 rubles there. “You don’t need that either! To the wall! Shoot her and that's it!" He loads the machine gun, pointed at me ... Then he waved his other hand to him: “Leave her, don’t! Let the girl hide. And then these will find her, fuck her and kill her anyway. It’s better to save the girl, it’s a pity, she’s young!

They left, and I told Anyuta: “I can’t anymore, I want to hide.” And where to hide? We sat in the wardrobe. We hear - the doors open, they go. Anyuta says: "That's it, we have nowhere to go." And they are in the yard shooting from a machine gun, shouting with might and main: “Bitches, get out!”. When they discharged the horn, I thought - that's it, I won't see my mother again, I won't see anyone. This is where I started crying.

How we got through, I don't know, but they left. We survived.

Makka Jamaldaeva:

They put us four: husband, me, son and granddaughter, she stood next to me. Matyukali, as they wanted, they said what they wanted, they did not speak human language, it was impossible to smell of vodka from them. Before that they were drunk - they could hardly stand on their feet. When the husband was told: “Grandfather, give me money, dollars, whatever you have,” he pulled out more than a thousand rubles and gave this money. When he counted the money, he said: “Grandfather, if you don’t give it yet, I’ll shoot you,” he used obscene language at him, at an old man.

And I pulled out my earrings, my granddaughter - hers, I gave it to him: “Son, please, take this, leave us alive.” He again says to his son: "I'll shoot you in the eye now." When he said so, the father said: "Son, he has six small children, do not kill, I have only one." And that one: “If you don’t give us one more gram of gold, then we will shoot you all.” My son had teeth, crowns, he removed these teeth, we gave them to him. He just said obscenities, turned and left. He was drunk, barely left our yard ...

Louise Abulkhanova:

Here is the result of this war. On February 5, we saw the terrorists with our own eyes and experienced them ourselves. We are told that the war is over. How will it be over for us if we can never forget this day?

Five of the survivors turned to Strasbourg.

General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation Chaika Yu.Ya.

Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic Savchin M.M.

Military Prosecutor's Office of the North Caucasian Military District

The second department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Chechen Republic

Dear Yuri Yakovlevich!

Dear Mikhail Mikhailovich!

We are writing to you regarding the investigation of the events that took place on February 5, 2000 in Novye Aldy, the Chechen Republic. On that day, at least 56 civilians (including the elderly, women and children) were killed during a cleansing operation carried out by Russian security forces with the participation of the St. Petersburg riot police. Many houses were looted and burned.

In connection with these events, on 5 March 2000 the Prosecutor's Office of Grozny initiated criminal case no. 12011. The investigation of this case was repeatedly suspended and resumed again. However, the perpetrators of this crime have not yet been prosecuted.

On July 26, 2007, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in the case “ Musaev and others v. Russia» No. 57941/00, 58699/00 and 60403/00. This decision provides a summary and analysis of the materials of criminal case No. 12011.

According to the materials of the criminal case, the investigation established the participation of the St. Petersburg riot police in a special operation carried out in Novye Aldy on February 5, 2000. In April 2004, representatives of the investigating authorities asked the head of the St. Leningrad region provide them with samples of bullets and shells used by the riot police in the region for investigation. This request was again sent by the investigating authorities to the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg in June 2004. However, it is not clear from the materials of the criminal case whether this requirement was met (par. 104 of the ECtHR decision).

In addition, the investigation found full list officers of the OMON of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region who were in Chechnya at the beginning of February 2000, as well as their photographs. This was done in order to carry out the procedure for identifying the persons who committed the crime. At the same time, it is not known whether such identification was carried out (par. 108 of the ECtHR decision).

The materials of the criminal case also contain excerpts from interrogations of 20 OMON officers in St. Petersburg. During these interrogations, carried out between October and November 2000, all the officers admitted that they had taken part in the Novye Aldy operation in early February 2000 (par. 109 of the ECtHR judgment).

The information that the murders in Novye Aldy were committed by representatives of law enforcement agencies is also confirmed by numerous testimonies of witnesses (paras. 11-53; 112-115 of the ECHR decision) and reports of non-governmental organizations, including the report of the human rights center "Memorial": " Cleansing". New Aldy settlement, February 5, 2000 - deliberate crimes against the civilian population”, and a similar report by an international non-governmental organization human Rights watch. These reports contain photographs of the crime scene and the bodies of the dead, as well as detailed description facts. These facts are also described in numerous press publications. There is also a video recording made in Novye Aldy on February 9, 2000.

On April 2, 2000, the investigators examined a note found at the scene of the events, which stated: “ Guys! We were here, regimentno245. They are normal people, not militants. Spare them. Motorized rifle brigade commanderno 6”. It is not clear from the case file whether any investigation was carried out into the discovery of this note.

