Yuri Budanov

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Former Colonel Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov (born 1963, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine) is the first Russian military officer convicted by a Russian court as a guilty of war crimes in Chechnya.

Budanov is highly controversional in Russia: despite the conviction, Budanov enjoys the widespread support of the Russian public opinion. [1] At the same time, he is broadly hated in Chechnya, even by the pro-Russian Chechens. During the war in Chechnya, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, but it was stripped from him upon his conviction.

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[edit] Summary

At the fall of Soviet Union, Budanov was serving in Belarus, but he refused Belarusian citizenship and was transferred to the Siberian Military District, and then to Chechnya. According to father of Budanov's victim, Budanov's tank regiment had been encamped just outside Tangi-Chu since February 2000, and Budanov himself had a notorious reputation among villagers. About ten days before the murder, Budanov reportedly arbitrarily searched and looted several homes in Tangi Chu, and two days before the incident he reportedly looted and threatened to torch several other homes.

Since 2001 to 2003, Russian courts tried Colonel Yuri Budanov on the charges of March 27, 2000, kidnapping, rape (an allegation later withdrawn by the prosecution) and brutal murder Elza Kungaeva, an 18-year-old Chechen girl whom Budanov claimed was accused of aiding a group of Chechen rebels who were attacking his unit. He admitted killing her in a fit of rage, but denied the rape charges.

The military has portrayed Budanov's behavior as an exceptional example of wanton criminality by a serviceman. However, the kidnapping and murder (and possibly sexual assault) of Kungaeva allegedly reflect a pattern of violations perpetrated by some members of the federal forces that has been documented by Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations. A resolution adopted in April 2000 by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights called for Russia, among other things, to establish a national commission of inquiry to investigate such crimes, but Russia has not fulfilled the resolution's requirements.

[edit] Prosecution

[edit] Arrest

Budanov was arrested on March 29, 2000. According to press reports, Budanov claimed that Kungaeva was a suspected sniper, and that he had gone into a rage while questioning her.

Colonel-General Anatoly Kvashnin, then chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, appeared on national television to announce to President Vladimir Putin and the nation the arrest of Budanov in the grisly case. Kvashnin accused Budanov of "humiliating" and murdering Kungayeva, and denounced the colonel's behavior as "barbarous" and "disgraceful."

In a stark contrast, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Shamanov, who was Budanov's commanding officer, exhibited strong sympathy towards him. Budanov, Shamanov trumpeted, was one of his "best commanders" and offered this challenge: "To [Budanov's] enemies I say: Don't put your paws on the image of a Russian soldier and officer."[2]

The Chechen rebels offered to exchange nine recent OMON special police captives for Budanov.[3] After the Russian side refused the offer, the prisoners were shot by Shamil Basayev on the morning of April 4, 2000. The incident sparked a conflict between the Russian Army and the Russian Interior Ministry.[4]

[edit] The charges against Budanov

In relation to the case of Kungayeva, Budanov was charged with three crimes: kidnapping resulting in death, abuse of office accompanied by violence with serious consequences, and murder of an abductee. No charges have been brought expressly for the beating and torture Kungaeva endured prior to her death. He was also charged in the beating up a subordinate officer, threatening superior officers with a weapon, and other crimes.

Budanov claimed that he detained Kungaeva on suspicion of being a sniper, and that he killed her during interrogation. The investigation, however, reportedly found that no member of the Kungaev family had in any way been suspected of involvement in the anti-Russian activity.

Budanov used his official position and a military vehicle to remove Kungaeva from her home, and detained Kungaeva at a military installation; he was thus charged with exceeding (prevysheniye) his official position with violence resulting in serious consequences, which is punishable by three to ten years of imprisonment (article 286.3 of the criminal code).

[edit] Lack of a rape prosecution

The forensic physician, a Captain in the Russian military medical service, found three tears in her hymen and one in the mucus membrane of her rectum, and the report concludes that she was penetrated anally and vaginally by a blunt object after death.

Three of Budanov's subordinates, Sergeants Li-En-Shou and Grigoriev and Private Yegorev, found to be responsible for this. Charges against all three were simultaneously brought and dropped under the May 26, 2000 amnesty law.

There are concerns that case against them was brought in an attempt to portray the sexual assault as an act that occurred after her death, in order to avoid bringing rape charges.

[edit] Trial

The trial began on April 9, 2003, in Rostov-on-the-Don. Legal proceedings against Budanov, who underwent several retrials, lasted a total of 2 years and 3 months.[5]

Witnesses included Yahyayev, the person in the town administration, who according to Budanov had given him the picture representing Chechen snipers. However, Yahyayev said he had given no such picture to Budanov.[1] General Shamanov came to defend Budanov during trial. He expressed his solidarity with defendant, as did Colonel-General Gennady Troshev and numerous other Russian soldiers and civilians who picketed the court. According to a poll, only 50% of the asked Russians supported the demands of picketers to release Colonel Budanov from custody; 19% didn’t support these demands.[6]

In a controversial decision, Budanov was initially found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity on December 31, 2002, and committed to a psychiatric hospital for further evaluation and the length of the treatment would have been decided by his doctor. In practise this would have meant that there would be no punishment.

However, in the beginning of March 2003 the supreme court invalidated the sentence and ordered a new trial. This took place in the same place but with a new judge. The sentence of 10 years of imprisonment was given on July 25, 2003.

The conviction of Budanov dealt with the Kungayeva case. Some point out that this conviction should not necessarily be interpreted as a sign that Russia is committed to a meaningful accountability process for violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law by its forces in Chechnya. Russian authorities are alleged to have concealed and obstructed the prosecution of its forces for such violations; acknowledgement, investigation, and prosecution of such crimes against civilians have been alarmingly few, and many were allegedly conducted in bad faith.

[edit] In prison

On September 21, 2004, Shamanov, now the Ulyanovsk regional governor, signed a pardon for Yury Budanov; Interfax quoted the head of the Ulyanovsk pardons commission, Anatoly Zherebtsov, as saying that if Putin backed the recommendation, Budanov would also get back his military rank and awards.

The commission's decision sparked outrage in Chechnya, where never-ending kidnappings and murders of civilians are widely blamed by the local population on the Russian military. "Whether in jail or freed, Budanov will remain a person who has committed a grave crime, which took the life of an innocent girl," Taus Dzhabrailov, the head of Chechnya's pro-Moscow parliament, told Interfax. Powerful pro-Moscow Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said: "The Ulyanovsk commission's decision is like spitting on the soul of the long-suffering Chechen people."[7]

In February 2006 a Russian prison official announced Budanov, who is serving his 10-year sentence, might be released early on good behaviour. The Chechen regional branch of the United Russia party addressed the State Duma and the Russian President with a request not to grant amnesty to Yuri Budanov.[8] Same month, on the petition of Budanov's advocate, with account of good behaviour of the inmate, the former colonel was removed from the strict custody colony to a settlement-colony.[9]

In August 2007 a parole request from Budanov was rejected by the court in Dimitrovgrad.[10]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Anna Politkovskaya 2004: Putin's Russia, The Harvill Press
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