Novye Aldi massacre

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Novye Aldi massacre
Location Grozny, Chechnya
Date February 5, 2000
Attack type Killing spree, pillage
Deaths 50 to 60
Perpetrator(s) OMON units from Ryazan
and St. Petersburg

Novye Aldi massacre was a February 5, 2000, incident in which Russian federal forces summarily executed at least 50 civilians in the Novye Aldi (Aldy) suburb of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The killings occurred in the course of zachistka (cleansing operation), conducted several days after the end of the battle for the city, as a result of which up to 60 people were killed, numerous houses were burnt down and civilian property was stolen by troops in an organized manner.[1][2]

Contents

[edit] Killings and pillage

The Russian forces entered the neighborhood after bombarding it with artillery fire and airstrikes,[2] in two waves. The first-line combat troops did not encounter any resistance and did not commit any crimes, but they warned the Chechens that the "cleansing" troops are coming. These troops - special policemen and contract soldiers - began shooting the residents, many of them middle-aged or older, and looting their possessions. At least six incidents of group rape were also reported.

According to the June 2000 report by the Human Rights Watch, some killings were accompanied by demands for money or jewelry, which served as a pretext for execution if the amount proffered was insufficient.[1] According to a survivor, the Russians said they had "orders to kill everyone."[3] Many of the dead in Novy Aldi were children or elderly, and women. Some of survivors were forced to plead for their lives, while some feigned dead.

Russian forces torched many homes in Aldi, and some of the arson seemed to be primitive attempts to destroy evidence of summary executions and other civilian killings. While federal servicemen engaged in some plunder on February 5, pillage on a massive scale took place during the following week, and witnesses stated that soldiers returned in large numbers on February 10, 2000, and "in broad daylight brazenly stripped their homes of goods of value."[1]

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Investigations and denial

Investigators at the crime scene collected numerous empty cartridges and recorded tracks in the ground made by armoured personnel carriers. The investigation established that the sweep operation was conducted by the contract soldiers and the special paramilitary police force (OMON) units from St. Petersburg and Ryazan, yet the Russian authorities have failed to hold anyone accountable for the crime. In spite of this weight of evidence, and a slew of other investigations by foreign and Russian journalists and by human rights organisations, no official investigation of the crime has ever been completed, nobody has been arrested and nobody has been charged.

The Russian authorities' investigation into the Aldi massacre was accompanied by indignant public denial. Typical was the February 24, 2000, Russian military's reaction to HRW's preliminary report on the killings, when a Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman declared that "these assertions are nothing but a concoction not supported by fact or any proof ... [and] should be seen as a provocation whose goal is to discredit the federal forces' operation against the terrorists in Chechnya."[1]

[edit] European Court judgements

Great numbers of civilians have been extrajudicially executed in the course of both Chechen wars, and very few perpetrators have been brought to trial for their crimes. The European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) first found Russia guilty of serious human rights violations in Chechnya in February 2005, ruling that Russia had used disproportionate force in its military operations, indiscriminately targeted civilians, and failed to adequately investigate civilian deaths.[4]

On October 12, 2006, the EHCR held Russian state responsible for the summary execution of five members of the Estamirov family in Novye Aldi, including a pregnant woman and a one-year child (the bodies were discovered the same day, burnt and with several gunshot wounds). The Court noted that the Russian government had not disputed that the area was controlled by Russian federal forces at the time, and the government did not provide any explanation for its assertion that these deaths were not linked to numerous other deaths in that area on that day. The Court noted that the investigation into the deaths had not been completed and that the individuals responsible were not identified or indicted; because of this and other shortcomings the Court found that the Russian state had also violated its obligation to conduct a proper investigation. It also expressed its dissatisfaction with the Russian government's refusal to disclose all documents concerning the investigation into the deaths.[5]

On July 26, 2007, EHCR awarded damages to relatives of another 11 civilians killed in Novye Aldi.[6] In its ruling, the Court said:

The killings had been committed in broad daylight and a large number of witnesses, including some of the applicants, had seen the perpetrators face to face. Their detailed accounts of the events had been made public by various sources. The relatives of the victims had demonstrated their willingness to cooperate with the authorities by allowing the exhumation and forensic analysis of the bodies and by forming an action group to coordinate their efforts. The injuries and the circumstances of the victims' deaths had been established with a sufficient degree of certainty. Numerous bullets and cartridges had been collected, some of them being suitable for identifying individual guns and even bearing serial numbers that allowed the origin of their production to be traced. Information about the alleged involvement of particular military units had been available to the prosecuting authorities no later than one month after the incident. Despite all that, and notwithstanding the domestic and international public outcry caused by the cold-blooded execution of more than 50 civilians, almost six years after the tragic events in Novye Aldy no meaningful result whatsoever had been achieved in the task of identifying and prosecuting the individuals who had committed the crimes. In the Court's view, the astonishing ineffectiveness of the prosecuting authorities in this case could only be qualified as acquiescence in the events.[7]

[edit] Alleged connection to the Moscow bombing

In 2004 a previously (and afterwards) unknown Chechen rebel group Gazotan Murdash claimed responsibility for the February 6, 2004, bombing in Moscow which killed 40 people on the fourth anniversary of the Aldi killings. The statement was signed by a man calling himself "Lom-Ali" and called this an act of revenge. According to the media reports, the bombing was possibly the work of a Musa Idigov, whose brother Lom-Ali was killed by the soldiers in Aldi while saving his life from a grenade thrown on them by a soldier.[8]

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Attacks on civilians during

the Second Chechen War

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d FEBRUARY 5: A DAY OF SLAUGHTER IN NOVYE ALDI, Human Rights Watch, 2000
  2. ^ a b European court assails Russia over killings in Chechnya, International Herald Tribune, July 26, 2007
  3. ^ The long road to justice, The Guardian, June 12, 2006
  4. ^ Europe’s Top Human Rights Court Issues Ruling in Favor of Chechen Plaintiffs, Human Rights Watch, October 13, 2006
  5. ^ CHAMBER JUDGMENT -- ESTEMIROV AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA, European Court of Human Rights, October 12, 2006
  6. ^ European Court Rules Against Russia In Chechen Deaths Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 26, 2007
  7. ^ CHAMBER JUDGMENT -- MUSAYEV AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA, European Court of Human Rights, July 26, 2007
  8. ^ Unknown rebel group claims Moscow metro blast, Gazeta.ru, 2004/03/02

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