The decision of the ECtHR notes that during the investigation no other versions of what happened were put forward, except for the version that the crime was committed by representatives of the federal security forces (par. 151 of the decision of the ECtHR). The ECtHR unanimously acknowledged that the responsibility for the murders of the applicants' relatives lay with the Russian security forces and authorities and that the investigation into the massacre was ineffective.

In connection with the above facts, we ask you to answer the following questions:

1. What steps have been taken to investigate this case since the decision of the ECtHR on 26 July 2007?

2. What actions did law enforcement officials take to address the above shortcomings in the investigation of the case?

3. Were the victims informed about these measures?

4. Which agency is currently investigating?

5. Why, given the presence in the materials of the criminal case of serious evidence of the commission of a crime by representatives of the Russian law enforcement agencies, the investigation of the case was not brought to an end, and the perpetrators were not punished?

6. What are the reasons for the failure of the investigation?

7. What is the current stage of the investigation?

We also ask you to provide the victims with access to all the materials of this criminal case.

Already signed by:

Maryam Irizbayeva, HRC Memorial lawyer

Yusupova Lilya, executive director public organization creation

Magazieva Zarema, Employee of HRC \\"Memorial\\"

Titiev Oyub, employee of HRC Memorial

Murzaeva Fatima,

Leonid Petrov, Moscow

Tikhonova Zhanna,

Dzhibladze Yury, head of the human rights organization

Kirill Koroteev, lawyer

Milashina Elena, journalist...

The initiative "With kindness and peace from St. Petersburg" and the website "Remember Aldy" were founded by the Memorial Human Rights Center, the House of Peace and Non-Violence, the St. Petersburg branch of the YABLOKO party.

The beginning of February 2000 was cold, vile, gray. It was as if nature was responding to the horror of what was happening and the human fear spilled everywhere.

Leaving the dead and wounded along the way, the Chechen fighters defending Grozny went into the mountains. Russian generals and politicians who felt the taste of a real victory became almost impossible to stop.

Those who managed to break out of the battle zone were no longer waiting for the end of the war to end, they were preparing to survive in the conditions of a terrible, unpredictable future. But such moods were characteristic of those who watched what was happening at least a little, but from the side. The people who remained in Grozny did not try to look so far ahead. Even for a week, not to mention months and years. They rejoiced in every day they lived and waited in horror for the next. What will it bring, how will fate develop, will it be possible to survive until evening, night, morning? .. And so for two months in a row, every minute and second, from the last explosion to the next, between which, again, only minutes and seconds. For the inhabitants of Grozny and its suburbs - settlements, districts and towns - the departure of the Chechen detachments gave a chance for survival. At least that's what they thought at the time.

On February 3, shelling of the city ceased to be massive. The next day they stopped altogether. In different areas, at first cautiously - looking back a hundred times, looking around, rubbing against the ruins - but then more and more confidently, Russian military and armored vehicles began to appear.

Their appearance pleased few people, but it did not portend much trouble either. In any case, their control of the city, people thought, would put an end to the round-the-clock and indiscriminate bombardment, when no one could predict where and how long the next shell or rocket would explode. I wanted to believe that the most difficult and dangerous was over. The same Novoaldyns, the next day after the shelling stopped, began to patch up the roofs, repair and close up the walls and windows of houses. It was for this occupation that some later met their death ...

I will not describe how the "cleansing" in the village took place, how many people were killed and how. All this is described in detail in the report of the Human Rights Center "Memorial". Only one clarification: in Novye Aldy, the Russian army did nothing unusual or uncharacteristic for itself. This is not the pinnacle of their cruelty and does not in any way draw on super villainy. No less terrible crimes were committed in other parts of the city and neighboring villages. And they lasted much longer.

At the end of November 1999, for example, Russian troops took Alkhan-Yurt. The "Shamanovsky" 15th Shauliai Guards Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (now Major General) Sergei Lukashov killed and robbed here for two weeks. Sometimes with extreme cruelty. The guards cut off the head of one of the local residents, imitating a medieval execution: an ax, a wooden chock and a body on his knees with his hands tied behind him. And a bloody head on the side.

Or another story that we have described. No less terrible, although in the end it ended relatively well. Fearing rape, the mother forced her daughters to lie down in the crater left after the shell explosion, put boards on top and threw manure over them. There they spent several days. The release came after the appearance in the village of Malik Saidulaev, the future candidate for the presidency of the republic in 2003 and 2004. Having heard about the robbery of his parents' house, he hurried there, accompanied by the representative of the Russian government in Chechnya, Nikolai Koshman, and journalists. And before that, when the murders were in full swing, for some reason he didn’t bother. Although he was always there. At the head of his own, it is unclear by whom and when the "State Council" formed, he was walking in a wagon train not with anyone, but with Vladimir Shamanov himself ...

