Grozny OMON fratricide incident
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On March 1, 2000 a unit of OMON (Russian special police) from Podolsk opened fire on an OMON unit from Sergiyev Posad, who had arrived in Chechnya to replace them. At least 24 people were killed and more than 30 injured in the result of friendly fire between the Moscow Region police units.
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[edit] The ambush
The Podolsk Omonovtsy were traveling in nine trucks to a guard post in Staropromyslovsky city district of Grozny, with the Podolsk men waiting in ambush on what they believed was a group of Chechen guerrillas in disguise. After the convoy did not stop at a roadblock, the first and last trucks of the column were hit by incendiary rockets. Sergiyev Posad men returned fire, and a four-hour battle with machine guns and grenades ensued.
Out of the 98 troops in the convoy, at least 22 men were killed, including the unit's commander, Colonel Dimitry Markelov, and 31 were wounded. At least two members of the Podolsk unit were also killed. Initially, Moscow insisted that only 12 died. [1] Later, Sergei Kurcherok, chief of staff for the military in the North Caucasus, said the death toll had risen to 37.
[edit] Whitewash and trial
Immediately after the incident, the Russian Interior Ministry officers reported that the convoy was ambushed by "unidentified Chechen rebels, who managed to flee by planting booby-traps along their escape route." Baultdin Bakuyev, a Chechen field commander took responsibility. Independent journalists, however, managed to uncover the truth about the incident.
At the time, then-Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo attended the funeral of the slain OMON troops and vowed that those responsible for their deaths would be captured and brought to justice at any cost. He added that any Interior Ministry superiors responsible would also be punished.
In 2002, in a closed trial, [2] a court acquitted two senior Interior Ministry officers of criminal negligence and instead laid blame posthumously on Colonel Markelov. [3] Major Igor Tikhonov, the ex-commander of Podolsk OMON, was excused from the proceedings on health grounds.