In Alkhan-Yurt, during a drunken two-week revelry, the Russian military killed about the same number of people as later in Novye Aldy. More than forty, but no one has yet been able to count exactly.

But it is not even approximately known how many people were killed in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. After the Chechen fighters were forced to leave this elongated and thin, like an appendix, district of the city, the meat grinder continued there for a whole month. A survivor today could be killed tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow, or maybe in a week. The military had enough time. Nobody interfered with them. Basically, the killings were accompanied by petty marauding of the military - they sent people to the next world in passing, during raids for food, or simply by noticing some kind of jewelry on a woman. It is easier to remove earrings or a ring from a corpse than from a living person. Often killed and for no reason. Just because a Chechen is an enemy. Or Ingush, which is no better. And Russians for not leaving, for staying and living with the animals.

Streets Shefskaya, Testaments of Ilyich, 8th line, 9th, 5th - these are the places of massacres. And Zhigulevskaya street is also in this row. Exactly in the same place, near the very house, on which the plate in honor of the "heroic Pskov paratroopers" is now flaunting, thirteen people were shot and a young man Idris, unknown at the place of permanent residence and surname, was stabbed to death. He was taken away instead of another, for whom his mother actively, clinging and not letting go, fought. The military said to the woman: okay, this one will do for us. They seized the man standing next to them and, taking him around the corner, slashed his throat several times with a knife.

In the Staropromyslovsky district in January 2000, according to the most conservative estimates, several hundred people were killed. They were not buried immediately, because there were cases when they were killed for this. Many corpses were eaten away by animals, and then only skeletonized, unrecognizable remains were collected and taken to the cemetery. I remember a photograph of a woman in a wheelchair. Her head was torn off by the Russian military, and her legs and entrails became the prey of animals.

The events in Alkhan-Yurt and at the Old Fields remained in the shadow of the battles for Grozny. The suffering of the people was drowned out by cannon fire. The murders in Novye Aldy were committed when it stopped. That's why the sound was so deafening.

However, there are circumstances that make the events in this village an important milestone in the still ongoing second war. In its decision in the Musaev and Others v. Russia case, the European Court of Human Rights defined the bloody Alda raid as punitive operations in the form of a massacre1). Their distinguishing feature is the killing of civilians, regardless of gender, age and nationality, committed against the backdrop of looting and destruction of their property. To put it simply, it was uncontrolled violence.

After Novye Aldy, Russian law enforcement agencies will focus on punitive raid-type operations. Their main difference is the violence against a certain part of the population, or more precisely, men of fighting age. Operations were different a high degree organization and planning, which left no doubt that the military command and the political leadership of the country were always aware of what was happening. And at the same time hostage-taking, torture, illegal prisons and murders, murders, murders. Looting, of course, too.

But New Aldy did not draw a line under the slaughter either.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the tragic events in the Chechen village of Novye Aldy, human rights activists prepared an appeal to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika with a request about the progress of the investigation of this crime. Until now, no one has been held accountable for the murder of dozens of civilians during the cleansing of the village by the St. Petersburg riot police.

The European Court of Human Rights, which the relatives of the victims applied to, studied numerous testimonies of witnesses, reports from non-governmental organizations, including reports from the human rights center Memorial and Human Rights Watch, and recognized that the investigation into the massacre in Russia is ineffective. However, the judgment of the European Court Russian side ignored.

- Based on private interests, everything is done to ensure that each similar crime is not investigated. But such a private interest can become a system only with public policy. That is, here the private interests of criminals and state policy absolutely coincide. Maybe one, two, ten unsolved crimes. But when almost everyone is not investigated and there are only isolated exceptions… It grows into a system, into a system of state impunity,” says Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Board of the Memorial Human Rights Center.

The tragedy happened on February 5, 2000. A large group of OMON fighters entered Novye Aldy, on the outskirts of Grozny. During the so-called cleansing of the village, according to Memorial, 56 people were killed. Mostly women, the elderly and children. According to eyewitnesses, the security forces looted and set fire to the houses of civilians.

- We were waiting for this day, February 5, under bombing, under shelling, we thought that the war would finally end, they would just walk through the streets, through houses, check our documents, passports. On that day, in general during this war, we were all in the basement along Tsimlyanskaya Street. On this day, for some reason, they warned us - people came, they said: “Animals are walking along your street, exactly along the central one, maybe you will return to the basement ...” When we began to look out into the street, we saw: the bodies of people were lying, burning Houses. The war turned out to be absolutely nothing before this day ... Today they live in peace, ripping us off, robbing us, killing us, and today, neither in the prosecutor's office, nor anywhere is this case moving from a dead center. Why can't our law enforcement agencies protect the Russians?! I'm also Russian Chechen people too - the Russian Federation. Why can't they protect us?! exclaims Madina Dombaeva.

Today in Moscow and St. Petersburg there was a presentation of the film "Aldy. No statute of limitations." The film has three authors: Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, an employee of Memorial, Elena Vilenskaya from the organization House of Peace and Non-Violence, and Nikolai Rybakov from the St. Petersburg Yabloko. The film is based on documentary video footage made by residents of Novye Aldy on February 9, 2000, and interviews with eyewitnesses of the events recorded by Memorial staff at the request of the film's authors in January-February 2009. Human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was killed in Chechnya last summer, also took part in the film's creation.

“At first we wanted to invite ten schoolchildren and two teachers from Aldy and show them another St. Petersburg – cultured, kind,” Elena Vilenskaya tells how the idea of ​​the film was born. – We decided that, first of all, we need to create a film: so that the people of St. Petersburg would first know what happened in Aldy. We went to Chechnya and discussed in general: what is the war in Chechnya for us and that it was the St. Petersburg OMON who committed such a crime ...

- The first documentary footage was made by the residents of the village of Aldy themselves four days after the tragedy. These shots show dead people and some funerals. Subsequently, at the request of the authors of the film, our colleagues in Grozny, employees of the human rights center "Memorial", primarily Natalya Estemirova, interviewed eyewitnesses of the events. It was in January-February of last year. In these interviews, each resident tells his own piece of history, what he experienced that day. Their stories form the overall picture. And people also tell how all these years they cope with the memory of that tragedy, - explains Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya.

Many residents do not tire of repeating that all these years they have not actually lived, that their soul died then, during the massacre of the village. Among the heroes of the film is a woman who lost two sons and her husband during those events - she talks about what happened when she stood over their bodies:

“They came and pointed two machine guns at me. I didn't care. I looked back, took a step forward, so that when I fall, I would not fall on them ...

But Natalya Estemirova asks a local resident:

- When everything happened, when you went down there, to report, to call journalists - tell us about this, please.

“There is nothing to tell about this, because they came here and attributed everything to the fact that they were either Chechens, or Ossetians, or Dagestanis,” her interlocutor answers.

On February 5, a premiere screening and discussion of the film will take place in St. Petersburg. The show is held as part of the "C good peace from Petersburg", organized by the residents of the city, who did not remain indifferent to the tragedy in the village of Aldy and wished to restore the city's good name.

On the day of the anniversary of the tragedy in the Chechen village, similar actions are planned in Moscow and Grozny.

And in an appeal to Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, which was prepared by the Memorial Human Rights Center, it says:

"We want to receive not formal answers that the investigation is underway and all the necessary steps are being taken for the investigation, but answers on the merits. It is important that the relatives of the victims have full access to all the materials of the criminal case. We will monitor the execution of the decision of the European Court, make inquiries in prosecutor's office and send letters to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which is responsible for monitoring the execution of the judgment".

To the tenth anniversary of the massacre in Novye Aldy

Punish the Punishers

Last week, on July 26, 2007, the European Court of Human Rights delivered another - the score has already gone to the second dozen - decision in the "Chechen" case: "Musaev and others v. Russia." We are talking about the mass execution of civilians in the village of Novye Aldy, located in the southwest of Grozny, on February 5, 2000.

The "Chechen" cases won by the applicants - and, accordingly, lost by Russia - seem to no longer arouse much interest among domestic journalists: "Well, yes, what else can we expect from Strasbourg?" - or: "Well, yes, it's terrible, but one horror is similar to another"! But the Alda case (the sixth of those in Chechnya, where the interests of the victims were represented by Memorial's lawyers) can only be called "ordinary" only when it comes to the amount of compensation awarded by the court - about 140,000 euros for five applicants (Mikheev, a victim of torture by Nizhny Novgorod policemen, was awarded 250,000! ). In all other respects, the matter is very unusual.

Firstly, it is unusual - even for Chechnya! - the crime itself.

We are not talking about bombardments and shelling (there have already been two decisions), not about “filters” (the decision on Chernokozovo was made in the case of Bitiyeva), not about “disappearances” (there are many decisions, the last one in the case of Ruslan Alikhadzhiev), but about “ zachistka", during which at least 56 people were killed by a unit of federal security forces.

That is, it was not a pilot or an artilleryman who killed here - at least they can accidentally get into a peaceful house. Everything was different here. Punishers "worked" here. They did not kill militants, not "accomplices" - they simply killed.

These murders cannot be attributed to a "state of passion" or "revenge for the just (or recently) murdered comrades" (they sometimes try to justify the murder of more than a hundred people in Samashki on April 8, 1995). On the eve of February 4, the village of Novye Aldy, located on the outskirts of the city, had already been "cleansed" and gone to the center of Grozny by an army unit that had previously been stationed on neighboring heights. And then other "siloviki" came, who previously stood in the rear.

These murders cannot be attributed to a group of unorganized and undisciplined servicemen who went around the yards and robbed on their own initiative (this was the case in the Staropromyslovsky district in January 2000 - women were shot there in order to rip off earrings from the dead; by the way, they were killed there not "on a national basis "- among the surviving witnesses there are also Slavs).

And in Novye Aldy, everything was completely "organized" ... The "cleansers" walked through the streets, through the yards - and killed. But you could redeem yourself. Somewhere people were able to collect the required ransom - and remained alive. Somewhere it did not work out - and they were killed. In front of one of the applicants, Malika Labazanova, three relatives were killed in the courtyard of the house - a 60-year-old woman, a 70-year-old man and a 47-year-old disabled person. Somewhere, gold dental crowns were given as a ransom. One person's gold teeth were pulled out - already from the dead. Doesn't it remind you of anything?

There could have been more victims - if the village doctor Aset Chadayeva had not run through the yards and forced people to go out into the street. They, huddled in a crowd, were not killed - cowardly bastards were ready to kill in houses and yards, without witnesses, but so, when dozens of eyes are looking at them ...

I hope no one assumes the sudden appearance in the rear of the federal group of a detachment of disguised militants on military equipment, who decided to disgrace the honor of Russian weapons? I hope no one will also see in the deed love for Russia, heroism, righteous anger, etc.?

What happened in Novye Aldy has nothing to do with war, but with war crimes. And no one was more interested in punishing criminals than Russia itself. Not only for the sake of such concepts as "honor" and "justice" - the justice that was done then, in 2000, before the start of guerrilla war, would have prevented the departure "into the forest" of very many hesitant. But this is in theory...

And here we turn to the second part of our story - just as unusual, even for Chechnya - to the investigation.

After all, there was every chance to investigate this crime. The Chechens did not bury their dead for a long time, waiting for the prosecutor's office to come to them. But the criminal case was opened only a month later, when the videotape made in Novye Aldy was shown on world TV screens. Then the relatives allowed the exhumation of the bodies - also a rare case for Chechnya. The investigation had bullets removed from the bodies, shell casings collected at the crime scene. Finally, it was no secret who exactly carried out the "cleansing" of Novye Aldy - the OMON police department of St. Petersburg.

But there was no progress in the matter - until they began to be interested from Strasbourg.

And then the case was handed over to the young investigator of the prosecutor's office, Anzor Asuev, probably in the hope that he would not be able to do anything. But he did. For several months, he sought from the leadership of the OMON the photographs of the fighters who were on that Chechen business trip. He was almost fired - for exceeding the term of his own business trip to St. Petersburg. He received only a small part of the photos ...

In the meantime, memories of the exploits of that winter have disappeared from amateur police websites. That is, until January 2000, there is - and then hyperlinks do not lead to the next chapter, but "to nowhere." And on the forums, arguments appeared like "the Chechens themselves killed and dragged the corpses of their relatives there."

From the photographs, the witnesses identified one person - Babin, a fighter of the St. Petersburg OMON. He was detained in St. Petersburg ... and then he disappeared, went into hiding. Babin himself claims that he was not in Novye Aldy, but was in a village, in the mountains in the east of Chechnya. I cannot and will not refute it - moreover, it is very possible that the command of the St. Petersburg OMON gave the investigation photographs of exactly those fighters who were not in Novye Aldy - that would be logical! But in any case, according to the law, Babin should have been interrogated, subjected to an identification procedure in accordance with all the rules ... You see, he would name those who have something to say.

However, what am I talking about? One of my acquaintances from the process of “exceeding authority” police operas (and we are talking about policemen as well!) Wrote: “Completely devoid of charm - and negative charm too - they are inseparable from each other, like mucus that cannot be divided into particles. And the fact that they will never testify against colleagues seems almost legal - it's the same as against themselves.

Then the documents about the special operation should have been preserved? Documents that list all its members. This was not a picnic in his spare time! Reports should have been kept. After all, even on the four-legged Mukhtar they write "the act of using a service dog."

But the investigation did not receive anything of the kind - and, accordingly, did not advance in the search for the killers. Here everything is as usual - in none of the cases of "cleansing" known to me, such documents were provided to the investigators.

Suspects in such cases obviously belong to a special category. Like Lugovoi, whom our prosecutors believe was poisoned by Litvinenko. As it is not known where Colonel Budanov disappeared from the camp. Like Ulman and his comrades, who had evaporated from Rostov on the eve of the verdict. Like those convicted in Qatar for the murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev: they walked along the carpet at the airport, and where they are - they are not in prison! Obviously, this kind of people enjoys the same protection in our country as in Europe the Bulgarian nurses who were held hostage by Colonel Gaddafi. For this category of people, we have not only the presumption of innocence, but also something better. Only now Russia itself is becoming more and more like some kind of Jamahiriya ...

Is it any wonder that the European Court saw in this case the absence of effective remedies and now - almost seven and a half years after the crime - has delivered its decision. Russia was found guilty of the death of the Aldins and the failure to investigate this crime.

And finally, the third important circumstance.

The latest judgments of the European Court force us to take a fresh look at the events of early February 2000. After all, it was a triumph Russian army. Having lured the militants out of Grozny, "selling" the "corridor" to them, the special services exposed them to artillery, aviation and "all available means" and eventually destroyed: Operation "Wolf Hunt"!

If...

From the materials of the case of Khadzhimurat Yandiev, considered last year, we learn that the federal troops entered Alkhan-Kala - the village through which the militants left Grozny - only on February 2, that is, on the third day after the start of their withdrawal. The militants have already left, and the "federals" are left with a hospital with the wounded - mostly mines! They were thrown into the underground bunker of the "filter point", and some of them were shot. For example, Yandiev - on the orders of General Baranov, the current commander of the North Caucasian Military District. "Heroic victory"?

Then they tried to block and destroy the militants in the villages - as on February 4 in Katyr-Yurt, from where neither local residents nor refugees were released (this case was considered in Strasbourg in 2005, one of the first). The result - from several tens to one and a half hundred dead civilians. And thousands of militants went to the mountains - then they fought with them in Komsomolsk and near Ulus-Kert. So what, another "heroic victory"? General Yakov Nedobitko commanded near Katyr-Yurt, since December 2006, commander of the United Group in the North Caucasus ...

And then the troops occupied Grozny. How? Look at this latest "Aldin" Strasbourg case...

Of course, not all the “siloviki” acted in this way: the military, who “cleansed” Novye Aldy on February 4, did not commit atrocities and even warned the inhabitants: animals are coming for us.

And the duty of the state is to administer justice. point out that the war war crime- not the same thing. This debt has not been repaid. Because the state in this case not only punishes (or takes away from responsibility) criminals - it restores the boundaries of the norm violated by "sovereign people".

The execution of the latest decision of the European Court is by no means limited to the payment of compensation. Now, seven and a half years later, Russia must bring the investigation of the Alda case to an end, to trial - and punish the punishers.

Aldi is not over.
The misanthropic poison developed in the killers poses a huge threat not only to the Chechens.
In Aldy, Russia killed itself.

Press conference on the anniversary of the massacre in Novye Aldy

Tomorrow, February 4, 2010, at 12:00, the Independent Press Center will host a press conference "Cleansing" in Novye Aldy. On the Tenth Anniversary of the Tragedy” and the presentation of the film “Aldy. No statute of limitations”, prepared by the Human Rights Center “Memorial”. The film will be shown at the beginning of the press conference. Duration - 32 minutes.

The press conference will feature:
Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Council of HRC "Memorial"
Dombaeva Elvira, resident of Novye Aldy, eyewitness of the events of February 5, 2000
Alexander Cherkasov, Member of the Board of the HRC "Memorial"
Tatyana Chernikova, lawyer at HRC "Memorial"

On February 5, 2000, fighters of the St. Petersburg OMON carried out a “cleansing operation” in the village of Novye Aldy, Zavodskoy District, Grozny. Dozens of people were shot. HRC "Memorial" documented the murder of 56 people. There was not a single militant among those shot, only civilians - women and children, the elderly and the disabled. The "mopping-up" in Novye Aldy became one of the bloodiest in the history of the second Chechen war.

Russian law enforcement agencies did not investigate this crime. Having failed to achieve justice in their homeland, the victims of the Novoalda tragedy, with the participation of the lawyers of the Human Rights Center "Memorial", filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights. On July 26, 2007, the ECtHR ruled in their favor. But even this did not give impetus to the investigation of the crime by Russian law enforcement agencies.

The tragedy of Novye Aldy, the crime committed there and the ten-year history of impunity are directly related to the problems modern Russia. The killers - people in police uniforms - are not named and not punished. They walk among us. And this is the root of today's police lawlessness.

The film "Aldy. Without statute of limitations" is based on documentary video footage made by residents of Novye Aldy on February 9, 2000, and interviews with eyewitnesses of the events recorded by employees of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" in January-February 2009.

Actions dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy will also be held in St. Petersburg and Grozny.

http://video.yandex.ru/users/provorot1/view/67/

On the eve of the decade of "cleansing" in the Chechen village of Novye Aldy, where 56 civilians were killed on February 5, 2000, a press conference was held in Moscow dedicated to the anniversary of those tragic events. During the meeting, it was shown documentary"Aldy. Without a statute of limitations", based on video evidence and video footage of a survey of witnesses to the tragedy.

10 years ago, a mass murder of civilians in the village of Novye Aldy in Chechnya was committed, 56 people were shot - old men, women and one child, and the perpetrators have not yet been punished. This was stated at the beginning of the press conference by Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Center "Memorial".

"A terrible crime was committed, and no one was punished. Now in Russia there is a statement that one can no longer tolerate that lawlessness, that wave of violence and lawlessness that representatives of law enforcement agencies are committing against us, the citizens of Russia," Orlov said. .

He suggested that modern development events may be a "direct and logical consequence" of what happened 10 years ago in Chechnya and, in particular, in the village of Novye Aldy. "The cleansing was carried out mainly by the forces of the St. Petersburg riot police," the "Caucasian Knot" quotes Orlov. - The report that we published also speaks of the Ryazan riot police. - versions".

"Memorial" reconstructs the picture of events

According to "Memorial", on February 5, 2000, in the morning and afternoon in the village of Novye Aldy and the adjacent areas of Grozny, what is called the "zachistka" took place. It was carried out by different units belonging to different power departments. Witnesses report that both young soldiers, obviously called up for military service, and older armed men in camouflage uniforms took part in the operation. Most likely, they were either contract servicemen or employees of special detachments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the stories of witnesses and victims, it was they who committed violence against civilians. Young soldiers were mostly in the cordon.

It is important to note that different units behaved differently towards the population. The servicemen who came from the north and "cleansed" the northern part of the village of Novye Aldy committed murders of local residents. In the village, these units reached the quarters adjacent to Khoperskaya Street from the south. The units that carried out the "cleansing" of the southern part of the village behaved differently: they robbed houses, behaved extremely rudely with the local population, but did not commit murders.

In the adjacent neighborhoods of Grozny, servicemen also committed murders that day. For example, in the village of Chernorechye, at least five of its inhabitants were killed. In the district of Okruzhnaya, on the Podolskaya street closest to the village of Novye Aldy, five people were killed, four from the Estamirov family, among them a one-year-old child and a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy.

A resident of the village, Suleiman Magomadov, told the Memorial staff that Russian soldiers advancing along Matash Mazaev Street from the northern outskirts to the center of the village, moved from house to house, killing everyone who got in their way.

They committed their first murders in house No. 170, where Sultan Temirov and his neighbors, 35-year-old Isa Akhmadov and 70-year-old Rizvan Umkhaev, became their victims.

According to Magomed Dzhamoldaev, Sultan Temirov was with him and Ilyas Amaev on Tsimlyanskaya Street that morning. When the Sultan learned that the Russian servicemen who had entered the village were setting fire to houses in which no residents were found, he went to his place - he wanted to meet the soldiers there, and after inspecting the house, return back.

Rizvan Umkhaev was at home at that time. Zeyba, his wife, said that Musa Akhmadov came to them and asked the old man to go to him. As a young man, of fighting age, he was afraid that the "feds" would suspect him of a militant, and asked Rizvan to be a witness. Perhaps on the way they met Sultan Temirov.

Isa Akhmadov and Rizvan Umkhaev were shot by Russian servicemen. They showed particular cruelty towards Sultan Temirov: he was beheaded (apparently by a shot from an underbarrel grenade launcher) and actually dismembered by machine gun fire along the spine.

The bodies of Sultan Temirov, Isa Akhmadov and Rizvan Umkhaev were discovered by neighbors by the evening of February 6. At house number 162 on the same street, Gula Khaidaev, who was in his 73rd year, was found. He lay at the gate, holding his passport outstretched in front of him. The nature of the wounds - bullets hit him in the kneecap, in the heart and in the forehead - allows us to conclude that he was shot at close range.

Magomed Gaitayev, 72, was also shot dead on the pavement in front of the gates of house No. 140. The bullet hit him in the back of the head and at the exit turned his left cheek. A passport was found in his pocket. Eyewitnesses who visited the scene of the murder noted the following details: a large pool of blood spread around the dead old man, which the dog lapped. And his glasses were neatly, by the handle, hung on the fence.

“What happened there? The end of January 2000. The militants leave Grozny. From the beginning of February, sweeps begin, accompanied by a mass of offenses and crimes. The village of Novye Aldy is the southern outskirts of Grozny. At that moment there was not a single militant there, moreover, On February 4, units repeatedly entered this village. Russian troops. They entered there without encountering any resistance, the servicemen did not commit any illegal actions in this village, and they immediately developed normal relations with the local population," Oleg Orlov said.

However, the next day, February 5, other units entered the village, the basis of which, according to the HRC "Memorial", were fighters of the St. Petersburg OMON.

“They carried out a cleansing operation, which resulted, instantly, from the very beginning, into some kind of orgy of lawlessness. Massive robberies, extortion, violence, burning houses, murders. Two days after these crimes, residents were able to record on videotape the consequences of what was happening there "And the materials from this tape became indisputable evidence of the crimes committed. Then, in 2000, in the spring, the Human Rights Center "Memorial", having collected information, quickly managed to publish a book about this. Its name is "Zachistka"," he said at a meeting with journalists the chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Center "Memorial".

Events in Novye Aldy through the eyes of an eyewitness

Witness at the press conference February events In 2000, Elvira Dombaeva, a resident of Novye Aldy, whose relatives then died, said that everything that was in the film shown at the Independent Press Center was true. "No matter how cruel it may be - the truth that you would not want to see and experience," said Elvira Dombaeva.

“We were waiting for February 5 - it was a long-awaited day. We were waiting for it under bombing, under shelling, we thought that the war would finally end. During that war, we were in the basement along Tsymlyanskaya Street. We were warned, they said that animals, not people, were walking along our street, along Central, they offered to return to the basement," said Elvira Dombaeva.

“We thought everyone had left, but when we began to look out into the street, we saw the bodies of people there, we saw that houses were on fire. Everything was on fire. Before this day, the previous war turned out to be just nothing. people. It was not 1-2 shots - 26,27,28 shots to the body. They didn’t just shoot - they knocked out the brains. We then collected these brains and put them back. How to forget it? But how to live? And today, not in the prosecutor's office, nowhere is this case moving forward,” says Elvira Dombaeva.

According to her, they killed the defenseless, helpless, brutally dismembered people, sometimes it was impossible to collect the body in order to wash it before burial according to Muslim customs.

“Today, all the residents of the areas that suffered from such actions are dead people. Walking corpses. They don’t live today, they don’t exist. And those who killed and shot, they went unpunished. They live and enjoy,” Dombaeva said.

As Tatyana Chernikova, a lawyer for Memorial Human Rights Center, noted at a press conference, the European Court of Human Rights, to which relatives of the victims applied, studied numerous testimonies of witnesses, reports of non-governmental organizations, including reports of the Memorial Human Rights Center and Human Rights Watch, and recognized that the investigation into the massacre in Russia is ineffective. "However, the Russian side ignored the decision of the European Court," Chernikova said.

"Aldy. No statute of limitations"

Yesterday, at a press conference in Moscow, a half-hour film "Aldy. No statute of limitations" was shown. At the same time the film was presented to the public of St. Petersburg.

The tape is based on documentary video footage made by residents of the Novye Aldy settlement on February 9, 2000, and interviews with eyewitnesses of the events recorded by Memorial staff at the request of the film's authors in January-February 2009. Human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was abducted in Chechnya and killed last summer, took part in the creation of the film.

In the winter of 1999-2000, the village of Novye Aldy, as well as others settlements in the suburbs of Grozny, was constantly subjected to rocket and bomb attacks and artillery fire from the federal military forces. The shelling continued even after the militants had already left Grozny. Then the inhabitants of the village of Novye Aldy decided to send a delegation to the military with a request to cease fire.

"February 3, 2000, about 100 residents of the village, raising White flag, went to the positions of the military, which were stationed in the vicinity of the village. However, they opened fire without any warning. As a result, one of the local residents, Russian by nationality, was seriously injured and later died," one of the employees of the Memorial Human Rights Center in Grozny told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On the morning of February 5, 2000, police units entered Novye Aldy special purpose(According to the HRC "Memorial", these were OMON of St. Petersburg and the Ryazan region). Within a few hours, more than 50 people became victims of extrajudicial killings, including a one-year-old child, nine women and eleven elderly residents of the village.

To date, no one has been held accountable for what happened in Novye Aldy. In 2007, Russia lost several cases in the European Court of Human Rights. It was recognized that Russia as a state is to blame for the tragedy. The Strasbourg court ordered the Russian authorities to pay compensation to the injured party in the amount of about 150,000 euros.